Page 108 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House
Archer leaned into her, his shoulder warm and solid against hers.
‘You sure you’re okay?’ he asked.
Iris let herself press against him, just a little. ‘Yep.’
His hand brushed against hers, his pinky hooking around hers. A secret touch just between them.
Or it was secret until Olive’s head shot up, her gaze zeroing in on where their hands were linked. Her smile grew. Iris dropped Archer’s pinky in a panic. Maybe she wasn’t ready for this. Maybe it wasn’t time. Just thinking of Olive’s disappointment over the lack of quarters was enough to make Iris want to reconsider this whole experiment. How disappointed would she be if she thought Iris was going to be her new mom and then it didn’t work out?
‘Kira!’ Olive called. ‘I’m done with my bunny!’ She passed Cookie back to Kira and scampered over to Iris and Archer, looking at their hands, frowning in disappointment to see they were separate again.
‘What’s next?’ Archer asked her, and Iris knew he was trying to avoid the inevitable.
‘Dad, were you holding Iris’s hand?’
‘Uh…’ Archer raked a hand through his hair. ‘I was just making sure she didn’t get lost.’
Olive’s nose crinkled. ‘You were?’
‘Yep. It’s crowded today. We have to stick together.’ He grabbed Olive under her arms and lifted her up onto his shoulders. She squealed in delight on her way up.
‘Her boots!’ Iris said, watching in dismay as Olive’s muddy boots got dirt all over Archer’s shirt. But when she looked up, Olive and Archer were grinning at her with matching dimples and the boots didn’t matter, the shirt didn’t matter, her own doubts didn’t matter. Maybe it was time. Maybe she was ready for this.
‘Dad, hold Iris’s hand again so she doesn’t get lost,’ Olive instructed.
He looked at her, the question clear on his face, so Iris nodded and grabbed his hand and they marched off to the puppet show. Together. As a family.
ChapterThirty-Four
Iris stood at the back of the audience for the puppet show with the rest of the parents. The kids were all seated on hay bales lined up in front of the makeshift stage. Olive had managed to snag a front-row seat with one of her friends from school, but Iris could still spot her little pigtailed head from back here.
Iris was using the time to lean against a tree in the shade and collect her thoughts while Archer went to get them yet another strawberry-shortcake sample.
This wasn’t so bad, she mused, her eyes scanning the other parents watching over their kids as the kids watched a somewhat creepy rendition ofLittle Red Riding Hoodacted out by marionettes that would for sure haunt her dreams. But she could do this. She could date Archer for real. She could be a bigger part of Olive’s life. Sure, she’d forgotten the quarters, but they’d been right on time for the puppet show.
Isabel caught her eye from the other side of the crowd and mimed how horrified she was by the show. Iris laughed and nodded in agreement.
Look at her, just being a regular mom-type person out here in the world. She liked Olive. She more than liked her dad. And it was totally fine. She was totally managing it. She was?—
Wait a minute.
The show had ended with the gruesome axing of the wolf and now all the kids were up and moving and the parents were in her line of sight and she could no longer see Olive, and where the hell was that kid?
Her thoughts became more frantic as she moved through the crowd toward where Olive had been sitting just a moment before. She had been right here! But now the hay bale was empty and her friend was nowhere to be seen and the audience had thinned and Iris still couldn’t find her. Where was she?
‘Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,’ Iris cursed as she circled the stage. Olive wasn’t here.
She had LOST Olive!
‘No, no, no, no…’ This was not possible. Everything had been going fine. It had been going great. She was handling this. She’d become good at it. Hadn’t she? Hadn’t she bonded with Olive? Hadn’t she learned what she liked to eat and what made her laugh? Hadn’t she figured her out?
This could not be happening.
‘Iris?’
Archer stood next to her, hands filled with strawberry-flavored treats, his brows drawn together, staring at her. Staring at her and wondering where the hell his kid was.
His kid that she had lost.
