Page 18 of The Lake House

“Okay, baby girl,” I answer as I lean down and swipe the card on the game. Thankfully, this place has a Skee Ball machine perfect for kids her size. It’s a miniature version, so the balls are not as heavy and the track is not as long.

“Is that your daughter? She’s precious,” a voice from behind me answers.

I spin around just in time to be greeted with sparkling blue eyes and long dark red hair. She smiles. She’s got on a pink top with a plummeting neckline, and around her waist sits tight, dark blue jeans. She’s gorgeous, but the last thing I’m interested in right now is a single mom looking for love.

Smiling back, I reply. “Yeah, thank you. This is my little girl.”

“What agooddaddy you are.” Her lips pucker out when she says the wordgood, really enunciating it. “My name’s Krystal, and these two are my twins, Adam and Brayden.” She motions to two boys around the age of five. They’re obviously identical. “We just moved into town.” She puts her hand out.

I instantly grab it and shake. “I’m Declan. Nice to meet you. I’m sure you’ll love it here.” I’m not sure what else to say. She pulls her hand away, but she appears to want to be making conversation. I’m really not interested right now. I’m here with my daughter, and I didn’t plan on coming here with the thought of picking up any women. Besides, the only woman on my mind lately has been Giuliana.

Damn… if only she would stop haunting my thoughts, especially late at night when I’m lying in bed.

“Well, Declan, if it’s anything at all like this, I already am,” she answers suggestively. She moves in closer to me and places a hand on my biceps. “Oh, I definitely am.” She winks.

“Hey, we made it! Princess Lily! Winning?” Roger shouts. I snap my head and see him walking swiftly toward us, with Rachel not far behind. It’s right at this moment that I could kiss Roger’s feet. Thank God for my best friend coming in for the rescue.

“Excuse me,” I say to Krystal.

“Hey, Lily girl!” Rachel says with a smile to my daughter. “What’s going on, Dec?” She gazes from me to my new friend, Krystal, and then makes a face.

I mouth the words, “It’s not what you think,” and she nods her head. I guess Krystal takes a hint as she finally removes her hand off me, and runs after her boys to another nearby game.

Lily is already pulling Rachel to the Whack-a-Mole, not even bothering with me or Roger.

Roger walks up to me and we watch our two ladies walking off. “Did we scare your new girlfriend away?”

I snap my head just in time to see him smirking at me, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“New girlfriend? What? No, man!”

He brings his hands up in front of his chest and shrugs his shoulders. “Hey, man. No judgment here. But if you had to hit something, that chick was definitely a good choice.”

I shake my head. “No way, dude. Not interested. I’ve got my little girl to worry about, and it looks like she’s got her hands full with her own boys.”

He looks over to the side to get a look at Krystal. “Twin mom? Damn, she’s hot.” Catching himself, he adds, “For you. She’d be a good distraction for you, Dec. I’m taken and happy.” He looks over to where Rachel and Lily are. “Very happy. But hey, I get why you’re not interested.”

“Good. I’m here to spend time with Lily. You know, with our work schedule, it’s almost impossible to do during the week.” I tilt my head so that he follows me back to the register. We order a large pie and some appetizers and then make our way to a nearby table. They’ll bring out our food once it’s done.

We sit down across from one another and have a great view of the whole place, allowing me to keep an eye on my daughter. It’s not like I’m worried, though. Rachel is more than capable of watching her as they play together. Plus, Lily adores her, so she won’t wander off.

“I saw Giuliana the other night… at the fair,” I casually state, like it’s something usual.

He visibly swallows hard. “What? Giuliana who?”

I smile, and he automatically knows who I’m referring to.

He leans in over the table, whispering. “Giuliana Bianchi? She’s here?”

I nod. “She is.”

“Isn’t she married to that douchebag?”

Yeah, none of us like her husband. We’ve seen him around here a couple of times with her when she visited her family, but word on the street was that he wasn’t all that nice of a guy and that he was trying to keep her from visiting as often as she used to.

I shrug. “Yeah, but he wasn’t with her… she was with Liv.” Olivia Carmichael has been her best friend for as long as I can remember. Every time Giuliana would come to visit, she’d be hanging out with Liv.

“You always had the only crush on her…”

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