Page 27 of Lost Times

“What are they doing here?”

I looked where he was, noticing an elder couple making their way toward us. They looked downright stormy, their matching heads of gray held high as they marched toward us at a steady clip. They both wore higher-end clothing I didn’t associate with a park, and when they continued heading our way, I asked.

“Who are they?”

He ground his jaw and stood, all the previous happiness gone. “My parents.”

I nearly snapped my head back around to take them in again. These were his parents? I could see the resemblance in his father’s nose and jaw, but nothing else matched. And the way they were looking at him as if he were an annoyance they had to deal with…

Instincts rose up, clawing at the back of my neck as they stopped a few feet in front of us. The woman spoke first, her brow arched as she looked over Ludwig.

“We heard that you scheduled today off and assumed you were out mingling with the clients we sent to you.” She stared down her nose now, disapproval clear. “Obviously, we were wrong. What evenareyou doing here?”

The sneer to her lips was grinding my nerves, and if Ludwig tensed any more, he’d break into pieces. Jasmine ambled over, eyeing the two warily as she hid behind me. The couple didn’t spare her a glance, all their focus on Ludwig as he raised his chin a notch and answered.

“I’m here enjoying the fresh air. Supposedly that’s good for my health.”

His tone was the same one he used at work, in control with not a hint of emotion leaking out, and the longer I watched the exchange, the more my hair stood to attention. Was this normal for them?

It must have been, because his father scoffed. “You’re a perfectly fit young man, and there are better uses for your time than watching children play.” Here he looked at Jasmine, who shrunk behind Ludwig. I tensed in response, ready to step in at a moment’s notice. Parents or no, I’d put them in their place if they started something with Jasmine.

Ludwig put a hand on her back, tucking her closer, and while that soothed her a bit, his parents’ eyes narrowed in perfect sync.

“Who exactly is this child to you?” His father asked and Ludwig shot me a look, asking permission silently. I shrugged, not taking my eyes off his parents.

“It’s up to you.”

He grimaced, but faced forward again, not loosening his hold on Jasmine as he answered. “She’s my daughter. I didn’t realize she existed until a few weeks ago, but-.”

His mother reeled back as if he’d struck her, eyes going wide as she sputtered. “Daughter?! When did you even have a relationship?”

Here he shifted between his feet, distinctly uncomfortable with the turn in the conversation, and his mother caught that. “She wasn’t born from a relationship. Did we not hammer the importance ofprotectioninto you when you were a boy?”

The way she spoke to him, as if he were in the wrong, fanned my ire and before I could think better of it, I stood at his side and glared her down.

“We did use protection. Sometimes things happen whether you use it or not.”

He jerked, surprised I’d stood up for him, but before I could get a read on his expression, his mother hummed.

“Yes, so it seems.” Turning back to him, she scowled. “You’ve known this child less than a month, and you’re already scheduling days off from work. She’s a distraction.”

Jasmine flinched, something that made my blood boil, but before I could say anything, Ludwig did it for me. His eyes narrowed, flashing with something I’d never seen before on him as he spoke in an ice cold tone.

“She’s not a distraction. All my work is finished on time, as it always is, and today there was nothing to be done around the office.”

Jasmine melted into his side, the defense soothing some of her nerves, and his father’s lips pinched into a hard line. “We’ll see. You’re not fit to be a parent, but if you insist on playing the part, then only time will tell. Don’t let your new parenthood status affect the company.”

Then the two left, their noses still shoved into the air. Once they were gone, Jasmine shuddered, tears leaking out of her eyes as she tried to burrow further into his leg.

“Am I a distraction?” She asked, voice cracking through the suppressed sobs. Ludwig froze, the exhaustion from dealing with his parents disappearing under alarm at Jasmine’s tears. I knelt, tugging her into a hug and soothing.

“No, honey. You heard him, he said you weren’t, and he wouldn’t lie, right?”

Jasmine hesitantly shook her head, then looked up to Ludwig. “If you have work, you don’t have to be here. I don’t want you getting in trouble.” Even as she said it, her little shoulders slumped, and it cracked my heart right down the middle. Curse those awful people!

And to think, they’d raised Ludwig. It was amazing that he was well adjusted as he was…

Finally he snapped out of his stupor, kneeling to be at her level and taking out a handkerchief. “Here, use this; it’s less scratchy than your shirt sleeve. I was also telling the truth that I don’t have any work that needs to be done today. I finished it yesterday specifically so I would have today free to be here. They’re just…”

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