It made another cycle and again the wait.
“Do you think she’s big enough for this?” Paige’s voice was laced with concern.
“Yes. She’ll be fine.” But even as he said it, his stomach tightened. Relatively speaking, it was a small-children’s ride, but it was high and she was so little. She passed a few more times as the ride picked up speed and the swings flew out.
Squinting against the sun, he stood side by side with Paige and searched each face that flew by.
“There!” He pointed as Casey passed, holding on to the chain of her swing with one hand and waving madly with the other.
“She loves it.” Paige released an anxious sigh beside him. “It’s not her leg. I’m just not big on heights. Or fast things. I hope she doesn’t puke,” she added with a soft laugh.
“Puking’s kind of a fair rite of passage, isn’t it?”
She gave him a sideways glance. “I could do without that rite.”
They continued watching for Casey, waving each time she went past.
After a minute, Paige’s attention was still on the ride, but his was on her.
“This is so great,” she said, almost with a sigh.
It was great. Paige, happy and smiling, a noticeable weight lifted off her shoulders. Several pale strands had slipped free from her ponytail to curve at her cheekbones. It was impossible not to want her. Impossible not to fantasize about pulling her hair down and running his fingers through the hair he knew to be silky soft, or imagine dragging his lips along her damp neck. Her sundress was held up by the tiniest straps, delicate like she was, and he imagined with just the slightest effort he could slip them off her shoulders. Damn. He needed to think about something else.
“Casey had a few things to say about kindergarten,” he said.
“Really?” She looked at him, surprised. “Like what?”
“I think her exact words were, ‘I’m going to scream,’ and then something about fire trucks coming.”
“Oh Lord.” Paige half laughed, then ran her hands over her face. “It’s really out of character for her to be so nervous. She’s not usually shy or hesitant.”
“Nope. Definitely wouldn’t call her shy.”
Paige shook her head, but smiled, the love and joy and worry of being a parent clear on her face. “I don’t know if the fact she has to wear her prosthesis all day is making her not want to go to kindergarten, or if not wanting to go to kindergarten is fueling her determination not to wear it. I shouldn’t have told her she’d have to wear it almost all day at school.”
“Was it the truth?”
“Yeah.”
He gave her a look like she made the obvious right choice.
“I know. And I was just trying to prepare her. I mean, she can take it off in the classroom or nap time, at least I don’t think that would be a problem, but there’s a lot of walking from activity to activity. There’s gym, and lunch, and the playground, and it’s not like she’s hampered by it, at least I don’t think so. She runs, she climbs at the park.”
They watched the ride go around again. “You know, there are tales that I didn’t want to go to school. I’ll have to ask my mom the whole story.”
“Did you scream? Get any fire trucks?”
He smiled at her teasing tone. “I don’t think so. Gotta give her points for creativity.” They were quiet a moment. “I could do more tests, scans, a new socket, new socks, but my gut is telling me it’s not physical.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
Her brow was furrowed again. “But you’ve got a few weeks, right? There’s still time for a turnaround. Time for her to be one with her prosthesis. And if it’s kindergarten in general, maybe there’s other things you can do. School supplies are always a good way to get pumped up for school. The power of new crayons and all.”
Paige smiled at him, nodding in agreement, but he could see her mind was somewhere else. He wanted it back here, with him. “So you think I’m hot, huh?”
That did it.
Paige sucked in a shocked breath that drew his eyes to her rising chest. She started to look at him, then changed her mind and stared straight ahead.
“I didn’t say that. Jenny said that.” She licked her lips.
“Oh. So you don’t think I’m hot?” He’d never had fun with a woman, not this kind of fun, and the blush staining her cheeks was sexy as hell. So was the obvious guilty expression.
“You know what you look like. Women would wallpaper their bedrooms with your face,” she muttered. “I bet you have plenty of women to tell you that.”