mind put a subtle emphasis on the word adult. An emphasis he carefully ignored. He focused on her question instead.
“We should be good to go.” He checked the rope sitting in its holder. “Do you want to let your sister know we’re just about ready?”
“I just did.” She held up her phone, and even now Roxy and Chloe were waving in the distance, snow cones in hand.
He was going to take her words about keeping his distance from Chloe to heart. But he’d also told her he had no intention of keeping his distance from her. With her hair pulled back from her face with a headband, snug jeans and a shoulder-baring tank top, he could barely keep his eyes off her. They kept taking little sips of the view and coming back for more. It went to his head as surely as a fifth of whiskey. Smooth to the senses. But like whiskey, it could trap him in its grip almost before he realized what was happening. Which was probably why the next words came out.
“Why don’t you let me take you out for your birthday? We can get something to eat.”
Before she could reply, Roxy—who’d lifted Chloe onto her hip at some point—reached them.
Maddy shook her head. “She’s too heavy to be carried like that.”
Roxy put the girl down, wagging her finger at the child. “I told you you’d get me in trouble.”
“I did not. You said you wanted to carry me. Said it was safer if you did.” She took a loud slurp of the icy liquid in her snow cone, her grin infectious.
Roxy’s face colored, and she blinked as if her persona of carefree hipster had just been single-handedly obliterated. “Well, it’s true, you little stinker. Safer for me.” She tickled the girl’s ribs until she squealed.
A man with a clipboard stopped in front of them, glancing at the tag at the kite on the ground and writing something down. “You folks ready for the big send-off?”
“Yippee!” Chloe punched her small fist into the air. “Are we ever! We’re going to win. Right, Kaleb?”
Maddy frowned. “Dr. McBride, Chloe.”
He started to say it was okay for her to call him by his first name, but there was a slight tightening of Maddy’s lips that warned him not to contradict her. She was right. Chloe was her daughter. Not his. He had no right to give his opinion one way or the other. About anything.
Except maybe this kite, which the judge was waiting for them to launch.
He started to take Chloe’s hand and then had second thoughts. Glancing at Maddy, he asked, “Can she help me?”
Her teeth came down on her lower lip for a second before she gave a quick nod.
Chloe gave a couple of sideways hops, clapping her hands. “Yes!”
The judge gave a few last-minute instructions. Kaleb was allowed to take a running start to get the kite up, letting out the string as he went. But the kite had to stay in the air for five minutes, while the judge watched. If it passed the test, the kite was entered into the final drawing. Unfortunately, Roxy’s unicorn hadn’t made the cut. But he had high hopes for this one.
Several bystanders came over to watch.
Kaleb turned to Chloe. “You wait here for me. I’m going down the hill, and then I’ll run back toward you. When I get here, I’ll hand you the string and you can help me keep it up.”
“Are you sure that’s wise?” Maddy still seemed a little agitated. He wasn’t sure if she was regretting letting Chloe help him or if she was worried about the kite falling from the sky prematurely. Maybe it had to do with that whole attachment thing she’d mentioned earlier.
Well, since he wasn’t planning on being a permanent fixture in their lives, it didn’t really matter. There was no way Chloe could actually get attached to him since she wouldn’t be seeing much of him after today.
Unless the kite won. But even then, he could give his ticket to them and let them choose someone else to go with them to the Space Needle. Probably not a hard prospect. Both Maddy and her sister were beautiful. Although the man in him recognized Roxy’s charm and good looks, she didn’t send his blood pressure skyrocketing as Maddy did. Probably not a good thing for him to admit.
Ignoring those thoughts, he glanced at the woman herself. She crossed her fingers, gave the digits a quick kiss and held them up. Wishing him luck.
He was going to need it. Because his heart had almost convinced his head to re-ask the question about having dinner with him once this whole thing was over.
But for now, down the hill he went, checking the kite as he went. The girls had done a wonderful job decorating it. The black paint even had little brushstrokes that made it look like fur. And those mismatched eyes Roxy had glued gave the illusion of following you.
He reached the spot he’d chosen, holding the kite right next to his body. He checked the tail—black, of course—which was made to resemble the puffed-up tail of an agitated cat. Then he double-checked the structure itself. Remembering Maddy’s good-luck gesture, he tossed the kite into the stiff breeze and began jogging up the hill, letting the string out as he went.
The kite caught the wind perfectly, just as he’d hoped it would do, edging higher and higher, those glittery black claws catching the sun and reflecting back at him.
It was going to work. He could tell by the way it swayed gently back and forth as it ascended. It wasn’t the jerky sawing motions of an unbalanced kite. It was almost going up too well.
He had a little girl to impress, so he crossed his own fingers, trying not to think of his daughter, as he scaled back his jog and then finally slowed to a walk. He reached the gathering crowd, which clapped to encourage them. You would have thought this was their kite and not his, Maddy’s and Chloe’s.
The judge glanced down at his watch. “You’ve just passed the one-minute mark. Four more to go.”
The kite dipped for a second, but Kaleb gave it a couple of quick tugs, keeping some play in the rope as he tried to find the perfect altitude.
“Can I hold the string?” Chloe’s question was a reminder that this was not just about him.
Maddy, now out of her chair, took hold of Chloe’s hand. “Let him get it where he wants it first, okay?”
He was still busy trying to make sure they didn’t lose before they even got started. Yes, the kite was judged by looks primarily, but the ease of getting it in the air and keeping it there was bound to have some influence over the voting members of the crowd. Someone pointed up at the kite. “It looks great. Almost real.”
Oh, but they hadn’t seen the best part. And they wouldn’t unless he could get it facing the wind in just the right way. He was aware of Chloe’s impatience as he edged the kite one way and then the other. If he could just get it to...
There.
He saw it before he heard it, those slits catching the wind and beginning to flutter.
It took a minute. Then someone said, “What’s that? I hear something.”
Maddy picked up Chloe, putting paid to the
