Page 49 of Tattered (Lark Cove 1)

I got the message. He was here first. He had something with Thea and Charlie that I didn’t.

But I was about done with Jackson Page.

And judging by the way Thea had dismissed him to wait on others and how she’d been rolling her eyes at him all night, she was about done too.

The bar was packed full of other families from the soccer game as well as some people who didn’t seem local. With a full place, he needed to back off and concentrate on work.

Thea and Charlie were mine tonight.

I was the one who’d cheered Charlie on at her game. I was the one sitting next to Thea, occasionally brushing my knee against hers. And I was the one sharing pizza with them tonight.

“So this is the Landry Special?” The thing was huge, at least sixteen inches in diameter. Half was only cheese. Half was piled with meat and veggies.

“Mmhmm.” Charlie nodded, sucking down her root beer float.

“Okay, honey.” Thea dished up a slice of the cheese pizza for Charlie. “Enough of that until you eat.”

Charlie swallowed a gulp, then pushed her glass away to load her small hands up with the slice.

“Which kind would you like?” Thea asked.

Before I could answer, Charlie spoke up with her mouth full. “He can have one of mine.”

My eyes snapped to Thea. She was trying to pull in her smile, not make a big deal about Charlie’s declaration, but we both knew it was a big deal.

I was making progress.

“Thanks,” I told Charlie, taking one of her cheese-only slices. Then I took a bite, surprised at how good it was. The thin crust had a delicious char. The sauce and cheese were perfect, better than a lot of the pizzas I’d had in the city. “This is great.”

“Mommy invented pizza,” Charlie said before taking another bite.

Thea laughed. “Not all pizza, just the pizza here. We have a brick oven in the back, so it’s kind of become our specialty.”

“So you’re an artist. A mixologist. A pizza chef. I’m guessing you’re the one managing this place. Is there anything else you do?”

She nodded to our daughter. “Just try and keep this one mostly clean.”

Charlie giggled and took another bite.

“Maybe tonight I can see that fort.” I held my breath, waiting to be rejected. I knew I was pushing it. I’d done the soccer game and now dinner. Thea had warned me to take it slow, but I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t asking because I felt rushed that my week was ending.

I was asking because I really wanted to see Charlie’s fort.

“Okay.” Charlie nodded and took another bite as I nearly fell off my stool.

The smile on my face stayed through dinner, until after the pizza was demolished and Charlie was jittery from all the sugar in her float. I was still grinning as I followed Thea’s car back to their cottage and parked on the street.

The minute I opened my car door, Charlie was racing into the trees, waving for me to follow.

I waved at Thea as she walked to the front door, then jogged across the grass, trying to catch my daughter.

When I hit a clump of tall trees close to the shoreline, I followed a trail of cleats, shin guards and socks until I heard Charlie’s voice.

“Come on, Logan!” She poked her head out of a small opening, waving me toward her fort.

Between three tall evergreens was her little hideaway. The trees were clustered together enough that she’d been able to build walls from plywood boards. Someone, my guess was Thea, had painted them in a mix of browns and greens, like camouflage. Tacked on top was an old army-gre

en canvas tarp that acted as both the ceiling and door flap.