Page 54 of Tattered (Lark Cove 1)

“Quiet night.”

Thea nodded. “Most everyone in town is up in Kalispell for the fair.”

We both looked to Charlie as she sat in silence, swinging her legs to kick the footrail of her stool.

“What’s running through your head, peanut?”

She shrugged and kicked again.

“Honey,” Thea tucked a loose strand of hair behind Charlie’s ear, “you know you can always talk to us. What’s wrong?”

Charlie’s eyes were flooded with tears when she looked up to her mother. “Logan is going to miss my birthday.”

Fuck. It felt like someone had just taken a hammer to my chest. I’d all but forgotten her birthday was coming. August fifth was only two weeks away, and there was no way I’d be caught up at work enough to take another vacation. But that didn’t matter.

“I’ll be here.”

Charlie’s face spun to me. “You will?”

“I promise.” I stretched across the table and stuck out my pinky.

When Charlie and I had been at camp the other day, she’d made a pinky promise with Hazel to stay out of the lake. I’d watched, surprised at how seriously they had taken the gesture.

If hooking our pinkies together made the tears stop, I’d do it a million times.

Charlie sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Then her crooked pinky looped around mine.

“I’ll go grab the pizza.” Thea stepped off her stool and went back to the kitchen. She rolled her neck as she walked, trying to shake the weight on her shoulders.

Thea had retreated these last few days, ever since the soccer game. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to give Charlie and me one-on-one time, or if she was just busy. But she’d been distant, making sure she and I never had much alone time. She gave me just enough attention to discuss Charlie before running away.

Charlie and I sat quietly waiting for Thea. It only took her a minute to return with our pizza. Her posture had straightened and she was faking that pleasant smile.

I hated that smile.

I wanted the real one back. The one that reached her eyes and made my heart skip.

“What’s this?” I asked as she set down the hot pan.

Charlie and Thea looked at each other. “This is the Landry-Kendrick special. Charlie and I invented it this morning.”

I grinned at the pizza. Two slices were cheese only, for Charlie. Three were loaded for Thea. And the other three were extra cheese and greasy pepperoni.

My favorite.

I’d told Charlie the other day how much I liked pepperoni pizza. We’d been pretending to make pizzas in the fort at camp—the fort I’d made exponentially better this week by nailing up industrial camouflage tarps I’d special ordered and had shipped overnight. I guess after that, she’d come home and told Thea how I preferred my pizza.

Now I was a part of the family special.

I rode the pizza high all the way through dinner. Thea declared she was going to close down the bar for the night and we all walked back to the cottage together. I waited on the couch while Thea gave Charlie her bath, then my daughter came down and asked if I’d tuck her in for bed.

I shot off the couch, smiling and nodding like a bobble-head doll.

“Can we read three books?” Charlie asked as she climbed into her bed.

“Sure.” I went to her boat-shaped bookshelf. “Which ones?”

“You can pick.”