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“Wow, that’s a serious talent kid,” he said, massaging his throbbing ear with a smile on his face. “Remind me to see if you can make crystal shatter.”
Actually, that would be cool. They might have to try that.
He was about to launch into the speech he’d begun working on in the car, about how he wanted to be a part of her life and how he’d like to see a lot more of her.
He wasn’t sure he should broach the subject of moving yet, not until he’d broken the news to Emma. But Stella was already on her feet, and she had a plan of her own.
Before he realized what she intended, Stella was running toward the group of school kids she’d played with when they first arrived.
“Hey, Tyler!”
She busted into the circle of tiny people clustered near the slide, pointing her little finger at a stout blond boy, channeling his aunt Phil to a T when she yelled, “I told you I had a dad! He’s right here and he’s way better than your dad!”
Garrett blinked,his mouth dropping open. He looked over at Mariana, who winced but didn’t move. Seeing no help there, Garrett got to his feet, hurrying when Tyler began to push her away.
“Everyone knows you don’t have a dad! My dad says your mom doesn’t even know who he is!”
Tyler reached down to grab a handful of sand, throwing it at Stella and the other kids, who began to yell and shout.
That little shit!
Garrett ran as other adults began to converge on the group. But his anger lost some of its self-righteous steam when Stella brushed herface off and charged the blond-haired turd, shoving him to the ground and leaping on top of him.
“Ah, hell.”
Garrett sprinted, reaching Stella just after she started pounding on the kid. He snatched her up just as Tyler’s parents hit the edge of the sandbox.
“Uh, sorry about that,” he apologized, panting, a squealing and squirmy Stella slung over his shoulders.
Tyler’s dad, a short pudgy guy with a receding hairline, puffed up, opening his mouth to tell him off. But he shut his mouth when Garrett stepped closer, unintentionally looming over the smaller man.
Despite the man’s incipient paunch, Garrett had more than thirty pounds on him. But his was muscle, not fat.
The thin blond woman with him, presumably his wife, took one look at his face and began to smack her husband on the arm repeatedly with the back of her hand as if to say, “Look! Look!”
“I told you my dad was better 'cause he’s bigger and he has more hair!” Stella yelled, struggling to get down to continue pounding Tyler.
Garrett pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. Taking a better hold of his errant daughter, he cradled her against his chest with one arm and cleared his throat.
“Again, I’m so sorry. She’s just… excited.”
“It’s not a problem,” the mom said breathlessly.
He tilted his head, snapping the fingers of his free hand as he finally recognized the woman. The voice had jogged his memory. “Oh! Hey. It’s Sharon, right?”
Sharon Moore had been a year behind him at Verdant Falls High. The man with her was a little familiar too, but the receding hairline was throwing him.
“Yes,” Sharon said.
She looked from him to Stella and then back to him, her eyes widening so big she looked like an owl with a pituitary problem.
“Uh, wow. I never expected to see you here. Like this.” She broke off to smack her husband one more time. “Look, honey, it’s GarrettChapman!”
They waited, buthoneyjust stood there slack-jawed, so Garrett refocused on Sharon. “How’ve you been?”
“Good, good. We moved here after high school. It’s a better school district. Isn’t that right, Dennis, darling?”
She nudged her husband with a high-pitched chuckle.