Page 65 of The Moments You Were Mine

For the next thirty minutes, we splashed and played. Fallon and I took turns throwing Theo softly into the air, his life vest keeping him from sinking fully as he landed with a joyous chortle in the lake.

When goosebumps broke out along his arms, I called a halt. As the two of them climbed back onto the dock, I dove down below, scouring the lake for our lost glasses. It took me several long minutes, breath growing tight, before I finally found them and came up victorious.

I pulled myself up on the dock and made a dramatic bow as I presented Fallon with hers. “Your prize, princess.”

She rolled her eyes and snatched them away, but any retort was cut off by Theo exclaiming, “I’m hungry!”

His eyes were fixed, hopefully, on the snack bar.

“You’re always hungry,” I teased, rubbing him down with a towel. “It’s like you have an empty hole inside you instead of a stomach. Let me check.” I blew raspberries above his belly button, and he went off into chortles again.

When I pulled back, Fallon was watching us, sunglasses over her eyes so I couldn’t read her thoughts, but her face had turned serious once more.

I raised a brow, looking purposefully at the towel she’d dried off with. Instead of wrapping it around her body, she tossed me a defiant look and threw it into the used towel bin. Then, she shoved her feet into the shoes she’d pulled from the waterproof bag and sauntered across the pebbled beach toward the snack bar.

I barely got Theo to put his shoes on before he raced after her. I grabbed the rest of our belongings and the three life vests, following behind them.

“Snag a table. I’ll be right back,” Fallon said with a wave at some of the open spots.

She didn’t stop at the register to order. Instead, she opened a side door of the hut and disappeared. Through the window, I saw her talking to the cook and the girl behind the counter. They both laughed at whatever she’d said. That was the Fallon I’d grown up with. She could talk to anyone and put them at ease, but if you crossed her or someone she cared about, heaven have mercy on your soul.

Theo and I sat at one of the tables shaded by a blue-and-yellow striped umbrella. He looked exhausted, and I hoped it meant that, for once, he wouldn’t wake up in the middle of the night.

When Fallon came out of the snack bar, she had a tray loaded with nachos, warm pretzel bites, and three frozen lemonades. It was a smorgasbord of junk food I’d done my best not to serve Theo after that first desperate week when he’d come to live with me.

“You keep feeding Theo stuff like this, and he’s going to want to live with you forever. Aren’t you, bud?”

His eyes twinkled as he nodded, grabbing the cup of pretzel bites and clutching it to his chest as if he were afraid I’d rip it away. My lips twitched, and I dug into the plate of nachoscovered in smoked carne asada, real cheese, and a homemade salsa that made my mouth water. I had access to plenty of top-notch Mexican food in San Diego, but this carne asada was one of the best I’d ever had.

“You guys even do junk food the five-star way,” I commented between bites.

Fallon scooped some up, pleasure coating her face as she chewed. It made my insides tighten all over again, and I was thankful the table hid my body’s reaction to her.

“At first, Francois was appalled at the idea of serving any so-called junk food,” she told me. “He said he was a Michelin-starred chef and had his standards. But then, Dad threatened to hire a second chef who’d have equal space in his kitchen, and he caved like a sandcastle under a wave. Now, Francois sets the menu, but he makes one of the sous chefs, Ren, do any cooking he doesn’t deem worthy of his time.”

“My hats off to Chef Ren for doing it right.” I watched as Theo stuffed another pretzel bite into his mouth. “But I fear this snack is coming so late in the day that I’ll never get this guy to eat anything healthy for dinner.”

“Hel-fy stinks. Vega-tubles stink,” Theo said with a sad shake of his head.

“I bet I can make you like them,” Fallon told him, and I groaned, knowing Theo was going to eat her alive. The kid really abhorred vegetables—red, green, orange, or otherwise.

“A bet?” Looking at him, I could see Theo’s little mind whirling with all the bets I’d already made with him and lost on this same topic. “If I win, I get a prize?”

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” I warned Fallon, and she just shot me a grin.

“What do you want if you win?”

“A puppy!” He shoved his hand in the air and then looked at the empty space where his stuffed animal normally was tucked. He’d nearly disintegrated into tears at the thought of leaving Dog at the house, and it had taken all of Fallon’s and my cajoling to get him to come on the adventure without it.

Fallon’s face turned all soft and gooey, and my gut clenched in a moment of panic. “No dogs, Fallon.”

They both shot me a glare that said I was a party pooper. I’deventually lose this battle. Theo was going to get his damn puppy, but I had to figure out how I’d take care of him and a dog when I was deployed before I agreed.

“How about, if you win, I let you name the foal that’s going to be born any day now?” she offered.

“Foal?” Theo’s brows furrowed.

“A baby horse,” I said.