Page 63 of Playing With Forever

And speaking of…

“Wow. That was a lot,” Lindy declared, practically falling into the chair in front of my desk.

“Kids will take it out of you.”

“You got that right. Phew.” She mocked wiped sweat off her brow.

“Are you sure you’re up for two days a week?”

“Oh yeah. For sure. It was a lot of work but fun. Though, I did axe the idea of taking them outside to paint the clouds. There’s no way I wouldn’t lose one of them without adult supervision.”

I smiled but didn’t remind her she was the adult supervision.

My desk phone rang. I couldn’t suppress my groan as I stared at the device like it had personally offended me.

“Phones are the devil,” I murmured.

“Would you like me to answer it and take a message?”

My sweet Lindy.

“No, it’ll go to voicemail.” I waited for the ringing to stop, then asked, “Other than being exhausted, did everything go okay?”

“Yes. I loved it. They’re messy little buggers, but we had fun. And the staff here is great. Anita showed me around, and Phil showed me where all the art supplies are and told me to give him a list of anything else I needed, and he’d add it to the order sheet and budget.”

Crap.

Budget.

One more thing I had to do today.

“Phil or Abigail work together on the order sheets, so if you can’t find Phil, look for Abi.”

“She’s the tall brunette wearing the white t-shirt, right?”

“Correct. She’s been here a long time. If you need help with anything, she’s another good resource.”

Ringing once again came from the Satan’s contraption on my desk.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’m over dealing with people today,” I complained.

“I’ll let you get back to work. Dad’s picking you up, so I’ll go to the store so you don’t have to stop on your way home. Anything special for dinner?”

“Anything.”

“Anything?”

“As long as I don’t have to cook it, I’ll eat it,” I groaned.

“I’ll handle dinner tonight,” she said with a firm nod.

“God, I love you.”

Lindy froze.

I froze.

And we stared at each other, suspended in a moment that should’ve happened at home, not when I was crazy busy and she was covered in paint.