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But he’d had moments of seriousness every time they’d been together. Like he wanted more. More than just laughter and fun. More than just her as a mom coming with her girls...like he wantedher.
She didn’t want him to know that he actually made losing seem like a good possibility. In fact, she found herself entertaining the thought that she might lose on purpose, just to allow him to get the prize. But there was a competitive streak in her that would not allow her to give up that easily.
She lifted her chin and gave him a superior look, which was a little difficult considering that he was taller than she was. “Challenge accepted.”
She glanced over at Maddie. “You can tell us when to start.”
Maddie grinned, and Rachel sidled up to her, like she wanted to have a part in it too.
Dakota looked at her younger daughter. “You can tell us who wins.”
“You do, Mommy,” she said easily.
Dakota and Ryan both laughed together, and Dakota stuck her nose even further in the air. “There you go. I won. Easiest contest ever.”
Instead of rolling his eyes and telling Maddie to go ahead and start them, he shrugged. “All right. What’s your price?”
He surprised her. That’s all she could think, because the words came out of her mouth without thought. “You go to church with me.”
He barked out a laugh. “Nicest consolation prize ever.”
And that was another one of those statements that he made; his eyes were twinkling, but there was a serious tone underlying his words that she loved.
“You mean you’re not really going to fly a kite?” Rachel asked, disappointment making her words sound sad.
“Of course we are.” Dakota lifted her brows at Maddie.
“On your mark, get set, go!” she said, barely waiting for Dakota and Ryan to get set.
Dakota took off faster than he did, since he was still winding string, but he caught up soon enough.
“Get away from me. You’re going to get your string tangled up with mine!” She laughed as she ran.
“Seems like you run, and I follow you. It doesn’t matter where you’re going,” he said, and maybe it was a good thing that they were running, because she couldn’t stop and study him and try to figure out what exactly those words meant.
Did that mean...he wanted to follow her? That was new. It seemed like before, he couldn’t wait to get rid of her.
She knew he had apologized for that, and she believed him that he was sorry. But sometimes when a person was sorry that didn’t necessarily mean that they were going to change anything. Or it didn’t always mean that they felt like there was anything to change.
Ryan seemed to be turning over a new leaf.
She liked it and appreciated his consideration.
But that did not mean that she was going to allow him to win. It had been a long time, but the handling of the kite came back. She could feel the wind tugging, tell which direction it was going, and knew which way to pull the string in order to point the kite where it needed to go.
She’d spent hours with Ryan along the shore flying kites. It was something that kept them out of trouble. And she knew her gram preferred her to do that over riding horses, which always scared her gram. She hadn’t grown up around them, and she didn’t understand Dakota’s deep and abiding love for them.
But it looked like Ryan hadn’t lost any of his muscle memory either, since his kite was no lower than hers.
She let out more string, and the wind picked up, pulling the string, and lifting her kite.
But as the breeze was wont to do next to the lake, in the next instant it switched directions, and her kite tilted crazily, while Ryan’s stayed high in the air.
He looked over at her and laughed, shouting, “Looks like you’ve lost your touch!”
The words had no sooner left his mouth than his kite lifted and pitched and turned down, making a diagonal line toward the lake.
Everything might have been okay, but as Ryan raced to get to the right angle to steady his kite, she lost sight of him, trying to fix her own, and in the next heartbeat, he brushed by her.
