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“Understandable,” Cassie said with her warm smile. “Well, what do you say we do something, Lucy?”
“What?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t care,” Cassie said. “You pick. I came here to play with you, and I figured we could do what you wanted.”
“Anything I want?” Lucy asked, clearly intrigued by the idea.
“Sure,” Cassie said. “Why not?”
“Okay,” Lucy said. “Then you’re a princess, and Daddy, you’re a knight. I’m the dragon, and you have to save the princess from the dragon, Daddy.”
Cassie raised her eyebrows and looked at me.
“She has quite the imagination,” she said.
“Yes, yes, she does,” I agreed. “What do you want me to do?”
“Sounds like you’re the knight,” Cassie said with a shrug. “That’s what she told you.”
“Oh,” I said in surprise. “I wasn’t sure you really wanted me to play along with the two of you.”
“It’s up to Lucy what she wants you to do,” Cassie said. “I try to engage with the kids as much as I can and give them the choice of how they want to do things. There are times they want their parents to play, then there are times when they just want to have fun with me. It’s up to them entirely.”
“I like the way you do things,” I told her with a smile. “Really, you have quite a different approach than I was expecting.”
“Are you going to be the knight or not?” Lucy cut in. “I’m waiting!”
“Sorry, kiddo,” I said with a laugh. “You’re the dragon, so you better watch out before I slay you!”
My daughter squealed as she ran away from me, waving her arms around like they were wings. I wasn’t sure how Cassie wasgoing to get involved, but to my surprise, she jumped right in, playing the part of the princess as though we were all kids. I had to admit, it was almost fun to play with the two in that way, and far from what I had been expecting.
By the time an hour had passed, Lucy was tired, and Cassie seemed to feel it was a good fit.
“Well, I think we can make this work. What do you say?” she asked me.
Before I had the chance to reply, Lucy shoved her close to me. “The princess and the knight always stand close together in the end!”
Cassie gasped as Lucy pushed her, and for the first time during the entire interview, she seemed nervous, if not a little embarrassed. But I saw the opportunity I had been waiting for. I put my hand on the small of her back, feeling the jolt of electricity that ran through me as I did.
“You make a fine princess yourself,” I told her. “A fine one indeed.”
I couldn’t have been sure, but as Cassie looked away from me, I was confident I had seen a blush on her cheeks. It brought a smile to my own face.
I knew I was fascinated with this girl, and I also knew that was a bad idea.
But there was a large part of me that didn’t care.
Chapter Seven
Cassie
As we said goodbye, I felt almost as giddy as a schoolgirl. I’d done my best to dismiss the idea from my mind that his voice was sexy. I’d told myself all kinds of excuses. I was tired when I’d made the call. I was still thinking about Gigi asking me if I had someone special in my life. I was really trying to find any answer I could as to why I’d been so taken with the sound of his voice alone, and I thought for sure I had gotten a handle on it as I pulled up to the park.
But then, I met him.
Alex Osborne was a god in human form.
He was quite literally everything I found sexy in a man. From his six foot plus height to how broad his shoulders were and how brilliantly his eyes shown in the afternoon sun.
