Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 174632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
“I hope that’s all right,” he said awkwardly even though he hadn’t realized she would be here.
“Of course it is!” She clapped her hands excitedly.
He smiled at her enthusiasm as she rushed over and grabbed his hand. “Come to the claw machines with me?”
I’ll follow you anywhere.
Fuck. Now he was turning into a sap.
“All right. But no more running. And you need to be careful which machines you use, that they don’t jolt you around.”
“Oh. Yes. Of course. Sorry.” Her face dropped and he immediately felt like a jerk. “You said something about claw machines?”
She gave him a small smile. “I’m so bad at them.”
The three of them followed her over to a big machine that had the saddest-looking soft toys he’d ever seen.
“Um, what about this machine? These toys look nicer,” he suggested, pointing to another machine.
“No. I need to try to rescue one of these ones. Everyone goes for the nice, new toys. Look at these. They look so sad. They’re trapped. I need to rescue them all.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Jack told her. “We’ll rescue every one of them.”
She grinned up at Jack like he’d hung the moon just for her. “I can’t do that. It costs like a dollar a go. Rescuing one will be enough.”
Were these toys even worth a dollar?
She had three goes, all of them dreadful. Shoulders slumping, she turned away. “I guess they’ll stay trapped.” Her lower lip trembled.
“Put that away.” Jameson tapped her lower lip and she gaped at him in shock.
He could feel Ian and Jack staring at him as well.
Bollocks. He needed to chill until he spoke to them. He didn’t want them to think that he was trying to steal her away from them.
“I’ll win you the toy,” he told her.
“You will?” She gave him a skeptical look. “Have you ever played one of these before?”
“No. I haven’t. But it can’t be that hard. I have excellent hand-eye co-ordination.
Fifteen tries later, he held up the toy in triumph. “Here it is!”
All three of them gaped at him.
“What?” he asked.
“I love it! Thank you!” She took the toy and held it tight. “She’s gorgeous. I’m going to name her Princess Pretty.”
She was the ugliest toy he’d ever seen in his life. But he refrained from pointing that out.
“Princess Pretty?” Ian asked. “Really? She’s missing an eye.”
“So? You can still be pretty even if you have one eye.”
“Sure you can,” Jack told her, placing his arm over her shoulders. “Do you feel like shooting something?”
“Yep!”
Ian eyed Jameson. “You realize that you just paid fifteen dollars for a toy that was probably headed to the rubbish?”
“Yeah, I know. She seems to like the ugly thing, though.”
“She does.” Ian nodded. “But I think she likes that you got it for her more. There a reason you wanted to meet with us?”
“Uh, yeah. I kind of wanted to speak to you and Jack alone, though.”
Ian eyed him like he knew what Jameson was going to say. Then Maggie let out a squeal and they turned to see her pumping her arms in the air.
“I won! I won!”
Jameson grinned. He turned as he felt Ian eyeing him. “What?”
“Nothing. You just seem . . . relaxed. Happy. I haven’t seen you like this in ages.”
“It’s a good thing, right?” Jameson asked.
“Yeah, brother. It is.” Ian walked over to Maggie. “You won?”
“Wait a minute.” She folded her arms over her chest, turning to Jack. “How did I win? This was a shooting simulation and you were in the armed forces! You’re my bodyguard.”
Jameson shook his head. Jack let her win? Didn’t he know that was the worst thing he could do? He shouldn’t let her win. That wasn’t the way to help her build up confidence in herself.
“Uh, well . . .” Jack trailed off, looking uncharacteristically unsure.
With her arms crossed over her chest, she started tapping her foot. “Jack Ashby, you don’t let me win. I want to win on my own.”
“Sorry, baby. Forgive me?” He bent down and grabbed her hand, looking very much like he was proposing.
Then she giggled and Jack jumped to his feet with a grin, kissing the back of her hand.
“Come on, I’ll win you one of those massive toys.” He pointed up high where the larger toys were displayed.
“Bigger isn’t always better,” she countered.
“Shh,” Jack said. “That’s what we tell Jameson, but it isn’t true.”
“Jack,” Jameson said in a warning voice.
Jack stared back at him with a grin. “Bigger can be better, baby. But not if you don’t know what to do with it. Nothing can account for skills.”
Dear Lord.
“Jack!” Maggie cried. Then she grinned. “You are so bad. Come on, let’s go play something else.”
Jameson followed them around, feeling like a fourth wheel as the three of them tried to win tickets. Ian and Jack accumulated quite a lot. Maggie not so much.