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He sighed deeply before calling the girls back to us. Maggie and Luna looked between us and Ashton laid out his rules.
“Is your cell phone on?” He asked.
“Yes,” Luna replied.
His voice was sharp as a whip. “Where are these friends?”
Luna grinned widely as she pointed out her friend group that included the young boy, I’d seen her talking with at school. Ashton roamed his eyes over the group, and I knew he was zeroing in on the boy in particular. I touched his arm, and he took a deep breath.
“We leave at nine on the dot. Meet us by the entrance, Luna. And don’t do anything stupid.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when Luna, yipping with glee hugged him and darted off to meet her friends. Her red and black hoodie became a blur as she and her friends strode off to enjoy their allotted time together.
Maggie stared after her for only a moment and I thought she might be feeling left out. Warmth flooded my hand as I looked down to see she’d taken a hold of mine and Ashton’s hand respectively.
“More cotton candy for me,” she shrugged matter-of-factly.
“More everything for you,” Ashton assured her.
We moved together through the park like a small family unit. Maggie only let go of my hand to play games and I found my heart melting.
We stopped by a Skee ball station, the backdrop decorated with rainbows and stuffed unicorns. Ashton handed over the money and immediately gave Maggie tips.
A sinister little giggle erupted from my eight-year-old step-niece. “That unicorn is coming home with me.”
I knew I could never take their mother’s place and I would never dream of trying. But both Luna and Maggie had inched inside of my own heart and filled an empty spot. I hadn’t realized how empty my life had been until I’d joined this family.
Intertwining my arms with Ashton, I laid my head against this shoulder and let the sounds of the festival surround us. Maggie picked up one of the skee-balls and rolled it with precision but still missed her mark.
“Sorry little lady,” the operator told her, grinning widely.
“Uncle Ashton, please!” Maggie turned around determination in her eye. “I can do this.”
Ashton looked at me and I shrugged. “You stay here, I’m going to go get a drink.”
“I can come with you…”
“Nah, keep watching Maggie!”
Bounding off, I went in search of the lemonade stand we’d passed by earlier. By the time I’d reached it, the line had grown tremendously. It moved fast enough, and I found myself in front of a small blonde-haired woman in a black dress decorated with lemons.
“What can I get for you?” she asked.
I read over the menu behind her which had nearly every combination of lemonade you could think of. “A cup of strawberry lemonade, please.”
The girl nodded and went about fixing me a large cup while I dug in my pockets for cash. She handed over the drink and I gave her the money. Grabbing a straw before I left the stand, I turned around and came face to face with Jade Nakamura.
Instantly I felt cold all over.
She looked as pale as she was when I’d seen her at her club. Her hair this time had been tightly curled and her eyes seemed to narrow.
“Mrs. Tanaka,” she spat out.
I gulped down the lemon and hurried to reply. “Hi, Mrs. Nakamura. It's lovely to see you again.”
The smell coming from her made me want to wretch. I hated whatever the perfume was that she seemed to roll in.
She feigned looking around. “Are you here with Ashton?”
