Six months, and the rest of Harrison’s life stretched out in front of him, shining like the sun on still waters. Marriage. A baby. Maybe not in that order, depending on how quickly they managed to organize the wedding.
And Arlo…
Jacqueline was walking a little ahead, with Tally bundled sleepily over her shoulder. Lainie was walking with her.
“So, how long will you be in town, Jacqueline?” Lainie asked.
“Honestly? I wish I could stay forever.” Jacqueline laughed, but softly, as though she was trying not to disturb Tally. “But I have work, and a house back in Dunston… Now that the kids are safely here, I should probably be heading back.”
Arlo swallowed, and Lainie shot him an entirely too innocent look.
Arlo had less than a day, if he was going to have even a chance at six months, or longer.
They reached the promenade, the wide pedestrian area that stretched the length of the main street on the water side.
“Ice cream! Ice cream!” Dylan yelled, running towards the small shop halfway down the promenade. The sign, Sweet Dreams Ice Cream Parlor, used to make Arlo’s stomach rumble just looking at it.
Arlo groaned. He wouldn’t have minded going there earlier, but they’d run into Harrison and Lainie and bypassed it. Now, after what Lainie had said about his foster parents…
“Can we?” Dylan begged Kenna, who bit her lip.
“Eric has all our cash…”
Arlo straightened his shoulders. The parlor belonged to Tess Sweets, his foster parents’ granddaughter. “My treat. Come on.”
13
Jacqueline
Jacqueline didn’t miss the way Arlo straightened his shoulders just outside the ice cream parlor door. Almost as though he was preparing himself for battle.
He stepped through—and then backed out as though a swarm of bees was after him.
Jacqueline caught his arm. He was wincing and clutching his head. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“Loud,” he grunted, and Jacqueline looked past him to see the ice cream parlor full of… kids?
Dylan shrieked with excitement and ran in to join the throng.
“Ah.” Jacqueline nodded and let the door swing shut. Arlo was still clutching his head, so she guided him carefully away, towards a seat overlooking the water. “A thousand happy screams, direct to the inside of your skull?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you need some space?” Which she one hundred percent wasn’t giving him right now, clinging to his arm like this. If he insisted, though…
“It’ll pass.” One side of his mouth hooked up. “Or I’ll get used to it.”
He didn’t pull away from her, so she didn’t let go. Her hand fit into the crook of his elbow like it was meant to be there.
“Headache?” Harrison dodged past them en route to the ice cream shop. The door swung open and Arlo winced again. Harrison looked bemused. “The kids? I know you’ve always been more sensitive to it than me, but—geez, Arlo. Are you all right?”
Arlo scowled at him and must have said something telepathically, because Harrison shrugged his shoulders and backed off.
“I’ll grab you a cone,” he said. “Caramel, right? What about you, Jacqueline?”
“Caramel sounds great.”
“On it.”