Harper
I glanced over at Ace when he put his arm around me, smiling at him. “Thanks for this,” I told him.
“For what?” Ace asked, sounding genuinely confused, as though he didn’t realize what a nice thing he’d done.
I laughed. “Well, I’m pretty sure you made Ava’s life today,” I told him.
Sure enough, Ava darted over. “Mama, that puppy was the best,” she said. “He was smart, and he was nice, and if I get a robot leg can I have one, too?”
Ace snorted, and I sighed. “I don’t think you want a robot leg,” I told Ava. “You like your human legs so you can run all around the park after the doggies, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but with a robot leg I’d be faster!” Ava said, convinced in her little three-year-old mind that that was the truth.
I grinned and shook my head. “We’ll have to talk about it,” I said. “A dog is a big responsibility.”
I knew Ava couldn’t understand that yet. I would have to try to think of a way to explain it to her. Maybe if I equated it to having a new brother or sister—but then she might want one of those, too.
I glanced over at Ace. Not that I was opposed to having more kids, maybe. But not right now. I wasn’t ready for that yet. And Ace didn’t even know that he had one kid already.
“Fine,” Ava said, pouting a little. But then she was off chasing after the pigeons again.
“She’s got a lot of energy,” Ace commented.
“She does,” I agreed, shaking my head.
“Sorry if I made her want a dog,” Ace said, sounding sheepish. “I didn’t realize you were bringing her, or I would have warned you. I am glad she had fun, though.”
“You were great with her,” I said automatically. It was true. Watching him explain to Ava that Vixen was a working dog and that we couldn’t pet her but we could play fetch with her, had been wonderful. It gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, we could make this work, the three of us.
Not that I really dared to hope, not yet. I needed to let Ace know who Ava really was, what her relationship to him was. But I didn’t want to do it in front of other people. And now I didn’t want to spoil a good day. It was a no-win situation.
“Anyway, she’s been talking a lot about doggies lately,” I told him. “I was already wondering if we could introduce one of your training dogs to her. But I’m afraid to let Ava get too attached to what’s going to become someone else’s dog.”
“That’s fair,” Ace said, nodding as he watched Ava bounce around.
“I’d get her a dog if I thought we could handle it,” I told Ace, even though I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to defend my decision. It was none of his business if we got a dog or not.
“If you can handle that, I’m pretty sure you can handle anything,” Ace said, pointing at Ava and laughing.
I grinned as well. “Probably,” I agreed. “You haven’t seen her when she’s had sugar yet, though.” I shrugged. “The thing is, even though I’m not really traveling for work anymore, I’m still bouncing all around the city most days. And I take Ava with me for a lot of it, but I also have to leave her with friends or my mom for some of it. I couldn’t dump a dog on them as well. And I definitely couldn’t take the dog with me for all my interviews.”
“That makes sense,” Ace said. He glanced over, his brow furrowing. “But you don’t have to defend yourself to me. I hope you don’t feel like you have to.”
I wanted to lean in and kiss him. I wasn’t entirely sure where the urge came from, but it was so sweet to hear him say those words. I held back, though, knowing that Ava could see.
Speak of the devil, Ava came bounding over. “Mama, I’m hungry,” she complained. “When is it snack time?”
I glanced at my watch. We had been there in the park for longer than I’d realized. “I should have brought a picnic,” I said ruefully, shaking my head.
“Come on, why don’t I take you ladies for pizza?” Ace suggested. “There’s a great place just around the corner. Huge dollar slices.”
“That sounds great,” I said, even though we’d just ordered pizza the other night. I wanted to keep spending time with Ace. Anyway, it wasn’t like Ava was going to complain about having pizza again.
“Sorry I dragged you out here,” Ace said as we walked through the park. “I just really wanted to see you, and I couldn’t think of a better way to make it work today.”
“That’s fine!” I said. “Seriously, you made Ava’s day. And I liked watching you work.” I paused. “You’re really patient. With Vixen, and with Sadie. And with Ava.” It was a quality that I’d never noticed in him before. I wondered if it was just that now I was finally considering him as a father, where I had never had a reason to do so back in Kuwait.
We grabbed a few slices of pizza and some soda and sat down in the window seats at the pizzeria. It was one of those hole-in-the-wall places that by all rights should have gone out of business years ago, but somehow the family kept it alive. I liked it immediately, and I wondered why I had never been in there before.