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)
A ball pit was in the very middle of the room. She wanted to dive in. And, most marvelous of all, no one else was in the room. She started to run. She was going to head for the ball pit first. No, the castle! The big slide!
Oh, it was way too hard to decide.
Before she could move more than two steps, she was brought up short. She looked behind her to find that Jack had hold of the back of her jeans.
“Jack! Let go! I want to play!” Whoa. Was that a whine in her voice?
Where had that come from?
Jack’s eyebrows rose. Had he noticed?
“You want to play?”
“Uh-huh. Let me go!”
“Don’t you think you need to know the rules first?”
“Rules-schmules.”
Monkeyballs. What was she doing? He seemed to know she was a Little, though. And he was the one who had brought her here. To a toy store and the most magical, amazing place in the world!
“There can’t be any rules in a place like this!” she protested.
“I’m afraid there are.”
Maggie crossed her arms over her chest with a huff. “I thought you were the fun one.”
“Am I?” He grinned. “What does that make Ian then?”
“The grumpy one, of course. You don’t want to be the grumpy one, do you? Because I’m sure the fun one doesn’t make rules.”
“I can be fun and still enforce rules.” Reaching out with his other hand, he tapped her lower lip. “And that doesn’t work on me.”
Bummer.
“All right, what are these silly rules?”
“No shoes on the bouncy material.”
Oh. That actually wasn’t a silly rule at all. Now she felt bad. He let go of her jeans and she slid off her shoes, spotting cubby holes to put them in.
“Where is everyone else? Are other people going to come here?” She wasn’t sure if she could let go and have fun if people were watching.
“I hired it out for an hour. We’ve got about fifty minutes of that left.”
Wow. He’d really thought of everything, hadn’t he? Maggie knew she could have lots of fun playing in that amount of time. She started to race off again.
Only to be brought to a sudden stop.
“Jack!” she cried, turning to glare at him.
“You haven’t heard all the rules yet.”
“There are more?” she cried.
“Yes. Next rule is that you have to stop when I tell you to.”
Sheesh. She wasn’t a darn toddler.
“Okay. And?” she asked.
“Have fun.”
“That’s it?” she asked.
“That’s it. Go!”
With a squeal that filled the room, she raced off. She went to the giant bouncy pillow first. To her shock, it suddenly went really high. She looked over to find Jack on the other side.
“You don’t mind if I join in, right?”
She laughed. “No! Come on! I’m going in the castle.” She raced up the stairs and reached the top, looking down at him. “I’m the queen of the castle and you’re a dirty rascal.”
“I don’t think I’m the rascal, brat. You better move.”
With a squeal, she ran to the slide and went down it as he climbed the stairs. Then she headed to the big slide.
She couldn’t remember when she’d had this much fun. Even as her cheeks ached from smiling and her heart raced with exertion, she didn’t stop.
Although she probably should have listened to her body when her hip started to ache.
But she had a limited time to play and needed to make the most of it.
“Baby, you okay?” Jack called out.
“Yep, I’m fine.”
“Stop for a moment.”
She thought about refusing, but he stepped into her path, grabbing her.
“Time for a drink,” he stated, studying her carefully.
“But I’m not thirsty.”
“Come on.” He took her hand and dragged her over to the side of the room.
Had he even heard her?
Sheesh.
26
There was a small café off to the side where Jack bought them two bottles of water.
“I’m fine, Jack.”
“You look like you winced before.”
“Probably because I’m super unfit,” she lied. Well, she didn’t exactly lie. She was unfit. It was kind of embarrassing. But the reason she winced wasn’t because of that.
He opened one bottle and gave it to her. “Drink.”
Sheesh.
“You’re so bossy.”
“Am I?” He looked amused.
“It’s not a compliment.”
“I wouldn’t dare take it as one,” he said solemnly. “So . . . how is my surprise?”
She threw her arms around him, knocking the bottle of water he held against his chest so it splashed down his front. Some of it got on her.
But most of it was him.
“Oh no. I got you all wet.”
“And I thought that was my line.”
“What?” she asked as she grabbed napkins. Then what he’d said registered. “Jack!”
He grinned. “It’s all right, baby. It’s just a bit of water. It will dry after a minute of walking outside.”
He was probably right. Still, she felt like a bit of an idiot. “Sorry. Only I could turn a hug of gratitude into a disaster.”
“Interesting skill to have.”