unnaturally still next to her new companion. It was like she didn’t know what to make of the creature with the two puffy brown pigtails and sticky blue lips.
But Jasmine knew what an accomplishment it was that Katie stood there without trying to hide behind her father’s legs. In fact, she hadn’t tried to hide at all so far, which thrilled Will. Up until Makayla approached her, Katie had clung to either Will or Jasmine’s hand.
“Want some?” Makayla asked, holding her cotton candy toward Katie.
Katie hesitated and then took some. She looked at it curiously before putting it in her mouth.
“Has she never eaten cotton candy?” Jasmine whispered to Will.
“Not that I know of.”
Judging by Katie’s smile, she liked it. She started to reach for another pinch.
“Come on,” Makayla directed, reaching for Katie’s hand. “You can get some too.”
Jasmine bit her lip, worried Katie would have a dramatic reaction to the personal contact. Instead, Katie just trotted alongside Makayla and got in line with the other kids waiting at the cotton candy machine.
“Did you see that?” Will asked.
She heard the wonder in his voice. “I sure did.”
“That was…amazing.”
Unable to help herself, she reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind some cotton candy myself.”
“You? Eating candy?”
“Oh, who are you kidding?” she said as they joined the line behind Katie and her new friend. “You know you’ll eat most of it.”
“Yeah.”
She smiled. In front of them, Makayla continued to ramble. It seemed the kid had an opinion about everything. She evidently didn’t mind at all that Katie didn’t offer any commentary herself. Jasmine figured maybe she enjoyed having someone so focused on what she had to say.
Once Katie received her wand of cotton candy, Makayla once again grabbed her hand. “This way,” she urged.
This time Katie turned to look at Will, who waved her on. “It’s fine. We’ll be right behind you as soon as we get our cotton candy.”
When Katie’s gaze turned to Jasmine, she said, “It sounds like Makayla knows where all the fun’s at around here.”
“‘Course I do,” Makayla insisted. “Let’s go down the slide.”
Katie offered her friend a small smile and allowed herself to be towed by the hand toward the large inflatable slides set up on the other side of the outfield. It did appear to be the highlight of the event for the kids if their riotous screams were any indication.
“I can’t believe she actually went,” Will said as Jasmine accepted her own wand of cotton candy and they started after Katie.
“It’s a big day.”
“The biggest.” He took some of the candy when she held it out to him. “And it wouldn’t be possible without you.”
She gave him a look that he probably couldn’t see through her dark glasses. “That’s overstating things. I mean, I suppose I helped Katie find ballet, but it’s really her dancing that led to this moment.”
He made a sound of disagreement. “That’s not true.” Before she could form a response to that, he asked, “Do you think they’re enjoying themselves or being tortured?”
They had gotten closer to the slides where chaos reigned.
“It’s a toss-up.”
When they reached Katie, she was attempting to remove her shoes with one hand while clinging to her cotton candy with the other. Jasmine reached out to help with the candy while Will assisted with the shoe removal. A curvy woman with a beautiful halo of dark hair was helping Makayla. They shared enough traits that they had to be mother and daughter.
“Try to keep the screaming to a minimum,” the woman told Makayla.
“Okay, Mommy!” Makayla shouted, hauling Katie over to the steep ramp leading to the top of the trio of slides.
The woman rolled her eyes and looked over to Will and Jasmine. “Is that your poor child bein’ dragged around by my baby?”
He grinned and extended a hand. “Yep. I’m Will. This is Jasmine.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Ruby Clark. My husband Jerry works with the grounds crew.”
“Then we’re all indebted to him,” Will said with one of his charming smiles. “We’ve got the best grounds crew in the game.”
Ruby stood a little taller as though she shared her husband’s pride. “Damn straight.” Glancing back at the ramp and seeing that the girls had progressed almost all the way up, she said, “Please excuse me. Gotta take a couple videos or my mama will never forgive me. Makayla’s her only grandchild.”
“I’m right there with you,” Will said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.