threw a bright glow over enough of the yard for Addy to play.
Oh, but she could get used to this, Brooklyn mused, listening to Callum and his dad talk basketball and home improvements, watching Addy wear herself out running around with a ribbon on a stick, twirling it, whipping it, spinning with it over her head, jumping up off the ground—
And then the girl screamed.
“Oh, crap.” Brooklyn spilled her wine as she shoved out of her seat. Callum scrambled up behind her, leaping over the table while his dad circled the end and followed. They all reached Addy where she sprawled on the grass as her shrieks died and her sobs set in.
“Where’s it hurt, pumpkin?” Callum asked, checking her face, her bare arms, and her legs beneath her shorts. “What’d you do?”
“My foot, Daddy,” she said, and he reached for one then the other as Brooklyn cradled her head.
“I don’t see anything. Did you twist your ankle?” He looked at both sides of each, tugging down her socks and running his finger over the bones. “I’m going to take off your shoe—”
“No, Daddy, don’t. It hurts in my shoe.”
“Look at the bottom,” Brooklyn said, stroking Addy’s hair from her forehead. “She may have stepped on something.”
Frowning, Callum checked the soles of both tennis shoes, biting off a sharp curse that was drowned out by Addy’s cries. “There’s a hole here on the side of her heel. Looks like a nail puncture—”
“Here it is,” his father said, picking it out of the grass. “Sixteen-D framing nail. Bet this got dropped by the crew when they built the new storage shed. Could be more, so be careful. Addy may need a tetanus shot.”
“I don’t want a shot!” The girl screamed the words, then began crying again.
“I know you don’t, pumpkin. I’ll call Dr. Barrow and see if you need one,” Callum said. Then to his father: “She had a booster before the school year started, so she should be covered, but I’ll check.”
“Ow, Daddy,” Addy said, reaching up to swipe at her nose. “It hurts!”
“I’m sure it does,” he said, unlacing her shoe, as his father dropped to his hands and knees to search the ground. “But I still need to get your shoe off to see how bad it is. Dr. Barrow will want to know. If you poked a hole in your foot, she may need to see you and clean it up.”
“Okay,” Addy said, quieting. “But can Ms. Harvey look? And can you find my ribbon stick?”
“I’ve got your ribbon stick right here,” Vaughn said. “I’ll brush off the dirt and it’ll be good as new.”
“And I’m happy to look at your foot,” Brooklyn said, thinking Callum had an amazing handle on this parenting thing, negotiating without sugarcoating the truth of what might happen. “But I can’t do it until you let your daddy take your shoe off.”
Addy sniffled, her gaze moving from Brooklyn’s to Callum’s. “Be careful, Daddy. Don’t break my foot more.”
“It’s not broken,” her father told her, fighting a smile that tugged hard at Brooklyn’s heart. “It’s probably just scratched. Could be all it needs is an Olaf bandage.”
“And no shot?”
“That’s up to Dr. Barrow. But she has Olaf bandages, too.”
“And she has Olaf stickers.”
“Sounds to me like Olaf makes everything better,” Brooklyn said.
“Olaf does!” Addy said, nodding furiously. “If you had an Olaf you would never have to be sad.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Brooklyn said, her throat tight and aching. “I’m not sad. I’m just worried about you.”
“But all your books are here,” Addy said insistently. “You have to be sad.”
Brooklyn frowned, certain the girl must be thinking about having her own books close. “They’re just here because I’m moving out of my house and don’t have anywhere to put them.”
Addy’s eyes grew wide. “Are you moving here? With us?”
Well, crap. This was not how she’d wanted this revelation to happen. She smiled at Callum’s daughter, using her thumb to stroke Addy’s tears from her cheek. “No, I’m moving to Italy. It’s very far away. Across the ocean.”
“On the globe?” Addy asked, her lips quivering. “On the other side?”
Brooklyn nodded.
“I don’t want you to move,” Addy said, breaking into another loud cry, which turned into more screams Brooklyn wasn’t equipped to deal with.
She moved out of the way as Callum scooped up his daughter and headed for the house, lingering until she had a better handle on her emotions. No need to reveal to anyone else how completely her heart was torn between the old life