She’s lucky to have a father like you who wants to do all these things with her.
That was where she made her mistake. Allie wasn’t the lucky one. I was. I loved my daughter with everything I had in me, and being able to make these memories with her meant everything to me.
I tapped out a response, then put my phone away for the rest of the evening to give all my attention to my little girl.
Chapter 7
Laurie
“Laurie!” Katie yelled excitedly as she ran up to me after hitting up the last house. She stopped just before slamming into me, then pointed at a red-haired boy and girl behind her who looked like twins. “Rob and Rowina live a few doors down from us. We’re going to stick together tonight. Is that okay?”
“Sure. Just stay where I can see you, okay?” I smiled while saying hi to the kids. They gave me shy smiles, waved, and grabbed Katie’s hand to drag her after them.
“She’s been brought into the twin-fold,” a sweet voice said behind me. I spun around to see a woman around my age, also red-haired, grinning after the trio. “Hi, I’m Ruth. It looks like you’re stuck with me for a while.”
I laughed and held out my hand. “Laurie. We’re new around here, so I’m just happy she’s making friends.”
Ruth squeezed my fingers before motioning to the kids, the corners of her eyes still crinkled. She looked like the type who laughed a lot. “She’ll have friends in Rob and Rowe for life if she can stand them. Being friends with twins, however, is not an easy task. Come on. Let’s go before we lose them.”
“How old are they?” I asked. “They’re gorgeous, and it looks like Katie’s already having a lot of fun with them. They might have a friend for life in her too.”
“They’re eight, and Katie?”
“Seven.” We fell into step side by side, talking while we followed them from house to house. “Should we wait for your husband?”
I’d noticed her wedding ring when she’d shook my hand, but I’d only just realized it was just the two of us walking. Her hazel eyes shone with amusement when she answered my question.
“I suppose we could, but he works the night shift, so we’ll be waiting a while. He only just went to work. Can you imagine what that group would get up to if we left them alone for so long? I’m pretty sure Rob would end up in jail for stealing a garden gnome or something. The only thing worse would be if whoever he stole it from brought him back instead of going to the cops.”
“Maybe you’d get lucky and they wouldn’t know which house is his,” I joked. “If they showed up at your door, you could just deny any knowledge of who he is.”
“Like disavowing him?” She grinned before waving her hand. “I should’ve thought of that earlier. It’s too late now. Everyone around here knows who we are. The people here are very friendly and it’s an extremely family-centric neighborhood. It’s a great place to raise a family, but not so much if you don’t want people to know which tiny dictator belongs to you.”
“That’s good to know.” I laughed. “I think I made the right decision when I chose this neighborhood then. What you’ve just described is exactly what I wanted for Katie.”
“You definitely made the right choice,” she said. “You won’t regret it. Where did you move from?”
“Downtown.” I thought back to my apartment there. “We desperately needed more space, though. It’s been fine for the last couple of years, but since Katie started at school, the commute was a little long and the apartment a little small. All things considered, we needed a little less little in our lives.”
“I know exactly what you mean. Unless you make a boatload of money and can afford one of those fancy penthouses or the even fancier renovated houses, it’s mighty difficult to raise a family there.”
“You sound like you’re talking from experience.” I glanced at her profile while the kids squealed with laughter at something or someone up ahead. Her features were delicate, but there was something about her that told me she was a force to be reckoned with.
“Are you kidding? As soon as the doc told us there were two sets of eyes sitting in my stomach and two heartbeats, Rowan and I knew it was time to head to the suburbs.”
“That must have come as a shock,” I