she touched his legs to find an incredibly handsome man with a boyish smile watching her.
“I guess that’s the plan,” Sloane said with a warm smile for Teddy as she carefully placed his braces back on his legs.
Once she was done, Sloane moved to pick him up only to have the large man gently push her hands away. “Ready?” he asked, smiling down at the little boy who’d gone through hell as he carefully picked him up and placed him in the small wheelchair that was still too big for him.
“Can we go in the pool next time, Ryan?” Teddy asked, shooting the large man a pleading smile.
“That’s up to Sloane,” Ryan said as Sloane spotted the excited smile on Deb’s face before she pulled it back so that she could continue glaring at Sloane. No matter how many times she’d tried to tell the little girl that she hadn’t beaten Chase with a two-by-four, she refused to believe her.
She was going to kill Chase, Sloane decided even as she couldn’t help but wonder how his first therapy session was going. Since she hadn’t heard anyone yelling, “Asshole,” she was going to assume that it was going well.
“Can we go in the pool, Sloane?” Teddy asked, folding his hands together in front of him as he sent her a hopeful smile that she was helpless to refuse.
“I suppose we could do that,” Sloane said, unable to help but smile as she picked up the equipment they’d used and put everything back where she’d found it.
“What do you think of this place?” Ryan asked when she finished.
“I think it’s beautiful,” she said, joining him as he pushed Teddy back toward the waiting room where a woman was filling out paperwork with a red crayon.
“Kylie was supposed to welcome you, but…” Ryan said, his words trailing off as he glanced toward the front desk where an adorable woman was frowning down at an iPad in her hands, mumbling, “This format just isn’t going to work for me,” as a large man who looked like he loved to glare reached for the iPad only to have his hand gently slapped away.
“I’ll see you next week,” Deb said coldly, drawing Sloane’s attention to find the little girl glaring at her as she grabbed her brother’s wheelchair and began pushing it toward the back.
“I’ll be counting down the minutes,” Sloane said, feeling her lips twitch when the little girl’s eyes narrowed on her as Teddy said, “Bye, Sloane!”
“Looks like you made some friends,” Ryan murmured only to rectify that when Deb mouthed, “Next week,” to her. “Well, it looks like you made one friend.”
“She’ll warm up to me,” Sloane said, determined to win the little girl over because she would be damned if she was going to sit back and watch as Chase was given the best tiara again.
“I’m sure she will,” Ryan murmured, sounding thoughtful as her attention was drawn back to the small woman behind the desk and
“You’ll have to excuse Hunter. He’s an asshole,” Ryan said, sounding amused as the large man in question narrowed his eyes on them.
“Stop being mean,” Kylie mumbled absently, earning a pleased look from the man sitting next to her.
“He’s gotten worse since he found out that she’s pregnant,” Ryan explained, chuckling as he gestured for her to join him at the front desk.
“He really has,” Kylie admitted with a soft sigh, earning a glare from her husband.
“Congratulations,” Sloane said, unable to help but notice the way that Hunter’s face lit up when he looked at his wife.
“Thank you,” Kylie said, smiling shyly only to look amused when the woman that had been filling out paperwork walked over and exchanged her red crayon for a blue one.
“Quick question,” the woman said, adjusting a large black backpack over her shoulder, “Do you think an unfortunate weekend that ended with streaking would be enough to stop me from being allowed to volunteer here?”
Before anyone had a chance to answer, mostly because they all appeared to be struggling not to smile, she said, “You know what? I’m just going to put it down and see where it takes me.”
Clearing her throat, Kylie’s lips twitched as she said, “Grey is partial to green crayon, Nikki.”
Nikki looked thoughtful for a moment as she considered her crayon choices only to end up nodding toward Hunter. “Wouldn’t it be better if he interviewed me since he doesn’t look like he’d put up with my shenanigans?” she asked, looking really hopeful.