to remind myself I was there first, taking a jog and minding my own business.
Working on me.
On my third lap, two young women were with Sawyer. One was laughing way too hard at something he said, while the other was kneeling at eye-level with Olivia, smiling and talking to her. A crazed urge to run straight at the women and tackle them both to the grass came over me.
I wrenched my gaze away just as a stitch in my side stopped me short and bent me double. I wheezed for breath, hands on my knees. I hadn’t realized how fast I’d been running but my face was covered with sweat and the pain in my side was like a little knife stabbing me.
When I was able to stand straight I sucked in deep breaths, and glanced over at Sawyer. My breath stuck all over again.
Sawyer was looking right at me, his expression unreadable from this distance, though I thought I caught a glimpse of a small smile on his lips.
I watched, rooted to the spot, as he picked up Olivia and headed toward me without so much as a word to the two women. They watched him walk away, twin expressions of confusion and disappointment morphing to disdain on their faces before they gave up.
“Are you being chased?” Sawyer asked with a small smile. On his hip, Olivia beamed and bounced to see me.
“Ha ha, no,” I huffed. God, I must’ve looked like a mess. My face felt red and puffy from running so hard and sweat made my shirt stick to my skin. “I got confused for a second and thought I was Usain Bolt.”
Olivia reached her little hand out to me.
“Hi, sweet pea,” I said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “Are you being good?”
“Always,” Sawyer said with that smile he reserved just for her. He plucked a blade of grass off her overalls, not looking at me. “So, haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Yeah, I’ve been busy. Job, rehearsals.” I dug my toe into the dirt. I’d caught my breath but my heart was still pounding loudly. “How are your finals going?”
“Good. Finished two. Two more to go.”
“And then the bar exam?”
“Yeah, in Sacramento in a few weeks. Three days of motel living.” He made a face. “Can’t wait.”
“Three days? Will Elena be watching Olivia?” I asked. “Because I can help. If you need it.”
“Maybe,” Sawyer said. His dark brown eyes were soft as they met mine. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
A silence fell and then Olivia squirmed. “Down. Down.”
“Well, we’d better get back before someone steals our wheels.” Sawyer nodded his chin at the bulky, second-hand stroller. “It’s such a beaut.”
I smiled and tried to think of something witty to say but my brain was addled by the V of Sawyer’s tanned chest revealed by his shirt, and the flexing muscles in his arms as he set Olivia down.
“Yeah, I’d better get back…to…more running.”
More running? Seriously?
I felt a tug on my hand. “Ball, Dar-een?” Olivia pulled me toward their blanket. “Ball?”
A joyful laugh burst out of me, erasing my nerves. “Oh my God, she just said my name.” I knelt down beside her. “Did you just say Darlene?”
“Dar-een,” Olivia said, and pointed toward her yellow ball sitting on the green grass. “Play?”
“Well, if it’s okay with your daddy?”
I looked up to see Sawyer watching his daughter.
“I didn’t know she knew your name,” he said quietly.
“I didn’t either,” I said. I got to my feet. “I’ll play with her if you want. Or if you’d rather I not…”
“No, that’d be great. If you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.”
I joined Sawyer and Olivia on their patch of grass and played three-way catch—Sawyer threw to me, I rolled the ball to Olivia, and she threw it to Sawyer who inevitably had to go chasing it down or pick it up when she torpedoed it straight into the grass.
Olivia’s thirteen-month-old attention span wore out five minutes later, and she dropped the ball, game over.
“Snag? Snag, Daddy.”
He scooped Olivia up. “Do you want a snack? What about a swing first?”
“Swing!”
Sawyer swung her down and then tossed her up in the air in the way that guys did that made babies squeal with laughter, and made every human with ovaries in a twenty-yard radius inwardly panic.
“Oh jeez,” I whispered.
I peeked at them through my fingers, but Sawyer caught his little girl smoothly and planted her on his hip.
“Okay, snack time.” He looked to me and laughed. “It’s safe to come out now. Do you want to join