Chapter 423
Alexander
Ethan grabbed both our hands and tugged us deeper into the park with the enthusiasm of someone who’d just discovered perpetual motion. His small fingers wrapped around mine felt significant in a way I hadn’t anticipated. Warm. Trusting. Right.
“The train!” Ethan bounced, pointing at the miniature locomotive chugging along its track. “We have to ride the train! All of us together!”
Madison started to speak. “Baby, maybe”
“Please!” He dragged us toward the platform with surprising strength. “It’ll be so fun! Please, please, please!”
I glanced at Madison. Her expression said she knew this was a terrible idea, but couldn’t figure out how to refuse without disappointing him.
“One ride,” she conceded.
Ethan’s whoop of victory probably violated several noise ordinances.
The train operator, a bored teenager with a name tag reading “Kyle,” gestured at the tiny cars. Each one was designed for families. Nuclear families. Mom, Dad, Kid.
“Three?” Kyle asked, barely looking up from his phone.
“Three,” I confirmed.
Ne squeezed into the car, Ethan in the middle because he insisted. The space was cramped, clearly designed for people smaller than me. My arm stretched along the seat back behind Ethan and Madison, not quite touching her but close enough that I felt
her presence.
The train lurched forward with mechanical precision.
Madison’s shoulder bumped mine as we rounded the first corner. Neither of us adjusted. Her scent hit me. Something floral nixed with coffee and vanilla.
Focus on Ethan. Not Madison. Not how her hair fell over her shoulder or how that dress made her look like something from a iream I’d forgotten I’d had.
“Look!” Ethan pointed at a painted backdrop of mountains. “Those are fake mountains, but they look SO real!”
“Very realistic,” I agreed.
“Do you have mountains in your kingdom?”
“No mountains. Just very tall buildings.”
“Buildings are almost like mountains,” Ethan said seriously. “Except buildings have elevators and mountains have hiking.”
Where did kids learn this stuff? 1
The train rounded another corner. Madison’s shoulder pressed against mine. The contact sent heat straight through my shirt.
She didn’t move away.
I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. She was watching Ethan, her expression soft in a way I’d never seen during our arrangement. This was Madison as a mother. Patient. Tender Completely transformed from the efficient assistant who’d once managed my entire schedule without breaking a sweat.
“Mom, after this, can we get cotton candy?” Ethan asked.
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Chapter 423
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“We’ll see.”
“That means yes!” Ethan bounced, making the whole car rock. “King Alexander, do you like cotton candy?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had it.”
Ethan’s face registered pure shock. “NEVER?”
“Never.”
“That’s so sad!” He grabbed my hand. “We have to fix that! Cotton candy is the BEST thing in the whole world except for dinosaurs and Mom’s cookies!”
Madison’s lips twitched. Almost a smile.
The train completed its circuit, pulling back to the platform with a gentle stop. Kyle barely glanced up as we climbed out.
Ethan immediately started tugging us toward the cotton candy stand, a massive neon monstrosity that probably violated health
codes.
“Two regular sizes,” Madison told the vendor.
“Three,” I corrected, pulling out my wallet.
“You don’t need-
”
“Three,” I repeated, handing over a twenty before she could argue. “And keep the change.”
The vendor, a woman who looked like she’d been running this stand since the park opened, beamed. “Generous tipper. I like you.” She handed over three bags of pink spun sugar that looked capable of inducing instant diabetes.
Ethan grabbed his immediately, burying his face in the sugar. Within seconds, pink crystals coated his nose, cheeks, and somehow his forehead.
I took a tentative bite of mine. Sugar exploded across my tongue, sweet and sticky and utterly absurd.
“Well?” Ethan watched me with anticipation usually reserved for experimental surgery outcomes.
“It’s pink.”
“I KNOW!” He bounced, “Isn’t it amazing?”
“Very pink.“3
Madison laughed. Actually laughed. The sound went straight through my chest.
I took another bite, more sugar cascading down my shirt despite my best efforts. A pink crystal was stuck to my collar.
Madison reached up, fingers brushing my collar to remove the sugar. Then froze mid–gesture, her eyes meeting mine.
Time slowed.
Her hand hovered near my chest, not quite touching but close enough that I felt the heat radiating from her skin. Her lips parted slightly, breath catching.
I went completely still. Any sudden movement might spook her, sending her retreating behind those walls she’d so carefully constructed.
Her fingers trembled.
The moment stretched into something charged, something that had nothing to do with cotton candy or amusement parks or the kid currently destroying his third helping of sugar.
2/3
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Tougues vt chose shattered whatever was happening “sharing makes things taste better! That’s what
Aliss Daisy sa
Modbus & best de burned her tive face thushed pink, matching the cotton candy
“gb” she sharing
Twanted to all be back whatever that moment had been Instead, I accepted a piece of her cotton candy, watching her andan ve
Sean beamed obbous to the tension crackling between the adults. “Better when you share!”
We wandeerd Areger to the park, Ethan loading us from attraction to attraction with the determination of a tiny general commanding his troops
The bungee cars came next than insisted on driving his own car, which led him to spin in circles while other kids crashed into him. He laughed so hard be nearly tell out
Madison stood at the fence line, watching with a mixture of amusement and concern
I moved beside her, close enough that our arms brushed
He’s having bun,” I observed
“Too much fun. He’ll crash later.”
“That’s what kids do, isn’t it? Run themselves into exhaustion?”
hould know if you’d been around
The words landed sharp but not cruel. Just honest.
“I would have been,” I said quietly. “If I’d known.”
Madison said nothing, just watched Ethan collide with another car, both kids dissolving into giggles.
The ride ended. Ethan stumbled out, dizzy and delighted.
“That was AWESOME!” He grabbed both our hands again. “What’s next?”
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
