Page 70 of Counting the Days
She ignored hisLeave me alonevibes and bounced across the castle toward him. Her breasts immediately flew out of her dress, and she had to stuff them back into her bra while shecontinued bouncing. One hand held up the top of her dress while the other hand held down the bottom. She was in the middle of the castle now; even if she wanted to stop bouncing, there were too many children bouncing near her. Rather than bouncing herself, she wasbeing bounced,and she hated it.
She took deep breaths, trying not to spew veggie burger all over the innocent crowd. She could not fathom what had made her think this was a good idea. How was she going to bond with Kai in this chaos? And why would Kai want to associate with this middle-aged stranger who kept flashing her breasts at children?
“Hey, Kai, how high can you jump?!”
Rhea’s adrenaline had spiked; the lack of control over her body was making her lose control over her mind. Kai pretended not to hear her. Every time she tried to bounce closer to him, someone bounced her farther away. She knew she needed to leave the poor kid alone, but she couldn’t slink out of the bounce house this early. She felt like she had been in there for several years, but, in reality, it had probably not yet been a full minute.
She tried to relax and let the crowd bounce her closer to a wall. Ideally, she would cling to the wall and let a few more minutes pass before she crawled out of the castle. She would put on a big smile and make it seem like she’d had a great time with Kai. She doubted Kai would out her; he seemed like too much of a well-trained people pleaser.
She tried to spring herself toward a wall, but a larger child smashed into her and she fell to the ground. She sheltered her face from all the socked feet and curled into the fetal position. Huddled in a ball, her body was jounced around the castle like popcorn until finally, she slammed into a wall. She dug her fingernails into the netting and held on for dear life.
From her low vantage point, she saw Kai slip out the exit.He’d blown her cover; everyone would know there had been no bonding. Rhea admitted defeat and was crawling toward solid ground when a slight sniffle came to her rescue. She barely heard it over the crowd. She stayed low and spotted a very young girl curled up and softly crying;jackpot. Rhea crawled over to the girl while keeping one hand on the netting.
“Are you okay?” Rhea asked.
“I hurt my mouth.”
The little girl took in Rhea’s adultness and ability to aid her plight and started wailing.
“Oh no, lemme see….”
The girl stuck out her tongue. There was blood in her mouth.
“Oh, yeah, I see that, do you wanna get outta here?”
The girl nodded, and Rhea scooped her up. Rhea shakily stood and kept one hand on the netting while she clutched the girl and bounced toward the exit. She crawled out with the girl clinging to her neck and slid down the inflatable slide.
As if he had been training for this his entire life, Danny sprinted toward Rhea and ever so subtly lifted the front of her low-cut dress.
“Was my nipple out?”
“…Don’t worry, no one saw.”
Rhea did a quick scan of the crowd and landed on Wild Eyes, who winked. Feeling ignored, the little girl started crying even harder.
“What happened, Iris?” Danny asked.
“I hurt my mouth.”
“I think she bit her tongue. Do you wanna put some ice on it?” Rhea asked.
“Mmhmm,” Iris whimpered through sobs.
Danny led the way, and Rhea carried Iris into the house.Danny got ice out of his gorgeous integrated freezer. He held the ice up to Iris’s mouth, but she refused to open it.
“Do you wanna hold the ice yourself?” Danny asked.
“I want her to do it,” Iris said.
Rhea would have hugged Iris if she weren’t already doing that.
“Okay, Rhea can do it.”
Rhea held the ice cube, and Iris stuck out her tongue.
“I think you made a fan,” Danny said.
“Niece?” Rhea asked hopefully.
