Second Chance Romance (Southern Nights) Completed

Chapter 25

“Second Chance Romance”

2012 Copyright All Rights Reserved

Chapter 25

“Austin, look over there… ponies.”  Libby tilted her head and shaded her eyes with her small hand so that she could look up at his face.  Her eyes grew wide and her rosy red, cherub cheeks flushed with barely contained excitement that struck him in the center of his chest.

“I see them.” He glanced towards the arena that held several miniature sized ponies.  He could feel Jade’s presence behind him and couldn’t help but to share in Libby’s enjoyment.  It had been a long time since he had been to the county fair.   And not that he was here, with the woman he loved and the daughter he cherished, he could barely contain himself.  “Do you want to ride?”

Libby clapped her hands together and eagerly nodded.  “Please, can I?”

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

Austin looked over his shoulder back at Jade. “It’s safe,” he assured her and smiled.  He didn’t miss the way that Jade worried her bottom lip with her teeth.  It was a familiar gesture, one that he remembered from when they were younger and it took everything he had in him to not step forward and kiss that tortured lip into submission.  To stop himself, he took a step back. 

“See,” he pointed back at the arena, “each pony is being led around by an adult.   Those ponies are small and from what I have seen they are used to impatient children.  Plus, I’ll be right there by the fence watching every move that she makes. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

Jade glanced towards the arena and still looked unsure.  “I don’t know…”

“It’ll be fine,” he promised her.  “I would never let anything happen to her and you know that, don’t you?”

She glanced down at Libby who was literally bouncing back from one foot to the other and staring longingly at the ponies.  Despite her own reservations she hated to tell the little girl no.  Considering everything that she has been through over the last week, she deserved to have some fun today.  The problem was she couldn’t shake this nagging feeling that something might go wrong.  Call it mother’s intuition or whatever, there was a knot in her stomach and no matter how many times she told herself that it would be okay, she couldn’t get it to loosen up.   

“Hey,” Austin lightly touched her arm, “why don’t I take her to the pony ride and you go over to the snack bar and get us some cokes and a funnel cake.  You used to love funnel cakes. Every fall that we came here as kids you always had to get a funnel cake.  It was a must have for you.”

“Really?”  And the second that she asked him, her mouth began to water.  She wasn’t sure if it was from her memory or just because he pointed out that she used to like funnel cakes, either way, she wanted one now.

“Really,” he confirmed and dug his hand into his back pocket.  Pulling out his wallet, Austin handed her a twenty dollar bill.  “Go on,” he turned her towards the snack bar and gave her a little push, “we’ll be right here.  After the ride, we’ll meet you over at the picnic tables over there.”  He waved his hand over to a shaded area that had been quartered off for eating.

Jade held the twenty dollar bill in her hand and her gaze flitted from Libby to Austin.  “Are you sure?” she asked him, wishing that her gut wouldn’t feel so twisted and tight.

He grabbed Libby’s hand.  “I’m sure,” he told her.  “I will watch her.  Trust me.”

Trust me…  Two words.  Two words that she wasn’t sure what to do with.  Could she trust him?    Based on the lone memory she retained and what he had told her about their past the day before, she wasn’t really sure that she could.  It sounded like she had given him that trust once before and he had broken it fairly easily without much thought.