“Alison, relax. Breathe. She’s four. Nobody minds.”
“Gotcha, wild thing.”
He balanced Mia against his hip and turned her toward the pool lights. I watched my daughter’s entire body relax against him the way it once had against Mike, and I felt something complicated.
Then Mia suddenly went completely still.
Her eyes fixed on the side of Harold’s head, and her little hand rose, hovering near his ear as if she were reaching toward something only she could see.
I felt something complicated.
“Mommy, Daddy’s there.”
I froze. A waiter walking behind us slowed down.
All the color drained from Harold’s face in one long pull, like a shade being lowered.
He placed Mia on the tiles too quickly. She stumbled half a step, caught herself, and pointed directly at him.
“Mommy, but Daddy’s there. Look! You need to save him!”
Heads turned. A man near the bar stopped halfway through a sentence.
