Free For the Girls' Sake by Janice Kay Johnson Page A

them. ” She began scooping sand. "Come on, Rose. We don’t want no ’vaders in our castle!"
    They stayed long enough to see the water fill the moat but not long enough for the girls to watch their magnificent castle crumple. By that time, the girls were getting tired anyway. When Rose whimpered after her foot slipped in the loose pebbles, Adam swung her up onto his shoulders.
    Her mood revived. "Giddap, Daddy!" Her heels drummed his chest. "You’re my horsie, Daddy."
    Shelly stopped in her tracks. "I want you to be my horsie, Mama."
    "Only if I can take you piggyback, punkin." For a fleeting second, Lynn’s eyes met Adam’s, revealing a complex of emotions he didn’t know how to read. "I’m not big enough to lift you onto my shoulders."
    Had he somehow made her feel inadequate?
    Shelly’s mouth trembled. "But I wanna ride like her. ”
    "Her daddy’s bigger than I am."
    Shelly’s expression became calculating. "Maybe he could give me a ride."
    "But he’s already carrying Rose—"
    "Tell you what," Adam interjected. "We’ll switch back and forth. Okay, Daisy?"
    "’Kay, Daddy," Rose agreed. "But I’m not Daisy."
    He bounced her a couple of times. "Nope. Guess not. You have too many petals."
    She giggled.
    Shelly climbed onto her mother’s back. "Why’d he call her Daisy? That’s not her name. Her name is Rose."
    "Her daddy is just teasing," Lynn explained. "It’s like me calling you Belly when I tickle you."
    "Oh." She booted her heels into her mom’s hips. "Giddap, horsie!"
    Halfway up the beach, Adam stopped. "Okay, Shelly Belly, your turn."
    "Daddy!" Rose whined.
    "Nope. Fair’s fair. Besides, you want to try out the other horse, don’t you?"
    Rose being Rose, she didn’t say any more when he lowered her to the sand, but she clutched his leg, the afternoon’s acquaintance not enough to let her go to this lady. Shelly, on the other hand, had already taken a handful of his shirt and was demanding, "Up! You’re my horsie, now."
    Lynn’s smile never wavered as she said, "Do you think we can beat them to the stairs, Rose?"
    But she had to hurt, looking at her own daughter none too eager to trust her. Never mind that Rose had no idea. He knew how Lynn must feel, because something in him had soared at Shelly’s eagerness to climb onto his shoulders.
    "I’ll tell you what," he said. "Let me lift you up, Rosebud."
    He set her on Lynn’s back, where she had no choice but to wrap her arms around Lynn’s neck. In the breeze both had lost tendrils of hair from their ponytails, and the two auburn heads looked so much alike, his heart squeezed. They looked up, reminding him of an advertisement for a skin-care product, maybe, their complexions both creamy with the delicate scattering of freckles, the shape of their mouths so much alike, even their eyes, although Lynn’s were green and Rose’s blue. Mother and daughter.
    For an instant, he couldn’t breathe.
    "Up!" Shelly demanded again.
    And a hint of mischief sparkled in Lynn’s eyes.
    "Race you to the steps!" she announced, and took off.
    "Hey!" Adam protested. "No fair!"
    She had a good ten-yard head start by the time he’d swung his daughter—his heart cramped again—onto his shoulders and grabbed Rose’s bucket and shovel that he’d earlier set down.
    "Go! Go!" Shelly screamed in delight.
    She was so light, as fine of bone as her mother, a wiry little bundle of energy. She twined her fingers in his hair and bounced, urging him on the whole way, her shrieks happy and uninhibited.
    Shelly wasn’t his Rosebud, but she was his, too.
    He almost caught them, but not quite. Rose was quietly pleased by the victory, Lynn’s face was alight with laughter, and Shelly giggled as he swung her onto the boardwalk.
    "Mommy’s fast, huh?"
    "Yep," he agreed. "You’ve trained her well."
    Shelly thought that was hysterically funny.
    Adam had a flash of memory. Jennifer in jeans and a white T-shirt, lying back on their bed with her arms flung above her head,