Together With You Read Free Page A

make her point, she raised Lance and gave an enthusiastic growl. “ Grrr . I’m Lance the Lion. Nice to meet you, Dr. Tremaine.”

2
    R yan owed this woman a huge debt of gratitude, but the talking lion irritated him. So did the sparkle in her big brown eyes. Something about the situation seemed to amuse her, or maybe she was one of those annoying women who made lemonade out of life’s lemons by adding too much sugar. After the trauma of the past ten minutes, her playfulness grated like fingernails on a chalkboard. So did her long blond hair and the red polo shirt sporting the store logo of a toothy lion. He guessed her to be in her midtwenties—too old to be working in the mall with teenagers, perhaps a sign she’d failed Adulthood 101. All that aside, he was bone-deep grateful that she had found Penny.
    With his throat still tight, he clipped his words in an effort to appear steadier than he was. “Thank you for finding my daughter.”
    The woman studied him for a moment, her gaze now serious. “I’m glad I could help. I’m Carly Mason, the assistant manager. If you have a minute, I’d like to tell you about how I found her. Frankly, I’m a little worried.”
    Here we go again. Another ignorant do-gooder with advice about a situation she doesn’t understand. On the outside, Pennyseemed like an ordinary child. She was classified as having Fetal Alcohol Effects, not full-blown Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, so her disabilities didn’t always show, even to someone with a trained eye. A psychologist, Miss Monica, was helping her cope with both the FASD and her mother’s passing, and Ryan valued that woman’s training. He didn’t want Carly Mason’s unschooled advice, but he did want to know what had happened. “I want to hear everything, but not in front of . . .” He indicated Penny with his chin.
    â€œOf course.”
    With the stuffed lion in hand, Carly dropped to a crouch and spoke to Penny in the lion’s gravelly voice. “I want to play with Tiffany Rabbit. Let’s go to the play pit.”
    â€œNo.” Penny’s face pinched, her lower lip trembling as her chest heaved with the opening salvo of a tantrum.
    Here we go again. If Ryan didn’t control the situation, Penny would. Using a signal he’d worked on with Miss Monica, one that would get her attention without increasing the volume level, he rested a gentle hand on her shoulder.
    â€œNo,” she cried, shaking off the touch.
    He couldn’t let Penny win this battle, but her will was as strong as his own and often stronger.
    â€œDad!”
    Ryan turned and saw Kyle racing toward the counter with Eric and Officer Lewis behind him. At the earlier call from the dispatcher, Ryan had bolted ahead of them. Penny loved Kyle. Maybe she’d go with him without a fuss. Before Ryan could ask Kyle for a favor, Officer Lewis propped his hands on his hips and grinned at the woman named Carly. “So you found Penny. I should have guessed she’d be here.”
    â€œWe’re a popular spot.” Carly set the lion on the counter, then spoke to Penny in her regular voice. “We’ve been playing with the animals, haven’t we?”
    Happily the center of attention, Penny held up the rabbit for everyone to admire. “This is Tiffany.”
    Officer Lewis gave a satisfied nod. “My job’s done except for the incident at the arcade.”
    With Penny safe, Ryan focused on Eric. The candy bars bulged in one of the deep pockets of his cargo shorts, evidence of confusion rather than a crime, but the matter needed to be addressed. Ryan glanced at Officer Lewis. “I’m sorry for what happened. We’ll go back to the arcade to apologize and pay.”
    Eric’s cheeks flushed red beneath his pale skin, the result of too much time in front of a computer screen and a vampire-like preference for the night. “I didn’t