Make a Wish (Spark House #3)(7)

A happy nine-year-old who doesn’t remember me is a lot easier to handle than the father I almost kissed. Peyton turns her excited smile on me. “Are you our fairy godmother?”

I return her grin with a genuine one of my own. “I am! You can’t have a princess party without fairies and godmothers.”

“Peyton, this is Harley. She used to be your nanny when you were a baby,” Gavin says, drawing her attention to me.

Peyton blinks a few times and cocks her head, eyes narrowing as she takes me and Ella in. She pulls one corner of her lip between her teeth, and after a few seconds her eyes light up and she turns to her dad. “Oh! Is she the lady in my baby photo albums?”

He smiles and nods. “That’s right.”

Peyton turns back to me. “Daddy said you were the angel who was sent to help us when Mommy had to go to heaven.”

My heart seizes in my chest and the lump in my throat feels impossible to swallow past. “Well, that’s a very nice thing for your dad to say.” And not entirely accurate considering how things ended.

“Is this the new baby you’re taking care of? Did her mom go to heaven too?”

I open my mouth to answer, although I’m not sure it’s going to come out as more than a croak, when a very telling, very rumbly sound comes from the baby in my arms. Ella’s eyes are round with surprise, as if the noise that came out of her back end surprised her as much as the rest of us.

Peyton giggles and Gavin chuckles. Ella grins and claps her hands and then the smell hits us both. Her nose wrinkles at the same time as mine.

London, the super mom that she is, comes rushing across the field. The timing couldn’t be more perfect.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean for that to take as long as it did, but you know what happens, I get chatty and the next thing I know it’s been an hour.” Her face morphs into something like surprised disgust and she suppresses a gag. “Oh Ella, what has your dad been feeding you?” She glances from me to Gavin and Peyton, who have backed up several steps, likely to escape the green fog that is currently making it very difficult to breathe. “My apologies. I’m just here to collect my stink bomb.” She blinks a few times, her brow furrowed as she takes in Gavin. She met him in passing a number of times, but I don’t expect her to be able to place him after all these years.

Her gaze darts from me to Gavin and back again as she reaches for Ella. Which is the exact moment I realize that Ella’s diaper was unable to manage its job and I’m now wearing its contents.

“If you can let Lynn know I’ll be right back to get the party started, I just need to change out of this,” I say to Gavin as I keep Ella on my hip to conceal the problem.

“I can take care of it.” London tries to take her from me again.

“It’s not contained,” I mutter.

“Of course I can do that,” Gavin replies.

“There are refreshments and food in the adult tent. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Sure. Okay.”

I rush toward the hotel, a now-fussy Ella bumping on my hip.

“Do you want me to stay behind and deal with the party or with Ella?” London calls after me.

“You can come with me!” I shout over my shoulder.

She catches up to me. “Are you sure I shouldn’t stay behind?”

“They’ll be fine for a couple of minutes. I might need to change. What the hell did you feed Ella this morning?”

“I think Jackson gave her broccoli last night.”

“She smells like rotten eggs.”

It isn’t until we’re in the office that I can assess the damage to my fairy outfit. There’s no salvaging it. It needs to be washed, probably several times before it’s wearable again. I have to change, and my only option is one of the princess dresses that’s from the eighties, with huge poofy sleeves that are nearly as big as my head. I wrangle my way into it as London finishes up changing Ella’s diaper.

“Who was that man you were talking to? He looked familiar.”

“That’s because he is. That’s Gavin Rhodes. I used to nanny for his daughter, Peyton.”

Recognition dawns, and her expression shifts from shock to disquiet. She moves behind me to tie the giant bow at the back of my dress. “Wait. What? Why is he here?”

“For the party.” I scratch my left arm, then my right. “I gotta get back out there.”

She grabs both of my hands and stretches them out. “Are you having a reaction? These look like hives.”

I glance down at my arms and notice that what I originally thought were bugs bites are indeed forming into welts that now cover my forearms and are working their way up my biceps.

“Sugar beets! I need an antihistamine.”

For a handful of months after Gavin left, I would spontaneously break out into hives. Often when I thought about what almost transpired in his kitchen.

London puts Ella in her playpen and rushes to the bathroom. I give Ella a kiss and promise I’ll be back soon as London returns with the bottle of antihistamines. She shakes one into my palm, and I toss it in my mouth, swallowing it without water. Which is a terrible idea, because it gets stuck in my dry throat. She hands me a glass of water, and I chug it on the way back through the hotel foyer.

“Are you going to be okay out there?” London asks, voice laced with concern.