Pretty Baby novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Park
Stefan Hartwell had never once been to the playground in Lincoln Park, and it showed.
He stood at the edge of the sand in a charcoal overcoat and good leather shoes.
He held a thermos.
"Daddy, you have to take your shoes off," Mabel said.
"I do not."
"It's sand. You'll get it in them."
"That is the argument against it."
She looked at me, and I shrugged.
"He's afraid of the sand," I said.
"I am not afraid of the sand."
"Then prove it."
He looked at the sand for a long moment, and then he sat down on the bench and took off his shoes and his socks.
He rolled his trousers to the knee.
A woman with a stroller stopped dead on the path to look at him.
"Don't," he said, to nobody.
Mabel took us both by the hand and towed us to the swings.
"Push," she ordered him. "Not like that. Higher."
"Higher is dangerous."
"Higher is the point."
He pushed her higher.
Her braid flew straight out behind her, and she shrieked at the sky with her head thrown back.
I saw the mark behind her ear flash in the sun.
Stefan's face, at the bottom of each swing, had gone entirely soft.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Pretty Baby are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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