A minute later, I heard it. The soft, rhythmic crunch of wheels on the gravel path. Crunch… pause… crunch… pause. A cold dread washed over me. Please, no. Please just keep going.

The sound stopped. Right in front of me.

I looked up. She was staring at me with wide, serious blue eyes. Her knuckles were white on the rims of her wheels.

“Sir?” she whispered.

My heart hammered. “Yeah?”

She took a shaky breath and the words tumbled out, so quiet I almost missed them. “Sir, could you pretend to be my daddy? Just for one day?”

The world stopped. The screaming kids, the bubbles, the sun—it all vanished. My blood ran cold. This is a nightmare. This is a setup. I looked around wildly. Where are her parents? Is this a prank? Am I on camera? I’m a single man in a park. This is how lives are ruined.