Where to Find Love (MXM) ✔

Chapter 50

A/N: When scones is mentioned in this chapter, it's not British scones.  It's what we always called scones whenever we got them from the county/state fairs and carnivals.  I've included a picture, but it's fry bread with honey butter.

Adam Graham

"There," Isabelle cried out happily and tugged on her mom's hand. Tatyana let her pull her to the stand with the cotton candy leaving the rest of us scrambling after them. I had told Tatyana ahead of time not to leave our sides but this was the third time this evening she had let Isabelle pull her to something she was excited about.

I understood. It was New Year's Eve and all of this was new to Isabelle. She had never been to a celebration like this. The city threw a big celebration downtown with food stands set up and games and an area for dancing. There were even going to be fireworks at midnight, but I doubted - hoped - that we wouldn't be here that long.

"Can I have some, mommy?" Isabelle asked when we got to the stand.

"Okay," Tatyana said, "but this is the only time tonight you are getting the cotton candy so don't ask again."

"Okay," Isabelle said. Tatyana had already bought her nachos and a scone with a huge dollop of honey butter.

Isabelle already had too much sugar, but I wasn't her parent so I remained quiet. The little girl bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. A clear sign of the sugar rush she already was on. Tatyana bought the cotton candy and handed it to Isabelle. Isabelle immediately took a large bite of the pink fluff. "Mmm," she said brightly and took another bite.

We had been here long enough that the sky was dark. I kept hoping Isabelle would get tired and we could just leave. An unsettling feeling had rested in my gut ever since Mr. Marcello gave Tatyana permission to bring Isabelle here. Now that we were here, my trepidation grew. I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. I was hyper aware and so were Marino and Romano but Myers seemed relaxed. That unsettled me even more.

"There," Isabelle pointed to one of those carnival games where you have to participate and then get a cheap prize if you win. This one was throwing a baseball at those old fashioned milk bottles.

"I think you're a little young to participate in that game," Tatyana said. "Maybe something else."

"No," Isabelle pouted with pink sugar all around her mouth. She let go of her mom's hand and pointed to me. "He is going to play and win me a stuffed elephant." Purple or Pink small stuffed elephants were one of the prizes.

Tatyana didn't even look at me before she said, "Alright."

I sighed as I resigned myself to the inevitable. When we got to the stand, Tatyana paid and I was given three baseballs. All three baseballs hit their targets. It won us the larger prize, but Isabelle insisted on the smaller purple elephant.

We continued to walk among the throngs of people. Isabelle now had cotton candy in one hand and her purple elephant in the other. She stopped moving so suddenly that Romano almost tripped over her.

"Policeman," she said and pointed to where a pair of police officers walked along the sidewalk.

My heart jumped and I had to fight down a smile when I saw Mike. He saw us and smiled when he saw Isabelle vigorously waving at him.

"Hello," he said as he and the other officer approached. He crouched so he was eye level with Isabelle. "How are you tonight?" he asked.

"Good," Isabelle beamed. "I got cotton candy." She held it out for him to see. "And an elephant." She held the elephant out with her other hand.