Day 3 of @fyeahghosttrick's Ghost Swap and I'm filling prompt A-32 from @ihavenohotcocoa, which also, neatly, fills B-24, which was anonymously submitted! This one's just a short ficlet, but I enjoyed the thought of it very much.
Prompt(s): Alma, Jowd, and Kamila going to an amusement park / Jowd family day out, just pure fluff
“Papa!” Kamila bolted toward him, scrambling on her short legs to his side and throwing her arms around his waist. “You’re finally here! How was work? Did you solve any cases? Are you going to take me on the Ferris wheel?”
Jowd picked her up and swung her around, a little gingerly to avoid jostling his twinging knee. “Fine, yes, and I think I can manage that,” he said, matching as much of her energy as he could muster, and put her back down so he could give his beaming wife a kiss.
“Oh! You solved a case, did you?” Alma said, and tweaked his beard with saucy irreverence. “I’m almost certain Cabanela called me earlier to tell me that he solved the case and don’t let you get away with saying otherwise…”
“Ha! Sorry about that,” he said with the big, insincere grin he’d long since mastered. “I just…loosened it up for him, then.”
“Ah! I see,” Alma said, and smiled her gentle smile at him. She always did see, too. It was one of the reasons he’d married her, so just because he could, he kissed her again until her eyes fluttered closed.
“Mama!!” Kamila said after a moment, tugging on Alma’s shorts until they both looked down at her. “I want to ride the roller coaster. That new really tall one! Let’s go already!”
“Oh, no, I suppose she is tall enough this year,” Alma said with some dismay, and looked at Jowd’s leg with misgiving. “And you probably can’t…?”
“Probably not. Sorry,” he said, and laughed again at her resigned face. “Don’t worry, I’ll hold the bags and take pictures.”
“Oh, that’s so kind of you,” she returned, rolling her eyes, but with a smile. “Let’s get to it then, before I lose my nerve… but then you’re winning me whatever I want on the fairway.”
“As long as it’s not a shooting game,” he said with a wink and a wince when she elbowed him. “It would be an unfair advantage.”
That wasn’t really the reason. She knew it and so did he, but they both chose to let it go. Alma grabbed his hand instead and tugged him gently along.
“Sorry Cabanela couldn’t make it today?” she asked him after a moment, and he realized he’d been far away in another time, yet again.
“Sorry I left him with all the post-case paperwork? Of course I am,” he returned, sarcasm thick in his voice. “He’ll find his way to wherever we end up for dinner, anyway.”
She giggled and wound her arm through his. “Fair enough. Then let’s have all the fun we can so we can tease him later.”
He winked at her, and they followed Kamila into the tumultuous crowd, chasing the peaceful day they’d planned without letting any more time pass them by.
