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Chris shrugged. “I don’t know, Tara. But what I do know is that my ex, Lila’s mother, barely calls or even remembers she has a kid, so I need to be careful. I can’t afford for her to get so close to another woman who will just walk away.”
Shoot. He had an excellent point, and the last thing I wanted was to hurt Lila. “Right. Okay. Yeah.” None of those words meant anything, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was looking for an out. “We shouldn’t do this.” I could make this easy on Chris. He was a single dad with a lot on his plate, I could take the hit for refusing to go out with him.
He flashed a playful smile I’d never seen. “Afraid you’re going to fall for me?”
I tossed my head back and laughed, a little more than I needed to, but I had to make sure he got the point.
“Hardly. But I’m out of practice and I don’t want my embarrassing mishaps to end up in one of your books.”
Something flashed in his eyes, but it was gone before I could get a read on it. “I’ve already written an entire scene based on your conversation with the blond jerk. I changed the places around, of course.”
“Of course,” I said, my tone thick with sarcasm.
“What does that mean?” My curiosity was piqued which was just what he wanted, I suspected.
Chris shrugged. “I guess you’ll just have to show up for the date to find out.”
Damn him for preying on my need to solve the riddle that was…him. “Fine.”
He flashed a triumphant, satisfied smile that made me feel as if I’d been swindled. “Excellent.”
Yep, definitely swindled.
Chris
“What are you waiting for, Daddy? Officer Beechum is waiting for you!”
Lila jumped up and down on her tiptoes, practically bursting with excitement at the thought of me going out with her favorite female in all of Pilgrim, maybe the world.
“I’m waiting for Oliver to show up. If that ever happens.” He was already ten minutes late, and I knew he was just screwing with me, trying to make me nervous for my date with Tara.
Well the joke was on him, because I was already nervous. Not because of Tara, well not really, but because our backup date was the best date I’d been on since my divorce. Maybe even ever.
“He’ll be here Daddy.”
A few minutes later Oliver stood on the porch, knocking with a chagrined look on his face. “Sorry I’m late. I got…caught up.” Which meant he and Eva had gotten carried away.
“It’s all right, I told you to be here thirty minutes earlier than necessary so you’re ten minutes early.” I flashed my own wicked smile and pushed the door open. “I was starting to think I should’ve had you show up an hour earlier.”
“Dick,” he muttered under his breath as he entered. “Hey Lila, how’s it going?”
“Good, Uncle Oliver. You’re gonna make Daddy late.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I’m sure Tara will forgive him if he flashes that perfect smile of his.” Lila giggled when he fluttered his eyelashes and smiled wide. “Don’t you agree?”
“Uh-huh!”
“All right Chris, you can get outta here. Lila and I will be fine while you go make the pretty police officer smile.”
She did have a great smile and I couldn’t wait to see it again, and be the reason for it. The thought of that put a smile on my face.
“Okay, I’m gone. Call if you run into an emergency or any situation you can’t handle.”
Oliver shook his head. “I’m under strict orders to call Eva, Sophie and Xander, in that order, in case of an emergency. I’ll call you if I need to. Promise.”
I knew that was as good as I would get from him. “Good enough.”
“Great. Now go and have some fun.”
“Yeah, Daddy, have fun.” Lila ran to me and wrapped her arms around me, squeezing tight.
I wanted to tell Oliver that it wasn’t about fun, this was strictly about research, but Lila was so excited that I couldn’t bring myself to dampen it, at least not tonight. “I’ll do my best to have a good time. Good night.”
Oliver walked me to where my car was parked in the driveway. “Seriously, try to at least have some fun, all right?”
“This is about research Oliver, not fun.”
He barked out a laugh. “Seriously? A hot chick with killer curves who carries a gun said yes to a date with you, and that’s your response? If you can’t have fun with that, there’s no hope for you my friend.” Oliver gave me a friendly clap on the back and shook his head as if he pitied me.
“Aren’t you engaged?”
He shrugged. “I am, but I ain’t dead. Or blind. Besides, Eva’s got it in her head that you two are some kind of super match, whatever that means.”
