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I almost laughed at the wistful look on her face, but it was quickly replaced a serious expression I knew well. “Thanks for dinner, Mom.” I stood and kissed both of my sisters, fist bumped their husbands, and hugged my nieces and nephew. “See you next week. Maybe.”
I went straight to The Mayflower where I knew there would be at least one set of ears to complain to over a few beers, and as luck would have it, Xander was there along with Stone and Oliver. I stopped at the bar and grabbed two pitchers, one lager and one ale, and made my way over to them.
Oliver laughed as he took in my load. “Uh oh, who pissed of Principal Rutherford?”
Xander held his hands up with a wide smile. “This time it wasn’t me. Was it?”
“No,” I growled and took the empty seat. “My own damn mother ambushed me over dessert with a TFL gift certificate.” Silence fell around the table for a long moment and then erupted in laughter, instead of the sympathetic commiseration I expected. “Why is this funny?”
Stone flashed a sympathetic smile and dropped a hand on my shoulder. “Liam isn’t here, know why?” I shook my head and made a mental note to catch up with the new dad. “Because he’s on diaper duty and the fool couldn’t be happier about it. Shitty diapers and he’s smiling like a fool. Look!” Stone showed a photo I never needed to see again. Ever in my life.
“He’s married, of course he’s happy about it.”
Xander barked out a laugh and drained half his glass. “Oliver is planning a wedding with one of the biggest fashionistas in town and look at that face, it’s glowing. It’s also disgusting, but definitely glowing.”
“Oliver didn’t sign up for TFL looking for love, and Liam didn’t sign up at all, so what’s your point?” I took a long pull from my glass, trying to tamp down my growing frustration.
“My point, genius, is that it’s funny because you’re complaining to guys who are stupidly, madly in love. Of course, they want you to join them.”
I glanced at Oliver and then Stone, who’d finally gotten the girl of his dreams, who also happened to be his best friend, and yeah they both wore wide goofy grins. The kind of smiles that men who was well-loved and regularly, wore without shame.
Stone shrugged. “Being in love is great. Regular adventurous sex is pretty damn incredible too. Plus sharing a bed with a warm woman who smells good and loves you?”
Oliver groaned. “The best damn thing ever.” He raised his glass and Stone did the same before they tapped them together.
“Ever,” Stone agreed.
“Okay, I’ll buy that, a little. But why aren’t you on my side, Xander?” He’d been single for more years than he’d ever been in a relationship, and that was a running tally, because he didn’t stay with any one woman longer than a few months.
“I am,” he said easily and shrugged. “But it’s your mama, Ben. Do it to make her happy or don’t.”
“You can always do like I did, and screw it up,” Oliver offered with a laugh.
That was an option, but I couldn’t do that. “I don’t want to be deliberately mean to women who genuinely want to find a partner.”
Stone sat back and stared at me for a long moment. “No offense Ben, but you’re practically the town Dad, why don’t you want to settle down and start a family?”
“I do, but in my own time.”
“You’re so damn picky, maybe Time for Love is exactly what you need.” Xander shook his head.
“Picky? Me?” They must have me confused with someone else. “I’m not picky, just discerning.”
Another round of laughter, this time from the whole table. “What about sweet little Cassie? What was wrong with her,” Xander asked, his brows arched in question.
“Nothing. She was a perfectly nice woman, but it’s just not professional to date employees.” I’d felt like a complete ass when Joss thought I was asking her out after Friday’s football game. Hell, I wanted to ask her out, more than anything. She’d intrigued me from the moment she arrived in Pilgrim, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t right. “That limits my options a lot, and you know Eva and Sophie will only try to talk me out of it.” And those women were convincing when they set their minds to a goal.
Xander rocked back in his chair, testing the limits by refilling his beer as he did so. “I know of at least three different couples who work at the high school, including the Dean of Students and the newly single English Lit teacher.”
“I didn’t say it was against the rules, I said it was a bad idea, especially for the principal.” I’d thought about it long and hard when I first took the job as principal.
