I’d had to be careful not to flip out with jealousy in front of Carrie. She’d dated and had boyfriends before. Patrick, Aaron, Frank, and a couple of others. But none had ever been around as long as Jon. He was the head football coach at Indigo Falls High where Carrie taught history. Sadie and Melinda were also on the faculty, and the three of them, plus Blair, were as close as ever. Carrie didn’t have to work; she had plenty of money. But she’d finished her master’s and was excited to teach now that Theo was in school. This was her first full year as a teacher, and she loved it.
Jon stared me down behind Carrie’s back. I gave him a big smile. “Hey, Joe.”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s Jon.”
“That’s right. Sorry. It’s just such a common name I can never remember which it is. I get it mixed up with the other basic ‘J’ names. You know, Jeff, Joe, Jason, Josh, Jeremy… you get the drift.”
Carrie was too wrapped up in Theo to get mad at me for calling her boyfriend’s name common and basic.
“Yeah, whatever, man. At least I don’t have a rich douche name like Thatcher.”
Theo gasped. “My name is Thatcher, too,” he said, his lower lip trembling.
The color drained from Jon’s face. I gave him a self-satisfied smile.
Carrie turned and glared at Jon. “That’s Theo’s middle name, Jon,” she said in an offended voice.
“Jeez. I’m sorry, buddy. I didn’t know.” He looked upset to have caused my child any pain.
“Mommy, what’s a douche?” Theo asked.
Carrie and I both stared at Jon.
“Um… it’s a very bad word to call someone. You should never say it,” Jon said sheepishly.
Theo frowned. “But that’s what you called my daddy.”
“You know, I think I’m going to head out. I’ll see you tomorrow, Care Bear.” I tried not to gag at the nickname as he bent to kiss her cheek. “Sorry,” he whispered in her ear.
“See you at school,” she said. She had a look on her face that made him very aware he had some making up to do.
“Can Daddy stay for dinner?” Theo asked. Carrie set him down, and he started running around the yard trying to catch falling leaves before they hit the ground.
“Of course, if he has time.”
Hell, yeah, I had time. “Sure,” I said. Did I have to drive back to Atlanta and work on an important presentation for tomorrow morning? Yes. Yes, I did. But I didn’t care. Time with Carrie and my son was precious, and I wanted to soak up every bit of it.
“He’s staying for dinner?” Jon had one foot in his massive truck.
Carrie’s forehead furrowed. “Is that a problem?”
Jon grinned, but it looked more like a grimace. “No. Of course not.” He waved, got in his truck, and pulled out. Hecaught my eye and gave me what was supposed to be a threatening stare when Carrie turned away. I waved cheerily.
“Dinner sounds perfect, actually,” I said after he’d driven off.
“Oh, yeah?” she said absentmindedly as she watched Theo running around.
I stared at her for a minute, loving the way the sun brought out all the different colors of blonde in her hair. “Yeah. I’ve been planning something for a while now and wanted to run it by you.”
She glanced up at me, recognizing the seriousness in my voice. “Is everything okay?”
“It will be.” I stood just a little too close to her on purpose. There had been several times over the years that we’d almost kissed, and I was hoping this might turn into something like that. Her eyes dropped to my mouth, but then quickly circled back to Theo when he screamed and started running from a bee.
“He doesn’t want to hurt you,” she called for the thousandth time, and I couldn’t help thinking about how Theo would take this in the future. I could just picture him being a huge, tough teenager and not believing that he used to freak out when he sawanyflying thing, including moths and butterflies.
I chuckled under my breath as Carrie comforted him.
“Come on in,” she said over her shoulder as she held his hand and walked up the stairs.
