“Goodnight, Abby. I hope I hear from you soon.”
“You will,” I say softly. After we end our call, I grab a pillow from beside me on the couch and muffle my scream of excitement in it.
Reid just asked me out.
Now I just have to get my daughter on board…
Chapter four
Reid
“Wait. You’re telling us…that the woman you were mooning about last week over beers, the woman you spent hours flirting with, but never sealed the deal with…that woman, is the mother of a student? Oh, dude, you are so fucked.”
I swear, if we weren’t in the middle of a run in the freezing cold, I would smack that smug look off of Finn’s face in a heartbeat. Not that he’s wrong, it just sucks having it laid out like that.
“Look man, I told you about Abby because you poured shots of tequila, not just beer. And yeah, we didn’t hook up the night we met, but we had a connection.”
“Never thought I would hear the word ‘connection’ come from your mouth when you’re talking about a woman.” Ethan slaps my back, not breaking his stride. “Our boy is growing up.”
“Fuck off, both of you.” I slow to a stop and drop my hands down to the tops of my legs. Ethan bounces in place for a minute, but Finn joins me in sucking wind. Don’t ask me why Ethan isn’t suffering, out of all three of us, he should be hurting the most. After all, he’s the one who’s so love drunk happy, half the time he misses our workouts.
“I don’t see the problem. You’re both adults, it’s not like it’s against the rules for you to date a parent, is it?”
“No, it’s not,” I’m quick to reply. The guys don’t need to know I spent almost an hour yesterday pouring over policy manuals at school before I called Abby, just to make sure it wasn’t a problem to ask her out. Not that I can say with any certainty that I wouldn’t have asked her anyway, but it sure as fuck was a relief to realize there were no rules that said I couldn’t.
“Okay, so, boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy asks girl out. Simple as that.” Finn spreads his hands out with a wide grin, as if he just solved world hunger or something.
“This coming from the man who hasn’t been in a serious relationship in years?” Ethan replies drily and we both laugh at the glower that covers Finn’s face.
“Just because you’re settled down and attached at the hip to Summer doesn’t make you the only expert.”
“Your expertise at one-night stands doesn’t exactly play into this situation, either.” I cross my arms and smirk at Finn as Ethan laughs behind me.
Finn lets out a huff. “Whatever.”
Ethan slugs him in the arm and turns back to me. “He’s got a point, dude. But we aren’t here to dissect the wino’s love life. We’re here for yours.”
“I thought we were here to run,” I mutter under my breath, but both of my nosy friends just ignore me.
“Here’s what I’m thinking. You find some reason to call her that’s related to school. Then when you’re talking, you can feel out the vibe she’s giving. If she seems totally turned off because you’re the kid’s principal, back off. If she seems open, take your chance.”
I look at Finn in surprise, because he essentially just suggested exactly what I did. “Yeah, dude, that’s what I did last night.”
Finn lets out an excited whoop, and even Ethan looks pleased. “And? Don’t leave us hanging.”
I roll my eyes at his ridiculously over the top reaction. “She wants to talk to her daughter, make sure she won’t feel weird about it. But if that’s all good, she agreed to go out with me.”
Ethan’s expression turns serious. “Are you sure you know what you’re getting into if you go out with her? You’re ready to be a part of her daughter’s life like that?”
I hold up my hands. “Hey, don’t move so fast on me, Mayor Monroe. Her kid’s awesome, but I’m not trying to be her dad. I just want to date her mom.”
“Yeah, but the two things kinda go together, don’t they?”
I pause and think about that. I’m not an idiot, obviously the second I realized Layla was Abby’s daughter I understood that they’re a package deal. And even if I’ve never thought about having kids myself before, it’s not like I don’t enjoy their company. I’m an elementary school principal, for Christ’s sake. Still, being involved in a child’s life in a personal way is different from seeing them at school.
Maybe Abby and Layla aren’t the only ones with some thinking to do.
When I see Layla at school the next day, she waves at me happily from the hallway. I don’t get the sense that her mom has spoken to her at all. I do my best not to look at her or treat her any differently, but over the next few days I find myself gravitating toward her anyway. She’s a cool kid, with a unique spin on life, one of those goofy, upbeat attitudes, and enough confidence she could run the world someday.
