“You have a point. Fine.” I tapped my cheek. “I’ll just take my kiss.”
“Ben…” she groaned. “Garrett’s outside. I need to go.”
I gave my cheek another tap. “Then hurry up.”
She sighed and leaned in, pressing her warm lips right where I wanted them. Well, not exactly where I wanted them, but where I’d asked. Then she jumped out of my grasp.
“Now that you extorted a kiss from me, I really do have to go.” She slung her backpack over her shoulder and stuffed her feet in her shoes. “Call me if you need me.”
I disentangled myself from Katty and crossed the living room to open the door for her. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine. Do lots of learning, all right?”
She patted my shoulder. “I appreciate you doing this.”
“I appreciate you trusting me to handle things. I’m almost certain I can do it.”
That earned me a laugh. “I know you can. Have fun.”
I locked the door behind her, then went to the window to check out this Garrett clown. She’d told me he was her classmate, and before I entered the picture, Wednesday nights were reserved for her study group with him and two other people. Now that we were into the swing of this co-parenting thing, she was trying to get back to her routine.
Fine. Reasonable. Responsible.
Except when Garrett stepped out of his shiny black SUV, looking like he belonged on the cover of the yacht magazines Nate got in the mail, I didn’t feel exactly reasonable.
Tall, clean-cut, he wore a quarter zip and perfectly pressed chinos. His hair flopped artfully across his forehead, and I could see his blindingly white teeth from the second floor.
He went around to open the passenger door for Mazzy, and she laughed at something he said.
Laughed.
My eye started to twitch.
There was no reason I couldn’t be the one to help her study. I knew a few laws. I could use a search engine. Probably better than Garrett.
Definitely better.
My Google skills were elite.
Leaning my forehead against the glass, I muttered, “Good luck with yourstudy group, Garrett. Hope you choke on your flash cards.”
“What did you say?” Katty asked.
“Um…” I turned away from the window and smiled at my daughter. “Nothing. I’m just talking to myself.”
She tilted her head. “You’re weird sometimes. I like it.”
“Appreciate it, sweetheart.” I flopped down on the couch beside her, and she tucked herself back against me. “I like everything about you.”
“That’s nice.” She leaned her head on me. “I like tonight.”
“I do too.”
Except for Garrett. I did not like Garrett.
A week later, Garrett came back, doing the same song and dance. He opened the door for Mazzy like a gentleman and watched her ass as she climbed in like the letch he truly was. And she lapped that shit up, giving him a great big smile, like it was so difficult to open and close a car door.
Knowing Garrett, it probably was.
Not that I knew him. But I could tell.
