“I… um…” Stammering, I can’t seem to answer.
“You know what? It’s okay. I have a meeting with… Emma tonight.” He subtly shakes his head.
He’s obviously lying to save me from rejecting him. The worst part is, I don’t want to reject him. I want to say yes. I want wine and baked goods with this man after my daughter goes to bed. But that scares the shit out of me. To want something with another man opens myself up to too much hurt.
“Oh, okay. Um… maybe another night?” I offer.
“Yeah, you just let me know.” He hands the notebook to me, standing to leave. “You can text me, I think you have my number?”
Shit.I thought I could get away with ignoring his text message. I didn’t mean to. I read it and wanted to respond, but then Lily got hurt and it was time for bed, and before I knew it, three days had passed. I didn’t want to randomly respond three days later. What was I supposed to say?
Hey, really sorry. I’m a big mess, so is my life and chaos is my best friend but yeah, totally. Let’s hang out and invite you into this.
No. It was safer to ignore it. Until now.
“Yeah, I do. I’ll text you.” I smile weakly, watching him nod and walk out.
Speaking of chaos, I should probably go find my little tornado. Who knows where she wandered off to in the time since I left.
Walking toward the piglet’s pen, I hear giggling.
“Coopa, that’s not what a piggie says!”
“What? Pigs saymoooo.”Cooper makes his best cow noises.
I smile, watching them from a distance. Listening to Lily’s giggles is my favorite sound on Earth.
“Nooooo, they sayoint, oint!”She corrects him.
“I don’t think either of you is correct.” I walk toward them out of the shadows. “A pig saysneighhhh”
“Oh no, Mommy. You so siwwy.” She falls on the ground laughing harder at the two of us, making us both laugh. “Mommy can Coopa eat dinnew wiff us?”
I find myself pausing once again. But one look at my daughter’s smile and I know what I need to do. “If Cooper would like to join us he’s more than welcome. But we do eat early so we can hit the bath and bed by seven.” I eye him.
“Early dinner is my favorite. What can I bring?”
“Not a thing. Lily has requested breakfast for dinner so I already have everything, I just hope you like pancakes and bacon.” His eyes haven’t left mine, and for a moment I almost forget we aren’t alone.
“I wuv bacon!” Lily tugs on his arms, breaking the moment.
“What a coincidence. Bacon is my favorite.” He scoops her up in his arms and tickles her belly before putting her down. “I do need to get back to talk to Liam quickly, but what time should I head back?”
“How about five o’clock?”
“You got it. I will see you then. I’ll swipe something from Violet’s secret stash too.”
I sigh, my waist doesn’t love the accessibility to the best damn baked goods I’ve ever tasted. “Lily would love that. What’s a little sugar on sugar before bed?”
He leans into me, whispering into the shell of my ear. “I’ll make sure I run her ragged after, you can have a little break while we play and she gets tired out.”
My knees could practically go weak at the promise of a break ending with a tired kid. And if I’m not lying to myself, the company of an attractive man is more enticing than any of that.
I only nod before he says goodbye and leaves me standing outside the piglet pen with one very excited little girl.
I’ve put off finding Liam long enough. I need to leave soon to walk over to Aubrey’s for dinner, and now the time is here. After promising myself I’d tell Liam that I need to focus on the blog and what I’m building with Tommy, I chickened out. It’s harder than I thought to tell your brother that you don’t love the inn as much as he does.
More so when he’s about to tell you that you need to move out. All of that combined means that I’ve spent my afternoon avoiding him and Emma like the plague.
