I hadn’t had sex since before my mom died. It was obviously getting to me, because relatively close-range eye contact with Agent Duran was making me feel that in a past life we’d made love at the base of a waterfall while the spray misting our skin sparkled like diamonds in the sun.
“Ms.Turner, the mashed-potato-wrestling comedian with a day job,” he said.
“Agent Nate Duran, the federal agent who runs an Uber service exclusively for women covered in carbs,” I said, feeling the other moms staring like I was a Bridgerton who’d captured a duke’s fancy.
“The twins have been telling everyone they have a brand-new little sister?” He raised an eyebrow.
“We got a dog,” I said. “At least temporarily. They named her Little Sister. I think so I’ll feel like a monster if I try to find her a new forever home. Well, him. It’s definitely a boy dog.”
He laughed. “Sounds like they know how to get what they want.” He glanced back at the twins. Phoebe was chewing a second orange slice, while Alice hung on to the Beautiful Giant’s shirttail. “My niece needs to watch out.”
“The Beautiful Giant is your niece?” I said. I was hot for him. His sister was a blast. My kids adored his niece. But I couldn’t allow myself to hope.
“That’s what you call Maricela? I think she’d be honored. But honestly, it looks like Alice might take her down.”
“You can tell my kids apart?” I said, flabbergasted. It had taken Mrs.Glidewell a month.
“On the soccer field, anyone could tell them apart,” he said. “Phoebe knows where the ball is at every second. Meanwhile Alice is busy playing with her Baby Yoda Band-Aid.”
It was nice to talk to someone who saw my kids as separate entities.I like you, I wanted to say.I’m not just here because I’ve stumbled onto a terrorist plot and need an ATF agent to bail me out.
“How’s work?” I asked. “I’m so curious about your job. So many questions.”
“ATF questions? Fire away,” he said.
“You sure do have those dad jokes locked and loaded.” The joke I’d just made was criminally bad. “Oh my god! Your horrible gun puns are contagious. This is unforgivable.”
He did a funny little victory dance, as if he’d scored an NFL touchdown, not just teed me up for a terrible wisecrack.
My plan A, to ask him about ATF raids and immunity, suddenly seemed both tonally off and way too forward for soccer practice.
A whistle blew. Nate glanced back at the field. The Beautiful Giantwas crawling on hands and knees, the twins draped over her back like wiener dog puppies on an Irish wolfhound.
“Would you want to—” he started at the exact same time I said, “I guess you’d better—”
“What were you gonna say?” I asked.
“Getting a dog. Even temporarily. It’s a big deal! Any chance I could take you and the girls to The STIL after practice to celebrate?”
The STIL was the one local place that could beat out any ice cream from an Abbot Kinney creamery. My mom used to take me and the twins there on a splurge, but it was definitely out of my price range. Especially while I was furloughed.
“The thing is—” I started.
“I’m buying,” he said. “They have a patio. With heaters. And it’s dog-friendly. I want to meet Little Sister.”
Maybe this was a sign from the Universe that I needed to hand some of this burden over to Agent Nate Duran. I wouldn’t tell him everything. Just enough to get the ATF to Burgdorf. Talking to him with the twins around wasn’t ideal, but at least I wouldn’t have to worry about things turning romantic. If he was interested in me now, he wouldn’t be after he had ice cream with me and all my adorable baggage. He seemed to interact with the twins nicely here at soccer, but he’d never seen them all hopped up on sugar and lurching around with their shoulders pressed together, trying to convince strangers they were conjoined.
“We’d love to,” I said. “But we’ll have to swing by my place for the dog. And we can’t stay too long. I’ve got a class tonight.” Pole dancing class. But it sounded too flirty to say it out loud.
“I can meet you over there. Wanna swap numbers, just in case?” He handed me his phone. I put my number in his contacts and gave it back. “I’ll call you so you have mine.”
My phone dinged as he turned and jogged back to the team. Was I mistaken or did he have an extra pep in his step?
Some of the other soccer moms were giving me looks of baffledadmiration, probably wondering how a woman like me could get the number of a guy like him. Frankly, I didn’t know either, but I planned to enjoy it while I could.
When the twins and I arrived at The STIL, the patio lights imparted a feeling of good cheer to the cold and dark. Nate stood waiting in fitted jeans and a gray puffy coat. He dropped to one knee and rubbed Little Sister’s ears while the twins looked on approvingly.
“Do you think you could teach her to play soccer?” Alice asked. Her eyes were bright again.
