I park the car.
I take a deep breath.
I don’t think about the other week when he had his cock in my mouth.
“Uncle Will!” Ollie throws his door open and is out of the car before I’ve even opened the door. I scramble to catch him, but he’s already sprinting across the parking lot. Will meets him halfway, crouching to catch him, scooping him up off the ground. “How’s it going, bud?”
My heart does the same thing it always does when Will is with my kids, and I hate it. I have no idea what to do with my face, and I know Will can tell I’m feeling something because when the kids aren’t looking, he winks.
Addie appears at my shoulder, and she’s not dumb. She looks at me for a second, her eyes narrowed, and thank god, she thinks I’m just being uninviting.
In this instance, I think I prefer that assumption to the truth.
The hostess seats us at a table in the center of the restaurant, and Ollie has to sit by Uncle Will, so Addie and I settle in across from them.
Will’s looking at the menu like he’s never been here, and maybe he hasn’t. “The fajitas are good,” I tell him.
“Doesn’t that have vegetables?” he asks, scrunching up his nose.
“Vegetables are good for you.”
“Says the doctor,” he scoffs, looking back to the menu.
The chips come, along with the queso and the salsa, and Ollie is bouncing in his seat because he’s been waiting for this since we left the house. It’s the only thing he’ll eat. Will reaches across and grabs a chip the same time I do, making our fingers brush.
I pull my hand away quickly, looking around the room for something to do.
“Man, I think I got lucky,” he says, taking a sip of his soda. “None of the old church ladies are here to glare at me.”
“That’s because they’re all at the church dinner. Mrs. Campbell’s been talking about it all week.”
He picks up another chip. “Is that the lady with the—” He gestures toward his hair. We all nod. “Last time she looked at me, I thought she was gonna smite me with her eyes.”
Addie laughs. “She probably has a crush on you.”
Will raises an eyebrow. “You think?”
“Think about it. She’s like a hundred, and the only man she’s been with in the last eighty years is her husband. And then you walked into her church donation drive looking like that.” She gestures at him.
I don’t like this conversation.
Will is quiet for a second, genuinely thinking about it. And then he nods. “Yeah,” he says with a long-suffering sigh, exhausted that he has to live with such a handsome face. “You’re probably right. I do have that effect on people.”
“You can’t help that you were born this way,” Addie agrees.
I bury my face in my hands with a groan. “Don’t encourage him.”
“Your dad’s just jealous because Mrs. Campbell doesn’t look at him like that,” Will says, smirking when I look up to glare at him.
I don’t notice Karen until she stops at the head of our table.
“Nolan!” she says, leaning in to kiss my cheek in the easy way she’s started doing. I smile, even though I can feel everyone at the table watching us. “I didn’t know you were here!”
“Report card tradition,” I say, nodding at Addie.
“Straight A’s,” my daughter adds with pride.
“That’s wonderful!” Karen says, genuinely warm. She waves at Ollie, who waves back, chip in hand, before she notices Will.
