Page 8 of Knocked Up By The Mountain Man

She shakes her head.

"He's not that kind of dad," she says.

"Not the pick-up-the-phone-when-his-daughter-calls-him kind of dad?" I ask. "Isn't that just kind of the basics of being a dad?"

"You'd think," she says. "Again, he left me whenever I was two, and he's been unreachable since. I think that's on purpose, not an unlucky accident."

I feel angry all of a sudden. What kind of man abandons his two-year-old daughter and the mother of his child like that?

"Did he send ever you guys some money? Something to help out with the bills and the groceries?"

She shakes her head.

"Uh-uh," she says. "Although that would have been enormously helpful."

Her voice is bitter, and she seems closed off. Like this topic is pushing her away rather than bringing her closer to me. It's the opposite of what I want.

The waitress returns with two plates.

Our pie and ice cream have arrived, and even though I'm not a sugar person, I've never been happier to see a dessert.

To my surprise, Alyssa dives right in, her shyness suddenly fading away at the sight of the treat.

She scoops up a bite that's equal portions of steaming-hot pie and cold ice cream, opening her lips to accept the bite on the spoon and closing her eyes, groaning with pleasure.

So much for keeping my mind out of the gutter.

I can't help it when she's making noises like that.

All I want to do is take her out of here, so that no other man can witness this, and so that I can do all of the things I'm imagining to her somewhere alone.

"Is it any good?" I ask skeptically.

"It is," she says. She frowns. "I thought you said you'd had it before?"

"Oh," I say quickly. "I have. I mean, I think it's good. I just wasn't sure if you would think it was good, too."

I sound like a rambling moron.

I've had weeks to fantasize about what I would do if I ever saw Alyssa again, the smooth talk, the moves I'd make, all of it, but it's all faded away because in my fantasies, it seems like I unfortunately forgot this little detail of how my brain scrambles every time she's near.

Alyssa smiles politely, and I get a sense that I'm losing her already.

We eat in silence. The autumn air sweeps leaves across the sidewalk outside. The sun's beginning to set, the daylight slipping away just like this opportunity.

The waitress comes, and I pay the check, and it's feeling way too close to goodbye, with not enough said between us.

It's now or never,.

"Do you have a place to stay while you're in town?" I ask.

She looks up at me, her brown eyes indecipherable.

"I booked a room at the Wildwood Inn," she says. "It's supposed to be pretty close by…that’s where I was going, before my rental car broke down.”

"I can give you a ride," I say quickly.

She looks reluctant, and I wonder if she's changed her mind about me. The night we met, she certainly didn't think I was too much of a stranger to get into my car.