Page 85 of Protecting Love

“Dad!”

He dropped his phone and turned. “What? Sorry, didn’t know you were there.”

“I said that Stefan wanted to know if he could go to the gym with us. If you’ll show him what you do?”

He smiled. “Sure. That’s fine. I’m still doing my thing, but you guys can follow along.”

“Thanks,” Ian said. “How come you’re smiling?”

“What?”

“You were smiling when you were texting.” Ian came into the room. “And you smelled like flowers. Are you dating someone? Did you like buy a girl flowers and bring them to her?”

He could honestly reply. “No. There were flowers in the store though.”

He didn’t know if what he and Paris had was dating or not.

Maybe they should have addressed that.

Or titles. Rules with that.

Shit.

He was so out of touch when it came to that part of life.

“Just checking,” Ian said. “You didn’t have to get so defensive. Maybe it’d be good if you were.”

Since this was really a thing in his life, it wouldn’t hurt to prod some.

“You’d be okay with that? If I dated someone.”

“Why wouldn’t I be? It might put you in a better mood sometimes.”

He squinted at his son. “I’m not in a bad mood.”

“Not usually. Though sometimes you are. I don’t know. Whatever. It’s your life. Go date someone. Mom sure the hell moved on.”

Which was what he didn’t want to be compared to. “Have you talked to her lately?”

“Nope. And it’s all good. I like it better that way. I’m just saying, I hope you aren’t not having a personal life because I live here. I don’t care. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“No, you’re right. You don’t. But I’ve got a lot of time to make up for.”

“You can’t make up time, Dad. You can only change future decisions. Didn’t you tell me that?”

“I did. And you’re right. What’s that smell?”

“Oh, shit. My omelet.”

Ian ran back to the kitchen. He hoped to hell the smoke alarms didn’t go off, but he heard the fan go on.

He picked his phone back up. I just got caught smiling.

A laughing emoji came up. Is that a problem? Or just an anomaly?

No to the first. Seems like a yes to the second.

Though it was nice to know his kid wanted him to get a life.