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As a first-grade teacher with twelve years of experience, Ruth had had a connection with almost every family in town. When she’d died, it had been a community tragedy. Grief counselors had been brought in to speak with the kids. The funeral had been a huge memorial service with another private family service at the gravesite. Annabelle had been in college, but everyone had treated the situation as if Jake was faced with the tragedy of raising a young girl on his own. There’d been advice. So much advice. And after a discreet six months, talk of meeting another woman as nice as Ruth.
Now the community was getting worried. It was time to move on. Maybe it was even time to start a new family. He was a healthy, steady man, after all. They were invested in his future.
So even though Jake knew it was nobody’s business... It seemed to be everyone’s business, and he’d resisted the casting call. Oh, he’d been tricked into plenty of dinner parties where there just happened to be a single woman in her thirties seated next to him, but other than that... He’d refused to discuss it with anyone.
He couldn’t refuse anymore. Not with Annabelle.
He jumped up when the front door opened and met her at the entrance to the kitchen. “Hi, sweetie.”
“Hi, Daddy.” She offered a hug and then a tentative smile. “So... Did you sleep well?”
He winced.
Annabelle cleared her throat. “Well. I guess when you told me you were dating, I should’ve believed you.”
Jake looked up at the ceiling in hopes of some insightful reply, but there was no answer there. “I’m really sorry about that. I thought you were spending the night at Kevin’s and then I kind of...forgot about the whole issue for a few minutes.”
She covered her face and laughed. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“God, Annabelle. About Lauren...”
“Dad, it’s no big deal. Mrs. Foster seems nice.”
“You can call her Lauren,” he insisted flatly. “And she is nice. But I want to be clear that there’s never been anything between us in the past. Last night was the first time we’d seen each other that way.”
“Wow. You move fast, Dad.”
Now Jake was the one who wanted to cover his face. “There wasn’t... We... Never mind.”
She leaned against the counter and looked at him long enough to make him squirm. Which really wasn’t that long in this situation. “She’s pretty, Dad. And I’m glad you’re seeing someone.”
“It’s not weird that you knew her before?”
“It’s a small town. It would be weird if I hadn’t known her before.”
He slumped a little, the tension of the past few hours leaving him. “Your mom knew her. And I’m friends with her ex. It feels like a betrayal of...someone. I don’t even know who.”
“Dad.” She waited until he looked up and met her gaze. “Maybe it’s not a betrayal of anyone. Maybe you just really like her and you’re looking for an excuse not to.”
“Why would I do that?”
She shook her head like he was being difficult. “Because you really loved Mom and it broke your heart when she died?”
Jake crossed his arms. “That sounds like something from a TV movie. Of course it broke my heart. But we’re just talking about dating here. There’s no reason to get maudlin.”
“Stop being such a boy. We’re talking about getting involved with a woman to see if you could love her. Right? Unless this was just a quick hookup?”
His face heated at just how quickly things had gone from tentative to I-need-this last night. Had it just been a hookup? “Shit, I don’t know.”
“You do know what a hookup is, right?”
“Jesus, Annabelle, I was in college in the ’80s, not the nineteenth century.”
“Really? Did people have sex back then and every
thing? Did you do it in black and white?”
Jake groaned. “I’ve raised an incorrigible brat.”
