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I shrugged. “It’s cool, I don’t mind.”
“You’re the best, Rylee. I’ll take you out shopping as a thank you,” she told me.
“That’s totally not necessary,” I said with a wide, toothy smile. “I’ve told you a thousand times, I’m happy with what I have.”
Dahlia grabbed one of the magazines from the surface next to her and opened it up to a page about vintage corduroy. “I know you are, Rylee, but what about me! I just have to get a pair of these green pants! They’d go great with my orange chiffon blouse!”
I rolled my eyes at Dahlia and her strange idea of ‘fashion’, but I couldn’t argue with her. I wanted her to be happy, no matter how crazy I might think it was. “Well, if you’re taking me shopping for you, that’s not really a thank you, is it?” I teased.
“Of course, it is,” she replied instantly. “You get to spend time with me, that’s your reward.” She winked over at me and I couldn’t help laughing.
“It would be nice to get out of the house and do something different for a change, especially with what’s going on right now,” I explained, letting out a sigh while I adjusted my name tag.
“Why? What’s going on?” my red-headed friend asked with a look of concern etched over her dainty and pixie-like features.
I dropped my voice to a whisper and explained. “My mom has another one of her crazy ideas and it’s much worse than any she’s ever had before.”
“Worse than the time she decided she wanted to start beekeeping?”
“Way, way worse,” I told her with a deadly serious look on my face. “My mom wants to pretend to have a fake boyfriend so her boss will stop flirting with her.”
Dahlia screwed up her face in confusion. “Why doesn’t she just tell him ‘thanks but no thanks’?”
“Apparently, he doesn’t usually take no for an answer and my mom is worrying about getting fired. But that’s not even the worst part…” I trailed off and looked over my shoulders to see if anyone was nearby. When I realized no one could overhear, I carried on. “The boyfriend she’s pretending to have is… Jayden’s father.”
Dahlia’s eyes bulged and her mouth dropped open. “No freaking way! Are you serious?” she cried. “I thought Jayden’s father was some random one night stand you never saw again!”
“He was,” I told her with a huff. “I never thought I’d see him again. Turns out he was one of Mom’s old high school friends…”
“Oh my God, what are you going to do, Rylee? Has he met Jayden yet?”
“No,” I answered with a shake of my head. “He came for dinner, but Jayden wasn’t home. Thank God! I don’t know what I would have done if he had been…” I dropped my head to my hand and let out a long, slow breath. Everything felt so crazy and I really wasn’t sure how I was going to manage to keep it all together.
“He’s going to find out sooner or later, Rylee,” Dahlia pointed out with a sympathetic smile. “You can’t exactly hide your son on playdates forever and besides, you’re still living with your mom! If he’s your mom’s ‘fake’ boyfriend, they’re going to run into one another sooner or later.”
“I know, I know…”
“And even if by some miracle they don’t, do you really expect your mom to keep quiet about Jayden? You know how much she adores him,” Dahlia added, pointing her fingers at me as she spoke.
“You’re right, I know you’re right, Dahlia. It’s just…” I sighed and scrubbed a hand over my face as I tried to come up with a solution that would cause the least amount of damage. It was impossible. “I just don’t know how to break it to Spencer. What if he gets mad? What if he wants to meet Jayden and then just takes off? How do I explain this whole complicated mess to a four-year-old?”
Just as Dahlia was about to open her mouth and reply, I felt a presence behind me and I spun around expecting a customer, but I wasn’t so lucky. It was Colin, the store manager, and he was looking at me with that same overly friendly look on his face.
“Oh, hi, Colin. Is everything okay?” I asked him.
“Yes, it’s a quiet day today, isn’t it?” he replied cheerfully as he passed me a plastic bag of dollar bills. “I brought these to refill your register. I thought you might need them.”
“Um, thanks?” I said with a half-hearted smile. I really didn’t want to make small talk right now with everything going on in my head. I turned back around to face Dahlia, but straight away, Colin coughed and I rolled my eyes.
“I was wondering if you’d ever been to the botanical gardens two towns over in Grangeville?” he asked while he scratched the back of his neck in a nervous gesture.
