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I shook her hand, but her gaze wasn't on me. She was staring at the kids with a look of absolute fear in her eyes. In that instant, I could see that she didn't like kids, which was kind of a big deal. But I wasn't going to call her out or make a scene; that wasn't my place.
“Daddy, before you go – I love you!” Zoey said, rushing for her father and nearly knocking Stacey down in the process.
Stacey backed away, scowling at the girl in disgust. She quickly changed her expression, however, when Marcus turned to her.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said eagerly – almost too eagerly, if you asked me – and quickly turned toward the door.
“It was nice meeting you!” I shouted to her as she briskly walked away, but received no response. Oh well.
“She doesn't like kids, does she?” Zoey asked me, smart and intuitive beyond her years.
“Oh, I don't know,” I said. “Maybe she's just shy around new people.”
I was lying through my teeth. The look she had given Zoey was clear; she was not fond of children. Why date a man with two kids if you didn't like them then?
“Well, I didn't like her,” Zoey said, sitting down on the sofa facing the television.
“Me neither,” Zack piped in.
Poor Marcus. Even if he did decide he liked Stacey, his kids were going to veto the girl, which, knowing him, meant he'd veto the girl. And I couldn't say that I blamed them, not one little bit.
CHAPTER FIVE
MARCUS
Stacey was beautiful and, according to her dating profile, we had a lot in common. She worked in the financial industry, as did I. She listened to the same kinds of music I did, we liked the same movies and books. On paper, we were a perfect match. But when we met in person, there was nothing between us. No spark, no connection, no nothing.
No, I didn't expect love at first sight, but I expected something. If we had so much in common, like our dating profiles suggested, we should have had lots to talk about.
But talking didn't come naturally, for either of us. There were a lot of long, awkward silences and pauses in the conversation. It was strained.
“So, you played football in college?” she asked over dinner.
“I did,” I responded. “UCLA.”
“Really? I went to UCLA.” she said.
Yet another thing we had in common.
“Oh yeah?” I asked. “What did you major in?”
“Business,” she said. “Obviously. You?”
“After changing my major a few times, the same,” I said. “What year did you graduate?”
She'd gone to school a few years after I'd graduated, so we were probably never on campus at the same time. Still, it was kind of neat that we were both Bruins. But that's where that line of conversation ended.
I saw how she'd responded to Zoey earlier, even though she'd tried to hide it. I wanted to bring it up, to ask her about her comfort level around kids since that was pretty damn important if she wanted to date me. My kids were my world and I wouldn't sacrifice their comfort or happiness for anybody. I hoped that maybe she was just nervous or shy around kids. I couldn't blame her for that. If it was just a matter of her getting comfortable on her own terms, that was something I could work with.
“Do you have any kids?” I asked knowing full well that her online profile hadn't mentioned any.
“Oh, no,” she said with a laugh and wide eyes. “No, no way. No kids.”
That response drew a raised eyebrow from me as the red flags in my head started waving.
“I mean, I like kids just fine,” she said quickly. “Other people's kids. I just never wanted to have any of my own. Never met the right guy either, but I've been too focused on my career, honestly kids were the last thing on my mind.”
