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“You don’t want me to?”
“I’m just trying to figure it all out is all,” he said. “Seeing each other, I get. We are seeing each other. I’ve been seeing you over the past several weeks.” He looked toward the open front door. “Boyfriend…I don’t know if that’s true.”
“Then I’ll just say we’ve recently started seeing each other,” Beth said, liking that a lot better. She took the first step toward the door, and Trey went with her. “What—when do you cross the line into boyfriend?”
“About the time I kiss you,” he said, dipping his head closer to hers. “Does that work for you?”
She shivered, because everything about him worked for her. “Yes,” she whispered, passing through the doorway. Laughter came from the back of the house, where the kitchen sat, and Beth continued that way, determined to get the word out that she had started seeing someone again.
Trey would be the very first man she’d dated since Danny’s death, and she hoped no one would find it odd that she married him in only a few weeks. She’d just say she didn’t want to wait. She’d been alone long enough, and when she met Trey, she’d just…known.
Like magic, she thought, wondering what had happened to dampen the magic on his and Sarah’s relationship.
She couldn’t help wondering if such magic really existed, and she glanced up at him, searching for something she wouldn’t find on his face.
“Daddy,” she said once they’d reached the kitchen. “I wanted to properly introduce you to Trey.” She put a bright smile on her face. “We’ve started seeing each other.” She beamed at Trey and then her father.
Her dad didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah, I saw you holdin’ his hand out there on the porch.” He grinned at Beth and cocked his eyebrows at Trey.
“Come on now,” Trey said, a grin on his face too. “I thinkIwas holdin’herhand.”
Chapter Three
Trey looked over the top of his cards at TJ, who wore nothing but delight in his eyes. Across the room, Beth huddled with her father, and while Trey really wanted to know what they were talking about, he didn’t attempt to read her lips or study her dad’s face too hard.
“Do you have any blowfish?” he asked TJ, who immediately dropped his gaze to the cards in his hand.
His uncle looked at the cards too, and just by the look on his face, Trey knew there was a blowfish in the little boy’s hand. TJ frowned and tilted the cards toward Hugh. “What does that say?” he whispered, as if he couldn’t speak the question out loud.
“What’s that first letter?” Hugh asked.
“B,” TJ said. “I think that’s a blowfish.” He looked up at his uncle with a question in those round eyes.
Hugh nodded, and TJ took the card and handed it to Trey. “I have two.”
Trey hesitated with matching the yellow blowfish he’d gotten from TJ to the pink one in his hand. “Why didn’t you put them down then?” He watched as TJ pulled another card out, sudden recognition lighting within him
“I had a pair,” TJ said, looking from Trey to Hugh. “I messed it up.” He slammed his cards on the table in front of him, and Trey jumped.
He’d never seen the child react this way before, but Hugh leaned over and said, “It’s a card game, buddy. It’s not a big deal.”
“Now he has the pair.” TJ looked like he might cry. “Should I give him this one? Or do I get to keep it?” He reached up and wiped his nose. “But now he knows I have a blowfish. So he’ll just draw one and then ask for mine.”
“I think,” Trey said, separating his two blowfish. “That since we’re both still learnin’ how to play this game, that I should just give you back this yellow blowfish and you can play your pair.”
TJ’s eyes widened, hope filling his expression. “Really?”
“But I should get to swap out my blowfish, so you don’t know I have it,” Trey said. “And I get to ask for a new card.” He looked at Hugh, who watched Trey with something in his gaze that Trey didn’t understand. He switched his gaze back to TJ. “Sound fair?”
“Uncle Hugh?” TJ asked, climbing onto his uncle’s lap. “Is it fair?’
“Pick up your cards, bud,” Hugh said. “That sounds fair to me.” Hugh ended up picking up the cards and holding them for TJ. The exchange happened again, and Trey slipped his pink blowfish into the draw deck and chose another card.
Then he said, “Okay, do you have any…flying fish?”
“Go fish,” TJ said.
Trey did, and he managed to get a blue flying fish. “Flying fish,” he said, turning it so TJ and Hugh could see. “Got my wish.” He put down his match and asked, “Do you have—?”
