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“She has a daughter,” I say again. “She doesn’t want to rush into anything, and I don’t either.”
“You’re with a woman with a kid?”
“It’s not such a big deal. I’m thirty-three. Most women my age are married—”
“Or divorced.”
“—with children.”
Jackson shakes his head. “And what about her ex and the claim he has in her life? If they have a child together, it gets messy. It’s never a clean break, and you don’t want to get involved in that. Trust me, I speak from experience.”
“What experience?” I ask. I run my hand across the leather seat of one barstool and tick the box on my list.
“Remember Janet?”
“Your booty call?”
“She had a little boy. Well, he’s probably a teenager now. But still.”
I burst out laughing. “You only saw her for sex. You had nothing to do with the kid.”
Jackson shrugs. “She wasn’t always available to fuck, and you don’t need that noise, man.”
“You’re a dick,” I laugh, shaking my head. “This is nothing like that. IlikeNatalie. I want to know her. And if that means getting to know her daughter, I’ll do it. If that’s what she wants.”
“That sounds serious,” Jackson says with raised eyebrows. “You realize what you’re saying, right? You can’t just fuck off if you’re in deep with the kid, too.”
My stomach drops when he says it. He’s right. I can’t just leave if it all goes wrong if I want to be a part of Kylie’s life, too. I turn away from Jackson and force myself to focus on couches. I’d like an area where it can be more relaxed. And the beach is still at the back of my mind.
But I can’t focus.
I was serious about Nicole ages ago when I wanted to marry her. I would have walked to the ends of the Earth for her. When I found out she slept with my college roommate, I told myself I would never get in a situation where I would be so tied up, I couldn’t get away again.
And this is exactly that—a situation where I can get tied up.
But Natalie flashes before me. Her panic at the date was real. She’s just as worried about this as I am. We fit so well together, being with her felt like we’ve always done this.
I can walk away from all of this right now and never be involved with a woman with a child. But that will mean I can’t see Natalie again. And I just had a second chance with her. I fully believe she went on that date in Michelle’s place because it’s fate’s way of saying I should give it another shot.
I don’t want to walk away from her just yet.
“Maybe I’m willing to give it a try,” I say over my shoulder to Jackson, who plops down onto one of the couches and makes himself comfortable.
“I’ve never seen you like this about a woman,” Jackson says. “She really has to be something.”
“She is,” I say.
Chapter 12
Natalie
“Good morning,” I say in a sing-song voice, gently nudging Kylie’s shoulder. She moans in her sleep before she peeks at me through slitted eyes.
“What time is it?”
“Almost ten, honey. You’ve slept the morning away!”
She stretches in bed and I wrap my arms around her, cuddling her. Sometimes I miss when she was a toddler, a little bundle of pink that used to crawl onto my lap and suck her thumb. Gone are the days she woke me before the crack of dawn to watch cartoons or color in her book.
