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“I mean, I’m not even dating anyone.” Then a thought occurs to me, and I shake my head and laugh. “Although it’s not like that stopped my friend Leah from having a kid. She decided she wasn’t going to wait around for the right guy and went the sperm bank route.”
“Wow. And now?”
I think of how happy Leah is, how amazing of a mom she is. “Now she has a really adorable five-year-old daughter who she loves to death.”
“Aw.” Dani lays a hand over her heart. “That’s really sweet.”
For a few seconds, I try to imagine what it would be like to follow in Leah’s footsteps. But it’s impossible to picture—and I know why. I don’t just want to have a kid someday. I want a family. I want a partner.
Someone to come home to every day after work. Someone to cuddle with on the couch. Someone to laugh and cry with.
Someone like Holt.
Shit. No. I can’t allow myself to have a thought like that. He might be everything I could want in a guy—he’s smart, has a great work ethic, isincrediblyhot, and judging by the way he was with Jasper during the party yesterday, he’s great with kids.
But he’s not into me. And there’s no point in wishing he was.
I mean, once the party started last night, he barely even looked at me. And he certainly didn’t say goodbye when he left. It felt like I was back in high school, being ignored all over again.
“Hey,” says Dani, nudging me. “You okay?”
I blink, feeling heat rising in my cheeks. I nod and smile. I wish I could talk to Dani about it, but I can’t. Not without Cash finding out—and I’m sure my brother would mention it to Holt. “Yeah, I’m good. Just thinking about work.”
“Well, stop,” Dani demands, grinning. “We’re supposed to be relaxing.” She looks down at her toes, which the tech has just finished painting. “Oh my gosh. They look so nice.”
“Want to grab something sweet after this?” I say, banishing thoughts of Holt from my mind. “I always get so hungry after a mani-pedi.”
Dani laughs. “Girl, you read my mind.”
Cash,Dani, and Jasper fly home a few days later, and the moment they leave, I already miss all three of them. I wish they lived closer to us. I hate only getting to see them for brief periods at a time. Especially little Jasper. I don’t think there’s any problem in the world that kid’s laughter can’t fix.
But life goes on. I have work. I have errands to run. I have grocery shopping to do. I have alotof grocery shopping to do, actually—my basket is nearly overflowing as I walk up and down the aisles of the grocery store.
I’ve just turned the corner to go down the next aisle when I stop dead in my tracks. Standing halfway down the aisle is the last person I want to run into.
Holt.
God, whatisthis? I’ve gone years without seeing the man, and now he’s there every time I turn around.
I consider backing out of the aisle and heading down a different one, but he looks over and spots me before I can. And now that we’ve made eye contact, I can’t exactly just run away without looking rude or crazy.
“Oh, hey, Holt,” I say, forcing a smile. “What are you doing here?”
He holds up a spray can in his right hand. “Ran out of spray glue and this is closer than the hardware store. Plus, I needed to grab a few things for dinner tonight.” He nods at the wall of dried pasta he’s standing in front of.
In all the years I’ve been shopping here, how is this the first time I’ve run into him?
Well, on second thought, I guess this probably isn’t his usual store—it’s likely just on the way home from the house he’s working on. Still. It feels like the universe is taunting me, constantly throwing him into my path.
Holt glances at my overflowing basket of groceries, which feels heavier and heavier by the second.
“Need some help with that?” he asks.
Seeing him eye my groceries makes me blush. It probably looks like all I’m buying is junk food, since the produce is buried at the bottom. I mean, I’m going to eat whatever I damn feel like, but still…
“Restocking after having Cash in town,” I say. “You’d be amazed how much a six-year-old can eat. Or a thirty-three-year-old, for that matter.”
Holt laughs. It’s a rich, deep sound, echoing down the aisle. My heart skips a beat as I listen to it, my breathing coming a bit faster.
