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Afton gave me ayou know she’s copying me, right?look and I nodded but clapped for Riley.
Reinvigorated after the fish information, Landon took the rod and reeled it in. He cast it himself and beamed when Holden complimented him. Warmth filled me from head to toe, but it was different from the heat Holden usually caused. My son dropped the handle into the rod holder and checked its seating just like Holden and then he sat, propping his feet on the railing like Stetson.
I exchanged an amused look with Holden. Landon caught me and his expression turned curious.
“Are you guys dating?”
My insides froze like it was the middle of a January polar vortex. I met Holden’s gaze. He was alarmed but looking to me to answer. Stetson kept his cap over his eyes and pretended like he was sleeping and couldn’t have possibly heard the conversation.
Nora and Avery appeared around the curve, paddling closer, Nora in a yellow kayak and Avery in a red one. The other two girls were playing in the same spot.
I could blow him off. I had plenty of distractions I could use around us. But that wouldn’t answer Landon’s question, and he had a legitimate reason to know.
I held Holden’s gaze a moment before I asked Landon, “What would you think if we were?”
He shrugged. “Dad has Jenni.”
“He does,” I agreed. “But Holden has his house and we have ours. If we dated, you’d be okay with that?”
“Like we’d go to his place to pet the horse and cats again? I could play with Sally?”
I glanced at Holden for help. I wanted to say yes, but I didn’t want to answer for him.
“Yes,” Holden said, putting his leg down and sitting forward. “But I’d like to take your mom out once in a while, just her and I. Would that be okay with you and your sisters?”
“Would what be okay with us?” Avery asked from the ramp where Nora was pushing her kayak forward so she didn’t have to get out in the cold water. The kids had supersonic hearing when it was least opportune.
“If Mom and Holden dated,” Landon answered.
Nora pressed her lips in as she wrestled with the kayak.
Afton ran to the dock. “You guys are dating?”
Stetson’s chest shook like he was holding in a laugh. Holden was the closest to scared that I’d ever seen him. I felt the same. This conversation had a lot of witnesses.
“We’d like to,” I said. “Are you okay with that?”
Avery popped a hip out, her kayak forgotten. We’d had plenty of discussions about how things were over between me and their father and that we would never be living together again. I hadn’t anticipated a dating discussion. But here it was.
“Holden and I…” My throat tightened.
This was all out of my league. It was one thing to keep writing off Holden’s infatuation as fleeting. No one really knew about us. This was announcing to the most important people in my life that I was moving on. Something I hadn’t planned on doing. I’d be admitting to myself that this athletic, hot man wanted me, the mom who wore scrubs and pajamas most of the time.
I couldn’t make myself say it.
Holden swooped in to rescue me. “I’d like to take your mom out. And I think it’d be really cool to keep hanging out with all of you. But if I, like, kiss your mom and stuff, will you be upset?”
“Ew” was Landon’s reply.
Avery shrugged. “I guess. I mean, Dad kisses Jenni.”
Afton wrinkled her nose. “Jenni’s annoying.” Did that mean she was okay with it?
Avery rolled her eyes. “Next time, don’t tell Jenni you think she’s annoying.”
I sputtered, the dating talk mostly forgotten. “You said that to her?”
“Well, she is,” Afton said as if everyone should know.
