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My cheeks heated with embarrassment. I shouldn’t feel ashamed at my situation. There were times growing up when I would’ve been overjoyed to even have a bowl of cereal to eat.
“I’ll have you know that you can get all kinds of vitamins and nutrients from cereal,” I propped one hand on my hip and shot him my most ‘I’m an adult and I’ll eat cereal for dinner if I want to’ expression.
“I’m sure that’s true in some cases, sweetheart, but I don’t think there are many vitamins in Lucky Charms,” he laughed. It was a rich, deep sound that made me tingle in places that should not be tingling in a busy grocery store while his daughter was standing next to us.
“You can eat dinner with us!” Daisy scrambled out from under his arm and grabbed my hand. “She can eat with us, can’t she, Daddy?” Daisy raised pleading eyes to him. I opened my mouth to protest so that he didn’t feel he had to feed me just because his daughter asked him.
“That’s a great idea, cupcake,” he said before I could get a word out and affectionately brushed his hand through her hair. “How do you feel about chicken and biscuit casserole?”
“I, um, good?” My head was spinning, was I really going to eat dinner with this gorgeous man and his adorable daughter?
“Yay!” Daisy shouted, getting another laugh out of me and a scowl from the grumpy old man walking past us. “I can’t wait to show you my room!”
“How about you meet us at our place in an hour? That should give me enough time to get dinner in the oven. Just pull around to the back of our building and park. Hand me your phone, sweetheart.”
I reached into the pocket of my overalls in a daze and pulled out my phone, placing it in his outstretched hand. After typing on the screen for a moment a ringing came from his pocket.
“Call me when you get there and I’ll let you up,” he said, handing me back my phone.
I waved at Daisy as they walked toward the checkout line. Still unsure as to how I got a dinner invitation with my landlord and his cute kid. I was going to blame it on the spell he’d placed on me by calling me sweetheart.
I finished my shopping quickly. An hour wasn’t long and I needed to get out of these dirty clothes and shower before I saw him again.
4
GRAY
Icouldn’t believe my luck.
All week I’d been trying to figure out a way to ask Lily out. Apparently, all I needed was my kid to put her on the spot in the middle of a busy grocery store. Not that dinner with my rambunctious daughter was a date, but hey, I’d take what I could get.
I finished cutting up the cooked chicken and mixed it with the rest of the ingredients before sliding it into the oven. Being a single parent, I didn’t always have the time to make Daisy a healthy home-cooked meal. We ate way more take-out than I would’ve liked but thankfully I had a fully-equipped gym at my fingertips just downstairs to help me stay in shape and Daisy was one of those rare kids that didn’t mind eating vegetables.
After tidying the mess in the kitchen, I straightened up the other rooms as quickly as I could and wondered what Lily would think of our home. It was obvious a young child lived here because you couldn’t go an inch without encountering a reminder.
Daisy’s colorful selection of shoes were lined up next to the front door making my boots look comically large. A pink fuzzy blanket and pillow were spread out on the leather couch from our movie night and an array of princess coloring books littered the coffee table.
After straightening as best as I could, I shrugged off the rest. Lily knew I had a daughter and there wasn’t any reason trying to pretend otherwise. How did she feel about dating someone with a kid?
Lily was a few years younger than Winnie. There was a strong chance that she wouldn’t want to take on a relationship with an older man who was already a father. If that was the case, I’d respect her wishes and bow out but it would be fucking hard. She was the first woman I’d wanted in a long time.
To my knowledge Lily hadn’t dated anyone in town. I’m sure I would have heard about it from my sister if she had. The diner was the center of town gossip and she always made sure to pass on the latest town news.
I’m not too proud to admit that I’d asked about my little baker on more than one occasion when I’d stopped into the diner. Winnie made sure to gleefully tell me how much attention Lily’s business was getting, especially from the single men in town. She was either messing with me or worse, telling me the truth.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, pulling me from the upsetting thought of Lily being hit on by another man. Nerves shot through me when I saw it was her, which was a fucking first.Get it together, James, you aren’t in high school.
“Lily,” I tried to convey how excited I was to see her in that one word. A quick intake of breath came through the line and I loved the thought that I might affect her as much as she did me.
“Um, hi. I’m here…at your door. Well, back door. Ha! Back door. I mean behind the building. So, yeah.” She stumbled over her words adorably, which had me thinking she was nervous too and it went a long way to appease my earlier worries.
“Come on up, sweetheart, I’m buzzing you in right now.” The sound of the door opening came through the line and I hung up. Excited to see her again, I opened our front door and waited for her in the hallway. When she rounded the corner, all the air in my lungs left me in a whoosh.
Fucking hell, she was stunning. The paint-stained overalls were long gone and she wore a simple green dress that had me swallowing my tongue. The fabric clung to her curvy hips and breasts, swishing around her thighs as she approached me.
I shifted my stance, turning my hips away from her, the thin nylon shorts I had on would do nothing to hide the evidence of my arousal and I didn’t want to scare Lily away before I had the chance to spend more time with her.
When Lily reached me, she pushed those adorable as fuck glasses up her nose with one hand and clung to a white pastry box with the other.
