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Tess: Never mind. I guess we’re not doing this after all.
I felt like the biggest asshole of all time. Especially when I thought about Tess sitting outside the nursing home sending me all those texts with no idea why I’d stood her up on such an important day. She probably hated me, and I couldn’t even blame her.
Hopefully, she’d forgive me once she understood what had happened, but I still felt like shit for putting her through that. And after all my grand promises too. So much for always having her back.
I’d texted her as soon as I’d made sure Maddy was okay, but she hadn’t responded yet. I couldn’t be sure she’d even seen it if she was still at the nursing home. Just for good measure, I fired off another groveling text telling her how truly sorry I was.
“Everything okay?” Maddy asked.
“Yeah, it’s fine,” I said as I finished typing my apology.
“Did I call you away from something important?”
I looked up from my phone. “There’s nothing more important than you. I was supposed to meet someone is all.”
“I’m sorry I messed up your day.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Twisting in my seat, I pulled her into an awkward hug across the console. “I’m glad you called, okay? I always want you to call when you need me.”
“Okay.” She nodded against my chest before she pulled away, plucking at the seat belt that had been trying to strangle her.
I lifted my phone to my ear. “I need to make a quick call and then I’ll drive you home.”
Maddy nodded absently and went back to looking at her own phone.
The call went straight to Tess’s voicemail again. I reached out to turn down the music Maddy had started playing. “Tess, it’s me again. I hope you got my message earlier. Anyway, Maddy’s fine. I’ve got her with me now and I’m about to drive her home. I’ll try to catch up with you later.”
It was the best I could do for the time being. Disconnecting the call, I dropped my phone into the cup holder.
“Your plans were with Tess?” Maddy asked as I pulled away from the curb.
“That’s right.”
“Were you supposed to have lunch or something?”
I glanced over at her quickly before turning my attention back to the road. “You remember how Tess’s father is in a special nursing home for people with Alzheimer’s? I was supposed to meet her there to help take him on a little field trip, is all.”
“Oh.” Maddy was quiet for a moment. “That sounds like it might have been important.”
“It’s fine. Tess will understand.” I really hoped so, anyway.
There was a short silence before Maddy said, “Is Tess your girlfriend now?”
I shifted in my seat. I’d been planning to tell the kids about Tess, but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Mostly because I’d been afraid of how Maddy would take it. Tess and I had talked about it and agreed telling the kids wasn’t something we needed to rush into.
Today’s circumstances weren’t exactly how I’d planned to break the news, but here we were.
“Yeah, she is.” I dared another glance at Maddy. “You okay with that?”
Her shoulder lifted in a shrug. “Sure.”
It was impossible to tell if she actually meant it or not. My hands squeezed the steering wheel as I focused on the road. “I know it’s probably weird for you that I’m dating. To be honest, it’s kind of weird for me too, to be dating someone who isn’t your mom.”
“It’s not that weird. Mom’s got Patrick now, and he makes her happy.” Maddy leaned forward and turned the music back up.
The unspoken implication—that I hadn’t made her happy—hung uncomfortably in the air between us as a moody Taylor Swift song filled the silence.
“I like Tess,” Maddy said after a while. “She seemed pretty cool.”
