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Of course, Jade wanted to keep on talking. He nodded, smiled, and when she suggested a playdate, he looked toward his daughter who still stood with Katie.
“Which one is your daughter?” he asked. In truth, he was only mildly curious. Katie hadn’t mentioned any Louisa in the past couple of weeks, and he wasn’t about to set up a playdate for his little girl with someone she didn’t even like.
Jade pointed to a girl sitting in a crowd of girls and he didn’t recall Katie ever being near her.
“I’ll have to talk to Katie to arrange it.”
“Please do, I would love for the opportunity to get to know you better.” She placed a hand on his arm. Her nails were painted red, sharp.
He nodded and returned to his grilling. There was a time he would have taken the woman up on her offer. There were always willing women and he could have his pick of the lot of them. However, since becoming a dad and moving from the city, his sex life had dived down to nothing.
Well, being a father hadn’t stopped him, not back in his old life when he had nannies to care for Katie. He had taken what he wanted with whatever willing female had been there. Now though, it wasn’t going to happen.
Nope.
Glancing over at Ann, he couldn’t help but admire the curve of her ass. She had her back to him, and the dress seemed to be taunting him as it melded to those gracious hips.
With the food done, he started to serve up. Kids ran to him with plates and buns. Each of them took his offering before heading over to the table for some more food.
Ann was the last person to arrive. He put some food on her plate and she said thank you.
For the rest of the party, he didn’t see her. Katie kept her all to herself, and it was wrong of him to be jealous of his daughter, but he was.
He spoke to a couple of other dads who were interested in setting up man date of playing cards or watching football. He wasn’t interested in either and promised to look at his schedule. Some of the single moms offered to bring him a pie.
He wasn’t interested in pie, but again, he kept his tongue. There were times he missed his old self, who was quite happy to tell people to fuck off.
He saw them all out and that left him with only Katie, his mom, and Ann.
“Well, I guess we’d better get going,” his mother said.
“Have you been left with the cleanup?” Ann asked.
He had every intention of calling a cleanup crew but he nodded.
“That sucks. If you want, I can stay behind, help out? I’ve helped in my fair share of party cleanup.”
“I’d love that. Only if you’re free.”
“Yep, I am, free. Nothing to worry about on that score. Totally free.”
He grabbed Katie’s stuff and saw his mom out. Before she left, she threw herself into Ann’s arms and told her they would be hanging out soon.
“Yes, we will. We’re going to be making lots of muffins soon. I’ll grab the chocolate chips.”
Katie giggled and then they were gone.
Alone.
“This was a great party,” she said. “The food was great.”
“You didn’t get to meet many people. My mom and Katie kept you occupied.”
“I’m good, thanks. I don’t think I exactly fit into the crowd.”
“What crowd?” he asked as they made their way outside.
Now with everyone gone, and the cleanup on him, he saw how messy it was. He left out trash bins, so why did they throw their empty beer bottles on the lawn?
“I don’t have a kid. This was very much a parent party. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Far, far, from it. I don’t have a kid so it makes me an outsider.” She shrugged. “I don’t mind. Katie’s awesome and she’s really smart. I had an amazing conversation with her.”
“I don’t know if you’re mocking me right now or being genuine.”
“I’m actually being genuine. I like her. She’s a great kid.”
“I didn’t keep you from anything today, did I?” he asked. “I’ve been trying to catch you for a couple of days now.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. It was just a job interview.”
“I thought you already have a job,” he said.
“I do.” She didn’t say anything more and as he looked at her, he saw there was a lot more going on with Ann than he realized.
Chapter Three
Ann didn’t want to think about her current predicament or what it all meant. She certainly didn’t wish to tell Eli about her dwindling finance situation or that she may even have to sell her house.
“I don’t mean to pry, but what’s going on?”
She laughed. “Oh, you don’t want to pry but that is the first thing you’re going to do.”
