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DANCING WITH THE SINGLE DAD
At the beginning of May, Dustin's regular babysitter breaks her arm, and her grown kids convince her to slow down and start a true retirement. Though he completely understands, it leaves single dad Dustin and two other families scrambling for early morning childcare. He's lucky in that he has a lot of families to cover for him, but prep for the coming ballroom dance season has started again, and all three of his pairs have renewed their commitment to their sport, so he's meant to be spending every morning during the week in Rowan.
He can get every day covered but Tuesday and is deciding whether to cancel practice or try and take Simon with him, which would be a disaster. His kid can entertain himself for up to five minutes during the day. Tops. He's leaning toward canceling practice and laments this fact in a disgruntled text message to his best friend, Colleen Bourne.
His phone immediately lights up with a call from her, which he accepts.
"What's up, Colleen?" He asks. He's tired and more than a little bit stressed. Usually, he'd have no real issue canceling the practice with two days advance notice, but he wants to encourage his teams' renewed commitment, not disrupt it two weeks in.
"I'm a little insulted you didn't ask me if I could watch Simon," she says, though he can hear the humor in her voice.
"You have that conference in Carlton this weekend," he reminds her.
"I do, but it's not until Thursday, so I can cover Tuesday."
"I have to leave here at 5:15am, Colleen," he reminds her. "And you usually need those two days before a trip to prep."
"One: Let me worry about my own schedule, but two: I don't actually have to do any real prep for this trip because it's the same talk we've been giving for the last month or so, and Em is doing most of the talking anyway. I'm just on logistics and those have been in place for weeks."
"Okay, but let me bring him to you so that you can sleep a little more," he concedes.
"God no. You're not waking up the baby an extra 45 minutes early to bring him into town just so you can turn around and head back out to Rowan. I know I used to be a bit of a princess about my sleep, but those days are long gone."
It means she isn't sleeping much these days, something he's sure he already knew but hates anyway.
"I don't like putting you out, Colleen," he admits.
"Dustin. I adore that little buddy. And he doesn't think I'm too bad. We're going to be fine. Let me do this for you."
"You know I wasn't fishing, right. With that text? I was just ranting. I wasn't trying to get you to rescue me."
"Yes. I know. I'm rescuing you anyway," she jokes.
So that's how Colleen is at his door at 5:00 am on a Tuesday, two coffees in hand, looking way more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed than he's seen her at 5:00 am, maybe ever.
"Do you want me to wake him up first?" he asks, voice still rough and quiet with sleep.
"It's up to you. Whichever you think will be better for him."
And then he hears Simon's whispers coming through the monitor and realizes that Simon has decided for them.
He quickly changes the baby's diaper and then kisses him goodbye, glad that he'd chosen to put Simon in the white pajamas with black, stick-figure giraffes scattered on them that he's sure was a birthday present from Lisette. Simon goes quickly to Colleen, and Dustin's throat closes up when they wave to him from the front door, a still sleepy Simon resting his head against Colleen's shoulder as he lazily waves goodbye.
He gets regular updates throughout the morning, including a picture of Simon eating French toast and then one of her and Simon out back enjoying the sunshine after breakfast.
Just before lunchtime, she texts him:
Hey, my mom has Jane today. I could take him to her house for a play date after a nap. Let me know what you think.
Sounds fine. I'll let you know if I get off early. Can I pick him up from there?
Either is fine. I don't mind driving him back to your house.
