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“Do you have a tow truck too, Mr. Blair?”
Mac chuckles as I slip my arm around Toby’s shoulders to guide him to the waiting truck. “No,” he says. “I’m just helping someone I care about.”
“You care about Mr. Remy?”
Mac opens the door to his truck and helps Katie up. “Yeah. Him too.” He glances over at me, eyes lingering on mine before dropping to Toby. “Come on, buddy. Let’s get you home.”
In that moment, I decide to ignore his comment. If I think about the fact that he essentially just admitted he cares about me, even though we haven’t so much as spoken in weeks, I’ll never get my head straight.
I’ve been good. Really good. The last thing I need is sexy, sweet Mac scrambling my brain again.
With the kids safely clicked into the back seat of the huge four-door cab, Mac opens the passenger door for me and nods to the departing tow truck. “You need a new car.”
I snort. “Yeah, well, if you direct me to the car fairy, I’ll ask her to drop one off for me.”
Mac’s lips tilt, his broad hand still curled over the top of the passenger door, effectively stopping me from entering. I watch his hands clench for a moment. “You been okay?”
It’s funny how a simple question can hold so much weight. It’s the same thing he asked me at the parent-teacher conference. I’ve been asked if I’m okay a thousand times in my life, but when Mac says it, standing on the side of the road looking at me like he cares about the answer, it makes my throat close up.
“Yeah,” I answer softly. “Busy. Good. You know how it is.”
He watches me for a moment, the light from the cab of the truck illuminating his masculine, angular face, and it feels almost painful to be this close to him without being able to touch him.
Mac is the type of man who came to my rescue without even being asked. Who dropped everything to drive me and the kids home when he could have just as easily stayed in town, and I never would have known any different. He’s the type of man who’s reliable, dependable—even when sex is off the table.
We agreed that we can’t be together, but he’s still here.
I don’t know why that affects me so much, why it makes it so hard to look him in the eyes, why it makes my heart feel like it’s trying to break through my chest.
He’s doing what any decent person would do and helping out a single mother in a bind. But how many decent people really exist? How many decent men have ever done something like this for me?
And how fucking unlucky am I that he’s the one man I can’t have? The one man I shouldn’t want?
Throat thick with emotion, I give him a quick nod. “I should get the kids to bed.”
He snaps out of whatever stupor he’d been stuck in and drops his hand from the door, but he doesn’t immediately move to the driver’s side. He waits until I’ve climbed into the cab of his truck, then he closes the door for me before striding around the front of the vehicle to get in the other side.
I glance behind me and see the kids quiet, their seatbelts fastened and their eyes wide and alert, then watch Mac enter the truck with his usual grace and confidence. Finally, I settle back in my seat and let him take me home.
And I realize that I’m glad it was Mac who showed up with Remy, because from the moment I heard his voice, I felt nothing but relief. I felt safe. I knew for sure that everything would be okay.
CHAPTER 35
Mac
I walk Trina and her kids to the door, giving Katie a smile and a wave before she disappears up the steps behind her mother. Then my eyes shift to the woman standing before me.
The weeks haven’t dulled any of my feelings. Ever since the last parent-teacher conference, I haven’t been able to tamp down the tiny kernel of hope that’s taken root inside me.
She didn’t choose her ex-husband. She wasn’t with him that night.
That means the two of us could have a chance…right?
Trina leans her shoulder on the doorjamb and gives me a soft, reserved smile. “Thanks again, Mac.”
I nearly groan at the sound of my name on her lips. I’ve spent the last three months trying to convince myself she was just like any other woman. Is she, though? I can’t stop thinking about her. Dreaming of her. Reading and re-reading the employee handbook to make sure I wouldn’t get fired if we were together.
It was never about the rules, though, was it? It was about my reputation. About awkwardness at school for myself, for Trina, for Katie. It was the fact that I’ve built my career over years and years, and I didn’t want anyone to think differently of me for getting involved with a parent.
