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“You’ll just have to show up late and find out.”
He kissed me deeply for a few moments that seemed to stretch on for minutes, but maybe that was just wishful thinking.
With a quick, playful smack on my butt, he sent me on my way. My body was already reeling for him and craving more before I had even made it out of the driveway or over the bridge.
As the day went on with Derek and his crew doing their work on the house, I found it hard to focus on my own work. And this time, it had nothing to do with the terrible internet.
My mind was bursting with the possibilities of this new life I had found. I did my best to push all of my doubts and fears aside and really picture what it would feel like to stay in Silver Point, to become an even bigger part of Derek and Em’s lives. I didn’t want to make the same mistake again and charge full blast ahead into a life I had never even asked myself if I really wanted or not.
First, there was the biggest problem at hand. I couldn’t do my work in Silver Point. There were no celebrities or models needing PR services. The people in this town didn’t even care about those kinds of things. Even my marketing skills didn’t feel like they’d have much use. There were only so many shops and businesses in those parts, and none of them were exactly competing with each other. No one spent anything on advertising because everything traveled by word of mouth, which really was the best kind of marketing you could ask for. But it also left me out of luck on the job front.
The last time I checked, it was a bad idea to move to a town out in the middle of nowhere that held absolutely zero employment opportunities for you. That was the kind of place you were supposed to move away from, not to.
But, there were other much more appealing aspects to Silver Point, weren’t there? Like a certain hot, muscular handyman firefighter with an adorable little girl who needed someone like me in her life. I was starting to think maybe I needed someone like her, too, as crazy as that sounded.
I hadn’t known Derek long enough to be feeling this way, and I never imagined throwing myself so deep into a relationship with a single dad and his kid. But no matter how much my brain was spinning out from how unbelievable all of this was, my whole body felt warm and relaxed. It obviously made sense to some part of me, just not the rational thinking part of me.
I had long given up on trying to work and closed my laptop down over an hour ago. I sat on my bed with my knees curled up to my chest, propping my chin on them, and daydreamed. I wanted to lose myself in the feeling of what it looked like to stay. It cradled me and felt so real, but it all vanished into a puff of smoke when Derek knocked on the doorframe.
“Sorry, am I interrupting?” he asked, shifting his weight to lean against the wall and watch me.
“Yes, but I’ll allow it. I was just thinking.”
“Good thoughts, I hope?”
“Very good thoughts.” A wide smile spread across my face as proof.
“We’re all finished up for the day,” he told me, pointing over his shoulder. “But I also wanted to tell you, I’ve been sent to you on an important mission.”
I perked up. “Oh? Is that so?”
“That’s right,” he nodded. “A certain little red head absolutely adores you now. You were all she talked about the whole way to school. And she insisted and begged that I come to you this afternoon and ask if you would please come to her school play tonight.”
“The Mother Goose school play!?” I shrieked. “Are…are you sure you’re okay with that? It’s really fine if you’re not. I want to go, but I’m trying to….”
“I’m not about to tell Bo Peep she can’t have her new favorite person watching her from the front row,” he said firmly. “Anyway, I want you there.”
That floating feeling in my heart returned, making my smile even bigger somehow, which I didn’t think was possible. “Okay, that settles it then. I’ll be there.”
“I’ll pick you up in a couple of hours?”
I shook my head in agreement. “I’ll be ready.”
I wanted to see this play from the moment Em mentioned it, and far more than I had actually wanted to see any of the Broadway shows Katie had dragged me to over the past year or so. A bunch of adorable little kids singing and dancing around a stage in funny costumes? Who wouldn’t want to see that?
When Derek’s truck pulled up in the driveway that night, I was teeming with nerves. Yes, I wanted this life, and I loved every second I could get around him and his daughter. And I really wanted to see that play. But I had never done anything like that before. None of my friends had kids; I didn’t have any nieces or nephews. I knew nothing about the world of parents and school plays.
What would everyone think of me? Everyone in Silver Point gossiped like their lives depended on it, and they all knew Derek’s story. Most of them had probably been at his wedding and knew his wife when she was alive. How would they feel about me, the outsider, becoming his girlfriend and showing up at his daughter’s school like that?
“You’re going to be fine.” Derek’s voice cut through my racing thoughts as he reached over in his truck and placed his hand on mine.
I smiled tightly, trying hard to believe him. Mostly I was just relieved he could read my mind and knew I was nervous.
“What about me?” Em asked from the backseat. “Am I going to be fine? What if I forget a line?”
I was kicking myself inside. Who was I to be such an anxious wreck when Em was about to make her big debut on the stage?
“You’re going to be better than fine, sweetheart,” he assured her. “You’re going to get a standing ovation. You’ll be a huge hit. I just know it.”
