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I adjusted my grip on the wheel and kept my mouth shut so I wouldn’t say anything dumb. It wasn’t like I’d forgotten our plan or the reason behind it. It was simply that being with her, being back in this town and back in her life, had me wishing I could shout it from the rooftops.
I wanted to bring her around my kid, and even Jo, too. I wanted us to have family dinners around my kitchen table and play board games with even teams. I wanted to do what Paul suggested and skip the dating, going right to marriage and being able to wake up next to her for the rest of my life.
But wanting all of that didn’t mean we should abandon the plan. Layla needed this time to make sure she could trust me. And even though I wanted to skip it and get to the good stuff, I needed it, too. If for no other reason than because Grayson deserved it. He deserved to meet Layla as my girlfriend after we’d worked out all the kinks.
Before I could even answer her, she reached over the center console and took my hand in both of hers. “Zac, I’m really glad we’re trying again. But there’s a lot of history and hurt mixed up in this, and I don’t want to tell Grayson anything until we’re both sure we’re past it.”
“Okay,” I said, bringing our joined hands to my lips and kissing her knuckles. “Turtle speed. Got it.”
“It’s a classic story for a reason. Slow and steady wins the race, right?”
I chewed on my bottom lip as I pulled up to the spot where we’d have our picnic, imagining all the fun ways we could enjoy our time going at a slow and steady pace. Then I parked and brushed my thumb over her cheek. “Right.”
* * *
Two months. It had been two months since that night at Will and Aria’s wedding, and we were finally ready for me to sit down with Grayson and tell him that Layla and I were more than friends. I didn’t have any experience with this myself, but it seemed like a good amount of time for a single dad to introduce his kid to his girlfriend as more than a friend.
That said, like I’d told Layla, there was no doubt in my mind we’d make this work for the long haul. After all this time constantly texting and hanging out as often as we could—while still allowing me to spend the majority of my free time with my son—I was even more sure. And I couldn’t wait to talk to him about it so we could start hanging out together like the family we were destined to be.
“Hey, Gray,” I said when he wandered out of his room, still rubbing sleep from his eyes. “How’d you sleep?”
“I had a nightmare,” he replied. He stepped closer to me in the kitchen, so I put down the mug of coffee I’d just poured and held my arms out for him to step into. He came up to me and rested his cheek against my hip, but his arms stayed curled up between his chest and my leg instead of reaching around me. “It was scary.”
“I’m sorry, bud. What was it about?”
He hesitated, looking up at me with tears welling in his eyes as I rubbed his back. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“That’s okay. You don’t have to. But just know it was only a dream and you’re totally safe here. I’d never let anything happen to you, okay?”
He nodded meekly, putting his cheek against me again. I kept rubbing his back, my chest aching for the little guy. I wasn’t going to force him to talk about it, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it had anything to do with his mom. Though, while sadness and grief creeping into his dreams would definitely still qualify as a nightmare, I didn’t think it would be the kind of scary he was talking about.
“Do you lock the door at night while we’re sleeping?”
“Of course. And all the windows are always locked, too. Not that anyone could get in through them since we’re on top of the flower shop.”
“Spider-Man could.”
“Well, yeah,” I said with a chuckle, putting my hands on his shoulders and crouching down so I was on his level, “but the only reason Spider-Man would do that is to tell you you’re actually a superhero like him, and he wanted you to join the Avengers.”
Grayson grinned. “That would be so cool.”
“Heck yeah, it would. What would your superpower be?”
“I think I’d wanna fly. Like Superman. But not, because I like Marvel.”
I nodded. “That’s a good one. You’d be like Iron Man then.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want the suit. It looks too heavy.”
“I feel you there. But it’s kind of like the vest I wear at work. That’s heavy, but it protects me. You don’t want to be flying around out there without anything to protect you, do you?”
“I’d be fine. I’d be too fast for anything to touch me.”
“Youarepretty fast.” Ruffling his hair, I stood and headed for the pantry, glad to see the superhero talk had sufficiently distracted him from the bad dream. “All right, you hungry? We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”
“Are we still going shopping for my Halloween costume?”
“Yes. But first, you gotta eat. Cereal?”
