“Vinny, why don’t you take Clara home and come pick us up after? Leo wants to stay and play. Plus, Mom really wanted us to pick pumpkins to decorate the house. I’m not going home until we pick them.”
Yes, Vinny. GO. HOME. Leave us here alone to “pick pumpkins.”
“Fine,” he sighs, exasperated. “I just need to get her home. I’ll pick you guys up as soon as I leave her with Danielle.” He stalks toward his car in a hurry.
We watch as Vinny runs to the parking lot, straps his daughter into the car seat at lightning speed, and drives away.
I’ve never spent much time with kids before, but I’m excited to spend the rest of the afternoon with Vinny’s son, too. He looks like a trip—especially with the whole cussing thing.
I turn to Leo and ask him if he’s ready for pumpkin-picking fun, whether he’s pumped for us to go crazy and find the wildest and best pumpkins around.
“YES!” he screams, and I laugh at him his enthusiasm as he shoves the rest of his doughnut into his mouth. He takes my hand and pulls me toward the entrance of the actual pumpkin patch.
IMIGHT BE DELUSIONAL,but I’m really starting to think that the attraction I feel for Matt is not completely one-sided. Between the stolen glances in the rearview mirror on the drive over and the cider, I think I can safely say that we’re both on the same page here.
I’m also pretty sure I caught him staring appreciatively at me when I reached down to pick up a mini pumpkin from a huge pile of them on our way into the actual patch. It was quick, but I definitely saw his eyes on my butt right before he tripped and almost knocked Leo over.
There’s a huge contrast between the Matt of six years ago and this 2.0 version, and I don’t just mean physically. Matt from med school was a total bro. He was attractive and nice, but I rarely saw him without a beer in one hand and a girl in the other. The guy tripping over his own two feet from ogling my butt is not the same one as the Matt from med school who would not hesitate to ask whomever he pleased out. This version of Matt is more mature, confident, yet oddly more self-conscious at the same time. It’s like he’s more calculated with his decisions rather than motivated by impulses—a fact that I really, really like for some reason.
When we reach the entrance to the patch, he lets go of Leo’s hand to grab a wheelbarrow and tells him to get in it, to which Leo almost loses his mind.
“We’re going on a ride!” Matt says enthusiastically, and Leo practically screams with glee.
Wait? What’s that? Oh, it’s just my uterus calling me to let me know that I need to marry this man. Super chill. No problem. I’ll get right on that.
“WOO!” Leo cheers as Matt pushes him in a serpentine fashion, garnering the attention of strangers smiling all around us. They both look so adorable playing together that I can’t help it. I pull my phone out and take pictures of this beautiful moment while I run after them, hoping one day I get lucky enough to find a man who will be as good a dad as Matt seems to be able to be.
After a few minutes of running, though, Matt tires and stops to take a breath.
“More! More!” Leo looks up at him with a pouty face.
Matt leans over and puts his hands on his thighs, panting. “Gimme a second, kid. I gotta recover,” he practically wheezes.
“You okay there, champ?” I snort and pat him on the back—big mistake, as the feel of his muscles, even hidden under his coat, send me into a sudden frenzy. They have me wondering what it would be like to slip my hands underneath all those layers and feel his warm skin on my palm.
And that would be crazy, right?
Matt coughs out a laugh and stands up straight. “I promise I’m in much better shape than this. I just had an exhausting day today.” He starts pushing the wheelbarrow forward again, stopping every so often so that Leo can meticulously evaluate each pumpkin before dumping it in his lap.
“What’d you do today?” I ask casually as I tread through the vines and mud next to him. But of course, none of this feels casual, for some reason. I’m trying to play it cool, but I’m dying to know every bit of information I can get from him, his life, anything that will give me insight into the man that he’s become. I want to peel him like an onion, find out what he’s like under every single one of his layers.
“Uh…” He winces. “I woke up really early today and drove all the way to Sag Harbor from New York to stay at a friend’s house for the weekend, only to be promptly kicked out as soon as I got there.” He looks extremely uncomfortable, but there’s absolutely no way that I’m not gonna ask.
“Kicked out? Why?”
He stops and takes a deep breath, and I can tell hereallydoesn’t want to go into specifics, but I don’t care. I want to know. “I was kinda invited to my friend’s house under the pretense that it would be a long weekend trip with agroup, when in fact it was just the two of us and…I just wasn’t into it.” He shrugs.
“Ah,” I say in understanding, and start walking ahead of him. He starts to follow behind, ignoring Leo as he stretches a little, swiping at a pumpkin and missing. “A friend of thefemalevariety. An ex?”
And immediately I want to die because who asks that? He’s gonna think I’m crazy, because the only type of person who asks something like that is a CRAZY woman. I’ve officially shown my card here, making it flat-out obvious that I like him—or am at leastinterestedin him.
Although, is that really such a bad thing? I feel like he’s into me too.
Matt winces. “Yes? I mean, she and I had a…uh…fling one time?” To his credit, he looks extremely uncomfortable about it. “But that’s all it was, and it was a long, long time ago—about a year ago, when I was in the city for a long weekend, just visiting,” he adds quickly. “And we were supposed to remain friends, just a one-time thing, you know? But I don’t know…” He shrugs. “I guess she thought that doing it once meant it was a green light to do it whenever, and she never expected me to ever want to say no.”
“So, what, you wouldn’t sleep with her again, so she kicked you out?” I ask, shocked.
“I guess?” He shrugs, looking embarrassed. “I think she’s not used to rejection.”
