I looked over at Addie and immediately felt like I needed to go back to bed. Being a single parent was fabulous at times, but when all the decisions rested on your shoulders, it was exhausting as well. I longed for a partner, just to have someone to lean on. Well, and the sex would be an added bonus.
Pasting on a big—read, fake—smile, I spoke to her. “Yes. Miss Teri was calling because her momma fell. Isn’t that terrible?”
Addie gasped and put her hand over her mouth, overly dramatic as always.
“It’s okay, pumpkin. Miss Teri just needs to head down to be with her momma for the week. Just like when you’re sick and you want me around, sometimes mommas feel that way about their little girls.”
“Poor Miss Teri’s momma!” Addie said, then her lips turned into a frown. “Wait a minute. What will I do after school?”
Brace yourself, Ivy.Smile wattage turned up, I tried to muster as much joy as possible. “Babe, you’ll come to the bookstore. It will be fun.”
Addie dropped to the floor, boneless, as she wailed. “But Momma, the bookstore is so boring. I don’t wanna go there every day.”
I looked over her prone figure, then met Jake’s amused expression. Over her wails, I moved toward him and sat down in front of my pancakes. Jake got up and moved across the island across from me as he began to gather up the dishes. One corner of his mouth went up in a small smirk. “Just so I’m on the same page, is our plan to ignore her?”
“Yep, I don’t give any attention to dramatics. With Addie, she needs to get it out, and then it will pass quickly, unless she gets attention for that behavior. Then it is repeated, often.”
“Noted. Do you mind if I give you a suggestion?”
I bit back a bristling remark that wanted to spring forth. Was Jake going to really suggest how I parent my daughter? I worked on centering myself. “Sure.”
“How about I hang out with Addie this week after preschool, before the store closes?”
I grabbed onto the counter, concerned I might fall over in shock. I glanced down at my pancakes—delicious, I should add—and then back to this insane man. “I’m sorry. Are these pancakes spiked, or did you say you wanted to hang out with a four-year-old for three hours a day?”
Jake shrugged as he put the dishes in the sink and began running some hot water. “Sure, why not? You said she sleeps about an hour around three p.m., right? I could grab her, we’d have snack each day, she can nap and I’ll get some paperwork done for the brewery, and then you could pick her up and I’ll head in to work. No biggie.”
I shook my head. Sure, no biggie. It was big. Huge. I had a moment of longing for my nana. What would life have been like if she was still here? If she could offer to help me out like this? She would have loved it. But then my mind flashed back to the phone call last night. “Jake, your family is coming into town this weekend. The brewery has the anniversary party. You have a ton on your plate.”
Jake tossed a towel over his shoulder as he continued washing dishes, stacking them to the side of the sink to dry. “Ivy, it’s three hours a day. Truly, this is nothing. It will keep my mind off my family coming into town. And, quite frankly, you’d be doing me a favor. Sully and I hired a manager for the brewery last spring. This fall we’ve increased his duties, especially with Sully and Maggie’s baby coming. Finn—that’s our manager—is amazing and all, but I don’t have as much to do anymore.”
I let that roll over in my brain for a moment. “So what you’re saying is that I’m actually doing you a favor here, right?”
Jake let out a bark of laughter. “Sure, let’s go with that. Please let me hang with Addie this week so she doesn’t have to go to the dreaded bookstore.”
On that note, Addie popped up from the ground. “What? I can be with Just Jake after school?” She clasped her little hands together, holding them below her chin. “Please, Momma. Can I be here with Just Jake and Chief?”
I laughed. If this man really wanted to spend time with my daughter each day, who was I to stop him? I knew that my friends loved him. He was, by all that I could see, a natural with kids. He loved driving me crazy, but all signs were pointing to a decent guy underneath. I knew he had nieces around Ivy’s age, so he was used to the dramatics of a four-year-old. And, quite frankly, this would be a huge help to me. I looked from her pleading eyes to Jake’s laughing ones and threw up my hands. “Why not?”
Addie tossed her hands in the air again and began dancing around. “Jake, can I let Chief in?”
“Sure, peanut.”
Addie went over to the door and opened it as Chief sprinted in the house, coming back to skid to a halt in front of her. “Chief,” she shouted in his face. “I’m spending every afternoon this week with you!” On that note, Addie threw her arms around the patient dog’s neck.
Looking back from her to Jake, who was now finishing up the dishes, I tilted my head to the side to observe him. “So, Mr. Spencer, tell me about these Little People.”
Jake groaned and looked up at the ceiling.
6
Unexpected Arrivals
Jake
I glanced around the Homestead Brewery with a feeling of pride. Cole Sullivan and I had dreamed up this place years ago. Many late nights with a few beers under our belts, we’d talk about the type of place we’d want to open, if we ever did. Not sure I thought we’d end up in Cole’s, or Sully as he was known to his friends, hometown. However, when this old barn showed up in a foreclosure, it was too good of a deal to pass by.
Sully and I met while he was in college and I was working construction. We both worked at a brewery in a nearby college town. During the day while he was getting his business degree, I was building houses and doing remodels. Eventually he moved up to manager at the brewery, and we spent our spare time starting to create our own beers. Sometimes we’d bullshit after a long shift, dreaming and planning about creating our own place, but it seemed like a pipe dream. Looking around, it truly was a dream come true.
