“Sure.”
That fucking word. I’d never hated it before, and now I did. With a passion. “Scarlett?—”
She held up a hand. “We can talk all we want about us, but the fact is your son comes first. We both know that if you’re being genuine and you want to see me again, you’ll have to talk to Chance first. I’m not willing to sneak around—this town is too small. There’s already going to be talk about what happened at the park. So you need to spend time with your son, but you’ll also have to decide just how much of this”—she gestured between us—“you really want because you’ll have to okay it with him. You’ll want his approval before you do anything.”
The realism I had admired about her when we’d talked at school meetings was biting me in the ass. “I’ll talk to him.”
The corner of her mouth lifted. “Enjoy your fishing date.”
“I’ll call.” Urgency moved my feet. I was late for my son, and I had promised I wasn’t going to be that guy anymore.
As I got into my pickup, I waved at Mrs. Mulberry. She was shading her eyes, watching my hasty departure from her neighbor’s house. Fuck, this looked bad to everyone.
I was confident about wanting to continue seeing Scarlett. We had too much burning between us, and we’d only been out together for a day. But what she’d said before I’d left was the clincher. I had promised to do better for Chance, and if he wasn’t on board with a long-term girlfriend, I’d do what he asked. He had to be my first priority.
5
Scarlett
Three hours after Tate left,Summer pounded on my door. “I know you’re in there. I have to head back to Bozeman soon, so you have to open the door.”
Couldn’t I get half a day to wallow in my sadness? To stop my spinning brain and tamp down the hope that Tate was serious about talking to Chance? To end the replay of Chance and I struggling for much of the year until coming to an understanding?
Chance would tell his dad an emphatic no. He didn’t want a stepmom, and he definitely didn’t want it to be his fourth-grade teacher.
I pushed up from my couch. Lilith made a complaining noise, but she jumped down. Twice in one day, she’d been disrupted from her sleep, and she would hold it against me.
Technically, it’d been Tate who’d woken her up this morning. I was shocked she’d slept on his feet. The most unpredictable body part on a stranger she’d just met.
Wasn’t I the same with him?
I opened the door. Summer narrowed her eyes and looked me up and down. She tapped her wedge-heeled foot and scrutinized my haphazard look, so at odds with her and her sister in their simple summer dresses.
Autumn waved from behind, an apologetic smile in place. Her auburn hair was in a braid like Summer’s. “I told her to wait, but she insisted that since she was leaving today, she got to butt into your business.”
Summer was unrepentant. “Blame Wynter. She’s already calling me for the details.Calling, Scarlett. She hates talking on the phone, but she’s calling before she even ignores three of my texts.” She pushed past me into the living room and flopped on the floral glider rocker I had kept from my grandma’s things when she’d passed.
“June’s not leaving us alone either.” Autumn entered, but she went to the kitchen. The fridge door squeaked open. “Ooh, you made lemonade.”
“Come in,” I said, closing the front door. I had hoped to polish off the lemonade for breakfast with Tate. It’d been a frivolous thought as I passed out in his arms, exhausted and sated in a way I hadn’t known was possible. But no. My lemonade would have to remain a treat for my friends and my students.
Summer sat up and planted her hands on her knees. “Was the date that bad? Was he an ass? I didn’t think he would be, dammit. Was I wrong? Was he?—”
“No.” I rubbed my temples. A dull headache was starting, and I hadn’t had anything to drink. Maybe I should add the bourbon he’d given me to my glass of lemonade. “No, he was great. But you know how these things go.”
Autumn appeared in the opening between the living room and kitchen. She and Summer stared at me for several moments before Summer said, “No. We don’t. How did things go?”
I wasn’t going to tell them I’d ridden their brother for hours. I wouldn’t tell Tate’s sisters that he was the best I’d ever had and I’d never find another guy to match. I wouldn’t tell them I’d gotten the appeal of sex before, but it’d sort of been out of my reach—until Tate. Not only did I get the appeal, but I could become an aficionado. Dedicate my life to the study of sex with Tate.
“He mowed the lawn.” In a fancy diagonal pattern I could never match. “And fixed the roof.”
“He didwork?” Autumn said flatly, disappointment rising in her gaze. “That’s all?”
“No, we went out. Everyone at the grill was staring, so we got the food to go and turned it into a picnic.”
Summer clapped her hands together, grinning. “So romantic.”
I wasn’t looking forward to the next part, but the teenagers who saw us probably weren’t going to be quiet about it. “We, uh, kissed, and Jacob and Brandy caught us.” Autumn would know who they were. Summer might not know the kids.
