Chance swung his head around. His big brown eyes were shrewd. “You’re dating?”
“Sort of. I went on a date last night.”
“That’s why you were late,” he said flatly.
“Yes. I didn’t think I needed to set an alarm. That was my mistake.”
He fiddled with his rod and eyed his red-and-white bobber in the water. “Who were you with?”
“That’s what I want to talk to you about. Because I’d like to see her again.”
He kept watching the water.
“Scarlett Breen.”
He recoiled. “Miss Scarlett?” His horrified astonishment wasn’t heartening. “You had a sleepover withMiss Scarlett?”
“Yes.” I schooled my expression to make it seem like a sleepover was nothing but movies and popcorn until too late at night.
His back was telephone-pole straight, his expression disgusted. “Miss Scarlett.” He shook his head. “Why?”
“I really like her, and I enjoyed being with her.”
“I don’t like her.”
This wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped. “She, uh, she likes you.”
He rolled his gaze toward me. At times, he could be so grown up. “She doesn’t.”
“She does. Her work is being a teacher; it’s not her.” When he didn’t say anything, I kept pressing. “Chance, what do you say? I’d like to keep seeing her, but I know it’d be an adjustment after how things have been.”
His thin lips flattened. “You said when we moved, it’d be just me and you.”
“It is. No matter what, it’ll be you and me, but we can also widen our life to include others. Like we have since we moved. Grandma and Grandpa. You see Aunt Autumn more. Uncle Tenor.”
“Uncle Teller too,” he added reluctantly.
“And Aunt Wynter and Aunt Junie.” We only saw them more because they came to visit our parents, but I’d take any advantage I could. “Look, me working too much didn’t have to do with another person. It was a balance problem. Now that I’m aware of it, I’ll make sure not to act like I did before.”
“You were an hour late this morning.”
Forty-five minutes. My parents didn’t live as far out as I did. But to Chance, those extra minutes were an eternity. “That was on me, bud. It wasn’t her fault.”
He thought for a moment. “I want it to be just you and me.”
That was that.
His bobber went under and he grappled with his pole. “Dad, I got something!”
For the next several minutes, he reeled in a large rainbow trout. “Way to go!” I laughed, but the sound rang empty in my head. I’d said I’d do what it took to make Chance happy, and I’d meant it.
I hadn’t thought it’d cost me my happiness. I’d only been on one date. One spectacular date that nothing else could compare to. I vibed with Scarlett on a level I never had with anyone else. In my gut, I knew she was it.
If I couldn’t have her, I wasn’t settling for anyone else.
But my kid didn’t want her or another woman.
I went through the motions of catching a fish, my mind on my predicament, and took pictures while my insides were a flurry of emotions.
