Her eyes kept getting bigger. “Holy shit. Lucky thirteen.”
“Three years after Theresa and Da got married, her brother and sister-in-law died in a car crash, and their three kids came to live with us too. Blaze, Fury, and Rose.”
Lumen leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re messing with me.”
“I give you my word,mo nighean bhan.”
“What did you say that meant again?” she asked, cheeks turning that lovely shade of pink. “You called me that during…before.”
“My fair-haired girl.”
Her beautiful eyes practically glowed. “Oh.”
We both took deep draughts of our respective drinks and then I continued, “Anyway, I went back to Scotland after high school to get my business degree at the University of Glasgow. I took over the MIRI head office in Edinburgh for a while and brought on a lot of new business. After about two years, we had enough business in America to start a new office here in Seattle. My father wanted to retire, so we moved the headquarters from San Ramon to Seattle and let San Ramon become our secondary office.”
“And Evanne?”
I nodded. “Shortly after I moved to Seattle, I started dating a woman named Keli. She was nineteen and in college. We’d only been together a couple months when she got pregnant. We weren’t as careful as we should have been. We tried to stick it out, but by the time Evanne was born, we realized it wasn’t going to work between us. Up until just before school began, Keli had primary custody, and I had Evanne on whatever weekends and holidays we worked out between the two of us.”
Lumen didn’t say anything, but her slow nod and lack of a follow-up response indicated she wanted to ask the obvious question but didn’t think it was her business. I’d come this far, and she’d shared a lot with me. It didn’t hurt to tell her more.
“Keli moved to Italy with her boyfriend,” I said. “She didn’t think it would be fair to take Evanne to a new country with a new language, so she brought Evanne here for what was supposed to be a regular weekend and gave me the change of custody paperwork. It’s been a crash course in full-time parenting.”
“You’re doing a great job,” Lumen said, smiling.
I was sure she was just being polite, but something about her words hit me. I’d been so worried about properly taking care of my daughter, I hadn’t realized I needed someone to tell me I was doing well. She put her hand on mine. When I looked down at her hand, I could see my watch. It was almost time to pick Evanne up from karate. I could hardly believe how fast the time had gone.
“What are you doing Friday?” I asked.
“I didn’t schedule any volunteering or anything. Unless I’m forgetting something, I’m free.”
“Will you have dinner and a movie with me and Evanne?”
“You guys are kind of a package deal, huh?” The way she said it told me she didn’t think of it as a bad thing.
“I’m afraid so,” I said with a smile.
“I’m glad,” she said sincerely. “And yes, I’d be happy to.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Before I’d picked up Lumen, I hadn’t known if she’d want to see me again after today. Now that she’d agreed to see where things went with us, it was time to find out if the risk we were both taking was worth it.
Thirty-One
Lumen
Surreal was probablythe best word to describe how I felt walking up to Alec’s door. The fact that I was carrying his sister’s freshly laundered clothes didn’t do much to dispel the feeling. After having eaten dinner – and breakfast – with Alec and Evanne before, this shouldn’t have been strange. Or maybe it was strange because, even after the time I’d spent with them and the nights I’d had sex with Alec, tonight was our first official date.
“I’m baking a homemade pizza,” Alec said as I followed Evanne into the living room. He took the bag of clothes and set it aside.
Then he leaned in and kissed me, a chaste kiss, but a public one.
“Go, Dad!” Evanne cheered, making both of us flush when we separated.
Despite its brevity, the kiss sent butterflies whirling around in my stomach. Alec’s smile when he moved away just made them flap harder.
This was really happening.
After the time I’d spent reminding myself that Alec and I had agreed to nothing but a ‘fun’ night, here we were. Dinner and a movie at his place with his daughter knowing that I wasn’t here as her teacher but as her dad’s date. I almost couldn’t believe it.
