“Not used to that?” I tease.
“Ha ha.” She reaches beside herself, like she’s looking for the dog.
“Where’s Pebbles?”
“Recovering from the goose incident with a very long nap in Niles’s art room. How’s Hannah? Is she still mad at you?”
I shake my head. “Too morning sick to be mad.”
“That’s good. I mean, not good. Morning sick sounds terrible. But the not-mad part. That’s—oh, look at that. You’re almost done with lunch. We should talk business. So I asked Bridget to spend some time researching other plumbers on TikTok to scope out the competition, since you said you’re still interested in doing this, and there’s one who’s, like, in a band, so he’s all about pipes, becauseha ha, pipes, right?”
“Ha ha,” I agree.
Tavi smiles like she knows I’m humoring her. “She says you have a much better singing voice, but obviously, I haven’t heard either of you, so I wouldn’t know. Then there’s this other plumber who, like, dances all the time or duets people with really bad plumbing jobs, but I think we can make a lot of strides with you becoming the Tickled Pink Plumber if we focus on you giving solid advice on how to take care of your plumbing and you being your adorable self. And of course, I’ll pop into your videos, so naturally, you’ll take off, and after a couple videos, even without me, you’ll be a star all on your own.”
“That thing you said the other day—if we say we’re just friends, then that’s gonna make all the women fall at my feet?”
Her cheek twitches, and her bright, half-ditzy, half-businesswoman facade falters before she gives me the widest, brightest, fakest smile I’ve ever seen.
“Oh, totes. For sure.” She nods so hard she looks like a malfunctioning bobblehead. “Lunch was a really smart idea, because now people will start to wonder. We might even make theTickled Pink Papers. I mean, you’re the first man I’ve had lunch with solo since we got here,so natch, whoever runs the local gossip sheet will beallover it. I give it three hours after they publish pictures of us having lunch here before Lola’s asking you to dinner, andthatwill totally seal your reputation as a man in demand. I mean, if you’d want to have dinner with Lola.”
She stares at me expectantly, but it’s not a normal question.
It’s like she’s asking if IwantLola to ask me to dinner. Like sheneedsto know.
Holy shit.
Tavi Lightlylikesme.
I’m thirty-two years old.
Left high school almost fifteen years ago.
But I’ve realized in the past two weeks or so that I still feel like that’s all I have to offer women around here. They look at me and think,Oh yes, Dylan has his life together now, but can you imagine the holy terrors that his kids will be? And what if it’s still simmering under the surface and he has a relapse and I’m married to that?
Tavi doesn’t look at me like that.
She only knowsthisversion of me.
There’s no pressure to prove to her that I can do better. She already sees me asbetter.
She believes in the me that I am today, no question. And I know she’d listen to some of the stories of my youth and match them with one or two of her own.
“Huh.” I shift in my seat.
Having Tavi Lightly help me get back into the dating game? Weird, but okay. I can go with it.
Having an unexpected crush on the woman who has more secrets than a grizzled old spy?
I’d tell myself it’s novelty, but I don’t think it is.
I think it’s worse than that.
I think she’s the fresh start that I didn’t know I needed.
She claps her hands like she can’t sit still. “Look at you! Here we are, just eating lunch, and this time next week, you’ll be world famous and have dates lined up for the next year. It’s so exciting to make a star.”
I don’t know why I invited Tavi to lunch today.
