“Hot mess still qualifies as hot,” Vi chuckles, tipping her chai toward me in a salute. I laugh again and she narrows her hazel eyes on me. “You totally got hit on. Who was it?”
“I wouldn’t call it getting hit on—” I hesitate awkwardly, and she waggles her eyebrows at me expectantly. I heave a sigh and cross my legs, angling toward her slightly. “Penny did her Penny thing and ran out the door of The Nook as we opened it, and Xander was there to stop her from running into the street.”
Vi bobbles her eyebrows again, nodding. “I still can’t believehe’s your neighbor. Andthat he helped deliver Bea.” I groan. I really won’t ever live that down.
“Can’t forget that he’s my older brother’s boss and best friend,” I grumble around a drink of my iced coffee.Or the center of my late night fantasies…I don’t add. She grins, nodding, and I worry for a heartbeat that I said it out loud.
Vi and I had met a month before I had Bea, and then she’d started dating Rowan Kingsley, her high school crush turned enemy, who also happened to be one of Cal’s coworkers and Xander’s hotshots. I remember Cal telling me about all of them years ago, but I can’t remember if I’d ever actually met her before our first play date with the girls.
“Okay, so keep going. What happened next?” she asks, her eyes leaving mine to sweep over the girls. Penny is about a year older than Hollie, and she’s currently got the younger girl by the hand leading her up the wide rubber coated steps of the playground toward a small suspension bridge.
“Well, other than stopping my runaway child from becoming a splat on the road, he insisted on taking Bea’s car seat from me, convinced Dalton to carry the diaper bag, and then carried both Bea and Penny back to the van for me.” Vi’s eyebrows go up and it’s like she can’t help the smirk that tips at her lips. “He helped me get them all loaded up. Escorted me around the car and made sure I got in safely.” I chew on my bottom lip and hesitate, then decide to just go for it. “He called meMama. But like, Vi.The way he said it…”
She’s practically dancing in her seat as she giggles, throwing her head back to stare up into the branches of the maple above us. “God, yessss queen! Please tell me you flirted back.”
I can’t help the scoffing laugh that escapes me as I shake my head in bewilderment. “That wasnothim flirting with me!”
“Oh, yes, it most definitely was,” she laughs, using one finger to point at me and she waggles that finger. “I’ve known him since I was a kid, and he’s this grumpy, no-nonsense, silenttype dude. Well, except with Rowan and Cal, I guess, because they’re all super close, but you know that. He’s polite, but stoic when I’ve been around him. I’m sure you’ve seen a different side of him, with Cal being your brother, and since he’s your neighbor. I mean, I can’t sayfor certainthat that’s his version of flirting, but he’s definitely sweet on you.”
I throw my head back and laugh out loud. “Sweet on me?What is this, the 1950’s? He’s not asking me to go to a sock-hop with him, Vi! And just because we’re neighbors doesn’t mean we like, hang out or anything. He’s still gone a lot. When Cal and Scottie come over, it’s just them. He seems to stick to himself.”
“Did he stare at you? He seems like an intense starer.”
I laugh again, though another blush heats my cheeks at the memory of just how hard he had been staring at me.
“Isstarereven a real word?” She mean-mugs me and I roll my eyes as I continue. “I mean, yeah I guess you could say he was staring, but it doesn’t mean he liked what he was staringat?—”
“You’rethe mostridiculous human being,” Vi grumbles on a laugh, shaking her head. “You are stunning, Teddy. I can guarantee that he liked what he was looking at. Especially in this—” she says, waving at me in general. “That bodysuit is hot as shit on you, and you know it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have left the house wearing it today. Right?”
I give her the stink eye, but it only lasts for a moment before I smile. “I do feel really great in it. Like, did you see my waist? I havea waist.”
“Umm, did you see yourboobs?” Vi asks, her eyes wide. “I’m a dick girl through and through, but I’d motorboat the shit out of you in this.”
I laugh fully this time, smiling over at her gratefully, and knock my shoulder into hers. “You’re the best.” God, I needed this today. Some girl time. Adultgirl time.
“Well, yeah, so don’t forget it,” she teases, bumping her shoulder into mine, too. “Are you getting any sleep?”
Inhaling deeply and then letting it out slowly, I glance over at Bea, who is still snoozing away in the stroller. I’m exhausted from putting on a brave face all the damn time. I wonder if Vi can tell how tired I am. Being strong for my kids is one thing, and I try my best to hide my grief away. Especially around Vi, Cal, and Scottie by trying to appear bubbly and happy, even if it’s just on the outside. I don’t want them to worry about me constantly.
Sometimes I think I’m hiding it well, and other times, I swear they can see right through me to every broken part. Like now.
“Honestly, not much. I think she’s teething; she’s been drooling like crazy.” I look over at Penny and Hollie. “I did finally get Penny back into her own bed, though, so that’s been a big help.”
“Is Dalton still having bad dreams?” she asks, her voice quiet.
I nod and lift one shoulder. “They seem to be getting less frequent. I know he misses Logan.” We watch my almost nine-year-old as he tosses baseballs up in the air and hits them across the open field before grabbing the bucket and heading out to pick them all back up and start again. “All these ‘firsts’ without him have been hard. Dalton’s birthday is next month and I don’t know how to make it easier for him, not having his dad here.” Tears burn my nose and fill my eyes and I blink them away quickly. “The way Dalton’s eyes lit up having Xander talk to him today… I know he needs a dad figure, but the thought of dating again is—” My words halt and I groan, letting my shoulders slump and my head tip back so I can stare up at the branches above us. The light breeze flutters the leaves and sunlight trickles through in dancing rays. “The thought of dating again is literally my worst nightmare, Vi.”
“I get it,” Vi sighs, leaning back against the bench and kicking her legs out in front of her, crossing her feet at the ankles. “After my divorce from Troy, I was so burnt out and exhausted. I had just moved, just started at the hospital, working twelve-hour shifts there and picking up moonlight shifts at the bar, trying to do everything on my own and single momming on top of it all. And then, enter Rowan fucking Kingsley.” She shakes her head, but she smiles over at me wryly. “It happens when we least expect it, though, right? I never thought I’d fall all over again for Rowan after he broke my heart.”
I nudge her shoulder and smile. “And here you are, all lovey and smitten and happy.”
“Meh, he’s alright,” she jokes, but I know she’s only teasing. She’s crazy about Rowan, and from what I’ve seen, he’s just as dopey over her, too.
“How is Hollie doing with custody time with Troy?” I ask. I know her ex-husband comes to see Hollie almost every Saturday. Violette had moved back home to Sky Ridge after they were separated for a year to be closer to her family, and to take the job at the hospital.
“She seems to be doing well, I think she can sense that I’m at peace here,” Vi says, casting her gaze over to her daughter. “She is just loving that she gets to see my parents more now that we’re here. And don’t get me started on how much she loves Rowan…”
“How is Rowan’s leg healing?” I ask. He had gotten injured in a fire earlier this season, falling into an ash pit and coming out with moderate burns on his leg. He ended up in the same hospital where Vi works as a burn unit nurse, and well, the rest was history.
