Shaking his arm loose, he stepped forward and laced his hand with Chelsea’s. “Dina, this is my wife, Chelsea. Chelsea, this is Dina Bannon. She works at headquarters with me.”
A little sound came from Dina’s mouth, but when he glanced at her, she had smoothed her features into something fairly pleasant.
“And we’re friends. Good friends.” Dina’s buttery smile slid their way.
“We’ll let you get that nail thing done, Dina. See you Monday.” Thanking Rhonda, he took Jordan from Chelsea and carried her with one arm and wrapped his other one around his wife.
His wife. It felt strange to say that but good. Maybe he needed to keep saying it.
Once on the street, he lowered their daughter to the ground and took her hand, while entwining his other into Chelsea’s. They walked in silence for a few minutes, then Chelsea paused.
“Why was that woman glaring daggers at me, Theo?”
“Daggers? That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”
Her head tilted. “If looks could kill, I’d be bleeding out all over the sidewalk right now. Who is she?”
He shrugged. “She’s my boss’s secretary, so I see her often.”
“See her? As in dating?” Her hand disengaged from his, and the corners of her mouth pinched.
“No, not like that.”
“It’s okay, Theo. If you dated. I mean you thought I was gone, right? And it’s been years.”
Glancing around, he shook his head. The streets weren’t crowded. Even so, this wasn’t the place for this discussion.
“We’re going to talk about this soon. Not here. But, for the record, I’m a married man and have never done anything to break my marriage vows.”
As they meandered down the street toward the car, he had to wonder. Ithadbeen a number of years, and he’d never looked at another woman since Chelsea had left. Could she say the same?
She’s out cold.”
Chelsea glanced into the back seat. Jordan’s head lolled over to one side, her thumb in her mouth, eyes closed. It had been a long and busy day.
“Does she usually take a nap in the afternoon?” she asked. It was a little after four. Wasn’t it sad that a mother didn’t know this about her child?
“The school says she naps most days for a short while. Usually about one o’clock. At home, not so much, unless she’s had a busy day like today. The car will do it, too.”
“Will she still sleep tonight? You know, because it’s so late in the afternoon.”
Theo steered to the side of the Park Loop Road and pulled into a spot next to a bench overlooking the ocean. “She won’t go down at the regular time, most likely. But it’s a weekend and there’s no school tomorrow, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Do you think we should wake her up? I mean, so she’ll go to bed on time.” She loved putting Jordan to bed. However, since they had picked her up today, Chelsea would have to be dropped off while Jordan was still up. Why hadn’t she thought of that earlier?
Theo drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “I wanted to use this time for us to talk.”
Talk. What about? Why he hadn’t wanted her? This lady Dina, who obviously didn’t like her but was enamored with Theo? Something worse? Better?
“I guess.”
Theo opened the window near Jordan a few inches, then pressed the button to put his all the way down. “Let’s go sit on the bench outside. We can catch the last of the sun before it gets too chilly.”
“What if Jordan wakes up?” Or if he wanted to talk about something she couldn’t handle?
“The bench is literally next to her window. We’ll hear her. She’ll be fine.”
But would Chelsea? Opening her door, she got out and gently closed it. Maybe she should slam it, so Jordan would wake up and they could postpone their chat.
