“Don’t even joke about that.” Heath punched him in the arm.
Mike laughed, which only irritated him more. “Just saying. You’ve sewn a lot of oats. Eventually, those oats take root and grow.”
“Not mine. I’m careful.” He didn’t want kids and took every precaution to avoid making them. He didn’t want some woman finding him years later, demanding child support or demanding he be a father. So, he always gloved up and never came inside a woman just as an added measure. Not that he was going to tell Mike all that.
“Anyway, we’re getting off topic. We we’re talking about your lady.”
“No, we weren’t, because there’s nothing to talk about. Whether other women of my past had kids or not, is irrelevant. I’m not dating someone with a kid plain and simple, especially one who lied about it.”
Mike’s face stretched into a giant grin.
“What?” Heath asked irritated. He loved Mike like a brother, but he was close to punching him in the face.
“You said date. I’ve never heard you use that word before.”
Had he? He didn’t remember saying it. “Dating, seeing. It’s all the same. Regardless, I found out she has a kid, and I walked away.” Told her it wouldn’t work out, but same difference.
“So, you’re done with her? Moving on?” Mike raised a skeptical brow.
“Completely.” Was he? Yes. “I don’t date liars.”
So, where does that leave us?
“Like I said, idiot. You’re not getting any younger, Heath. In a couple years, we’ll retire and then what? The other guys are starting to settle down, having kids, and starting a new chapter in their lives. It’s time to grow up. You can’t flit from woman-to-woman the rest of your life.”
“Want to bet?” He said just to disagree. Heath was already getting tired of sleeping with different women all the time, but that didn’t mean he was ready to settle down.
Don’t get him wrong, he was happy for his friends. Glad they were settling down. Yeah, Cora was the first to get pregnant, but soon, more would follow. One day, it would just be him. Always the odd man out.
“You want to be that old timer still trying to pick up ladies at the bar?”
Honestly, no, but not that he had thought that far ahead. In his line of work, nothing was a guarantee. It’s why he didn’t want to settle down yet. He wanted to live like it was his last. “Maybe.” Heath said just for argument sake.
“Heath, you can lie to me all you want, but you know the truth. You don’t want to be alone anymore now that you met someone worth taking the chance for, and it scares you.”
He wasn’t far from the mark. While Heath wasn’t ready to settle down, he didn’t want to die alone. He assumed one day he’d get to the point of finding a girl and marry her, but he just wasn’t in a hurry to do it. No one knew of his commitment issues and his hang-ups about kids, because his own shitty childhood, except for Olivia. Not only that, but with never knowing when he was leaving, where, or when he’d come back. It wouldn’t be fair to do that to a spouse or kid. He’d heard of guys missing the beginning of their child’s life, because they were deployed. He didn’t want to be another one.
“Fine, keep being stubborn about it. Eventually, you’ll pull your head out of your ass and realize this woman is perfect for you. I’ve never seen you as happy, as I have this past week. It was like seeing a whole other side of you. I just hope you wake up, before she finds someone else who isn’t hung up over a kid. A kid that would be lucky to have someone like you in their life.” With saying his final peace, Mike slid out of his stool and left Heath to his thoughts.
Was he being an idiot and getting hung up over a kid?
A kid that would be lucky to have someone like you in their life.
What did Mike mean by that? He wasn’t good with kids. Had never really been around them. Heath didn’t know how to talk to kids. Talking to his teammates and women were completely different. How do you talk to kids? No kid would be lucky to have him around.
Whatever. Mike didn’t know what he was talking about. It was time to move on to another woman. That would pull him from his sulking mood and get back to normal. Olivia was just another in the long list of women.
So what, they never got to have sex. So what, her kisses rocked his world, and he would find himself comparing every woman to her. He could still feel the tingling on his lips from where they touched last. Could hear her moans, when he made her come with his hand and mouth. Heath could get the same feeling from another woman, and he would prove it to Mike. That Olivia wasn’t different, and that she wasn’t the one. She was just another woman passing through his life.
Heath turned in his stool, looking around for his next conquest. His gaze landed on a woman with long, blonde hair. No, she wouldn’t do. He didn’t want someone looking like Olivia. He needed a brunette or a redhead. Anything opposite of Olivia.
There. A brunette sitting with her friends, and wouldn’t you know it, she was checking him out. Heath put on his easy grin and tipped his beer to her. The woman raised her own drink in salute to him, before tipping the drink to her lips, while staring at him. It was all the encouragement Heath needed.
Heath made his way over to her. Her smile brightened, when she saw him approaching. “Evening, ladies. Mind if I join you?”
“Please,” she purred.
Heath pulled up a chair next to the brunette, as her friend on the other side of her sidled in close, caging him in. As customary, his gaze looked around the table, clocking ring fingers. Only two didn’t have one. The brunette he had his eye on and her friend next to her. He had another strict policy of never encroaching on a married woman. No crazy husbands chasing after him, thank you. “What a lucky man I am to find such beautiful women tonight.”
