“I’m hungry,” Jonah said.
“I think we’ve hit our limit, if you’re good.”
“I’m great. This is awesome.” She ran her hand over Jonah’s head. “You did good, bud. You even got a bunch of stuff.”
“Dad told me I could have a new baseball glove if I didn’t complain too much.”
She laughed and gave him a look. “Nothing wrong with bribery. It worked.”
“I’m learning to go with what works more in my life now.”
It was the way she said it. The way his eyes washed over hers.
The tingles in her body.
The reactions he drew out of her.
Everything was happening so fast, but it was all good too.
“Then I’m ready to bring these to the car and get some food.”
“Do you want to come back in here to eat or go somewhere else?” he asked.
“Ask Jonah. He was such a good sport, I say it’s his choice.”
“Dave and Busters,” Jonah shouted.
“The king has spoken,” he said.
They walked to that restaurant in the mall after dropping off her clothes in his SUV.
They ate, they played video games and she laughed harder than she had in her life.
She really sucked at hand eye coordination, but watching Dean and Jonah together, she told herself there was nothing sexier than that.
A father bonding with their child.
She didn’t believe it was only because Jonah was his son.
She was positive Dean would be the same way if he had a daughter.
And when they were driving back to his house, he turned in the car and asked, “So what is going on with you lately?” he asked.
“What? What did I do?”
He laughed and shook his head. “That came out wrong. I guess we don’t get time like this together much. I was just having a conversation. Sometimes we talk about work and other times we talk about life in general. I was just asking if there was anything new.”
She looked behind her and saw Jonah’s head bobbing to the side, his eyes shut.
“Is he really sleeping?”
“Yeah. He got worn out. I’ll carry him to his room if he doesn’t wake up when we get back to my place.”
They weren’t even bringing her clothes home first.
She should have driven to his house and now realized he’d have to bring her back before Jonah went to bed. Unless Carly walked over to just stay in the house like she’d been watching Jonah for an hour before they went shopping.
“Oh. Aside from the fact that my boyfriend found out I’m a total dweeb at work.” He coughed on her words. “My mother called me last week.”
