Page 30 of Meet Cute the Virgin

“You don’t know how to use your Taser!” I laugh, but I already know what she’s thinking.

I can imagine myself on a date while Teddy sits three tables away, wearing a giant hat and sunglasses trying to lookinconspicuous. Okay, maybe not the giant hat. A crown. It would be her version of being sneaky with a giant Russian man who grunts more than he talks. That won’t draw attention at all.

If this little town didn’t know Teddy and Killian were together, the cops would have been called, thinking he was out there casing the place. Being subtle isn’t a skill set either of them have.

The server comes by and takes our orders, and I find myself picking at the napkin again, shredding the edge into thin strips. I’ve been thinking about something for a little while now, and when I was messaging with M, it really stuck in my mind, probably because we were talking about our dads. I hadn’t asked him about his mom because I didn’t know how to answer about my own.

“I’ve been looking for my mom,” I say suddenly. Tossing that shit right on the table. I’ve been keeping it to myself in case it was one of those fleeting things.

Teddy’s head snaps up. “Your what?” She heard me.

“Egg donor? Or whatever she was or, well, is. You know my birth certificate says ‘unknown’ on it for the mother?”

“Really? Never seen that before, but I haven’t been inspecting people’s birth certificates.” Yeah, me neither. “She just like dropped you off at your dad’s, right? He didn’t even know she was pregnant.”

I nod. “I guess a one-night stand? Which sounds kind of right because I’ve never known my dad to date, so he was celibate.”

“Or doing it on the side, little horndog.”

“Horndog?” I laugh. “Where do you come up with this shit?”

Teddy shrugs. “Grams used that one a lot.” Of course she did.

“I’ve only poked around, but I’m not finding much.”

“We could hire a private eye,” Teddy suggests. “Or?—”

“We’re not being the private eyes.” I cut that off before it can start. We’re still on probation over the library incident.

“I have the coats for it.” She looks so disappointed by my refusal, but I know without a doubt that it would be a disaster.

“And it’s summer.”

“Fine,” she huffs. “Then, what?”

“Oh, what about those ancestry things you can take?”

“Yes! That’s brilliant. I’m going to have Killian pop into the pharmacy. I bet they have them. Then we can mail it while we’re still in town.”

“You’re not wasting any time, are you?”

Teddy clicks away on her phone before setting it back down. “Well, it seems my best friend has been thinking about this for a bit, so time was already wasted.”

“I was only thinking about it.”

Teddy’s face grows serious. “Are you doing this because you feel like the odd man out?”

“You’d never treat me that way.” We stop speaking when the server drops off our appetizer, fried cheese sticks.

“I didn’t say that; I asked ifyoufelt that way.”

“I don’t feel grounded, you know?”

“You’re still grieving. Don’t be rushing it.”

“He died a few years ago.”

“I meant Tristan, which I’m sure dug up inner feelings about your dad. Tristan is the one person in your life that knew your dad. He was your last connection to him. So it makes sense that you would be feeling this way.”