Chapter 13 #2
I relaxed a little. “Okay.”
“Are you planning to stay in Dragonfly Lake long-term?”
“My career will dictate that to some extent. If I could get a position at the high school…” This fall was likely out, but next year I’d be ready to get back in the classroom. “I’m starting to love the town. I’d like to make it work.”
“This place is like that. It left an impression on me when I was a kid. I came back.” He busied himself prepping a salad while the chicken cooked. “That’s a long-term concern. More pressing is how we’ll handle work and town gossip. We’ll need to level with Holden and Chloe.”
“Of course.”
“Which means it’ll become common knowledge. Which means we’ll have our day on the gossip train. Can you handle that?”
I shrugged. “It is what it is. We had a fling. I won’t apologize for it.”
With a smile, he looked at me and said, “I like your guts.”
“We should tell our bosses sooner rather than later.”
“I agree, but first…”
“Your daughter,” I guessed.
“Yeah,” he said on an exhale. “That’s not going to be fun.”
“It’s a firsthand lesson on the odds of getting pregnant,” I said sympathetically.
“It is that. I haven’t had any relationships since her mother died. So she’ll have to face that her dad had sex, as well as the prospect of becoming a half sister.”
“That’s a lot to swallow at fourteen.”
“I don’t want her to hear it from someone else.”
“That would be bad.”
“I need some time to figure out how to break it to her.”
“I won’t be showing for several weeks.”
“You’ll sign up for health insurance right away?” He put precooked pasta in the microwave.
“Already done.”
Again he met my gaze. “Thank you.”
“It’s a relief,” I told him. “I never intended to not have insurance, but when my Gram was no longer able to be by herself, my life kind of blew up.”
My stomach gurgled with uneasiness as Chance set a large salad in front of me then followed it with a plate of steaming chicken and pasta. I wasn’t sure if it was the food or the emotions that aroused the hint of nausea.
“She was lucky to have you,” he said as he took the stool next to me and pulled his own plate close.
I felt that oh-so-familiar swelling in my throat.
“I was lucky to have her first.” I shoved a bite of salad in my mouth to give myself a few seconds.
As I chewed, I battled down the fresh wave of emotions.
By the time I swallowed, I could say more without my voice wavering. “She took me in when my parents died.”
“You said they were in an accident?”
“They’d saved up for the honeymoon of their dreams. It’d been seven years since they got married. They finally got to go to Hawaii. They went on one of those helicopter tours of the islands, and their helicopter crashed.”
“Jesus. That’s awful.” He took another bite and chewed. Eventually he said, “Losing a parent is damn hard no matter how old you are. Both at once?” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine.”
“Did you lose yours?”
“No. They live in Missouri. We’re not close. But Sam… I’ve seen what losing her mom did to her. I sometimes wonder if she’d be less…lost if her mom was still alive.”
“That’s hard to say. Impossible to prove,” I said. “Teenagers are dealing with so much even if they have a solid family life.”
“I know that. I just wonder how I can do better, be more for her. Kissing her boo-boos when she was little was one thing. Filling in for her mother now?” He shook his head. “I’m fucking drowning.”
As we ate, he told me about Sam’s friend struggles and how he’d found her at the beach with boys and alcohol.
“Those ‘friends’ dumped her,” he said between bites of chicken.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You’re torn between being pissed at the kids for hurting your daughter and relieved she’s no longer friends with them.”
“That sums it up. She stayed home all weekend. She seems sad. The only good thing is that she let me comfort her Thursday night. That hasn’t happened for months.”
“Those kids weren’t the right ones for her.”
“I know that, and you know that,” he said.
“She probably knows it too.”
He nodded and shoved his empty plate and bowl away. I did the same, though I’d only eaten half of it.
“You’re not hungry?” he asked. “Or you didn’t like it?”
“I liked it,” I said in a rush. “It was really good, but my stomach is wobbly lately.”
“Morning sickness?”
“Morning sickness, yes. Smell-of-food sickness, yes. It comes and goes throughout the day. The heavier the food, the more likely it is to bring on nausea.”
“My wife had the round-the-clock nausea,” he said sympathetically. “The upside is that it’s a sign of a healthy pregnancy.”
I’d read that too. “I appreciate you cooking for me. It really was tasty…until that flip of the stomach.”
Chance stood, went around the counter to the sink, and rinsed off both plates. He placed them in the dishwasher as I drank the rest of my water.
“Come with me,” he said. I must’ve given him a puzzled look, because he added, “I’ll show you around.”
The main floor had two steps down to a family room, plus a half bath, a formal living room, and a dining room he’d turned into an office.
Following him up the stairs to the second level, I felt weird. Like, why did I need to see the private parts of his house? But I couldn’t deny—to myself only—I was curious to lay eyes on his bedroom.
He showed me his room first, just opened the door to the master and allowed me a peek in, as if that was not his objective, but I couldn’t figure out what was.
My too-short glance in showed me dark gray walls, lots of wood, and creams and grays for the bedding. It was masculine but cozy. I wouldn’t mind getting wrapped up in those sheets.
Stop it, Rowan.
I darted my gaze away as if I hadn’t given any extra thought to the place he slept. Did he sleep naked?
No, no, no.
The temperature seemed to climb, and my face felt flushed.
“Sam used to have this room,” he said, leading me past a bathroom to the other side of the stairway, where there were two doors.
Sam’s was the one directly across from his room, but it was mostly empty.
“The basement is her kingdom now, which might be a mistake. I don’t know.
Who the hell ever knows? Parenting is a mind fuck. ”
“Sign me right up for that, please,” I said dryly.
He grinned. “Fasten your seat belt.”
He ran his hand down my back in a brief but intimate touch. I pretended not to notice, but oh, did I notice.
“This is the infrequently used guest room.” He opened the door to the last bedroom.
Inside was a comfortable-looking room with a queen bed, a nightstand, a window seat, and a dresser along one wall. The bed was covered by a thick navy-blue comforter and multiple pillows.
“Your infrequent guests are lucky,” I said, thinking there was nothing about his house that screamed bachelor pad. It was homey with more of a family feel.
“I’m glad you think so. I know you’re looking for a place to live. We’ve got plenty of space here, so…would you like to move in?”