Chapter Eight Dominic
Chapter Eight
Dominic
W hat the hell is Amanda doing coming home at eleven o’clock at night? Dominic thought as he watched out the front window of his living room while her car came up their shared driveway then veered toward her house.
Sure enough, her car sidled to a stop in front of her garage and then turned off. A moment later, the driver’s side door opened, and a woman’s figure stepped out into the night. The motion-detector lights on the garage shot on, and Dominic saw that it was, in fact, Amanda.
He wasn’t trying to be creepy or anything, but he decided it was probably time to check on the potted pine tree on his front porch to make sure that it had been watered recently. His newest roommate—the kitten he’d now named Tom—was adamant about going with him, so he just slipped him into the front pocket of his jacket.
“Dominic?” Amanda called out from her driveway as he not-so-inconspicuously poured a cup of water into the soil pot. “What are you doing out here so late?”
He looked up at her with as innocent of a face as he could muster—like he’d had no idea that she was there at all. “Amanda? What are you doing out so late?”
She crossed the small patch of grass and row of sunflowers between their houses and walked up the two steps to his front porch, leaning her arm against the railing. Her face was flushed, and she looked like she’d just been out exercising or something. Either way, she looked like she was on cloud nine.
“I just had the best day,” she informed him, unsolicited.
Every nerve ending in his body seemed to come alive, and he felt a frustration bubbling up in his gut that shouldn’t even be there. Why was he so upset at the idea of her having a good day? He wasn’t, but maybe it was the way she’d said it that he couldn’t help but think someone was the reason for her good day.
And it wasn’t him.
“I got a new job,” she continued. “And it could potentially lead to my own business.”
He felt his nerves deflate a little. “A new job? Oh, I was thinking you were about to say you’d been on a great date or something.”
Amanda laughed, then pointed at him. “Actually, I was just on a date. It was good. I don’t know if I’d say great . But he was decent I guess.”
The buzzing bees of jealousy in his gut began swarming again. “You were on a date?”
“Gerry,” Amanda confirmed. “He’s divorced with a young kid and works over in Grand Haven as a contractor for an engineering firm. The really buttoned up type—has every duck in a row.”
“Good for Gerry,” Dominic replied, though nothing about his tone agreed with his words.
“Yeah, it is,” Amanda agreed. “But I don’t know if that’s for me. I don’t have ducks in any sort of row. I have squirrels, and they’re chasing each other in circles in the attic and occasionally giving people rabies.”
Dominic let out a laugh and shook his head. “Relatable.”
Tom decided that that was the perfect moment to make his presence known and popped his head out of Dominic’s pocket with a loud, high-pitched meow.
Amanda’s eyes widened as she looked down and spotted the kitten. “I didn’t know you had a cat!”
“I don’t,” Dominic replied. “I just found this guy today at the hardware store, and I’m taking care of him until I can figure out where he belongs.”
Amanda cooed at the kitten and reached her hands out to him. “Oh my gosh, he’s so cute. Look at the little white spots over his eyes.”
“I named him Tom,” Dominic told her as he scooped him up and handed the kitten to Amanda.
She immediately kissed Tom’s head and rolled him over in her hands. “That’s such a weird name for a female cat, but I love it.”
“Tom’s a girl?” Dominic had absolutely no idea. “How do you know that?”
Amanda laughed as she pointed to Tom’s underside. “Usually, the complete lack of a penis is a dead giveaway.”
He looked where she was pointing, but it still wasn’t apparent to him. “I don’t know what a cat penis looks like.”
“I’d be concerned if you did,” Amanda joked. “And to be honest, you don’t want to. Male cats have like barbed wire penises so the female cat can’t get away before they plant their seed.”
Dominic’s eyes widened. “Are you joking right now?”
“Nope.” Amanda shook her head. “I’m being deadass serious. It’s why if you hear cats mating, it sounds like someone is getting murdered.”
“That’s the worst science fact I’ve ever heard in my life,” he informed her. “I literally could have gone my entire life without knowing that.”
“The privilege of being uninformed and male.” Amanda grinned at him, and he could tell that she was being lighthearted even though she probably meant exactly what she’d said.
Dominic struggled to find a way to respond to that. “Well, I can tell you for a fact that I am well-informed about the human penis, and it’s nothing like that.”
She lifted one brow. “You’re well-informed about human penises? How progressive of you.”
“I mean, not in a weird way.” He tried to backtrack because he wasn’t sure what the hell he’d been thinking when he said that. “Or a gay way. Not that I’m homophobic. I love gay men.”
Amanda’s brows lifted, and he could tell she was fighting a smile. “You love them, huh?”
“Shit. This is really not coming out right.” Dominic could feel his face flushing and his cheeks heating. “What I meant was—”
Amanda lifted a hand as she cuddled Tom against her chest with the other hand. “Relax, Dominic. I understand what you mean. Straight men get so weird and uncomfortable when anyone mentions a penis.”
He had no planned response to that. “Well, uh… I guess I need to rename Tom.”
She shook her head. “Don’t you dare. Tom is a great name for the little lady.” A few quiet moments passed between them before she placed Tom down on the porch floor and kneeled next to her. She was the one to finally break the ice again. “This was my first date in years.”
“Really?” He hadn’t expected that. Not that he thought she was out there dating 24-7, but Amanda was drop-dead gorgeous and there was no way any breathing male in this town hadn’t noticed that. “How was it?”
She shrugged her shoulders as she ran a finger down Tom’s back in a gentle caress. “It was okay. Not my soulmate, you know? But I promised my friends I’d get out there and try this summer. I have three other dates with different people lined up.”
He tried to squash the feeling of lava churning in his gut. “Three?”
Amanda nodded. “Yeah, just people I met off a dating app. And technically, I did tell Gerry tonight that I’d be open to seeing him again. Which I am. I wasn’t lying. I just…”
She let her words trail off for the longest moment of his life, and Dominic found himself hoping she’d say how ugly or boring or stupid Gerry was and that she never wanted to see the slob again in her life.
Poor Gerry.
“I just think I don’t know what I want,” Amanda finally finished. “Or maybe I do know what I want, but I don’t think it exists out there.”
“What do you mean?” he asked. “It’s a pretty big world. There’s someone out there for everyone.”
“Is there someone out there for you?” Amanda asked, gesturing toward the house. “You moved here alone, and I haven’t seen any sign of a wife or girlfriend—or male partner, sorry—moving here with you.”
Dominic laughed. “If I were dating, it would be with a woman. But actually, I’m divorced. Recently.”
“Oh.” Amanda looked down at her hands. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be,” he assured her. “Melinda and I were college sweethearts, and we really grew apart the older we got. Or maybe we were never a good match to begin with, and time just made that more apparent. The more I got into sports, the more she got into anything but. Once my sports career ended, I thought, for a brief moment, that might reunite us, but I think it was too far gone at that point. We just wanted different things, and I was in such a bad place after the injury that I had no interest in putting in any effort with her.”
Amanda nodded her head like she understood.
Dominic couldn’t believe he’d shared all that. It was a wild amount of information to give someone who was still a relative stranger. Sure, they were neighbors for the last two weeks, but he’d just told her that he’d given up on his marriage and failed his wife. Not being the person she’d needed still left a pit in his gut, as he felt guilty for everything he put her through. She’d given him her entire youth, and he’d just kind of let her go along with everything else.
He couldn’t help but also wonder about Amanda’s relationship history and if she’d ever been married before. After all, he hadn’t seen any man at her cottage since he’d moved in, either.
“You’re still friends?” Amanda asked.
He nodded. “I hope so. I’d like to think so. She’s dating someone new now.”
“Do you like him?”
Dominic wanted to say no immediately, but something inside him felt more open to the idea than he expected. “I honestly haven’t met him and don’t know anything about him. If Melinda likes him, though, he must be a good guy.”
Amanda smiled, and he could tell he’d given the right answer, though he didn’t know why.
“I can help, you know,” Dominic continued, even though he immediately wanted to tell himself to stop talking. “With your next few dates, I mean.”
She looked as utterly unconvinced as he felt. “How can you help with my dates?”
“Not on the dates,” he tried to course correct. What the hell was he even talking about? “I mean, like after the dates. Like right now. I can debrief with you. Help you weigh the pros and cons and figure out what you want. You said you weren’t sure, and I could be an impartial third party.”
“Impartial, huh?” The unconvinced look was still clearly on her face.
Dominic looked away. “I’ll prove it. Tell me about Gerry.”
She paused for a moment, like she was weighing the decision. Finally, though, she started talking.
“He’s originally from Minnesota,” Amanda began, but now she was looking off into the dark night sky instead of at him. “Really close with his parents and older sister. A family man, for sure. He’s ready to settle down and wants to have more children. Has a good job, owns his own house. All the things you’d want in a man.”
“If that’s the case, why do I get the feeling that that isn’t all you want?” Dominic asked.
She cleared her throat and finally returned her gaze to him. “It’s what I’m supposed to want.”
“But what does that mean?” he pressed further. “Everyone wants something different.”
“Maybe,” she agreed half-heartedly. “But I’m thirty-three and a single woman. I was supposed to want a husband, children, and all of that two years ago. Now my ovaries probably just blow out dust.”
He laughed at the mental image. “I mean, that’s one version of what people want. It’s not what everyone wants. For example, I don’t want children.”
“You don’t?” She looked surprised, though he wasn’t sure why that was particularly shocking news. “You don’t want to be a father?”
Dominic felt himself getting defensive for a moment but tried to push those feelings away. “I mean, not really? Is that bad? I’m thirty-nine years old, and if I were to have a kid right now, I’d be sixty when they graduate high school. Nothing wrong with that, but I don’t think I want to be playing catch with a kid at the same time I’m planning for retirement. Plus, these next twenty years are my time. Baseball was a huge responsibility, and, as much as I miss it, I didn’t get to do a lot for myself during those years. If I had kids, I’d just be giving up the rest of my life to another responsibility, and I don’t think I want that for myself, or for a kid.”
There was also the matter of losing his sight in the future, but he wasn’t about to bring up another traumatic topic like that right now. This conversation was about her, and he wanted to give her the space to explore her own needs instead of continually trauma dumping on her.
She nodded like that made complete sense. “Honestly, that’s such a refreshing take. You don’t hear that often these days. Everyone around me has kids already or is having kids. It just feels like this pressure I can’t get away from.”
“Well, you can get away from it here,” he promised. “This house is a kid-free zone.”
“But not a kitten-free zone,” Amanda joked, pointing to Tom, who was now chewing on one of the leaves of a potted plant on Dominic’s porch, smaller than the one he was still pretending to water.
“Baby felines don’t count,” he teased back. “Human babies, absolutely not.”
“So you think I shouldn’t see Gerry again, then?” Amanda asked after a quiet moment passed between them.
Dominic shrugged, because that wasn’t really a question he could answer. He was happy to help her think about it, though, because even if there was a pit of jealousy in his chest, he’d never be the type to sabotage her—or anyone’s—experiences. “Do you want children? Do you want to settle down? Do you want all the things he said he wants?”
“Not if I’m being honest,” she admitted, though her voice was quieter now. It was the first time he’d ever heard a timidness to her tone. “I love being an aunt, and I think that might be enough for me. I also feel like… I already have settled down.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
Amanda pointed toward her cottage and then past it toward the lake. “The Sunflower Cottage was my life’s dream. Still is. I’m living my dream. I don’t want to leave here.”
He stared in the direction she was looking, and even though it was dark, he could still see the stars and moon reflecting on the lake’s surface. It lit up the entire area in a way the light pollution in Detroit never allowed for. He could understand her impulse to not want to leave a view like that.
“Then I guess it’s about building the life you want here, in your home,” he finally replied. “Maybe that’s not with Gerry, but from the looks of the other night, you’ve already got a great family around you.”
Amanda smiled in a warm, nostalgic way. “My chosen family is everything I could have ever dreamed of. You should meet them more formally sometime, honestly. Nola’s husband’s birthday barbecue is next weekend. You should come.”
Dominic frowned. “You don’t think they’d be confused as to why a complete stranger is showing up?”
“Absolutely not,” she assured him. “You can be my date! Evan will lose his ever-loving mind that I brought a former major leaguer. There will probably be plenty of people there I don’t know, either. Tanner is pretty popular around this area, and people tend to come out in droves to anything he’s at—much to his chagrin.”
“He’s not the social type?” Dominic asked.
Amanda shook her head. “Not really. Kind of like you, to be honest. I think you guys would get along pretty well. Both just a bit grumpy and sullen with a permanent knitted brow.”
Dominic laughed out loud. “You think I’m grumpy?”
“Not grumpy grumpy, just like… unapproachable grumpy,” she clarified.
“Oh, great. That’s so much better.” He shook his head again and scooped up Tom from the ground, petting him on the top of his head. “Glad to know I’m giving off those vibes.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, no one in Heart Lake pays attention to stuff like that, so this is kind of perfect for you,” she teased, pushing back up onto her feet and walking down the porch steps. “Heart Lake has zero boundaries and will blow right past your walls, whether you like it or not.”
“Something to look forward to,” he replied sarcastically. “Send me the details for the barbecue. I guess I’ll be your date.”
“Then I can tell Nola I checked off my second date.” She grinned at him. “Although I have an actual date beforehand—a lunch date. Not with Gerry. This is a guy named Stone. So we can debrief after at the party. It’s perfect timing.”
He felt his stomach sink in his gut. “Right. Sure. Yeah, perfect timing. Good luck with… Stone.”
What the heck kind of name was that?
“Thanks!” She waved a hand and headed back in the direction of her house.
Dominic waited until she was inside and the door closed securely behind her before he and Tom returned inside as well. If he were being honest with himself, he was actually looking forward to the barbecue and spending more time around Amanda and the people she cared about.
But right after she’d gone on another date with another man? That part he could do without.
He still couldn’t figure out why any of her dates bothered him so much, but there was no doubt that the feeling in his stomach was jealousy. And the more he admitted that to himself, the more he began to consider not going to that interview in New Jersey…