Chapter 11
Dating as a parent was different, so it made sense that fake dating followed the same thread.
Not that Jessica had any experience with either.
She hadn’t dated anyone since Rob. Luckily, Sam hadn’t batted an eyelid when she told him Teddy was coming for dinner.
He’d just wanted to know if Teddy would fit in his little sandpit.
But what was she going to wear? Dresses were out because she’d never liked them, but was it considered poor form to just look like herself?
Would Teddy expect her to have dressed up?
She eyed her jeans and billowy grey shirt.
It wasn’t like she’d made no effort. She’d done her make-up, and that was certainly not normal.
Besides, Teddy was coming to her house for dinner, and there wouldn’t be an audience.
“Mummy!” Sam called from the backyard. “Come here!”
Jessica gave her curls one last scrunch and checked her reflection in the mirror. Her winged eyeliner was a bit wonky, but it’d have to do.
“Mummy! Something ran under the house!”
Please let it be a lizard. Snakes were a hard no, and possums might look cute, but they freaked her out. And, supposedly, they were a nightmare to get rid of if they got into the roof.
“Hang on, buddy. Don’t go near it. I’m on my way.
” She finished buttoning the front of her shirt and tied it in a knot at her waist. As she walked down the hallway past the kitchen, she swiped the torch from the ‘everything’ drawer.
The rich scent of tomatoes and herbs still lingered in the air thanks to the pasta sauce she’d made earlier while Sam was distracted.
If he knew how many vegetables were in it, there was no way he’d eat it.
Sam was waiting by the back door, a dump truck clutched in one fist and a spade in the other. He loved his clamshell of sand on the back verandah so much that Jessica sometimes referred to it as her au pair. Who cared if she was forever sweeping and vacuuming because sand? It got everywhere.
“Hurry!” he said.
Jessica stepped onto the already too-long-again grass, her feet sinking into the springy softness. “What kind of animal was it, bud?”
“Furry!”
Damn it.
“Which way did it go?”
Sam pointed towards the far corner, under the newly renovated bathroom. “Alright, let me see if I can figure out where it went.”
She crouched on the ground, turned the torch on and directed the beam of light underneath the cottage. A tree had fallen on the house the year prior, and when the builders had inspected the damage, they’d realised it also needed to be restumped.
Sam pressed his body against hers and held his hands up in front of his face like binoculars. “Listen.” His attempted whisper was too loud and too adorable. “It’s going ‘scratchy, scratchy, come find me.’”
It had to be a possum.
“Hello?” Teddy called from the side gate. “Jessica? Sam?”
“Shi-shkebabs.” She slipped sideways, stopping herself from swearing.
“That was almost a dollar,” Sam said.
“But it wasn’t.” She turned the torch off and rocked back on her heels before standing slowly.
“Jessica?”
“Hey!” She brushed her hands against the back of her jeans as she and Sam made their way across the yard. She undid the lock and pulled the gate open. “Sorry, we’ve been dealing with an unexpected dinner guest.”
“Sam, my man! How are you?” Teddy leant over so far he was practically at a right angle. “I heard you like dinosaurs.” He pulled a miniature Diplodocus out of the back pocket of his blue pants and held it out towards Sam, who lunged for it, pausing when Jessica cleared her throat.
“What do you say?” she prompted.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Teddy said, straightening.
“That was nice of you. Thank you,” Jessica said softly, choosing not to chastise Sam for tearing straight into the cardboard and dropping it on the ground. She’d make sure he cleaned up the rubbish later.
“Happy to do it. Besides, I want Sam to like me,” Teddy said, and his voice was so sincere it did things to her insides. Dangerous things.
Teddy coughed and pulled a small bunch of daisies out from behind his back. They were tied with a sunny yellow ribbon and a lopsided bow.
“What’s this?” she asked.
Wait. Was Teddy blushing? “I want you to like me too.”
Lordy. Those words in combination with his earnest eyes and shy smile? It was too much for her crush. Jessica was only human.
“I already do,” she murmured, expecting one of his easy smiles. Instead, something like surprise flickered across Teddy’s face, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared.
He coughed. “I didn’t know your favourite flower, so I guessed.”
“That’s easy. I don’t have one. You didn’t need to get those for me.”
Teddy frowned, and he looked so much like his mother that Jessica had to stifle a laugh. “Even I know it’s bad manners to show up to a date empty-handed, and I didn’t think you’d want a dinosaur.”
“Thank you, Teddy.”
“You’re welcome. You’ve got a little …” He gestured to her hair.
She patted her head but couldn’t feel anything.
“Here,” he said, plucking a twig out of her curls, and Jessica was struck by how strangely intimate the moment was, with the afternoon sun making Teddy’s skin more golden than ever and the sweet scent from the flowers Joan had planted along the fence.
This was … nice, at least until Sam blew a loud raspberry to get her attention and tugged on the back pocket of her jeans.
“Mum. The bunny!”
Oh, so now it was a rabbit? Jessica wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than a possum. What was she supposed to do with a bunny?
A strange sound emanated from under the house, and Jessica’s gaze snapped back to where Sam had seen the possum/rabbit disappear. What if the poor animal was hurt?
“What was that?” Teddy asked.
“There’s a bunny under there!” Sam pointed with his new toy.
“Or a possum,” Jessica said, her hand still clasped tightly around her daisies.
“Come, come! You too, Teddy.” Sam led them back over to where Jessica had dropped the torch.
When he started climbing under the house, Jessica grabbed him around the waist with her free hand, ignoring his squirms and protests.
If there was an injured animal under there, she didn’t want Sam to spook it and get hurt.
“Do you think you could help me find it?” Teddy asked Sam.
Sam stopped wiggling and nodded vigorously. Teddy picked up the torch and flicked it on. “Right, I’ve got a super important job for you. You’re going to be the captain of this rescue mission, Sam. Scoot back so you can sweep the light underneath the whole house.”
And ooof, there went her heart. Teddy was always dangerously handsome, but seeing him be so kind and patient with Sam? Jessica had to remember that they were playing pretend.
“Alright, Spotlight Sam, let’s see what we can find underneath here. Sunshine, you want to get in on this, too?”
“Sunshine?” She raised her eyebrows at Teddy. No one had ever called her that before.
“I’m trying something new. Figured you need a proper nickname if we’re going to do this properly.”
“And you didn’t want to go with the obvious option: Jess?”
“Nope. I’ve done some extensive research, and in order to sell this, it needs to be a name that only I can call you.”
“You’ve done ‘extensive research’?” She failed to keep the mirth out of her voice, but imagining Teddy reading Relationships for Dummies was impossible not to find endearing and entertaining.
“Owen calls Alice ‘honey’, and Nate calls Eloise ‘tiger’. Clearly, you need a special name.”
“And you don’t like …” Sawdust filled her mouth. She wasn’t about to suggest that Teddy call her ‘baby’ or something, was she? “Um, other generic names?”
“I thought about ‘babe’.” Teddy lay on his belly and pointed to where he wanted Sam to direct the torch.
Thank goodness he couldn’t see the effect his words were having on her because Jessica’s cheeks were heating up, and so was the rest of her body.
“But ‘babe’ is a throwaway name. I could’ve called a million girls that, and you, Sunshine, are the furthest thing from a throwaway girl.
It doesn’t have to be ‘Sunshine’ if you don’t like it. But I’m going to find one that you do.”
This time, he did look back at her. Jessica didn’t know what to do. She appeared to have lost the ability to speak, and her heart was pounding.
“Yeah,” Teddy said softly. “That’s the reaction I was hoping for.”
“Teddy!” Sam yanked the side of Teddy’s T-shirt. “There! See!”
“Great job, mate. Hold the light steady for me, yeah?” Teddy army-crawled forward, his torso disappearing under the house.
“Be careful!” Jessica sat next to Sam. Teddy’s ass was right there. In bad news for her already racing heart: it was so fantastic that it was like a solar eclipse. She knew she wasn’t supposed to stare directly at it, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Hello there, you little ball of fluff,” Teddy crooned to the mystery animal, and more of Jessica’s insides melted. At this rate, she was going to be a puddle before dinner.
“What is it?” she asked Teddy’s perfect ass.
“A little kitty cat.”
“What?” she said as Sam exploded with excitement. He’d been asking for a cat for the last two Christmases.
“Doesn’t seem hurt,” Teddy reported as he crawled further under the cottage. “Let me see if it’ll come to me.”
“Careful—it could be diseased!” Jessica cringed, but once a mum, always a mum.
“No collar, but I don’t think she’s more than a few weeks old. She’s very thin.”
Sam was already giving Jessica his best ‘please face’. “She must belong to someone,” she said gently, but it didn’t take a genius to see where this was going. “Imagine if you had a pet and you lost it. You’d be so sad, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes.” Sam’s attempt at an eye roll—which was looking up and then down—was as cute as it was exasperating. “But can we keep her?”
Teddy started making beeping noises, and Jessica was about to ask what he was doing when Sam dissolved in giggles next to her. “Teddy’s a truck! Beep, beep!”
“I’m glad someone got the reference,” Teddy said as he emerged with a tiny, fluffy lump of blue-grey fur curled up in the crook of his elbow. His long fingers stroked the white patch between its eyes.
“I want to hold her!” Sam held his hands out.
“Your mum’s right, mate. We need to get this kitty checked by the vet first.”
“Then can we keep her? Please? We could call her Dragon! Or Smoke! Or Blobby. Or Blue because she’s blue.”
Whatever her name was going to be, she was tiny. Was the poor thing even properly weaned from her mother? Speaking of which, where was the kitten’s mum? The idea of a poor mama cat looking for her lost little one had moisture pricking behind Jessica’s eyes. She blinked furiously.
“She’s very small,” Teddy said in a hushed tone once he was standing next to Jessica, and she didn’t miss the subtext in his words.
“She needs a vet tonight,” Jessica said, and damn it, her car was still in the shop.
“There’s one in the same building as the clinic. They’re usually open until eight. Let me give them a call.” Teddy pulled his phone out of his back pocket.
“Okay, Sam, I need you to listen to me. Teddy’s going to take the kitty to the animal doctor—”
“I’ll get my shoes!” This was a first. Sam was usually quite anti-shoe.
“They can see her in forty-five minutes. Do you have a towel and a box for her to travel in?”
Jessica led him into the kitchen and pointed at the dining table she’d cleared before he arrived.
“Let me find a towel.” She ducked into the small laundry off the kitchen. Two baskets of washing were sitting on top of the machines waiting to be folded, and she plucked a hand towel out of one.
When she returned to the kitchen, Teddy was staring at the stack of parcels she’d arranged neatly next to the back door.
“Fan of online shopping?” he asked, his brows furrowed.
“I do product reviews,” Jessica explained, finding a pair of scissors and reaching for the first box that would fit the kitty comfortably. She didn’t bother to check what it was. “It’s not a lot of money, but it all adds up.”
Teddy settled himself on one of the mismatched dining chairs she’d found on Gumtree. His hand coasted gently over the kitten’s back. The little thing was curled up against him in a way Jessica had definitely imagined for herself.
“How many jobs do you have exactly?” Teddy asked.
“Too many.” She sighed. “But that’s all going to change thanks to you.
” And her father. God, her life was so weird right now.
She dug through the packaging pellets in the box until she felt something soft.
Sam barreled back into the room wearing shoes that didn’t match, but that wasn’t a battle Jessica was interested in fighting, especially when Teddy’s eyes widened, his lips curling into a huge grin.
“What?” she asked him.
Teddy nodded to her hands, which were holding—Oh for God’s sake. Jessica’s entire being turned red—fluffy pink handcuffs.
“I can’t wait to find out more about the products you test, Sunshine.”
Sam nudged Teddy. Her little boy’s face was so serious. “Those aren’t for playing cops and robbers. Or show and tell. We don’t talk about the packages.”
“Like fight club?” Teddy snickered.
“What’s fight club?” Sam asked.
“Nothing,” Teddy and Jessica said in unison.
“We’d better go,” Teddy said.