Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
GRANT
“Are you going to be okay tonight?”
“Yeah.”
Luke doesn’t look up from his video game.
“Hey.” I pat him on the shoulder, trying to get his attention, but he doesn’t acknowledge me. “Dinner’s in the fridge, okay? Leftover eggplant parmesan. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Okay.”
“Love you, bud.”
No response.
Jesus.
I don’t know if I’m ready to deal with this for the next however many years. He’s fourteen. How long is this going to last?
Grabbing my keys, I head out to meet Georgia. After she dropped the baby news, she gave me the out. It didn’t take me as long as I thought it would to decide I’m in. I don’t need the out she gave me.
Did I ever think I’d be raising another kid? No.
Especially considering how badly I’m doing with the first one, I don’t know why she wants me around. Somehow, I feel the need to impress her that I am a good dad, despite the fact that my kid stays in his room twenty hours a day and doesn’t say more than three words to me a day.
But I want to be a part of their life. Hell, even a part of Georgia’s, however she’ll take me.
The drive is short to the Pancake Emporium. Same place as last time. Maybe this time we’ll actually get around to ordering dinner.
Finding a parking spot, I take a few deep breaths. Considering neither of us really knows much about each other, I’m glad we will get the chance to know each other better.
When I walk into the cool air conditioning of the restaurant, Georgia is again waiting for me. She looks less nervous this time.
Her blonde hair brushes her shoulders. A Loggers T-shirt stretches out across her chest. I’ve now seen her so many different ways, but I have to say, this relaxed look is my favorite.
“Hey.”
I slide into the booth across from her.
“Hey. Thanks for coming,” she says. “I’m glad we can do this.”
“I’m glad we’re doing this together.”
“About that,” she starts. “What are we?”
“What do you want to be?”
“Friends?” It comes out as more of a question.
“Only friends?”
“I don’t think we can be anything more right now,” she answers. “You just moved here. Would starting a relationship really be the smartest thing to do?”
“Right. Friends.” I smile at her. “This might be the weirdest friendship I’ve ever had though.”
“I’m your first friend that you knocked up?”
“Yes,” I deadpan. “I can honestly say it’s never happened before.”
“I guess I should feel special.”
A brief flash of something passes in her eyes before it’s gone.
“You two are back.” The waitress from the other night walks up to our table. “Everything okay at home?”
“Home?” I ask.
“I said you had to get home to your son the other night,” Georgia responds.
“Oh, yeah. Teenagers, you know.”
She shakes her head. “My kids are grown. Glad those days are behind me.”
I wince. “Mine is fourteen. I’m in the thick of it.”
She pats me on the shoulder. “Good luck. That’s all I can say.”
“Thanks.”
“Now, the usual tonight, Georgia?”
“That’d be great, Amy. And an extra side of home fries too.”
“You got it. For you?”
This Amy person turns her attention to me.
“I’ll take the chocolate chip and banana stack with a side of bacon and a Coke, please.” I smile up at her and hand the plastic menu back to her.
“Good choice,” Georgia says. “The chocolate chip are amazing.”
“Why didn’t you get them then?” I cross my arms and lean back in the booth.
“Because the Nutella and banana pancakes are even better.” The corner of her mouth quirks up.
“Care to share them when they come?”
“Hmm, maybe.” Georgia’s blue eyes rake over me, and I notice the way they linger over my biceps.
I grabbed the first clean shirt hanging in my closet. It definitely shows off some of my finer assets. I like that she’s looking.
“Maybe? Why only maybe?”
“Since we’re here to get to know one another, I’ll share a bite for everything you share about yourself.”
I grin at her. “Then I guess I already get a bite.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I told you about my son.” I cock a brow at her. “That’s sharing something.”
“I feel like that’s too easy. I already knew this about you.”
“You didn’t say it had to be hard. If you want hard, I’ll tell you all about parenting a teenage boy.”
Her eyes go wide. “Okay, maybe let’s not go that hard. I don’t want to be scared off of my kid before he’s even here.”
“He?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I have a feeling.”
“Will you be upset if it’s a girl?” I ask.
“Oh, not at all. Being a girl, I know how to handle one.”
“Then you’ll need to teach me a thing or two in that case,” I say.
Our drinks are dropped off and Amy smiles at us before leaving.
Georgia stabs her straw against the table and pulls it out of the wrapper before putting it in her drink. Her fingers toy with the trash. “This is weird, right?”
I sip my own drink, letting the bubbles soothe the nerves I’m feeling. “Yeah.”
“Is it going to get easier?”
“Once we get to know each other? I think so. Why don’t you tell me where you grew up?” I ask.
“Born and raised in Pinecrest. I’ve never lived anywhere else other than during college. Where’d you move from?”
“LA.”
“That’s quite the change.”
“It’s nice being able to get across town in ten minutes.”
Georgia smiles at me. “I visited LA once after college. I liked it, but home is in Pinecrest.”
I nod. “Hopefully I’ll get there soon. Me and Luke.”
“I don’t think I met him.”
“If you did, I’m sorry.” I laugh.
“Why sorry?”
“Because if he was one of the kids that ruined your dress, I’ll feel bad.”
“We at least know one thing we won’t let our kid do.”
“Play baseball or spill spaghetti on people?”
“The spaghetti one. Although, I’m sure he’ll make a mess of himself trying to eat it.” She laughs.
“And in turn, you. The joys of parenthood,” I say. “I’m hoping they’ll want to at least try baseball.”
“I take it Luke isn’t interested?”
“God, no.” I wince. “He’s been buried in his phone or video games since we got to town.”
“I don’t think I was a lot of fun at fourteen either.”
“Really? I can’t imagine that.”
“I mean, are any teenagers fun? Too many hormones and pimples to deal with. He’ll come around,” Georgia says.
Two heaping plates of food are dropped off. My mouth waters at the stack of pancakes, oozing with chocolate. “Damn. This looks delicious.”
Georgia is already cutting into her pancakes and stuffing her mouth. The moan that escapes is borderline indecent. It shouldn’t have my dick perking up and taking notice, but it does.
“I know I said I’d share, but I don’t know if I can.”
I shovel a piece in my mouth and fuck, I agree. These are just as good as she said they would be.
“Maybe we should make this place a weekly date.”
“I thought we decided on being friends,” Georgia says.
“Like a get to know each other kind of thing,” I clarify. “I don’t think we can learn everything about each other in one night.”
She grabs the napkin and wipes her mouth. “I have my first appointment next week. Why don’t we start there?”
“Okay. Send me the details. I’ll make it work.”
Georgia smiles. “I will.”
“Tell me something you’re scared of,” I say, going back to our earlier conversation.
“Again with the hard questions.” She shakes her head. “Failing my students. I never want them to leave feeling worse than when they came. Their life is already hard enough, and I don’t want to add to it.”
Smiling at her, I lean back in the booth and cross my arms. “You already sound like you’ll be a good mom. Worried about kids that aren’t even yours.”
“What about you? What are you scared of?”
“Same as you, except my own kid. Some days I’m worried he hates me and will end up resenting me and the move and never want to talk to me again.”
Georgia gives me a sympathetic look. “Seems like we’re in the same boat.”
“It does. We should really move on to something easier.”
“Favorite food then,” she fires at me.
“At this very moment? These pancakes. You?”
“You haven’t lived until you’ve tried these new buffalo burgers that Rex makes up at the ranch. They’re my favorite. Add in some sweet potato fries with this cinnamon dipping sauce and it’s perfection.”
The smile that lights up her face is, well, it’s adorable. There’s no other way to describe it.
“I guess you’ll have to invite me out to the ranch sometime to try them.”
“Maybe we can make that another one of our getting to know each other nights,” she says.
I take my last bite before setting my fork on my plate.
“Works for me. I need to figure out how to break the news to Luke.”
“Do you want me to be there with you?” she asks. “I can if you want, but not if you think it’ll make things harder.”
“I don’t know if I should break it to him beforehand, or if having you there will help. He’s so damn moody lately, that I don’t know what his reaction is going to be.”
“Do you think there is any chance he will be happy?”
Georgia sounds worried, and I don’t blame her.
“It might take him a while to get there, but I would hope so. Before my ex and I got divorced, he always wanted a sibling.”
“Maybe it’ll be the thing that turns his mood around.”
“One can hope.” I laugh. “I have a feeling he’ll like you though.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because I like you.”
Her cheeks pink up at my words. Those same feelings I felt that night a couple of months back still swirl in my chest.
There’s something about Georgia that’s different. A part of her feels closed off to others.
“I kind of like you too,” she says.
“Only kind of?” I smirk.
“Considering my knowledge of you is mostly limited to what you can do in the bedroom—”
“Then you should definitely really like me,” I interrupt.
“You also showed up tonight, so you get more points there.”
I point a finger at her. “Okay, if we’re going to be keeping score, I have to start at least at one hundred points.”
Laughter bursts out of her. “Wow. You think really highly of your skills, Grant.”
I cock a brow at her, dropping my voice an octave. “What can I say? I think you’re impressed by my skills.”
“I don’t recall. My memory is fuzzy.”
I lean closer to her, as close as I can with a laminate table between us. “Are you saying you need a refresher? I’d be happy to oblige, Cowgirl.”
Her cheeks blush to the color of a tomato. What I wouldn’t give to see that all over her. To have her splayed out beneath me as I pound into her.
Yup, not a thought I should be having in the middle of the Pinecrest Pancake Emporium.
“You are treading into dangerous territory, Grant.”
“Fine.” I give in. “We’ll ignore the fact of what you really want and get the check.”
“And see each other next week at the doctor’s office.”
Her tone says that it’s a safe place to be. That she won’t have to think about what she really wants from me.
Only friends.
That’s a subject we’ll have to discuss later. Sure, this might not be what I thought was going to happen when I moved here, but I can’t say I’m all that upset that it brought us back together again.
In fact, I’m looking forward to spending more time with her. Because any second I get with her will never be wasted.