Chapter 3
“Daddy, what are you doing?” Myla stood outside the bathroom doorway watching Kyle comb his hair. “You’re all dressed up!”
“I’m going on a date, cookie.”
“A date? Like with a girlfriend?”
Kyle laughed. “I don’t know her well enough to call her a girlfriend. I only just met her yesterday, but she’s really nice.”
Myla’s eyes were wide. “Are you going to marry her?”
“Oh, honey.” Kyle turned, picked her up under her arms, and carried her across the room.
When he’d plopped her down on the bed, he sat down beside her.
“I don’t know if I’ll marry her or not. I just met her.
And when grownups meet, they have to get to know each other before they decide that kind of stuff. It takes a while.”
“A long time? Like until I’m twelve?”
“Maybe. Or maybe not. I don’t know. We just kinda have to feel our way through it. But that’s not why I’m going. I’m just going so I can get to know her.” He patted her knee. “But I promise you, before I make any decision like that, I’ll be talking to you.”
“You mean I’m going to meet her? When?” she asked, bouncing and grinning.
“You won’t meet her unless I want to keep seeing her. Then I’ll make sure you meet her. How’s that?”
“That’s good.” Myla climbed up on the bed on her knees and threw her arms around Kyle’s neck. “I love you, Daddy. I want you to be happy and find a nice lady.” She planted a big, sloppy kiss on his cheek and he reminded himself to wipe it off as soon as she wasn’t looking.
“I love you too, cookie. Now, I’ve gotta finish getting ready. I want to look nice.”
Myla grinned and batted her eyelashes. “You always look nice, Daddy. You’re so handsome.”
God, he wished he could syphon off some of that enthusiasm and confidence from her and keep it for himself.
The thought of going to dinner with a woman and spending two hours talking to her was more than scary, but Amy had been nice.
Unless he did something incredibly stupid, it would go well based on how the day before had been.
On the way there he almost talked himself into going back home.
The thought of starting over was more terrifying than he’d anticipated, and he decided maybe meeting up with her for dinner wasn’t such a good idea.
Then he remembered—he was the one who’d asked her.
He couldn’t back out. That would be incredibly rude, and he didn’t want to be that guy.
The café was easy enough to find, and he thought he recognized her truck in the parking lot.
As soon as he cleared the front door, he found her, sitting there on one of the benches in the restaurant’s foyer, and she was beautiful, her eyes bright and the jewels around the tops of her ankle boots glittering.
The minute she saw him, she rose from her seat, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen anything so lovely or, honestly, so sexy.
“Hey!” he whispered as he stepped up to her.
“Hey yourself! You look great,” she purred. He could feel the heat from her body, and he wanted more. “I put in for a table. They said maybe ten minutes.”
“Great. Come sit down,” Kyle told her as he sat down on the bench, and she dropped down beside him. He couldn’t think of anything else to say so he asked, “Have a good day?”
“Yeah. Pretty good. I’ve got a box full of books to label and enter into the system tomorrow. You?”
“Went down to the feed store to find out what seed corn is going to cost me next go ’round. Kinda depressing sometimes,” he said with a sigh.
“I hear ya. It’s an expensive profession.” They were interrupted by the sound of a hostess calling out a name, Cooper, and Amy perked up. “Oh! That’s us. Come on.” They followed the hostess to the table, and Kyle was glad it was a booth in the back corner. Privacy—they could use that.
After they’d ordered drinks, picked out their food, and ordered that too, they made idle chit-chat.
She had a dog, a Maltese named Clyde, and it sounded like she adored him.
That was okay with Kyle. He liked dogs too.
He told her about his parents and family, and she talked about her sisters.
Apparently there were three of them, so she’d come from a big family. “How old is your son?”
She shot him a huge smile. “He’s thirteen, and he loves soccer. Loves it. Eats, drinks, sleeps, breathes soccer. He’s been playing with the boys on his team since they were all in preschool. We’re hoping they’ll do well and maybe he’ll get a scholarship.”
“That would be great. College is expensive.”
“Don’t I know it. I had to go after Andrew and I married, and I still owe for my education,” she said, and that scared Kyle a little. She had debt. Of course, he told himself, I do too. I can’t be critical of that.
“That’s a shame, but I know that’s how it is for most people these days. I guess I was lucky. I can farm with two years of vo-tech education and make a good living.”
“I envy you. I barely make enough at the library to take care of our living expenses. It’s a good thing Andrew’s never missed a child support payment or we’d be screwed,” she said, taking a sip of her sweet tea. “And your daughter?”
“Myla’s a sweetheart. She’s a lot like her mother, but she’s got my eyes and my sense of humor.
She’s just an average student, but she likes school.
Says she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.
Of course, the week before that she wanted to be a doctor, and the week before that, a fireman, and the week before that, a teacher. So who knows?” he said with a chuckle.
Amy let out a little laugh. “Good thing they don’t have to declare a major until junior year!”
“No kidding. But I know she’ll do great.” This is it. Toss it out there. “Oh, by the way, after you said you work at the library, I checked at our local library. They’ve got three branches now and the lady there said they always have openings for librarians.”
The puzzled look on her face caught Kyle off guard. “Why would you do that?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. I mean, I guess I thought, you know, if we hit it off and you had to—”
“Oh, I’m not moving. I can’t.”
Oh, no. Agreement with her ex, Kyle thought. Some people had those. “It’s not like it’s far, and Andrew could still see him on—”
“It’s not that. I’m not moving Taylor out of our school district. He’s got soccer there, and since he’s been playing with them all this time, moving is out of the question.” She paused before he could respond and said, “Your daughter is six. That would be an easy move for her. She’d adapt quickly.”
“Amy,” he said slowly, “I’m a farmer. I can’t leave my farm. That’s my livelihood.”
“You could sell it and buy another one,” she said as though farmers did that every day of the week.
“No. I can’t. Not only would I probably not be able to afford to do that, but that farm’s been in my family for a long time. I can’t just up and move away. My parents live on part of it. It doesn’t work like that. It’s a family farm. I have to stay there. That’s my profession.”
“Then we’ve got a big problem. You won’t move. I can’t move. I—”
“It’s not that I won’t,” he insisted. “It’s that I can’t.”
“Won’t, can’t, whatever,” she said dismissively. “Either way, we’d be left with a long-distance relationship. True, it’s not that far, but it would still be a weekend kinda thing, and those never work out. It gets old after a while and somebody wants out.” Then she fell silent.
Kyle didn’t know what to say. She was right, he knew, and yet he’d been so hopeful. After what seemed to be the longest uncomfortable pregnant pause of his life, Kyle said, “Well, I suppose it’s good that we got that out in the open right up front.”
Nodding, she stared at the tabletop and he could see tears pooling in the inner corners of her eyes.
“Yeah. I guess so. I just hate it though. I really like you, Kyle,” she said, lifting her gaze to his.
“You’re a nice guy. A decent guy. You wouldn’t believe how many losers I’ve been through on those damn dating sites. ”
He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh yes I would. You wouldn’t believe some of the ones I’ve found.”
“Oh yeah?” she said with a grin. “Well, here’s one for you.
I met up with this guy and when he got there, he was like seventy years old and wearing these horrible plaid pants, and I asked whose picture that was he’d used.
Turned out it was his great nephew. And then he said, ‘I wouldn’t want to date you anyway.
All you’re interested in is looks.’ Can you believe that? ”
Kyle laughed aloud. “Oh, yeah, I’d believe it! I met this one, and she …”
He told her a tale, and she countered. Before long, they were laughing so loudly that other diners were staring at them, but they didn’t care.
When they’d run out of stories, Kyle gave her a sad smile as she sat there, looking just as beautiful as she had the minute he’d come in the door.
“You know, it’s a shame this is working out this way.
I really like you,” she said, her eyes tearing up again.
“And I really like you too. But I think if we kept seeing each other, we’d be tying up time we could be dating someone who was more compatible … No, that’s not the word. You know what I mean,” he said, wishing he didn’t have to say it.
“Yeah. I know. And I’m so sorry.”
“Me too. But it’s been fun, and you’re a beautiful woman who deserves somebody who’ll really appreciate you. Don’t settle for less.”
“You either,” she said and patted his hand across the table. “You’re a great guy. I hope you find somebody who’ll appreciate you.”
“Thanks. So let’s eat a conciliatory dessert,” he said, looking up at their server standing at the edge of the table. “I want that chocolate fudge cake thing,” he said, then pointed to Amy.
“I’ll have the cherry cobbler with ice cream on top,” she said.
As soon as the desserts arrived, Kyle held his tea glass aloft. “A toast,” he said as she lifted hers. “To us. May we both find what we’re looking for.”