“What if …,” she hesitates again and then continues in a small voice, “… what if she doesn’t like me?”
Now I wrap my arms around her and squeeze her tightly. “She’s going to love you. I know she is. But on the extremely small off-chance that she doesn’t, again, it wasn’t meant to be. Anyone who doesn’t like you isn’t someone I want to spend any time with, much less the rest of my life. You hear me?”
Kelli nods. “Yeah.”
I loosen my grip on her and let her settle back in beside me. “So you still want me to call her?”
She bumps my shoulder with hers. “I do. But you have to tell me everything she says.”
I chuckle and lean over to kiss the top of her head. “Maybe not everything, but I promise I’ll call her.”
“Good. And don’t talk to her like you’re an agent and she’s your client—or worse, on the other side. Be … you know … a real person.”
A laugh bursts out of me. “I’m not always a real person?”
“You’re not. I’ve heard you on the phone for work. You’re like a robot or something—like you don’t have any feelings and can’t possibly be wrong about anything. You’re barking orders right and left and telling people exactly how it’s going to be. Don’t do that with Melissa.”
I salute her. “Excellent advice, my little Jedi. How’d you get to be so smart?”
“I had a great teacher.” She pauses dramatically. “Mom.” She laughs so hard at her joke that she almost rolls onto the floor.
twenty-nine
. . .
“Melissa?”
My heart does the Charleston in my chest when Bobby’s voice rumbles over the telephone line. I’d given up on hoping he’d call, so I wasn’t fully expecting to hear his voice when I answered. I press my hand over my racing heart as I sit cross-legged on my bed, where I’ve been reading a book.
“Hey, Bobby Joe.” Instead of teasing him with his nickname, I should be reprimanding him for not calling sooner. But it appears I can’t help myself when it comes to him.
“I apologize for not calling before now.” He sighs. “I should’ve called sooner, but I … there’s a lot to tell you, and …”
It’s funny to me that this man who negotiates for a living can’t figure out what to say to me.
I decide to help him out. “And you’re scared?”
He lets out a rueful chuckle. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
“Newsflash.” I fling an arm out. “So am I. My last relationship didn’t pan out well, so I’m a little gun-shy here, too. Why don’t you just jump right in and tell me what I need to know about the secret life of Bobby Jacobs?”
I hear him suck in a deep breath before he blurts out, “I have a thirteen-year-old daughter.”
Now my heart stops, but only briefly. He has thrown me for aloop with this information, but based on how he interacted with Emily, I’m not surprised. In fact, I’m surprised I didn’t see the signs. How else would a grumpy, single, work-obsessed man know how to interact so easily with a little girl? This also explains how he knows the lyrics to so many current pop songs.
“Her name is Kelli,” he adds, since I haven’t gathered my wits about me enough to speak. “And she’s amazing.” I can hear the smile in his voice.
I press my hand against my chest again, where I can feel my heart beating overtime. “I’m sure she is.”
I don’t doubt that statement. Bobby’s kid is probably awesome. The question is whether I’m prepared to potentially be a step-mom to a teenager, if things progress with Bobby. I know he’s not proposing marriage here, but now that I know there’s a kid involved, that drastically changes my vision of what our future might look like. It also makes things more complicated in many ways—including us needing to be sure of what we’re doing and why, for the sake of his daughter if nobody else.
Bobby says, “I haven’t dated anyone seriously since Kelli’s mom and I divorced ten years ago. I don’t know how dating as a single dad works, what you need to know, what youwantto know. Tell me what you want to know, and I won’t hold back. I just don’t know the best place to start. And tell me how you feel, if you’d like to.”
After taking a deep breath, I begin, “I feel a bit blindsided, to be honest. My head is spinning. But if you’re worried that you having a child is going to make me run and not look back, I can put your mind at ease. It might take me a while to get used to this new information about a half-grown daughter and an ex-wife, when I had no idea you had either of those things … I mean those people … but that fact alone isn’t going to run me off.”
Bobby blows out a long breath. “I’m happy to hear that. I truly am sorry I didn’t tell you before. I don’t tell many people about them for their safety, since I have such a high-profile job and there are a lot of people who don’t like me because of that job. I was going to talk to you about Kelli and her mom on the way back to Chicago, but …”
“Yeah, that didn’t happen. Will you tell me why?”
