He blinked at the smirking idiot and shook his head.
“You will. They’ll be here later, but first,” Holden said, fishing out his own phone from his pocket, before tapping on the screen.
Dante assumed his friend was going to show him a photo of her parents, but the unmistakable sound of keys and the swoosh of a text, and then an incoming reply echoed between them.
Now Dante was completely confused.
“Okay. It’s all set,” Holden said, shoving his phone away.
Dante blinked again. “What is?”
“Amanda is waiting for you to go pick her up.”
His stomach tightened and his pulse rocketed. “What the hell did you do?”
“All I did was ask her if she’d left to come here yet. She said no, so I told her to stay put. That you were on your way.”
“Holden—”
“I know, I know. Don’t thank me.” The bastard grinned.
“Thank you?” Dante ground out between clenched teeth. “If this wasn’t your house and my son wasn’t around, I’d throttle you.”
Holden’s grin widened. “You’d try, but it is. He is. And you’re wasting time. Go talk to her, Dante. Don’t put stock into an unexplained photo. Even Carter’s text said he wasn’t sure what was up. So don’t assume. Go find out. Or trust your gut.”
“Daddy, come on. We’re making pancakes,” Noah said, rushing into the room with a smile as wide as his little face.
“Your dad has to leave to go pick up Miss Amanda,” Holden said. “You don’t mind hanging out with us until he gets back, do you?”
Noah immediately shook his head. “No, I don’t mind. After pancakes, I’m a play withdapigs. And when Miss Amanda gets here, we gonna play withdagoats.Deresilly.”
“They sure are.” Dante smiled. His son’s enthusiasm was infectious enough to cancel his anger. “Okay, I’m going to go. I’ll be back.”
“With Miss Amanda.” Noah smiled.
He nodded. “You be good.”
“Okay. Gotta get pancakes. Bye, Daddy.”
A second later, his galloping son disappeared around the corner toward the kitchen.
Holden set a hand on his shoulder. “All right. Go have your talk. We’ve got things covered here. And, uh, take all the time you need.”
Before Dante could reply, the guy vanished around the corner almost as fast as his son had a minute ago.
Feeling manipulated but grateful at the same time, Dante left Holden’s and drove the ten minutes back into town where hepulled into Amanda’s driveway…in the same spot as that truck had parked last night.
Muttering a curse, he got out and pushed those thoughts aside, determined to take his buddy’s advice and just confront Amanda about the photo.
Talk to her. Don’t jump to conclusions. Trust your gut.
Good advice. Advice that he’d never needed before. And he knew it was, because he hadn’t cared enough about the other women for it to matter.
“Hey, handsome,” Amanda said, opening her door before he even knocked. “I missed you last night.”
Smiling, she stepped aside for him to enter.
“Hi,” he said, moving away from the door so she could close it. Several questions sprang to his lips, but he didn’t voice them.
