The clock was closing in on the final minutes of my very long waitressing shift, and I’d be so relieved when it ended that I might cry the second I got home and took off my shoes. Of course, I wasn’t looking forward to going home to an empty apartment, but at least I wouldn’t be slinging hash browns at Marv’s anymore. Plus I knew my place wouldn’t smell like bacon grease and trucker sweat.
Daphne stayed with her grandparents on nights when I worked this late. She loved her sleepover nights, loved her cozy room at Gram-Gram and Poppy’s house, and the treats they allowed her to have that wouldn’t fly with Mommy. All while I sat at home and missed her like hell until I fell asleep.
Then there was that cryptic text from Cade to contend with, which made my day feel even longer. What on earth could he want that would warrant all the mystery? There was no logical way it could be true, but my rude brain kept telling me he had to have figured out that he was Daphne’s father. That he was going to confront me about it, tell me he no longer had any interest in my daughter, our daughter, or in me.
But that wasn’t my concern now. There was no use obsessing over stupid hypotheticals. I had tables to wipe down, tips to split with Kara and the other servers. An empty apartment to get back to.
“Do you have the bathrooms covered? I’ll sweep the floor. I just can’t do the smell tonight,” I said to Kara, wrinkling my nose for added effect. She rolled her eyes, used to my constant slippery actions to get out of restroom cleaning duty.
“You’re lucky I love you,” my best friend said, grumbling. “And that kiddo of yours. Who, let’s be honest, is the main reason I let you get away with this shit.”
“Mom guilt?”
“Can you call it that when you feel guilty about letting a single mom do the unpleasant parts of the job she’s paid to do?”
I grinned, and I was still looking back at her over my shoulder as I went back out to the dining room floor with a broom. I went from looking at Kara sticking her tongue out at me in fake anger to looking Cade Farmer dead in his blue, gorgeous eyes.
“Any plans after your shift?” Cade asked casually. As if we’d already decided to meet up and his presence wasn’t a complete surprise. I gaped at him for a long moment.
“What are you doing here?”
“I texted you earlier,” he said, which explained exactly nothing.
“Uh, yeah. And I told you I was working.” Maybe it was my body’s attempt to override the sensual pull I felt in this man’s presence, but I was annoyed now. Reverting back to the days pre-Cade and Gavin fucking me at their beach house rental when I couldn’t be civil with the sexy grump.
“I thought I’d surprise you,” he said with a shrug. “An excuse to see you.”
My heart thudded. “You’re seeing me soon anyway. The…our plans. With Luca and Gavin.”
He smirked at my reluctance to call it a date. He may have been the only person in earshot, the only person at the diner right now besides the few of us unlucky enough to be stuck with the closing shift, but it felt weird to acknowledge my plans to go on a triple date where I was the only one being courted. Like we were on some bizarre mission to liveThe Bachelorin real life.
I really didn’t know which of the guys would get the final rose either.
“Right,” Cade agreed, completely unfazed.
“And I’m tired,” I said lamely. “And…I still don’t know if I even like spending time with you one-on-one.”
Cade let out a low chuckle. “Well, all the more reason for me to be here. I wanted some alone time. Before our…other plans. Just me and you. Call it a test run.”
He added a smile that was so much brighter, so much less angst ridden than I’d ever seen him before. How was I supposed to say no to that? “I…well, I’m not busy. Daphne’s with my parents tonight.” I didn’t want to be alone.
“How lucky for me,” Cade said with a slightly flirtatious air.
“I carpooled with Kara today,” I said like a doofus.
“Good thing I’ve got wheels,” Cade said. He jangled a set of keys at me. “I was hoping I could pick you up.”
Minutes later, I was riding shotgun beside Cade on a déjà vu-inducing trip back to the beach house. I’d been in this same car with Gavin the night we went to the open mic, and now I was with the unknowing father of my child, headed toward another surprise that I had a feeling would end the same way.
Well, in sex. But hopefully not in a public restroom this time. I was a mother, after all. I had to at least try to be a good example for Daphne.
When I thought Cade would park us in the driveway of the rental he currently called home, he passed it a little, stopping the SUV beside the entrance of the seaside path I’d walked up with Luca the night the guys all learned about Daphne’s existence. Before I could ask, he reached into the back seat and tugged a patterned blanket out of nowhere.
“I thought we could walk on the beach a little, and then if you’re too tired after work, we could sit and just enjoy the water for a while. Talk.”
The blanket was for us to sit on. He’d planned a romantic beachside date for the two of us, clearly, since he already had the blanket on deck. I felt myself flush in pleasure at the thought, and I tried to sound more neutral than I felt as I told him, “That…sounds pretty nice.”
“I’ve been called a romantic in the past,” he said, and his tone told me it wasn’t a joke. Or at least, it was a lighthearted comment rooted in truth. That was an interesting concept to chew on as Cade walked with me, holding my hand in his larger calloused one, down toward the water.
