“Olives? Interesting. Mine is chicken.”
“Chicken? I don’t understand. Like, along with the pepperoni?”
Her arms were still around his neck, but she lifted her shoulders in a slight shrug. “With or without. I like it all ways.”
“Huh. Okay. If you had to play an Olympic sport, what would it be?”
She bit her lip as she thought. “Hmm. I’m going to have to go with the bobsled. I’m not the most athletic person, and for that one, it’s mostly about the leaning, right? You?”
He laughed. “Um, ski jumping, maybe?” He hadn’t ever done it before, but it probably felt a lot like what his stomach was experiencing now. Was he feeling all these emotions just because they were at a wedding? He’d been a sap for weddings ever since he’d had his own. Maybe what he was feeling was just because of the situation and their surroundings. It felt like more than that, though, and he had to know for sure. “Let’s go on a date.”
Rachel’s eyebrows rose. He was hoping in interest.
“Not because we have a project or because something else pulled us together. Let’s go because we want to. Just the two of us.”
Rachel bit her lip as she glanced over his shoulder at where their kids were dancing, and it was killing him to not know what was going through her mind right then. Then her eyes met his again. “I would like that.”
He held back the smile that threatened to overtake his face and forced himself to play it cool as they moved to the music. “I would love to take you out on a Friday or a Saturday, but I don’t want to wait that long to see you again. How does Tuesday sound?” He hadjusttold himself to play it cool and then he says something like that? He was so out of practice. But also, he really did want to see her.
She bit her lip and once again, he wished he could hear her thoughts. “I’ll have to see if I can find a sitter for that soon. Bria has finals this week. I would ask Jack and Noelle, but the house they bought isn’t ready for them yet, so they’re staying in Golden, and that’s probably a bit far.”
“My in-laws are always free on Tuesdays. Would you like me to ask if they’d mind watching Aiden, too?”
She glanced over at where Aiden was doing a dance that looked a little like T-Rex trying not to step on Legos and failing miserably. Holly and the other two boys were trying to mimic him but were unable to because they were holding their stomachs from laughing so hard.
“I’d really like that.”
After they got home that night and after he got Holly in bed, he walked into his temporary bedroom, feeling like he was still on a high from the entire evening. He loosened his tie, unbuttoned the top button, and flopped down on his bed, opening his phone.
He swiped to the last screen and smiled at Clara’s picture. “I met someone and I really like her. Her name is Rachel. I know—it feels weird to come to you to talk about this, but you were my best friend and the first person I always told everything to. You told me that you wanted me to start dating again, so here I am, dating again.
“I think you’d like her, too. She’s a great mom and she is so good with Holly. If you’ve been keeping an eye on us, I’m sure you already know that. But I wanted to tell you that you were right—I’ve felt so alone since you died, but tonight, I experienced how great it feels to not be so alone. So thank you.”
He turned off the phone and marveled at how excited he could be for a Tuesday.
nine
RACHEL
Rachel leanedin close to the mirror as she applied mascara. Aiden sat on the side of the bathtub, swinging his legs so that his heels hit the bathtub, making a reverberating thudding sound. He’d already asked questions about what she and Nick were going to be doing, what she thought he and Holly were going to do with Holly’s grandparents, and if he got to stay up late.
Those questions she fielded like a pro. She’d also fielded texts from Courtney and Lucy about the date and what things she’d said yes to today like a pro. But when Aiden asked, “Is Nick going to be my dad?” she jerked enough that she swiped the mascara wand across the skin beside her eye.
After Aiden was born, she always thought that when she got serious with someone, she would have time to figure out how much she liked them and would only introduce them to Aiden once she was sure about the relationship. She didn’t want him forming his own opinions before she got a chance to form her own, and she definitely didn’t want him getting attached if things weren’t going to work out.
But since it was through Aiden that she met Nick, that plan went out the window. Nothing about this was going as planned. What she needed to do was set some expectations and be as honest as she could with him.
She grabbed a tissue, got it a little wet, and then started wiping the mascara off. “I don’t know, buddy, because I don’t know how much we like each other yet. We probably won’t know until we’ve been on a few more dates—it hasn’t been nearly long enough for us to start thinking about things like that.” Not that the thought hadn’t crossed her mind more than a time or two or a thousand. Honestly, though, she was surprised that Aiden had gotten there already.
“But you like him,” Aiden said, dragging out the word “like” as he did a little torso dance while still sitting. Then he stood to add more extravagance to his dance. “You really like him.”
Her cheeks suddenly went pinker than the blush she’d already put on as she thought about how much she did like Nick. Everything had changed Saturday night at the wedding. There had been so many moments when he’d just been thoughtful or a sweet father or had looked at her with an expression of adoration that made her knees weak. So many things he’d said all night long had made her fall just a little bit more for him.
And there had definitely been moments when a fire built in her chest that made her want to grab him by the front of his suit jacket and pull him to her so he could kiss her senseless.
They’d texted back and forth on Sunday so much and he’d been so charming and witty and fun. She couldn’t wait until Tuesday to see him and eventually invited him and Holly over that night. She and Aiden had planned to do their annual snowflake creating tradition—which he’d gotten a jump start on weeks ago—and get them hung from the ceiling. Aiden was thrilled that more people would be joining in on a tradition that was one of his favorites.
She’d known that she’d love having Nick and his daughter join them. What she hadn’t anticipated was watching Nick’s shoulder and arm muscles flex as he climbed onto the step ladder to tape each of the snowflake’s strings to their ceiling. That had brought its own joy to her world.
