Page 51 of Love Lessons

Sighing, I slid off the barstool and grabbed my keys from the end of the counter. My enthusiasm for potentially seeing Kendall that night had waned some—I was afraid I couldn’t hide my bad mood, and she’d catch a glimpse of the real me. Real Fucking Depressed Mason.

And they were all going to ask questions. “How’d your interview go, Mason?” I wasn’t prepared for their disappointed stares. Most of all, I was going to disappoint Finley, who had made me a GOOD LUCK card that afternoon.

(“GUD LUKE”, actually. But it was close enough—and I saved it so I could tease her about it in a few years.)

I parked behind Kendall’s car in Owen and Sarah’s driveway before slipping through their front door unnoticed. As I crouched down to scratch the ears of the golden retriever puppy that greeted me, I smiled when I saw what was happening in the dining room to my right. Kendall and Finley were both doing headstands against the wall—a talent I wasn’t even aware Finley possessed.

She couldn’t see me because her shirt was hanging over her face, but Kendall immediately dropped her feet to the ground and said, “There’s your dad, Fin.” That was the nickname my family had given her—Kendall must have heard me say it at some point.

I liked hearing her say it.

As Finley squealed and ran toward me to hug my legs, Kendall pulled her own shirt down to cover her midriff and smiled. Her face was red from hanging upside down—or maybe I’d caught her off guard.

I stood beneath the arched doorway as I half-hugged Finley back. I opened my mouth to ask Kendall where Sarah and Owen were, but Finley spoke first. “Dad, can I join a tumbling class?”

“Tumbling?”

“Yeah,” she said, and I grunted as I picked her up to hold her on my hip. “Ms. Devin taught me how to do a somersault and a headstand and a backbend.”

“Wow, you learned all of that while I was gone?”

“She’s a natural,” Kendall said, combing her fingers through her hair as she walked over to us. She was wearing jeans and a loose-fitting t-shirt, and her feet were bare. I’d never seen her look so… casual. She tugged on the back of Finley’s shirt to pull it down and said, “We’ll have to try cartwheels again some other time.”

With both arms around Finley’s middle, I tightened my grip on her. “So Ms. Devin’s got you wanting to do some tumbling, huh? I’ll have to—”

“Oh, you’re back!” Sarah said behind me. I turned around to see her holding a tall glass full of a frozen red substance. “That didn’t take long. How did it go?” She was speaking a lot louder than necessary, which made sense once I smelled the alcohol in her glass.

“Wow,” I said with a laugh, ignoring her question. “Drinking while you’re supposed to be supervising my kid, huh?”

“I just made this, I promise,” she said with a laugh, pausing to take a sip through a bendy straw. “Do you want one? We just got a new margarita maker.”

“Blender,” Owen corrected, coming up behind Sarah. He crossed his arms against his chest and shook his head at me. “We got a new blender.”

I let out a little chuckle, watching him maneuver away from her as she tried to jab him in the side. “Wish I could have a drink, but…” I lifted Finley in my arms and nodded toward her, knowing that was enough of an answer. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had drinks with friends. Not since getting full custody of Finley, that’s for sure. “And she needs to go home and get a bath. So maybe another time. How’s the festival prep going?”

Their dining room table looked a lot like it did when I’d left. “We got a little distracted by the puppy. Leia tends to steal the show,” Sarah said. Of course those nerds named their dog Leia. “So between the dog and an impromptu tumbling lesson, we didn’t get much done.”

Kendall tucked her hair behind her ears and gave Sarah a sheepish grin. “Sorry. I just can’t say no to her.”

“Well, my dad tells me ‘no’ all the time,” Finley said, sliding down my hip until I put her down. Everyone laughed, but Finley rolled her eyes. “It’s like his favorite word.”

“That’s a load of crap,” I said, giving the kid a playful shove. “You know you can talk me into pretty much anything.”

She looked up at me and blinked with her puppy dog eyes. “Then can we stay for a little bit, Daddy? Please?”

What a manipulative little thing she was. She was good—too good. My mouth was ready to form the word ‘no’, but instead, I just looked down at her puppy dog eyes and grinned, feeling everyone else watching me. “Do you think I should stay and help these guys?”

Finley nodded, her eyes widening in anticipation of my answer.

“Then yes,” I said, though I shook my head. “We can stay, you little manipulator.” She clapped her hands together and skipped around the dining room table—with Leia following her every step.

As I watched her go around and around, my eyes stopped on Kendall, who was already looking at me. I swallowed, knowing it might be a little easier to refrain from flirting with her when her boss, her ex, and my kid were in the room.

“Is that all it takes to get you to fold?” Kendall asked, putting one hand on her hip. “Just a little bit of begging?”

Oh, fuck—she had no idea. I blinked, feeling Owen’s eyes on me. “It’s usually the puppy dog eyes that do it for me, actually.”

Kendall bit her bottom lip, and all I could think about was how much I wished it were me biting it.

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