Page 61 of Waiting for Friday Night

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Halle swallowed hard as she waited. She wished she could see him. See the look on his face.

“Are you telling me you’re free?” His voice was intense and direct.

Halle pressed a hand to her chest. Her heart fluttered wildly beneath her palm. She had to calm down. She was only telling him because they’d promised to communicate. Shania had just made it very clear that she didn’t want them together. “I’m telling you that Gregory and I broke up, but that doesn’t change anything between us.”

“It changes a lot between us.”

Did he have to sound so confident? So sexy? Heat blossomed between her thighs. She jumped up from the bed and started pacing. “No, it doesn’t, and it can’t. Shania doesn’t want us to be together.”

“What? Why would she talk to you about that?”

“Because this entire situation is weird enough for her. She was only supporting me with Gregory because she thought he made me happy, but she told me weeks ago that she didn’t want us together because it would be weird and the two of us would only be together because of her.”

“That’s not the reason why I’m attracted to you. I told you that.”

“Maybe, but it doesn’t change that we weren’t likely to become an item if fate hadn’t put you as the donor who helped me have Shania. She’s right in a way. I don’t want to force anything. Let’s just focus on her and see how things go.”

“Is that really what you want?”

No. She wanted him to get in his car. Drive to her house and kiss her the way she’d thought he would earlier. How long had it been since she’d had an orgasm that wasn’t self-induced?

Halle shook her head. Horniness could not rule the conversation. “It’s really what I want. I don’t want to make things harder for Shania. You know what happened at school and even tonight at the guild meeting. One day at a time. If this thing between us means anything, then time will tell.”

“You really like to plan ahead and think things through.” She was sure he meant the words, but he’d softened them with humor in his tone. “Do you ever not think like a teacher and just go with the flow?”

Halle smiled but it faded quickly. “I can’t. I learned early on that life comes at you hard. After my parents died, I had to figure everything out. They didn’t have a will or any type of plans in place. It was unsettling and left me feeling even worse about their death. I don’t want to make things more difficult for Shania than they have to be. If she doesn’t want us together, then I’d rather let her get used to the idea of you being her dad than anything else. Understand?”

He was quiet for a second before sighing. “You’re calling the shots. I said I’d go along with it, so that’s what we’ll do. But remember, Halle, I’m willing to wait. When you’re ready, I’d like for you to give us a chance.”

Nineteen

Halle usually liked the first day of school. Seeing all the kids’ faces, some enthusiastic and others not quite so excited, typically brought a smile to her face. The rush of helping the teachers get settled and calming the nerves of the kids new to middle school all brought her a sense of accomplishment. She felt in control in the middle of the chaos.

She was not enjoying this first day of school. Nothing went as planned. Everything was out of order. Despite emailing the parents constantly about the change in the schedule, there were kids who showed up either super early or very late. Parents blamed her because they didn’t read the fifty-eleven emails, texts and phone calls she sent about the changes. The power went out right after the homeroom bell rang and took everything offline for nearly forty minutes. Teachers struggled to keep kids excited about being back in school under control, while the district’s IT staff tried to get everything back online. Once the systems were back up and running, a pipe burst in the lunchroom, meaning the cafeteria staff couldn’t make lunch for everyone, and they’d had to rush in food to feed the rest of the kids. She’d prayed for the day to just end and get a do-over tomorrow, but a fender bender in the car rider line turned into an altercation between parents that she had to help defuse.

By the time she got away from the school and headed to pick up Shania from football practice, she wanted to cry. And Halle wasn’t a crier. Crying solved nothing. She learned that after crying uncontrollably after the loss of her parents. She’d cried, but they hadn’t come back, and that hadn’t made figuring out life without them any easier. So instead of crying she pushed aside the frustration and sat in her car, making a list of all the things to do tonight when she got home to make sure things went better tomorrow morning.

She was busy scribbling when someone knocked on the passenger-side window. Halle startled at the interruption and looked up from the pen and pad in her hand. Shania waved; Quinton stood behind her. Halle’s heart jumped into her throat. She’d tried not to think about what Quinton said. Tried not to picture him as the man in her life and just view him as Shania’s father. It didn’t help that every time she saw the man he looked better than chocolate ice cream in a freshly baked waffle cone covered in sprinkles and syrup on a hot summer day.

Halle licked her lips as she quickly got out of the car and tried to control her facial features. “You ready?”

Shania frowned. “Bad day?”

“No, it was a good day,” Halle lied.

Shania tilted her head to the side. “You’re making a list. Whenever you’re upset you make a list.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do. Your way of getting the world to do what you want it to do.”

Halle crossed her arms and looked from Shania to Quinton. “What’s going on? Did something happen at practice?”

Quinton shook his head. “No, I was talking to Shania after practice and just walked with her over to the car. How did things go today? I heard about the power outage at the middle school.”

Of course he had. News traveled fast in Peachtree Cove. “That was the least of our worries,” Halle said. “But we got through. Turns out squirrels in the ceiling got to some wires. The IT team created a work-around and they’re getting in a contractor to work on the lines.”

“Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. Let me know if you need anything.”

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