Page 73 of The Moment We Know

“How is she?”

He could tell from her expression, that the answer mattered a great deal. “She’s fantastic. She’s still everything you loved about her but now she’s complete. Healthy. And kind of a badass.”

Valerie sniffed and looked away to wipe her eyes again. “That’s good. That’s great, actually.”

“It is,” he agreed.

“I really do miss her, you know.”

“I know. And she misses you, too.”

“She does?”

“Yes. She told me so.”

“I wish I could reach out to her,” Valerie said in a wistful voice. “Do you think maybe—”

“Hell no. Don’t even think about it,” David quickly cut her off. Paige was already anxious that Valerie knew they were ‘dating’ so if she were to reach out now, it would make Paige suspicious, as well. “Not yet, anyway.” At Valerie’s disappointed expression, he added, “Hopefully, one day down the road you’ll be able to, but right now it’s too soon. For one, I’m afraid it would put an end to my ‘reeling’, and two, I don’t think I could trust you not to leak my plan to her.”

Valerie was now looking rather affronted. “I wouldn’t do that. I’m a vault.”

“You’re a what? Oh, Mom. No. You’re not a vault.”

“What do you mean, I’m not a vault?”

“I mean, you’re not. Remember when you told Paige I was so nervous playing a carrot in my first grade play, that I threw up on stage in front of everyone?”

Valerie pressed her lips together, either trying to stifle laughter, or a smile, or both. “When did this alleged incident take place?”

“Alleged?”

“Yes, alleged. I don’t recall telling her that.”

“Uh, the weekend I brought Paige home, right after we got engaged. Does that jog your memory?”

“Nope. Sorry.”

“What about the time you told her all about my braces and acne phase? Hmm?”

“I don’t recall that, either.”

David shook his head at his mom’s obvious lies. “Whatever. Anyway, you can’t reach out to her yet. If she and I get to the point where we’re more than casual, then you can, and if she and I never get to that point—”

“David.”

“—then you can still reach out to her. But you have to wait until she and I land on one side or the other.”

Chapter 29

David ended up having Evan over to the loft for his ‘uncuffing’ thank you dinner a few nights later, since their schedules didn’t make it possible to go out on a night when Jacob wasn’t home.

It couldn’t be overstated how much David was dreading it.

When Evan arrived promptly at seven, he greeted David with a grin and immediately rubbed his hands together. “I’ve been looking forward to this all day. I’m not even exaggerating.”

David rolled his eyes at hearing that, just as Jacob launched himself at Evan, who pretended to fall backwards a little before picking up the little boy. Evan then proceeded to basically ignore David, in favor of taking Jacob into the living room, where David could hear them telling each other about their day. Because Evan was almost like a little kid himself, he and Jacob got along very well, so David left them to it as he got dinner started.

A few minutes later, as the Scooby-Doo theme song started to play in the other room, Evan wandered into the kitchen. “I love that kid. He’s the only reason I ever think about having any of my own,” he said, grabbing one of the Coronas David kept in the fridge for Evan. As he turned around, an enormous gift basket of muffins on the counter caught his eye. “Holy shit. That’s the biggest fucking basket of muffins I’ve ever seen in my life. Where’d you get it?”

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