Page 14 of The Dating Pact

We hadn’t attended the same university, but I’d gone to as many events as possible. It had been my absolute pleasure to follow her anywhere and everywhere, including through her training for the Olympic trials. Unfortunately, she didn’t make the team and was crushed, but I had been so goddamn proud of her. I could never be anything less.

We’d ended up marrying after that, with Nate as my best man and bought this house. Sebastian had arrived after our second anniversary, and Amelia four years after that. We had been happy.

Mira had continued to run for fun, mostly charity 5Ks. That day, the kids and I had waited at the finish line with a sign Sebastian had made, and I’d asked someone to take our picture. Mira, grinning and flushed, held fourteen-month-old Amelia in her arms while Sebastian showed off his sign to the camera. I stood in the back, my arms around them all, a cheesy smile on my face.

Later at home, Mira had complained of a headache, but it hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary. She’d popped a few pills, showered, and relaxed with the kids, but when the headache didn’t go away, I’d told her to go upstairs and lie down while I ordered dinner. It was tradition to order Chinese from our favorite spot after every race.

As I’d sorted through the bags, I asked Sebastian to wake up his mom.

I’ll never forget the way he ran into the kitchen, pure terror in his eyes, crying because he couldn’t wake Mira up. When I’d checked on her, she’d remained unresponsive, and I’d immediately called 9-1-1. I’d known it was hopeless, but I’d refused to believe it was true. That my beautiful and vibrant thirty-year-old wife was gone. Stolen from us by a brain aneurysm.

My world had collapsed in an instant. We’d had so much life ahead of us, so many dreams, and they were all shattered. I hadn’t known how to go about picking up the pieces of my life, let alone for a confused and frightened five-year-old and a toddler who would never remember her mother.

With the help of Mira’s and my family and a lot of therapy, I’d managed. But it was difficult. I cried in private and attempted to carry on for the kids as normal, though I wasn’t sure what normal even meant anymore. Sebastian had slept in my bed countless nights, afraid something would happen again. Sleep continued to be an issue for him. And poor little Lulu, she only wanted a family, a whole family, not one led by a heartbroken single dad.

With a sigh, I powered on my laptop and got to work, paying bills and finishing up last month’s accounting for Gray’s Candy Shop. My grandfather had opened the corner store in the fifties, and it had been in our family ever since. I loved the store, loved what it provided for all of us and the community, but I didn’t spend a whole lot of time in the actual shop. When I’d graduated from college with a double major in business and finance, I’d come back home with plans to expand, which I’d done, by building an online store that delivered out of state, becoming a recurrent participant in the farmers market, and establishing a school fundraising program. I could accomplish all that behind-the-scenes stuff at home, which was great because I could align my schedule around my kids’ needs.

Though recently, I’d been wondering if I’d been scheduling myself too much around the kids.

Hence this ridiculous plan to start dating again.

I closed my laptop and stretched my back, checking the time. It was almost four, and Brooke should be finishing up her work for the day. She was an early riser, to get out on her farm with the sun. I didn’t know how she did it. Plus, she almost never touched her phone while she worked, which was why I was surprised when my cell phone beeped with a text message alert from her.

Brooke

Got a date for tomorrow!

That was fast.

Brooke

It’s my charm.

I assumed she was getting all kinds of hits from men liking her profile picture. I’d told her to use the photo from her sister’s shower because she’d been wearing a dark red dress the color of licorice with sleeves that fluttered around her shoulders and a little bow that tied at her waist. She was girl-next-door pretty. The kind of beauty that soothed instead of intimidated. She had that endearing crooked smile with lines outside of her mouth and at the corners of her eyes to prove how often she graced the world with it. Then, of course, there was her charm. She was energetic and ambitious and one of the most thoughtful people I’d ever met. The total package. Any guy would be lucky to have her.

So, it was a shame what her ex had done to her. Not only had he left her at the worst possible time, he’d made her think she was somehow less because of her infertility. I knew how long it had taken her to recover. As long as I’d been mourning Mira.

It was part of the reason why we were such good friends; we’d both gone through really traumatic events at about the same time. And I hoped she found all she desired from this silly experiment of ours.

Brooke

Can you come over tomorrow to help me pick out something to wear?

You want ME to pick out clothes for YOU?

Shouldn’t that be a job for your sisters or something?

Brooke

Kim can’t because Henry’s going out with a buddy, so she’s home alone with the baby, and Sabrina has some last-minute school stuff she’s got to deal with.

Brooke

So it’s on you, my friend.

Brooke

Also

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