Page 35 of The Dating Pact

“That’s right. Your summer league started, right?” When he only nodded, I tried again. “Maybe I’ll come to one of your games. I’d love to see you play.”

He had no reaction one way or the other, so I offered him a smile and stood up, tossing a hand out to Nicole, a young girl I paid under the table to help me out at the market. “Be back in five.” Then I took hold of Amelia’s hand. It was time to face the music. “Come on. Let’s go back to your dad.”

Sebastian trailed behind me and Amelia as she chattered on about her unicorn, the one she swung beside her named Purse. Amelia was obsessed with unicorns. I’d met a handful of them: Big Unicorn, Small Unicorn, Purse, Sophia, Butter and Bread—twins, obviously—and Baby Unicorn. I’d given her Small Unicorn for her first birthday. A small—duh—white unicorn with pale-pink hair and tail. It was supposed to play music after winding it up, but I knew for a fact that it had long ago lost the ability after Jude had put it in the washer because Amelia had thrown up on it. He didn’t realize it wouldn’t work if it got wet. But she still loved it.

And I loved that.

We stopped at the Gray’s Candy stall, and I helped myself to a stick of watermelon licorice as Jude finished up with a customer. When he finally turned to face me, tension bracketed his features. I chose to ignore it. “Found these two ragamuffins begging for brussels sprouts.”

“No!” Amelia giggled. “Gross!”

I ruffled her hair, laughing, and Jude loosened up a bit too. Sebastian, on the other hand, heaved a sigh fit for a brooding teenager as opposed to a ten-year-old and threw himself on the folding chair behind Jude’s table.

It was about closing time, and Jude glanced over his shoulder at his son. “Why don’t you start packing up the boxes, and we can get out of here?”

Sebastian didn’t respond, merely pulled his handheld gaming system from his pocket.

“Seb.” When he didn’t answer, Jude repeated, “Sebastian. Help me to start packing up, and we’ll be able to get out of here faster.”

Sebastian eventually followed his dad’s direction but only after rolling his eyes and slipping off the chair like he’d been asked to clean up piles of elephant poop.

Jude puffed up his cheeks and blew out an audible breath, his eyes on mine, frustrated and a little tired. On the upside, him sharing his reaction with me meant we were back to normal.

No awkwardness at all.

Well, a little bit of awkwardness. I had seen him naked and had his cock inside me. So…

I bent down to Amelia, hugging her before I pointed to Jude. “Gonna help your daddy clean up?”

She nodded excitedly. “I’m a good helper!”

I tweaked her nose. “Of course you are. I’ll see you later, okay?”

She skipped around the table to help as I stood, and he inclined his head toward me, a silent thank-you.

I smiled.

He smiled.

And yeah, we would be okay.

TEN

JUDE

Aweek after the so-called sex practice with Brooke, I made plans with Youmna and George to drop off the kids for the weekend. I didn’t tell Brooke that I had time to hang out, and I didn’t know if that made me a bigger asshole or coward, but I was saved from deciding when Nate texted to come to his bar. Walt’s was hosting some kind of local fundraiser with the money being donated to a charity for Huntington’s disease. So Liam, Dylan, and I made plans to head there for a few hours.

I pulled up outside of the modest single-story house Mira had grown up in with a manicured lawn and flower bed in the front. As I stepped out of the car, the front door swung open, and George ambled out. He was a tall and broad man, though he really needed to get his limp checked out.

Amelia, always excited to see her grandfather, danced in her car seat until I unbuckled her so she could sprint toward him. “Jiddo!”

“Lulu!” He crouched down to catch her, waving his hand at Sebastian, who approached much slower.

He and I hadn’t been able to get on the same page lately. It felt like in the last few weeks, he’d lost that little boy air about him, and I struggled to adjust to having a preteen, while he couldn’t seem to shake his moodiness, let alone the whole not listening to me thing.

It was possible I was being oversensitive because he didn’t want to cuddle with me anymore.

And that was the real problem.

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