Page 67 of The Dating Pact

They all gathered together with their hands in the middle of the circle and chanted their team name before breaking up.

When Dylan took his place back at my side, he asked, “He know about you and Brooke?”

I shook my head. “And I’m not sure what to tell him either. It’s not like I know what Brooke and I are.”

He smirked.

“What?”

He rubbed his palm over his mouth, his voice low. “You’re a dumb motherfucker if you don’t know it’s written all over your face. Hers too.”

I huffed because this grumpy son of a bitch hadn’t known his head from his ass until Evie showed up. He certainly didn’t know anything about Brooke and me. “Our faces are fine.”

He stayed silent but nodded sarcastically, gesturing for me to follow him to help put away the equipment. Once we finished, he clapped my shoulder. “Lemme know if you want me to talk to Seb.”

“Talk to Seb? Why would I need you to do that?”

He shrugged. “I figured it might be easier for me to talk to him about what’s going on in his life.”

I didn’t know what offended me more, having my friend point out to me that he might be able to do a better job of communicating with my kid or that Seb would remain upset with me.

“Sometimes it’s easier with someone on the outside, you know? You’re his dad, but I’m his coach. His uncle.”

He had a point, and my shoulders shrank at the idea that I might be out of my depth on this.

I motioned for Amelia and Sebastian to meet me by the fence as Dylan told me, “Hey, it’ll be all right. You’ll get through this.”

I accepted his words with a nod and one-armed hug. “Thanks. I’ll see you later.”

“Later.” He ruffled Amelia’s hair and fist-bumped with Sebastian. “Bye, Lulu. Seb, nice work today.”

They waved to their uncle in every sense of the word but biological, and we hopped back into my car. I might’ve been on my son’s shit list, but I knew the surefire way to get off it. “Who’s up for Red Robin’s?”

Amelia shot her hand up, bouncing in her car seat, and I looked to Sebastian. He couldn’t hide his growing smile. My kids loved bottomless fries. Hell, who didn’t?

EIGHTEEN

BROOKE

The forecast called for rain. Shoppers didn’t hang around the stalls as usual this morning. They wanted to get in and get out before the storm, which didn’t feel too far off between the dark sky and warm winds whipping the flaps of the tents back and forth.

Nicole, the college student who helped me out on weekends, played on her phone. We hadn’t had a customer in about twenty minutes, and with the dwindling crowd, I doubted we’d be getting any more.

“Can you start packing up the extra crates? If the rain starts, I don’t want us to be stuck breaking everything down.”

She nodded and got to work, stacking the empty crates and folding up all the cardboard boxes to reuse next week. I packed up most of the unsold produce, save for a few of each in case anyone stopped by in the next half hour. I occasionally brought some to Jude since the guy needed more vitamins in his diet, and I popped a few zucchini and an eggplant into a basket for him.

“Nic, I’m going over to Jude’s stall for a bit.”

“Got it covered here.” She smiled. “Tell your boyfriend I said hi.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“He’s not?” She appeared genuinely shocked. “I thought… He’s always… He brought you coffee this morning and…”

I laughed, waving her off. “We’ve been friends for a long time.”

And having sex for the last few weeks, but to-may-to, to-mah-to.

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