Page 78 of Fierce-Dane

“I can’t wait,” she said. “I’ll have to try a little bit of everything.”

They’d been walking around at the festival for an hour and having a blast when he turned the corner. “Oh shit.”

“What?” she asked.

“That’s Ethan over there.”

“Where?” she asked.

“There, in the red shirt. I didn’t know they were coming here. Mel said she had a surprise for the kids but didn’t say what.”

“And you wouldn’t have come if you’d known?”

“No,” he said. “I thought you and I could talk about things this weekend about when it would be time to have the kids meet you, but I’d like it to be after they know you exist.”

“Good,” she said. “I don’t think either of us should be thrown into anything.”

He was glad she was on board with that and wasn’t sure why he thought she might not be.

“Why don’t we go in the other direction, just in case?”

“We can leave,” she said.

“No,” he said. “You’re having fun. It’s big here and there are enough people that we should be fine.”

But ten minutes later there was a tap on his arm and he turned to see his ex standing there. Thankfully she was alone.

“Dane,” Mel said. “What are you doing here?”

“The same thing you are,” he said.

Mel turned her head to Sloane and back to him. “Who is this?”

“Mel, this is Sloane Redding. Sloane, my ex-wife, Mel.”

“Nice to meet you,” Sloane said, putting her hand out.

Mel hesitated and put her hand out, then said, “Can we talk privately?”

“I’m going to run to the bathroom,” Sloane said.

The minute Sloane was gone, Mel said, “I didn’t know you were dating someone. You haven’t said anything.”

“It’s not been that long,” he said.

“Do the kids know?” Mel asked.

“No,” he said. “I haven’t told them yet and when the time was right I’d tell you first. As I said, it’s been less than two months.”

Mel was looking at where Sloane had gone. Almost as if she was waiting to make sure they would stop talking when Sloane returned.

“You could have told me,” Mel said.

“Why?” he asked. “You didn’t tell me about Ethan for months. You didn’t about Ian either for months. Longer than it took you to tell me about Ethan.”

“We hadn’t been divorced that long,” she said. “And I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I’ll buy that,” he said. “But again, I’m not sure why you expect me to tell you every single person I date if the kids aren’t involved.”

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