Page 11 of Secret Love

“Hey, Clara. We need a woman’s perspective,” Rhodes says.

“Here we go,” I mutter.

“Our old man here met a woman he liked and then he went and wrecked it. What should he do to apologize?” he asks.

“When you’re thirty-six, I’ll remember to remind you how old you are.” I point at him and he just laughs it off.

“You’ll still be older, my man,” he says.

“You met a woman you like, Henley?” Clara asks, her full cheeks lifting as she beams at me. “You’re so sweet, you could never mess it up.”

The guys all scoff at that, including me.

“It’s true,” Clara says, laughing. “But…if you think you messed it up, you could apologize and give her a pretty bouquet of flowers or…a gift card to Luminary.” She winks when we all laugh.

“I told you flowers weren’t stupid,” Penn says. “And I like the gift card idea. Nice touch, Clara.”

She lifts an eyebrow. “But really, all you need to do is show her your charm.”

Weston points at me, validated.

Clara pats my shoulder and then sighs. “Don’t let these amazing shoulders go to waste. Look how happy Weston is with Sadie. We all want that for you.”

The guys chime in with their agreement and I chuckle. “Thanks, Clara. I’m happy though.”

“Mm-hmm,” she says, her disbelief evident.

The conversation moves to other things but keeps going back to Tru. I drink my Solar Latte and play with Caleb, trying to distract myself from thinking of that woman with the pretty green eyes and those full lips. The way she turned from warm and inviting to ice-cold sassiness. Finally, I give up and give Caleb a squeeze.

“I better get going, you guys,” I say. “Bree is still out of town, so the girls are staying with me again tonight and I need to make sure we've got everything for dinner before they get home from school.”

“You're going back to the grocery store?” Rhodes winks.

“Nah, I think I’ve done enough damage there today.”

“You know what, Henley? I bet it's not as bad as you think,” Weston says. “Just turn on that charm the next time you see her and she'll be eating out of the palm of your hand. I've seen it happen way too many times to doubt it.”

“I know that's right,” Rhodes says. “You’re not even trying most of the time, Henley, and women are falling all over themselves to get to you.”

I snort. “Yeah, right, when you and Penn are around you hardly leave anything for the rest of us. Not that Bowie or I are interested in all that.” I share a look at Bowie, but he’s shaking his head.

“I think you will be before you know it,” Bowie says, grinning at me knowingly, “and I think her name is Tru.”

I laugh and shake my head. “I’ve made a way bigger deal of this than I needed to. It was no big deal, just sucked that it happened and I feel bad that I was such a jerk.”

“I think you'll run into her again,” Weston says. “In a town as small as Silver Hills, you'll be seeing her again.”

“And if we see her first,” Penn adds, “we'll set her straight.”

“Don't bother,” I groan.

I stand up and give each of them a bro-shake before I leave the room and walk out the door. I never even checked to see the updates in The Single Dad Playbook. It’s best I didn’t write in there today anyway. So far, today has been a fail.

CHAPTER FOUR

ALL IN A DAY’S WORK

TRU

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