Page 122 of Challenged by the Single Dad

But that was their speech on paper. Not in person. Not in front of the Council, whom they were trying to win over. To woo and court into giving them Bonn Remmen’s land.

He smiled at her over the rim of his coffee mug, and she smiled at him over the rim of her tea, their eyes locked, and the two of them sharing a moment.

She looked good sitting in his home at his kitchen table.

Like she belonged there.

Was this really their new normal? Their new forever?

Guilt over moving another woman into Remy’s house still gnawed away at him from time to time, but it was nothing like it’d once been. Just like he told Silas, it wasn’t that he didn’t still love Remy, his heart had simply grown to accommodate more people.

Silas stood up to take his plate to the dishwasher when a sudden and abruptclunkagainst the sliding glass door to the patio made them all jump. Silas dropped his plate to the tile he jumped so high, and it shattered into a million pieces like Corelle was known to do.

“What was that?” Chloe exclaimed, setting her mug down and rising from her seat.

Dom rose to his seat too. “I don’t know.” But since there were no broken windows, he was less concerned about what smacked his window and more concerned about the sharp pieces of plate on his floor.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Silas said, too stunned to move. His bottom lip wobbled and his eyes started to well up with tears. “It was an accident.”

Ignoring the fact that the pieces of the broken plate were sharp, Dom kneeled down on the tile, shards, and maple syrup, in front of his son. “That’s right. It was an accident. And accidents happen. It’s okay, buddy. I’m not mad. That crash against the window shocked all of us. If I’d had a plate in my hand, I probably would have dropped it too.” He reached up and swept a tear from his son’s cheek. “Here. Take a seat and let me get this all swept up. We don’t want you cutting your feet, okay?” He helped Silas back onto his chair and went to reach for the broom, but Chloe had beat him to it.

“I got it,” she said, going to work shifting all the broken pieces into a neat little pile. Her eyes turned empathetic toward Silas. “That was really scary, wasn’t it?”

Silas nodded. “What was it?”

“From what I could tell, a large branch was knocked free from that tree over there and it came barrelling through the sky right into your glass door.” She shook her head. “I know that I spilled a bit of tea on the table when it happened, I was so surprised.”

“At least it wasn’t a bird that got hurt,” Silas said, searching for the bright side. “That would have been really sad.”

Chloe nodded. “Really sad.” While she finished sweeping up the broken and sticky plate, Dom grabbed the hand-held standup vacuum from the pantry closet and gave the tile and surrounding area a thorough pass in case Chloe missed a few sharp pieces.

“There. No harm, no foul. Good as new.” Dom ruffled Silas’s hair then stowed the vacuum back where it belonged.

“Dad, do you think I should pack extra socks and pants in case what I’m wearing right now gets wet at recess?”

Dom nodded, grabbed his empty coffee cup off the counter, and put it in the dishwasher. “I do. I think that’s a good idea. Always be prepared.”

With a nod of his own, Silas took off upstairs to go brush his teeth and grab his spare clothes. That left Dom and Chloe alone in the kitchen. She dumped the dustpan, then turned to face him. “You okay?”

Exhaling, he leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. “We’ve done everything so out of order, haven’t we?”

Confusion swam in her blue-green eyes. “What do you mean? Like the fact that we haven’t even been on a proper date and yet I’ve moved in with you and am having your baby? Yeah … I mean, I guess we’ve done things a little backward or whatever.”

Fuck. They hadn’t even been on a date. All they really did was talk and have sex. Two things he thoroughly enjoyed doing with her, but what kind of a foundation was that to build a life on?

He went to tear out the hair elastic that kept his hair out of his face only to realize he hadn’t tied it back yet. It was such a habit now. So he just raked his fingers through his hair, causing it to fan out from behind his ears and frame his face, hitting his scruffy jaw. “Now, I feel like a true asshole. I haven’t even taken you on a date. Not one. You’re having my baby and …” Dropping his gaze to the floor, he sighed, then lifted his focus back to her face. “Let’s get Logan to cover the bar tonight and we’ll go on a date. We can go to the Thatch Pub and have dinner. Talk about … whatever we want.”

All we do is talk.

“Shit,” he grumbled, “I mean, we don’thaveto talk. We talk so much already. We can do something besides talk.”

Her brow hiked up in a suggestive way. “I think we do a lot of that too. And I’m not one for doing it in front of an audience.”

“Fuck.” He raked his fingers through his hair again, then dragged them down his face, the short hair on his jaw, coarse against his skin. “That’snot what I meant. I just mean … we’re doing this, you and me. We’re living together. We’re having a baby. We’re starting this life, this future together, and I went about it all wrong.”

“Takes two to make a baby, Dom. I wasn’t exactly champing at the bit to go to the movies with my boss.” Her eyes widened and she held up a finger. “I mean Iwas, but only if youweren’tmy boss.”

“Which I’m not now. Kind of.” His shoulders slumped. “I’m trying here. And apparently, epically failing.”

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