Page 92 of Challenged by the Single Dad

If anything, now that he barely saw her, he thought about her and wanted her even more. He couldn’t get her out of his head, and all he wanted to do when he saw her—even for a few minutes—was grab her and kiss her.

Wyatt made a dismissive noise in his throat. “Naw, you’ll want to hear this.”

Dom glanced at his brother out of the corner of his eye. “Fine. What’d she do?”

“She went to yoga, then Booch and Bagels with the girls, and who should they run into but Wynona—Carnation’s mom.”

Now, he had Dom’s attention.

“Chloe went all mama bear on Wynona. Told her to go home and ‘discipline’ her child for once. She didn’t let Wynona get away with shit. Even when Wynona said that she didn’t have to sit there and take any more from them, Chloe was like, ‘you’re standing and you interruptedus.’” A laugh spilled from his chest. “She isbadass. Just as hot-tempered as you are, apparently. Even though she doesn’t have kids, she’s got that mama bear mode down to a science.”

“How do you know she doesn’t have a child?”Shit.This wasn’t his story to tell. And yet, he also didn’t want anybody to make the mistake that he made early on, assuming she wasn’t a mother.

Wyatt cocked his head to the side like a curious retriever. “Because when we asked her the day she interviewed, she said she didn’t. Wait, does she?””

Dom’s shoulders slumped slightly and he set down his paring knife so he didn’t cut himself. “She lost her son in terrible accident four years ago.”

Wyatt’s eyes immediately turned sad and his face fell. “Oh shit.”

Dom pulled in a deep breath though his nose and nodded. “Yeah. That was how I felt when I found out. Especially after I gave her shit for wanting Halloween off because she—”

“Didn’t have kids,” Wyatt said, scratching the back of his neck. “I remember. Fuck, dude, you really stuck your foot in it there.”

“And I apologized. And I still feel like garbage about it.”

“Christ, that’s rough. Do you know how?”

Dom glanced at Wyatt again. “He drowned. Fell through the ice on a pond at a friend’s farm.”

Wyatt’s face paled. “Fucking hell. So she’s a genuine mama bear then. Just with no cub to protect.”

Dom wanted to get off the topic of Chloe, so all he did was nod.

But Wyatt wasn’t picking up on Dom’s guarded cues, and launched into a longer explanation about what Chloe did at Booch and Bagels. And despite the fact that Dom didn’t want to hear about Chloe, because he was doing his best tonotthink about the woman he’d fallen for and couldn’t have, his heart grew softer and softer the more Wyatt described how she defended Silas.

She’d only met Dom’s son once. And from what Dom could tell, she was awkward and guarded around him. Why’d she feel the need to jump to his defense?

“Vica says they have what they’ve determined is ‘tight pussy energy,’” Wyatt scoffed, shaking his head with a wistful smirk. “And when I said, ‘Whytightand notbig?’ Vica asked me if I wanted her to have a big pu—”

“Got it,” Dom said, thought it came out as more of a growl. “Got it.”

“Jesus, what crawled up your ass, laid eggs, and ate it’s way out?”

Dom dropped his paring knife again and turned to face his brother. “I have a lot to do and we open in ten.” Then he glanced around the bar. “And no servers or bussers yet.”

“Good morning,” Penny sung, sashaying her way through the swinging door, with Jillian right behind her. “The fun has arrived.”

Dom grumbled and was about to tell them they were late, but thought better of it. Wyatt slapped his hand on Dom’s shoulder. “You’d be prettier if you smiled more.” Then he headed back to the kitchen before Dom smacked him.

The ladies of the Sewing Circle were among the first to arrive, bringing with them their knitting baskets this time. They all ordered their tea and asked for the brunch menu, which made Dom realize Wyatt hadn’t even rattled off the specials for the day yet. The board for outside hadn’t been done for the day, and when he went looking for it, he couldn’t find it.

What the fuck was going on?

The place was falling apart.

“Where’s the specials board,” he barked a little too loud, and drawing attention from some of the customers getting situated at their tables.

“Isn’t it between the bar and the wall like it always is?” Jillian asked, coming behind the bar to fill up a big water pitcher with lemons and ice.

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