Page 37 of Summer with a Single Dad

By the following day, I didn’t feel any less nervous.

However, I was excited and genuinely looking forward to seeing Chris and Hudson.

Heavy clouds promised rain, and a fleeting moment passed when I wondered if the weather was a bad omen.

It was silly, though. I loved the rain. Even in the humidity of the June gloom, I remembered my grandma telling me that rain was always a sign of cleansing and renewal. If she were standingnext to me, she’d tell me that something good was about to happen. The coming rain would wash away all my anxiety and clear a path for answers and new beginnings.

When I heard Hudson’s laughter, everything brightened—inside and out. The sun poked through the clouds momentarily, and a lightness washed over me.

“Are you feeling better?” Chris asked, covertly kissing my cheek when he hugged me.

“So much better,” I said.

“Are you my dad’s girlfriend?” Hudson asked.

I almost fell over where I stood.

“Uh-um . . .” I looked to Chris for guidance.

He shrugged. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Where’d you hear that?” Chris asked.

“When you were talking to Aunt Sav. You said, girlfriend. And Emily’s the only girl you know. So, I thought you meant her.”

I almost laughed when he shrugged because he looked like a mini-Chris.

“So, are you?” His brown eyes bore into mine as he looped Luke’s collar over his hand.

I cleared my throat. “Well, I?—”

“Would you mind if Emily was my girlfriend?” Chris piped in.

“Nope.”

My body sagged with relief.

“Well,” Hudson started and looked back and forth between us.

The palpitations of my heart threatened an attack of some kind.

“Would that mean that Moose and Rufus would be over more?”

“I suppose it might,” Chris said.

“And we’d still go on walks and come to the park, though.”

“Of course,” Chris answered.

“And we’d have dinner together? And watch movies?”

“Em?” Chris prompted me to join the conversation.

“Sure.” I swallowed the Sahara Desert, which seemed to have formed in my throat. “Dinner and movies would be fun.” I looked into his big brown eyes again. “I mean, that is, if you want me to join you and your dad for dinner and movies, I will.”

His mouth turned up into a huge smile. “Yeah, okay.”

“Hudson?” Chris said, using that father’s tone kids are attuned to.

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