Page 21 of Her Football Star Ex

I was a little jittery with nerves and not sure how much dinner I’d actually be able to eat because of them, but so far, for my first date since Vincent, it was actually going all right. Dave turned out to be a better conversationalist than I would have guessed from his initial message and was asking lots of interesting questions. While he wasn’t exactly the tall, dark, and handsome football-playing type that I’d gone for in the past, he was still good-looking. And I liked that his blue eyes were even more vibrant than they’d been in his profile photos.

“I guess it depends on the time of year I’d be going.” I cut into my salmon. I really loved seeing new places all over the world and had yet to go back to the same place more than once. “Like, would I be going there the same time every year? Or would it be a place I’d need to be okay traveling to in both the summer and the winter?”

“How about this.” He pursed his lips and stabbed his zucchini with his fork. “You can choose a place to visit in the warmer months and another place to visit in the colder months.”

“Then that’s easy.” I shrugged. “I’d go to Glacier National Park in the summer and in the winter I’d head to Hawaii.”

A slow smile spread across his lips, and I liked the way it lit up his ocean-blue eyes. “Sounds like we’d be great traveling companions.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because those are two of my favorite places as well.”

“You’ve been to Glacier?” I asked, somewhat surprised. I myself had never even heard about it until Vincent’s parents planned a family reunion there three years ago, the summer before his dad died of a brain aneurysm.

“I grew up in Montana actually, so I went there all the time as a kid.”

“That’s cool. It’s so beautiful there.”

My mind conjured up images of the beautiful lakes surrounded by tall mountains with spots of snow that stayed even through the summer. I had grown up watching the movieHeidi—the one where a girl lived with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps—and so when we’d gone on the hike in Logan Pass I couldn’t help but feel like I was in a place just like that.

“It really is Montana’s hidden treasure.” Dave poured a little more red wine into his wine glass. “So many people I talk to are all about leaving the country to see new scenery, but just in the U.S. we have so many different climates worth exploring.”

“It’s so true,” I said.

He set the bottle back on the table and picked up his fork again. “So you said you have a son, is that right?”

“I do,” I said, a nervous flutter going through my stomach. Starting to talk about our kids might lead to talking about future plans for more kids, and I knew it could be a dealbreaker given my particular issues. But I put on a smile because I loved bragging about my son, and said, “His name is Jaxon. He’s four years old and my favorite person in the whole world.”

“Four?” He raised his eyebrows. “You don’t look old enough to have a four-year-old.”

I furrowed my brow, not sure if I should be offended or not. “I don’t?”

He shook his head and picked up his wine glass. “I don’t mean that in a bad way or anything. I just…” He seemed to think for a moment. “I just assumed that with all you’ve accomplished so far in your life, getting your law degree and already practicing for two years, that it would have been impossible to do with a baby as well.” He took a sip of wine and set his glass back on the table. “I mean, I could barely take care of myself and keep up with my studies when I was in my early twenties, let alone be married and take care of a baby.”

So he was impressed?

Deciding to take it that way, I lifted a shoulder, poked at my food, and said, “My mom and ex-husband were really supportive of me accomplishing my goals at the time, so we were able to make it work.” My mom was excited to have a grand baby to dote on, and so instead of putting Jaxon in childcare while I finished my last year of law school, she had taken care of him during the day and Vincent was a big help in the evenings when I needed to focus on my homework.

“That’s good you had that kind of support,” he said.

“What about you? You have a daughter, right?”

“Yes, her name is Callie.” His smile broadened at the mention of his daughter. “She turns three at the end of March, so I’m a little further behind you in that arena.”

“So you just have the one daughter?”

“Yes. My ex-wife and I waited until we were both settled in our careers before we started trying for kids.”

“That’s smart.” Having Jaxon so young had definitely made me grow up fast.

But even though balancing everything had been tricky, having him at twenty-two had turned out to be a big blessing. Because if Vincent and I hadn’t accidentally gotten pregnant, who knows if we’d have been able to have any kids at all, thanks to my body deciding to break on me.

“And are you hoping to have any more kids in the future?” I asked, trying to get a gauge on Dave’s goals for a family. The date had been going well so far, so it would probably be a good idea to know this before I got my hopes up too much.

But when he answered, I almost wished I hadn’t asked.

“I’d love to have a whole basketball team of them.” He grinned. “So as soon as I find the right woman for me, I’ll have to get to work on that again.” He winked.

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