Page 22 of Her Football Star Ex

And I knew he was just being light-hearted and possibly flirtatious, but the thought of the guys I went on dates with expecting to have lots of children someday wasn’t as easy for me to think about.

“And what about you?” he asked when I didn’t say anything. “How many kids would you like to have?”

I pretended to think about it, like I hadn’t thought about the answer to that question thousands of times over the past few years.

Then I lifted a shoulder and tried to seem as neutral as I could about the whole thing and said, “I don’t know. When I was little, I always wanted to have a boy and a girl, but since life turned out differently than I expected, just having Jaxon here safe and sound is enough for me.”

“Do you mean things turned out differently because you got divorced?” he asked.

Sure, we could go with that for now.

“Yeah, I don’t think many people plan to get divorced when they get married.”

“Sorry, dumb question.” He chuckled awkwardly. “But you’re only twenty-six, right? And beautiful and smart. I’m sure you’ll get that little girl before you know it.”

I felt my smile faltering, but I forced it to stay. “We’ll see.”

He must not have caught on to my discomfort because he winked and said, “This may be jumping the gun a little, but who knows, if things work out between us, you might be able to help me with that basketball team of mine.”

I looked down at my plate, feeling a burning sensation fill my cheeks.

Yeah, this probably wasn’t going to work out after all.

It took all my willpower not to look around for the waitress and ask her to box up my food so I could run out of the restaurant and hide.

But Dave must have seen something in my expression because he reached across the table and covered my hand with his. “Sorry, that was way too soon,” he said. “I think I may have had too much wine to drink tonight. I was just talking hypothetically. I know this is only our first date. ”

“No, that’s fine.” His hands were softer than I expected. And having been used to Vincent’s rough and calloused hands, I didn’t like how it felt. So I slipped my hand out from under his, picking up my napkin to pat my face so he wouldn’t know I was resisting his touch on purpose. “I-it’s just my first date since the divorce, so I guess I didn’t expect to start talking about settling down and having kids quite yet.”

“Obviously I’m a little rusty at this as well.” He flexed his fingers like he had indeed caught onto what I’d just done before picking up his fork again. “I’ve only just started dating again and am a little nervous.”

I was just trying to think of a less awkward topic to talk about when the corner of my eye caught on a flash of blond curly hair running down the restaurant aisle toward me.

“Mommy!” The flash slowed, and before I knew what was happening, Jaxon was throwing his arms around my waist and hugging me.

“Jaxon?” I returned his hug and ran my fingers through his curls. “What are you doing here?”

I pulled away, and that was when I saw a flustered-looking Vincent slipping out of a booth several tables down. He wore the gray ball cap that he always wore when he was trying to blend in in public, his dark hair curling around his ears. He turned his head over his shoulder looking for where Jaxon had disappeared to. His best friend Cole was sitting across from him and seemed to be helping with the search by pointing in my direction.

Vincent seemed to spot Jaxon quickly enough, but when his brown eyes met mine, his step faltered—almost like he hadn’t really expected the woman Jaxon had jumped out of their booth to see was going to be me.

And as he got closer, his gaze slid to Dave and a look of surprise and something else flashed across his face.

Disappointment?

Frustration?

“Daddy is getting us dessert.” Jaxon bounced up and down, bringing my attention back to him. “He said if I ate salad I could have some.”

“Well, that sounds fun,” I said, wondering what I should do next.

What was the proper etiquette for bumping into your ex-husband and your son when you were on a first date?

Was I supposed to introduce Dave to Vincent? That wouldn’t be awkward or anything.

Should I just quickly send Jaxon back to his dad and pretend like we hadn’t bumped into each other at all?

Or maybe I should pretend this date was going better than it really was and hopefully make Vincent jealous. I had told my friend Ivy a while back that I wanted to get all dressed up and do something like that.

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