Page 8 of Christmas with the Baby Daddy

Rory:I thought we were going to try to talk about spending more time together again.

Rory:I miss you.

I didn’t. I’d broken up with him for that very reason. Rory Francis had lasted no more than a few weeks as my boyfriend. If he wasn’t so terrible in bed, maybe I would’ve tried harder. It was a shallow opinion to admit, but it was the truth. The absolute deal breaker for me, though, was his nagging insistence for me to spend all my free time with him. I couldn’t, and I refused to compromise. He, like his cousin Reagan, couldn’t understand the demands of needing to work a lot, and often at night or on the weekends, too. And he’d never come around to the fact that if I had free time, I wanted to devote it to George, not him.

I posed my thumb over the screen, debating whether I could correct the man now. A few days before Thanksgiving, after he’d nagged me and bombarded me with texts and voicemails, I’d told him that I might reconsider getting back together in the future. It was a lie. A loophole. I’d worded it so vaguely that I could put him off forever, and I’d only replied at all so he would shut up.

Maybe Sara’s right. Maybe thatisleading him on.

I wasn’t, though. I just didn’t have the time or energy to deal with his protests and continued pitches for why we should be a couple again.

I moved my thumb from the screen, opting out of a reply now. If I told him to forget about it, he’d blow up my phone all night with text after text for a reason. I didn’t need my phone going off all night while I was working. I wanted to be focused, and if I did need to be contacted, it would be for an emergency or something to do with George. Not tied up with the man I hardly wanted in the first place.

I stood, cracking my back. Simply put, I didn’t have time for romance, even a half-ass one with a guy who got on my nerves more than he turned me on. Keeping up with the demands of catering at this holiday time was no joke. Turning down some of the overtime was an option, but I’d cringe if I didn’t take advantage of it.

If I wasn’t saving up to start my own business, I was paying off the lingering remnants of medical debt from my parents before they passed. And if I wasn’t putting a little extra into Christmas gifts for George, I was plunking funds into keeping the old house together.

My phone buzzed again.

Rory:Ireallymiss you.

The lewd emojis he added in another line were laughable.

So sorry, Rory. I’m not in the mood to waste my scarce free time faking it for you.

I shoved my phone back into my pocket.

“Wanna clear the dishes from the front?” Tiffany, a part-timer Jenny hired, asked. “I’ll go near the bar where the handsy ones are.” She rolled her eyes.

I huffed a laugh. “Nah,” I told the gorgeous college student. “I know most of them. They’ll think twice before grabbing my ass.”

“Okay,” she said around laughter. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

Jenny didn’t stand for harassment like that, at all, but sometimes, it happened. And with this party taking place at Vernford’s favorite bar on Main Street, the booze had to be flowing by now.

I grabbed a tray and headed out, collecting and stacking dishes. Like layering a messy Jenga platter, I piled up the dishes, bowls, and utensils in a secure fit. Jenny teased that I tried to get as much as I could in the fewest trips possible because I enjoyed a challenge. It was nothing more than a matter of efficiency.

And, yeah. I supposed it was a trivial little game with myself to see how well I could balance the impossible.

As I turned to take a load back to the kitchen, though, nothing could have prepared me for the difficulty of getting through the room this time.

I spun, keeping the tray hoisted high and secure to prevent a single morsel of food from falling off.

And I sawhim.

Zachary West. It wasn’t a dream. His face wasn’t projected from my memories of the hunky guy I’d crushed on when I was a teenager. It wasn’t another fantasy of what he might look like after all this time away.

He washere.

In the bar. Older, more rugged, with a beard.

And staring straight at me, just as stunned.

My breath hitched. I stopped short, skidding on my shoe at the sight of the impossible.

Zach was right here.

Right now.

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