Page 40 of Fierce-Michael

“I think so. We had a great time at the fair. We talked the whole time and I couldn’t even remember what half of it was about or how we went from one topic to the other. There was nothing awkward.”

“That’s positive,” her mother said. “How old is he?”

“Thirty-four. Just a few years older than me. I told him about the reality show and Brian.”

Her father was stunned. “You never tell anyone about Brian. Why did you?”

“Because he was opening up about his ex and son. As I said, we’ve worked together for years. We aren’t strangers. It’s Cade’s wife’s cousin. Not just the guy who is running her business. There was that kind of connection there and he figured I knew some things about him anyway.”

“Did you?” her mother asked.

“I knew he had custody of his son but didn’t know the whole story behind it. I do now. We’ve had no talks at all about me meeting Ty. I’m not rushing it and he’s not either. Right now,we just want to go on some dates, have fun, and see what comes about it.”

“I’m glad if that is all you’re doing, but you also want to settle down,” her mother said. “Why else would you have been willing to marry some stranger sight unseen after a month? I can’t tell you how happy I was that didn’t work out.”

She laughed. “It wasn’t meant. Yes, I want to settle down. I told Michael about that so he knew going in too. This isn’t about fun and games for me either. At least not long term. I don’t want to rush, but I’m not going to sit back and let something go on for five years while we wait.”

Kelly felt she’d gotten her point across well enough on that topic and Michael seemed to be on the same page with it.

“It sounds as if you’ve got a good foundation,” her father said. “Now we’ll just see what happens. Don’t get ahead of yourself and don’t open your heart up too quickly either.”

“I won’t do either of those things,” she said.

But it was too late because she already had.

13

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOU

“Can I tell you when you texted me at noon and asked if I could get out early today that I thought it might be an April Fool’s joke?” Kelly said to him on Tuesday.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “But since our last date got messed up, I figured I’d throw it out there that we could have a few extra hours today. I’ve got to get Ty at seven.”

It was four now. They’d have less than three hours by the time he had to leave to pick up his son.

He’d dropped Ty off at three, took the rest of the afternoon off and ran to the store for food to cook for dinner.

“Don’t worry. I find it very sweet that you made the offer.”

“Not a problem leaving early?” he asked.

“It’s only thirty minutes early,” she said. “I get out at four anyway. No one thinks anything of it. I start work around seven. Cade is flexible. I’m an early bird and he’s not. I think he likes that I’m there so early to handle things.”

“Alex always complained Cade worked late at night and slept in. I think it works for them now. When the twins were younger,he would stay up later dealing with them and she’d go to bed. Then she’d get up early in the morning and let him sleep.”

“I heard about it,” Kelly said. “He’d come in around ten while Alex was home on maternity leave. He said they had it worked out so that they each got about six or seven hours straight sleep because he’d feed the kids at midnight while she went to bed at nine, then she’d get up around four or five when the kids needed to be fed again and he’d sleep.”

Michael didn’t have that luxury. He did it on his own. Even when he stayed with Electra for a week after Ty was born, he was getting up and doing it and letting her rest since she was the one who gave birth.

But when he went back home, she cried she needed more help so he was splitting his time. When he spent the night there on the couch, she never got up once with Ty and slept the whole time, having him deal with it.

He knew right away things weren’t going to work out, but Electra had to come to terms with it on her own so he wasn’t the bad guy.

“Teamwork is great,” he said. “Especially since there were twins. I know Jolene helped out a lot too.”

“Two is nothing for her,” she said. “Did your parents help you?”

“They did,” he said. “But they still work too so during the week I was on my own most times. I didn’t get custody of Ty until he was over a month and then I took a month off of work to try to get my house set and us in a routine. Had to get daycare set up.”

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