Page 41 of Sunsets & Slow Dances

Her chin dipped as she ducked her head, and she tucked her hair behind her ear, revealing the slope of her neck, the area of her neck that I knew she loved when I kissed. “I work here. I’m the program director.”

“Oh, that’s great.”

“My friend Ashley runs it; this is all—” She waved her hand like a model onThePrice is Right. “—her baby. I mean, it was her baby. Her real baby is, you know, in her belly, but, you know, she’s amazing.”

“So are you.” I hadn’t meant for that admission to come out of my mouth. It had just sort of happened. I loved it when Nadia rambled; it meant she was nervous. That emotion rarely happened. Most of the time she projected a confident, sassy persona. The truth was that beneath that facade there was a very tender, sensitive person that few people ever saw.

Actually, when I thought of it that way, she reminded me of the way everyone described Chloe.

Her baby blue eyes looked up at me beneath a row of thick, dark lashes. I could see the vulnerability and confusion swimming in them. I wasn’t sure why my comment would have caused her to be confused. It’s not like I had ever stopped loving her. She was the one whose feelings changed. She was the one who’d ended things. She was the one who’d immediately moved on with Jerry Fucking Clemons, of all people.

I heard Matty before I saw him coming around the corner. “Dad, I’m starving. Can we get pizza?”

“Uh, yeah, sure. We can get pizza.”

“Do you want to come with us?” Chloe asked Nadia.

“Oh, um…” Nadia looked at me and then back at Chloe. “I don’t think?—”

“Yeah, come get pizza with us!” Matty jumped up and down.

“Oh, no.” Nadia shook her head back and forth. “I don’t want to…you guys should just?—.”

“Please?!” Chloe pleaded. “Please, please, please!”

“Don’t you like pizza?” Matty asked over Chloe’s pleas.

Nadia looked at both kids and then up to me. I smiled. I didn’t want her to feel pressured into coming to dinner with us, but I would really appreciate it if she did. Chloe and I still weren’t in the best place. I’d been trying to give her space but also let her know that I was there for her. My approach was crashing and burning because I didn’t feel any closer to her now than when I arrived two weeks earlier. I knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight, but having Nadia as a buffer for pizza would be nice.

Chloe clearly had a connection with Nadia. Seeing the two of them talking and laughing through the window the same way I’d seen her behave with my mom and Buzz made me feel like even more of a failure. I really didn’t have any idea how to connect with her. The first smile she’d ever given me was when I’d shown up just now.

“We’d love you to come,” I told her. “But if you have other plans, like a hot date...”

“No, I don’t.” She shook her head. “You know I’m not…okay, yes. I will come.”

“Can I ride with you?” Chloe asked her.

Once again, Nadia’s eyes met mine, searching for my approval before giving her response. I dipped my chin in a quick nod.

“Sure. I just have to let Ash know I’m leaving.” She smiled and then turned to me. “We’ll meet you guys there.”

Okay, I guess that was my cue to leave.

Nadia grabbed a bag so comically large it looked like it would tip her over as she picked it up from beneath the desk and Matty and I headed out.

“Did you have fun?” I asked as we walked to the truck.

“Yeah, we did two paintings.”

“Two? Wow.”

“One was of our families, and one we did when we looked in the mirror; it was a self poor tate.”

“Self-portrait,” I corrected him.

“That’s what I said.”

After I opened the door, he tossed his backpack into the backseat and climbed up into the truck. As he got situated into his booster seat, I noticed the hem of his jeans were a half an inch higher than his shoes. He’d gone through another growth spurt. Which meant I needed to do some shopping.

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