Page 83 of Sunsets & Slow Dances

“You gonna do it?”

“I don’t know.”

“What’s goin’ on with you and Matty’s mama?”

Okay, that was a quick U-turn. I would have thought he’d have more questions about the fight.

“Nothing. I mean, we’re not together.”

He stopped rocking, and his thick white brows raised, causing his forehead to wrinkle. “Does she know that?”

“She should.”

“Well, son, that’s not what she’s tellin’ people on the computer.” Buzz reached into the mini cooler beside him, grabbed a beer, and offered it to me.

What the hell. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a beer with Buzz. I took it and lowered down into the chair next to him. I brought the bottle to my lips and tilted my neck back, letting the cool liquid slide down my throat. Bandit sat up, and I scratched behind his ears to say hello.

“I thought you said if Martinez came out of retirement, you’d fight him.”

And we were back to the fight. This was sort of a boomerang conversation.

“That was before all of this happened with Chloe.”

“Hmm,” Buzz made a noncommittal noise.

“If I take the fight, I’m gonna have to go back to Arizona to train. I don’t want to take her out of school.” I figured I’d try to explain it to Buzz, even though I doubt I’d get an empathetic ear. But hey, maybe he’d gotten a little softer in his old age.

“She can stay here. We can look after her, yer mama and me. She likes livin’ here, and yer mama likes havin’ her around.”

It was true; my mom did love having her around, which I didn’t understand. Chloe was a reminder of my dad’s infidelity, yet that’s not how my mom saw her. It blew my mind how forgiving my mom could be. From the moment my mom found out about Danielle and Chloe, she seemed to accept it. I hadn’t seen her get mad or betrayed or anxious or any emotion other than grief when it came to my dad.

But it didn’t actually matter if Buzz and my mom wanted her to stay.

“It’s not that simple. Legally, she can’t just stay with people. If I don’t become her permanent guardian, she goes into care. And not care like a foster family; it would most likely be a group home.”

“Well, that don’t make no kinda sense.”

“I know it seems like that, but it’s actually set up that way to protect kids.”

“Hogwash.” Buzz shook his head dismissively and took another swig of beer.

I agreed with him that it was hogwash, but unfortunately, our opinions didn’t matter.

“So what are you gonna do?”

“I don’t know.”

“What about Matty’s mama? Why does she have that ring on her finger?”

And we were back to Felicity.

I shook my head and took another sip of beer, then sighed. “She’s in denial or just thinks she’ll get her way by ignoring me. I’ve tried to talk to her, but she’s avoiding me. She needs to understand that she’s always going to be his mom, but as far as us, that’s over. We’re just too different.”

“I think ya might want to make that clear to her. I have it on very good authority that she’s been meetin’ with a wedding planner today.”

A wedding planner?Great.

“Daddy!” Matty called out as he tried to open the screen, but it was stuck.

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