Page 36 of The Single Dad's Guide to Recreation

“Do you live here too, Miss Avery?” Mabel asks.

“No, honey, I’m just here to get Leia’s glasses for her because—oop!”

Avery ducks, dodging a meatball flying from Percy’s fork. I jump up to retrieve it, but the dog beats me to it, and I end up catching Avery instead.

“Almost landed on my patootie there!” Avery’s cheeks go red as she steps out of my arms, like she’s been caught doing something naughty. “What’s going on? Dads’ night?”

Travis shoots me an inscrutable look before raising his glass. “Exactly. Single fathers unite!”

“Zero aura points for that, Dad,” Riley says, looking like she’s just managing to hold back an eye roll.

“C’mon, girl,” Avery says. “Your dad is cool.”

“Yeah, I got rizz.” Travis splays a hand across his chest, looking wounded.

Riley drops her head into her hands. “Dad. So cheugy right now.”

Owen pats his father on the arm. “It’s okay, though. We still love you.”

“You and Leia want some dinner?” Travis asks. “We’ve got plenty.”

“Thanks, but we’re heading to a movie in Coxsackie. She’s buying tickets on her phone right now because my batteries died, which is why I ran in,” Avery says, glancing over her shoulder. “I should probably skedaddle. Have fun!”

The rest of the meal passes without interruption, if you don’t count Percy feeding half his dinner to the dog. I know my little guy will be crashing soon, but I don’t want to leave without helping to clean up, so we settle the kids in front of the TV for one quick show, Mabel snuggled with the dog, Percy curled up next to Owen, and Riley pretending to be bored.

Travis deals with the leftovers while I load the dishwasher, and I almost don’t hear his question over the sound of the running water.

“You know that Avery deserves the best, right?”

Turning to face him, I’m surprised at the set of his jaw. Every other interaction I’ve had with the guy, he’s been as easygoing and lighthearted as the family’s golden retriever. But he’s all bulldog now.

“I, uh… yeah, I do,” is all I seem to be able to come up with.

He waits until the counters are clean and the water turned off, but he’s still in bulldog mode when he speaks again. “You seem like a decent guy. But Avery hasn’t been the same since she came home from Atlanta. I don’t know what happened down there, but it probably had something to do with that turd she was seeing, Peter.”

I should probably feel insulted that everyone assumes I’m going to screw things up with Avery, but they’re probably right. And it’s pretty amazing to know that so many people are looking out for her.

“Things are complicated with us, because of changes I’m making at CPR and my family situation. But I care about her. And I’ll do my best to…” To what? Not fuck things up? With my track record, how likely is that? It’s selfish, but I can’t seem to let her go. “She just fits with us, you know?”

His nod is slow and punctuated with a shrug. “Yeah. I know.”

ChapterThirteen

AVERY

I haven’t been with a guy for three years. Not since the epic breakup with Peter and everything that came afterward. I know other women have dry spells, but their biggest worries when they find someone they might actually want to get naked with probably have to do with grooming. Making sure all the parts are shaved or waxed or whatever.

Some girls might be proactive and get an STD test, but I’m pretty sure most girls don’t have to worry about being a silent carrier of an asymptomatic disease. Germs just lying in wait to wreak havoc on her life all over again.

Like Lisa and Josh, Peter and I got pregnant by accident. Unlike Lisa and Josh, however, Peter and I had been dating for years. But instead of giving birth and suffering from postpartum depression, I almost died and woke up in the hospital with no baby, no fallopian tubes, and my boyfriend calling me a slut.

Turns out, all this—he’d shouted, gesturing at the tubes and machines keeping me alive—was caused by an untreated STD.And I sure haven’t slept around, so it must’ve been you.

Those were the last words he saidtome, but not the last words he saidaboutme. Before I was even discharged from the hospital, he managed to convince all of our mutual friends that I was a lying liar who cheated on him. He called my sister and demanded that she drive down to Atlanta to pick me up. I spent weeks huddled in her guest room, refusing to talk to anyone, until I was well enough to fly back to Atlanta, pick up my car and the boxes of belongings Peter packed up, and drive home to Climax, where I never told anyone exactly what happened.

But now, if I want to explore this attraction to Josh, I have to suck it up and make sure it doesn’t happen all over again. Minus the accidental pregnancy, since I can’t ever conceive naturally again.

There’s a new OBGYN clinic in town with a female doctor, so I’m hoping I won’t be completely sex-shamed the way I was three years ago. I’m still nervous as I fill out the patient history, and I can’t keep from fidgeting once I’m sitting on the exam table half naked.

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