Page 1 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

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Haley

“No way,” my sister, Sara, exclaimed. “He texted you out of the blue? After all these years?”

“Right?” I replied.

Brandon, my five-year-old son, let out a yelp down in the front yard. We paused from our porch conversation to make sure he was okay—he’d tripped and scraped his knee, hesitating for a moment to decide if he wanted to cry or not, before shaking it off and running after the ball that had rolled away.

Turning back to Sara, I said, “I ignored the first text because I didn’t recognize the number. But then he texted me a second time explaining who it was.”

“Let me see,” Sara demanded.

I pulled out my phone and showed her the text.

UNKNOWN: Hey, is this still your number?

UNKNOWN: It’s Lucas. Been a while. I’m back in Vancouver and wanted to know if you’d like to get together for a drink and catch up. I’m free tonight.

“The second text was two hours ago,” I noted.

Sara leaned back in her chair and rested her hands on her pregnant belly. “We’re talking aboutLucas, Lucas? Your ex? The one you couldn’t stand?”

“What other Lucas would I be talking about?” I replied. “And it’s not like I couldn’t stand him. We just butted heads a lot back in high school. There was no future there.”

“So, are you going to hook up with him?”

I gave a start. “Slow your roll, girl. We’re just talking about catching up.”

Sara narrowed her eyes at me. “Hales. He wants to get a drink andcatch up. At night. That’s code for sex.”

“Is it really?”

She let out a frustrated sound. “How am I the one who understands dating subtext? You’re the one who’s single, and I’m married!”

“It’s not like I’ve lived an exciting single life,” I shot back at her. “I haven’t dated anyone in a while.”

“Three years,” Sara said. “You haven’t dated or hooked up with anyone inthree years.”

“You make it sound like I’m some kind of weirdo!” I took a long sip of wine. “It’s not like I have a lot of time to date, between work and Bran…”

My son came running up the porch steps. “Mom. Can we go to the park?”

“Case and point,” I said to Sara before turning to Brandon. “It’s almost your bedtime, Bran.”

“But I want to go to the park!”

“We can go tomorrow,” I said firmly. “I have an open house at noon, so I’ll take you after that. And if you’re good, we can get ice cream.”

That satisfied the boy, who let out a cheer and then sprinted down the porch steps to play with his ball. He loved this time of year, when the weather in Vancouver, Washington—right across the river from Portland, Oregon—was perfect and we spent so much time outside. Better than him staring at a screen all day.

“Mom used to bribeyouwith ice cream,” Sara said.

“Don’t you dare,” I said with a laugh.

“Just pointing it out!” Sara gazed fondly at her nephew, then turned back to me with renewed enthusiasm. “You should accept Lucas’s invite.”

“Here we go,” I murmured.

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