Page 32 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

Me: That’s awesome. Jordan’s a great guy. He’s grown up a lot since high school.

Haley: I can tell!

I wanted to segue that into mentioning thatIhad grown up in the past seven years, but didn’t know how to phrase it. At least, not without sounding desperate for her attention.

The three little dots appeared on the screen, indicating that Haley was typing a message. My pasta was done, but I ignored it while staring at the screen. Waiting to see what she would say.

The dots disappeared, then came back, then disappeared again.

She never sent another message, and it felt like it was now too late for me to say anything.

I had missed another chance.

17

Haley

I typed a message on my phone, then deleted it.

What else could I say to my ex?

I wasn’t even sure why I texted him in the first place about Jordan. Maybe it was some latent motherly instinct to let Bran’s biological father know that he was going to start playing baseball. Driven by the guilt of never even telling Lucas the truth about his son.

Maybe it was just because it felt nice to get back in touch with an old friend.

Except Lucas and I were never really friends. We’d dated for six months, and stopped talking once we broke up. We hooked up one more time when I was home for winter break, but that was it. He moved out to Detroit right after that, and we didn’t have any contact until he moved back into town two weeks ago.

But after seeing him again, all those old feelings had come flooding back. A lot of it was lust, driven by the night of fun we’d had with his two friends. Our chemistry was still there, even after all this time.

Was there more than that, though? Sexual chemistry was great, but it wasn’t the most important thing I was looking for in a relationship. I needed a real life partner, someone to be a father for Bran.

I still doubted that Lucas could step into that role.

And even if he could, he probably wouldn’t forgive me for hiding the truth from him all this time.

I forgot all about it the next day while driving a newlywed couple around town, showing them a variety of houses for sale. They had no idea what they wanted, which made my job frustrating. First they insisted they needed a back yard for their dog, but then they changed their mind and wanted to see a studio condo the size of a shoebox.

When those showings were over, I stopped by a grocery store down near the river. It was a quick trip to get Bran more fruit snacks and toaster waffles—he’d become obsessed with using the toaster lately, and demanded waffles for breakfast every morning.

After filling my basket with a few other household items I needed, I headed for the checkout lines. And as I turned down the main aisle, I nearly ran into another shopper.

“Sorry—” I began to say, but then did a double-take.

Lucas?

He was just as surprised as I was, dark eyes widening at first, then narrowing in recognition. “Look who it is.”

Lucas was dressed in a way that I had never seen before: a maroon polo shirt tucked into dress slacks. His brown belt even matched his leather shoes. All of that combined with the tattoo sleeve running down his arm to create a complex,sexyimage of a man.

He lookedgood.

“If I didn’t know any better,” I teased, “I’d say you were stalking me.”

He chuckled and said, “I work two blocks from here. I’ve started getting groceries on my lunch break. I should accuse you of stalking. Don’t you live up in Rose Village?”

“This isn’t my usual grocery store,” I admitted. “I was down here showing homes to a newlywed couple. Wait, how do you know I live in Rose Village?”

“You sent me your Uber information, to make sure you got home safe,” he said awkwardly. “The night you… came over to my place.”

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