Page 68 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

Bran nodded while coloring in his book. “He’s nice. He taught me all about cars.”

“He did?”

“I know about car engines. And car transmissions. And, um, car tires. And lots of other car stuff.”

“That’s great. Where did Lucas sleep when he was here?”

“On the couch. I woke up to go potty in the middle of the night and saw him.”

“Did he ever go into Mommy’s room?”

“I don’t think so. We mostly played in my room. He bought me a bunch of new books.” He looked up from his coloring book. “Will you read the one about Dash to me tonight?”

“Didn’t Lucas already read that one to you?”

“But I wantyouto read it now. So you can learn about Dash, too.”

“Okay,” I promised him.

My ovaries were twitching like crazy. Lucas, the man who’d knocked me up and then disappeared from our lives, was an honest-to-God father figure. Genuinely so, and not just because he was trying to impress me.

If I could travel back in time, the high school version of me would never believe it.

I was excited for our date on Monday night. But beneath that excitement was a growing sense of dread.

Sara was right. I had to tell Lucas the truth, and I needed to do it soon. The longer I waited, the worse it would be.

Fortunately, I had other distractions. Rather than take Bran to Kindergarten on Monday morning, I dressed him in his little suit, combed his hair until I wasalmostsatisfied with how he looked, then drove him across town to the Worthington Academy. It felt like we had walked onto a college campus. The buildings were all red brick and white columns, with perfectly-manicured grass in between. Students of all ages hurried from building to building in their cute little uniforms.

I was trying not to get my hopes up, but I could definitely picture Bran going to school here. It would give him such an advantage when he eventually applied for college.

When I walked into the administrative building, I found Shay waiting inside. He was wearing a three-piece suit and was tapping furiously on his phone.

“I didn’t expect you to be here,” I said.

“I thought you might like some backup while talking to admissions. One second.” He typed even faster. Then he shoved his phone in his pocket, chest heaving with a sigh. “Sorry. Prepping for court later.”

“If you need to be somewhere else…”

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be right now,” he said with a grin. “You must be Brandon. I’m Shay, a friend of your mom.”

“My friends call me Bran,” my son replied, shaking Shay’s hand. “But if you’re one of Mom’s friends, you can call me Bran, too.”

“That’s really nice of you.”

“You’re not going to stage a sit-in, are you?” I teased.

Shay smirked. “We’ll see how the interview goes. And if you bribe me with more photos like what you sent while you were in Vegas.”

“That can be arranged,” I said with a suggestive little smile.

His eyes sparkled with unspoken thoughts, but then he asked, “Do you trust me?”

I furrowed my brow. “Depends on what we’re talking about, but in general? Yes.”

“Good,” he said. “I’m going to let you do most of the talking, obviously. But if the opportunity comes up, I think I have a good angle of attack.”

“I’ll take all the help I can get!” I said truthfully.

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