Page 88 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

“What are you talking about?” Bran asked.

“Adult things,” I replied.

“I’m almost an adult,” he announced. “I’ll besixin September.” He held up both fists, concentrated for a moment, then raised six fingers.

“You sure are, Bran Bran,” Sara said.

I had a busy day at work, which helped distract me from everything that had happened last night. But I still compulsively checked my phone every five minutes to see if Lucas had texted.

Spoiler alert: he hadn’t.

The other guys did, though.

Jordan: Hey, I’m picking up an extra shift at the hospital tonight, so I’ve got to cancel Bran’s private practice today. But the good news is that he’s picked up the basics quickly, and is all caught up with the other kids. I think the regular practices should be all he needs going forward! Tell him I’ll see him at practice tomorrow.

Me: No worries! Try not to kill anyone at work tonight.

Me: Shit, that joke was way too dark. I’d like to take that back.

Jordan: LOL, you should hear the jokes me and the nurses tell. Sometimes dark humor is the only way to get through a bad day.

Shay’s text came just ten minutes after that.

Shay: Quick question for you. Can we cancel the two lunch showings you scheduled this week? We just had a new case dropped in our laps and I’m going to be working through lunch for the foreseeable future.

Me: Yeah, no sweat. I’ll let the sellers’ agents know. Want me to reschedule them for next week, or move them to the evening?

Shay: Let’s put a pin in it for now. I’ll let you know when my schedule is a little more clear. Thanks for being flexible.

By themselves, the messages from Shay and Jordan weren’t suspicious. They could have been totally normal in any other context. But getting them back-to-back, a day after my blowup with Lucas? It couldn’t be more clear what was happening.

That night, Harper babysat Bran while Sara and I got properly white-girl-wasted.

On Wednesday, I took Bran to baseball practice and sat in the bleachers like I always did. Jordan wasn’t outrightrudeto me, but he wasn’t as friendly as he usually was. He waved, but then pointedly ignored me for the rest of practice.

At the next practice on Friday, I dropped Bran off and drove to a coffee shop instead.

He and Shay were on Lucas’s side. Becauseof coursethey were. The three of them were best friends, and I was a woman who had basically pulled the pin on a grenade before throwing it into their friendship. Bros before hoes.

And Lucas still hadn’t texted me.

I spent the weekend debating whether or not to reach out to him. Harper was right, I needed to give him time to process things. Logically, I knew that was true. But the longer it went on, the more I began to believe he had already processed everything, and this was the way things were going to be, now.

It was over.

It felt like I had lost so much. This wasn’t like a regular breakup, where I had to cut myself off from a single guy. I was also losing my relationship with Jordan and Shay. Three times the pain, three times the heartbreak.

And worse than that,Branwas losing three male figures in his life. He still got to see Jordan at practice, but when I tucked him in that night, he mentioned Lucas.

“When are we going to play mini-golf again?” Bran asked.

I made myself smile. Pretending everything was fine was a huge part of being a mother, shielding your child from all sorts of things. “I don’t know.”

“He promised we would play again,” Bran insisted. “Can you text him?”

“I will.”

“Do it now,” he pushed. “I want to see.”

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