Page 60 of More Than a Little Spark

Fred pushes his half-eaten pudding out of the way and leans forward.“You love her too, don’t you?”

Carson laces his fingers with mine under the table.“I do.”

My phone buzzes, Rose’s picture plastered on the screen.She’ll have to wait.

Carson’s answer doesn’t seem to surprise Fred, but it has my insides all a flutter.I mean, I knew he did, but he said it.Out loud.To Fred.In public.

I’ll remember this moment forever.

Fred turns his focus back to me.“If you marry him, will you make us leave the ranch?”

He keeps talking about my marrying Carson, which Carson and I haven’t talked about.And then we broke up.But Carson loves me and is holding my hand, so I’m pretty sure we’re undoing the breakup.

“Are you kidding?I would never take you away from the ranch.That place is awesome.”I squeeze Carson’s hand.

Fred’s gaze drops to the table.“Most of the time when Mom got a new boyfriend, we’d have to move.Sometimes it was to a different part of the city.A few times, it was to a different state.I hated losing all my friends.And her boyfriends weren’t nice.Not to me or to my mom.”

“I’m not going to ask y’all to move.I will never try to replace your mom.And most importantly, I won’t ever ask Carson to send you away.I’m not sure what the future holds…” I swallow down the lump of emotion stuck in my throat.“But if I marry Carson, we’ll be a family, all three of us.”

Carson’s thumb is grazing the back of my hand, but I don’t look at him.If I do, I will burst into sobs, and I’m trying not to make a scene in a restaurant we frequent often.

“Okay.”Fred crinkles his nose and flashes a smile.“I have another important question.”

“What’s that?”

“Are you allergic to cats?Because I really want a cat, but I was waiting to ask Dad about getting one.”

Carson’s attention snaps to Fred.“I had no idea you wanted a cat.”

“Like I said, I haven’t asked.But I’ve wanted one for a long time.”

I’m really glad I’ve already mentioned wanting a cat to Carson so that he doesn’t think I’m just going along with the cat thing to be nice.“I’m not allergic.I’d love to have a cat, but my apartment complex doesn’t allow pets.”

Fred jumps up and runs over to grab a spoon.“Here, Dad.For the pudding.”

Carson uses his free hand to remove the lid.“What changed?Why’d you do this?”

“Dinner that night.I saw how you were looking at her.After y’all broke up, you acted like everything was fine, but you weren’t really.I could tell.Plus, talking to her that night, I realized that Daphne’s actually nice.And pretty.But not too pretty for you.At the pool party, I heard some of the ladies saying y’all were really cute together.I just said that to you out of meanness, and I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you.”Carson looks down at me.“I’m still not sure I completely agree, but I’m happy either way.”

“Then, after the dinner, I talked to Mason about it.He said that I had to choose what I wanted to do, but he liked seeing his dad happy.Poppy made him happy.I hadn’t thought about it like that.I really do want you to be happy, Dad.”

“Thank you.”Carson looks from me to Fred.“You arranged all this to get me and Daphne back together?”

“Yeah.I’m the reason you broke up.So I felt like I needed to figure out how to get y’all back together.”Fred scoops out the rest of his pudding, then eyes Carson’s.“Are you ever going to eat that?”

Carson pushes it across the table.“What was your plan?Because according to what you’ve said, you didn’t think I’d show up here.”

“I was going to have Daphne drop me off at Mason’s, then go to our house and wait for you.And she was supposed to have donuts, but I didn’t know the shop closed before school let out.”

“That was your plan, huh?”Carson chuckles.“I was just going to walk into the house and see Daphne waiting for me and everything would be magically better?”

He nods.“Romantic, isn’t it?Mason said that his dad flew to New York and showed up at Poppy’s hotel.But neither of y’all have a hotel.”Fred focuses on me.“Will you care if I don’t call you mom?”

“I’m fine with that.You can call me Daphne.”

“Cool.I might change my mind, but my mom is still my mom.Even if she wasn’t great.”

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