Page 58 of My Song for You
She shrugged but still didn’t look at me. The roller coaster had suddenly become the most fascinating sight around for her. I could have stripped naked and she wouldn’t have noticed. “Turns out he wasn’t the only guy to feel that way about dating a single mother. But when it’s the guy who already has a kid, it’s a very different standard. When you were walking around with Logan earlier today, it was like the Ovary Alert System kicked into full effect. Girls came running, and none were turned off by the fact you have a kid with you.
“But that’s okay,” she continued. “I’m getting used to it. People tend to leave me. My sister. My parents. My ex-boyfriend.” She glanced at Logan, and while she hadn’t said his name out loud, the meaning was clear. After all was said and done, she was expecting Logan to leave her…because of me.
I rested my hand on her upper arm. Logan was still busy with the game on my iPhone and wasn’t listening to us. “I really wish we could work together for the next few weeks. See how we do together with Logan.”
Those gorgeous, hopeful eyes of hers widened. “Does that mean you’re willing to let me stay in his life?”
“I’m trying to work that out in my head….Damn it. I even wish I could see how it would go between you and me too. That kiss was so damn hot. Would you be willing to see where this leads us?”Would you be willing to work at regaining my trust?
“Okay, but what about when you go on the road?”
“Yeah, the road is tough and there are no guarantees. Touring puts a massive strain on relationships. You could be the one who grows bored of me never being around.” The truth was that with Callie as my girlfriend, I’d never be tempted to stray. No other woman came close to her. But I couldn’t handle the thought of her eventually realizing she could do better than me. “I’m willing to give it a try, though….I can’t stop thinking about you, Callie. And I know for certain that I was supposed to run into you that day in the grocery store and to get to know you again. So let’s just see where things go with us.”
“Okay,” she whispered, and stepped back, ending the intimacy between us—for now. “But we should keep it just between you and me.” Her gaze slid meaningfully to Logan. She didn’t want to get his hopes up when we were still figuring things out ourselves. She didn’t want to risk hurting him in case things didn’t work out between her and me in the end.
Chapter 25
Jared
“Are you sure about this?” Callie asked as I drove the three of us to my parents’. Her knee bounced even though there was no music playing in the car.
I put my hand on it. I recognized the bouncing from when we were kids. Every time she thought she was going to be busted for something she’d done, her knee had this fascinating habit of bouncing. The more nervous she was, the faster it bounced. Right now it was moving faster than a freaked-out turkey on Thanksgiving morning.
“It’s going to be fine,” I told her.
“Do they know?”
“No, not yet. I told them about your parents and Alexis. But I wanted to introduce him to my parents first before I said anything else. And I wanted to introduce him to Emma.”
“Emma?”
“My fourteen-month-old niece.”
As we pulled down the side street where Callie and I used to live, she let out a small gasp. “What happened to Mr. Lewis’s porch? Someone fixed the swing. It’s no longer tilted.”
I chuckled at the memory of us swinging on it when we were kids. The old house was squeezed between where she used to live and where my parents still lived. We had been sitting on it while I helped Callie with her ninth-grade math assignment. Math had never been her favorite subject. In a fit of frustration, she threw her body back on the swing. It hadn’t been quite the same after that. But even though we’d offered to repair it, Mr. Lewis told us he was fine with it the way it was. “Dad and I replaced it while he was in the hospital two years ago.”
“Hospital? What happened to him?”
“He broke his hip.”
“Oh my God. Is he okay?”
“He’s fine now. He’s still making those stone carvings of his.” A few of his newest forest animals had taken up residence in his garden—including a rabbit that Emma thought was real.
Craig’s SUV was already parked in the driveway when we arrived at my parents’ house. Callie helped Logan out of his car seat. He jumped down, clutching the palm-sized stuffed Pooh he’d gotten at Disneyland yesterday.
Biting her lip, Callie looked up at the house. She had always gotten on well with my parents, so I couldn’t figure out why she was nervous. I should’ve been the one who was nervous. They were about to meet their grandson—the grandson they didn’t know existed.
I lifted Logan so he could ring the doorbell. A moment later, the door opened. Kristen was holding Emma in her arms. “Oh, good. You’re just in time.” She held her daughter out to me.
“Just in time for what?”
“Your niece pooped her diaper and I thought you could use practice changing one before you have your own kids.” She grinned at Callie, mischief in her eyes. “Diapers are in the bathroom.”
With a sigh, I took my niece and was rewarded with an unpleasant smell. “Phew, what on earth do you feed this kid?”
All Kristen did was cackle.
