Page 8 of The Opposite of Romance
“Sorry, that was a lame joke.” He scratches the back of his neck.
“No, it was a great joke.” My fake laugh is pathetic. “It just caught me off guard.”
He nods and heads to the door. “We’ll be in touch.”
Was that flirting? Did he flirt with me?
Fuck, I’m such a cliché.A desperate divorcee thirsting after her pool boy (deck boy, fine).
Chapter Five
Sandy plops downon the couch next to me while Stella naps. “Wow, this is stunning! Is this how it’s going to look?”
“This will be the barbecue area and the fire pit.” I show her the photo before scrolling to the next one. “And this will be the pool area.”
“Once it’s done, I’m never leaving this place.”
“You barely ever do.” She hits me with a pillow when I smirk at her.
I love that she’s here all the time. It was one reason we moved to this small coastal town, away from the city. I also know being a mom of a newborn can be lonely, so I love being her excuse to get out of the house.
“How are Ash and Liv holding up?” Her legs take up most of the couch, so I prop my feet up on the coffee table.
“Surprisingly well. Ash loves it, because it’s new, which I expected. But I think Liv found a friend she really likes. She mentioned her a few times and almost got embarrassed afterward.” Liv’s interests are unique, and she’s anything but your average ten-year-old girl. In her old school, she had a hard time fitting in.
“Mentioned her afewtimes?” Sandy gasps. “That’s practically a love declaration coming from Liv.”
“Yup. I plan to reach out to the girl’s parents and see if they can hang out here. She’s happy with her new room, so I think she’d love to show it off.”
“Look at you, killing this single mom thing.” She bumps my shoulder.
I can’t help my chest filling with air. Knowing that my kids are happy, even though the circumstances are less than ideal. That’s all I could want.
“I want to hang out with them more,” she adds.
“We should do a kid swap. I’ll take care of Stella, and you can take them to the movies or something,” I suggest.
“Yes! We’ll make it happen.” She claps her hands. “When we’re on the topic of making it happen, hope you haven’t forgotten my marvelous idea from the other day.”
“Ugh,” I groan, though a part of me can’t wait to hear what she came up with.
She reaches into the diaper bag, pulling out that same sheet of paper and a pen.
“I really don’t know how you planned this to work.”
“It’s simple. We’ll find you dates that fit these tropes until you findthe one.” She looks at me like I’m the crazy one.
I chuckle because the whole idea sounds … lunatic.
And fun.
“Now let’s see what we have here.” She clicks the pen on her chin before tracing it on the paper. “Seems doable.” With how she angled the paper, I can’t read anything on it.
“Give me that.” I grab the paper from her hand and skim the tropes.
“Second chance?” No fucking way.
Sandy chuckles. “Fine, we’ll cross that off.”
