Page 81 of Single Dad Dilemma
Did I want him to? No. Maybe. Except no.
I searched the Buffalo social media and found videos of him after the game. Like a moon-eyed schoolgirl who wanted to catch a glimpse of the popular boy. Surrounded by tall, strapping men with an overabundance of muscles, Barrett commanded the locker room with ease.
I liked that he wasn’t over-the-top cheesy, shouting and screaming cliché catchphrases. Instead, he seemed to speak from the heart, every single person on the team listening intently to what he had to say. It was likely that some were older than him, too, but he was still undeniably in charge.
No wonder he was in such a damn good mood. Why he was being sorta flirty with unsuspecting neighbors who weren’t mentally prepared? How was I supposed to react to that kind of bullshit?
I sure as hell wasn’t going to initiate. Like I was begging for his attention or something. I’d never give him the satisfaction.
My phone buzzed again, and I pinched my eyes shut, finally screwing up the lady balls to look at the screen.
Not Barrett.
It was Patty, wanting to know if I had time to talk today. Please, all Ihadwas time. I’d done nothing the last week except blow through three new fanfics and a binge ofSchitt’s Creekfor the seventeenth time.
With a sigh, I pulled up her contact information and settled my back against the couch while I waited for her to pick up.
“Good morning,” she said cheerily. “Is the house still standing?”
“So far.”
“Oh good. I realized yesterday when I saw how cold it was there, we forgot to tell you how to change the whole-house humidifier on the furnace. Have you been getting condensation on the inside of the windows?”
“A bit, yeah.”
“Just need to lower the humidity in the house when it gets this cold. There’s a chart on the front of the box to tell you what to set it to; it’s in the mechanical room back by the garage.”
“You got it, boss.” I had an actual person on the phone, and I wasn’t quite ready to hang up yet. Maybe the state of New York was slowly breaking down my inner introvert. “How’s Arizona? And please, feel free to describe the weather in great detail.”
She laughed. “Beautiful. Sunny every day. Scott’s playing pickleball, and I’m reading about some sexy dragons in the sun. Have much snow right now?”
“Not too bad,” I admitted. “Sometimes I wake up and we got a couple inches, but I really can’t complain. It’s just cold as shit this week, so I haven’t gone out much.”
I scratched the top of Larry’s head, and he opened his eyes in a doggy glare. I pulled my hand back and raised it in apology.
“Seen the kids much this week?”
“No. They’re back at school.”
My glum response made her laugh again. “They’re great, aren’t they? They used our pool a lot last summer. It was wonderful having a little life back there again.”
“They are.”
“And Barrett’s parents are still there, right?”
I nodded, then remembered she couldn’t see me. “Yeah. I’m ... I’m not sure for how much longer. Maggie told me they leave this week.” My fingers played with the edge of Larry’s blanket. The ragged edges were so faded, it was hard to remember what color it used to be. My thumb dragged along the raised pattern. Yellow. It used to be yellow and blue and white.
The fluffy hair above Larry’s eyes twitched as he watched me touch his blanket. There was no growling or groaning, though, and he didn’t move away.
“So,” she said decisively, “are you wishing you’d said no to my little job offer?”
I let out a quiet laugh and stared at the snow. The sun’s appearance made it all sparkly and shit, like the earth was coated in jewels. It was beautiful—there was no denying that, and I never would’ve known that if I hadn’t seen it myself.
There were a lot of things I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t made the decision to come here.
“No, I don’t regret it,” I said softly, allowing the admission to come out painlessly. There was no point in fighting it, so I didn’t even try. “It’s been a pleasant surprise.”
She hummed. “Where will you be going next?”
