Page 34 of One Bride for Three Single Dads

She looks fucking gorgeous.

“What does that mean?” Ambrose asks in a whisper. “How do we match? Does that she have to… Did she…”

“Yes, you fucking goober,” Harrison says through gritted teeth, under his breath so she can’t hear him. “It means she got on Tinder, maybe just minutes ago, and went looking for us. Just minutes ago. And she clicked ‘super like.’”

“What is a super like?”

Harrison glares at me. “You seriously need me to spell that out for you?”

“We have been super liked,” I repeat as I stand, watching her move carefully out of the hallway and into the light.

“So are we doing this?” Ambrose adds, muttering quietly.

Harrison waves again. Jolene wiggles her fingertips at us.

Harmony gives a yelp.

That baby could not have surprised me more if she had come dancing out of the kids’ hallway in a top hat. Holy cow. Great timing, kid!

Jolene hears her too and opens her mouth in surprise, then immediately goes off to fetch the baby. Me and the guys all face each other.

“That was close,” Ambrose sighs.

“What do you mean, that was close?” Harrison counters. “That was just a momentary diversion. Just enough time for us to figure out what we are going to do, okay? Let’s talk about this.”

Vaguely, I can hear Jolene down by the kids’ rooms getting Cole and Harmony out of bed, as usual. In about three or four minutes they will all be in here for breakfast.

I decide to take action. Harrison can be a bad diplomat. Ambrose will listen to me.

“Okay, let’s ask her out,” I suggest.

Ambrose looks at me in shock.

“Just hear me out,” I interrupt before he can say anything. “We already agreed on this, right? Ambrose, right?”

“Well, I don’t know…”

Harrison and I stop and stare at him. Ambrose seems to struggle inwardly for a minute.

I get it. I really do. He has had a really hard year. But he knows as well as anybody that he has to get out of his shell sometime. Combination of pulling and pushing is probably what he needs.

After a few long seconds, he nods resolutely.

“We did, we did agree,” he admits.

“Okay, great,” I continue. “And in six days, we’re going to Ireland. We could click on a bunch of these ladies, and maybe go out on dates, and maybe find somebody, and maybe take them, right? We could do all that?”

“We could,” Ambrose agrees.

“Sounds terrible,” Harrison adds.

“Or,” I keep going, since I am on such a roll, “we could consider the possibility that maybe we got lucky here, right? And maybe Jolene was sending us a pretty strong signal that we should not ignore?”

There is more ruckus in the hallway. The door opens and I hear Cole coming out, his little voice sending tiny invisible darts through my chest. Man, I do love that little guy. You never would have guessed you could feel like that before it happens.

Ambrose leans forward, his face serious. “We don’t even know if she really means it,” he reminds us. “Can she even go? Does she even have a passport?”

“Hey, Jolene, do you have a passport?” Harrison yells out helpfully.

---