Page 58 of Forbidden Love

I made a mental note to see about sending her flowers. Maybe I could set up something where it came once a week. If she was only going to be here a short time, I wanted to make her happy. “If you ever have a child, you’ll have to remember to bring flowers.”

“There’s just something about a dad with their kids, don’t you think? Or you’re a guy, so maybe you don’t see it.”

I shifted in my seat, amusement tinging my voice. “Are you saying single dads are sexy?”

Kylie smiled cheekily. “Yeah, I think I am.”

“I don’t have kids though.”

She laughed. “Are you jealous of Sam and Mac?”

I held up my fingers and said, “A little bit.”

She smiled and shook her head. “You don’t need to be. I think it’s hot when you’re with Maggie too.”

“You thought it was hot when I was babysitting Maggie?”

Her cheeks flushed as she nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“Huh. You learn something new every day,” I said as I found a parking spot near the ice cream store. We got out, and I immediately took her hand. This felt a lot like a date. We’d gone to my niece’s play and then out for ice cream. It meant a lot to me. For the first time in my life, I wanted to spend time with a woman and my family. And Kylie fit in with us.

Inside, we stood in line together, Kylie talking to Delaney about her favorite ice cream flavors as a kid, which was apparently vanilla. Delaney was giving her a hard time about not having any imagination or something, but I wasn’t really listening. I couldn’t take my eyes off the sparkle in Kylie’s eyes when she spoke to Delaney.

I wasn’t sure how I’d ever let her go.

CHAPTER 16

KYLIE

I’d been on a high ever since I went to Maggie’s play on Friday night. Spending time with the Fletchers made me think about what it would be like to have my own family.

I couldn’t get around the idea that if I did have kids, I’d want to live near my parents and my brothers. Would we all settle down around the same time and have kids the same age? Would our kids play together?

Would they enjoy hide-and-seek in the lodge and sleepovers with their cousins? Any time I thought about it, Tyler’s face popped into my head. I never imagined having kids before. Was it Tyler that was bringing this up for me?

I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not. He was making me long for things I’d never even thought about.

I hadn’t figured out what I was going to do with my life, and I was dating this guy who I’d crushed on forever. What did any of it mean? Was it the wrong timing? Was he the wrong guy? I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, and the more we hung out, the bigger the pit in my stomach grew.

I had this awful feeling that I was going to hurt Tyler. That I was going to revert to my usual self and run. If I left Telluride again, I wouldn’t be running from my family, but from Tyler.

We spent the next week going over the plans for his house. In any spare time we had, we advertised the baseball games. I talked on the radio with a journalist and even stopped by the schools to hand out flyers.

I hoped enough people bought tickets on the day of to make everything worthwhile. I didn’t want to waste the Fletchers’ time with something no one wanted. I had flashes of panic when I wondered if the whole thing was a big mistake.

If it didn’t work out, if I didn’t raise enough money to fund at least a few dugouts, then my dad might not consider me for the event coordinator position at the lodge. I wasn’t even sure I wanted the job, but I didn’t want to screw up anything either.

On the day of the baseball games, we took the boxes of team shirts to the fields. We had enough kids interested in playing on the various teams, and their parents bought tickets ahead of time. I just hoped everyone else paid at the field.

“If nothing else, we’ll have fun today, right?” I asked Tyler as I pulled the shirts out of the boxes and spread them over the registration tables.

“It doesn’t matter how much money we raise. Whatever happens, I’m proud of you.”

I wanted to let his statement sink in, but I couldn’t keep my anxiety at bay.

Field one was firefighters versus the police department, and thankfully they brought in a lot of family members, friends, and spectators who were interested in the rivalry. Field two was parents versus kids. This was essentially the entire rec league in the area, so they had huge teams. We probably should have split them up, but we wanted everyone to be able to see the game, and field three was the business owners versus Main Street shops. Tyler played on that team, so he grabbed his team shirt and moved over there to organize his team.

I manned the registration table with Natalie and Alice. We were busy for the first hour as everyone registered and bought spectator tickets. I lost track of how many we sold, and the donation jar needed to be emptied several times. We’d even gotten a few additional checks from the business owners checking in.

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