“All right, kiddo. Time for breakfast. Do you need help with your shoes?” I was finding myself strangely emotional as I looked at my big boy getting ready for his first day of kindergarten. He was proud of his super-cool outfit—an Ant-Man tee and a brand-new pair of jeans, topped off by shoes that lit up along the sides each time he took a step. With a fresh haircut and an Iron Man backpack that looked way too big for his slight frame, he was all set to begin his academic career.

“No, silly. These aren’t tie shoes, these are Velcro, remember? You remember.” He ran down the hallway with his neck craned to the side as he tried to catch sight of the lights flashing on his shoes. Simon skidded to a stop just before he got to the table. After he’d set his backpack on the edge of the table, he clambered into his seat and peered up at me with a nervous smile, his eyes flashing with vulnerability. “Daddy, has Mommy called yet? She promised she’d be here for my first day, remember? You remember.”

I smiled at his favorite repetitive phrase that had popped up over the past month and tried to gloss over the whole subject of Victoria. “We can try calling your mother in a few minutes. First, let’s see about that breakfast. I’m feeling pancakes, how about you?”

“But I wanted to eat breakfast with Mommy and she doesn’t like pancakes. Mommy says that carbs are evil, remember? You remember.” He drummed his fingers on the table, scrunching his nose to keep what I liked to call his brainiac glasses from slipping. “How about I just have cereal today, Daddy? I’ll eat pancakes on another day. Do we have granola that Mommy likes?”

I wasn’t about to comment on what I thought about his mother’s dietary preferences. Now that we were divorced, I didn’t have to worry about that shit anymore. Sure, she was still a good friend of mine, but that was where I drew the line. “Sorry, kiddo. I don’t prefer to eat gravel and rabbit pellets for breakfast. How about some cornflakes? We also have raisin bran, unless you’d like oatmeal.”

Simon tipped his head to the side as if pondering his options. “I would like raisin bran, please.”

Decision made, he pulled the cell phone that Victoria had given him out of his backpack while I poured his cereal. Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I pushed back the old irritation from all the arguments that had stemmed from her wanting to give a cell phone to a four-year-old. I understood a mother wanting to be in touch, but I found the entire concept of him having a cell phone to be just this side of ridiculous. Simon frowned and put his phone down when I set his cereal bowl in front of him.

“Mommy didn’t answer. Do you think she’s still coming?” His eyebrows pinched together with worry. “What if she had to work again? Mommy has to work a lot sometimes, you know. She has a very important job.”

“Let’s not worry about your mother right now, kiddo. Eat your breakfast.” My voice sounded a little gruffer than I’d intended so I softened my words with a smile.

As great a person as she was, Victoria had a bad habit of forgetting the little things—which was basically anything not involved with her job. Even her own child didn’t rate quite as high, but then again, having Simon had been my dream, not hers. I’d hoped that she’d have turned out to be more maternal than she had, but at best she came across more like a fun aunt than a parent. But then again, wasn’t that why I had gotten custody? Reason number thirty-seven why I preferred to choose my battles.

Half an hour later, breakfast was long over and cleaned up. Simon had brushed his teeth and was pacing our small living room, stopping to peek out the curtains every few seconds as if he’d suddenly see his mother pulling up out front. The poor kid looked more dejected with each passing moment.

When I couldn’t take it anymore, a flash of inspiration struck. “You know what? Maybe your mother got held up, but I know someone who would love to see your awesome school outfit. And I’m pretty sure we can find that someone right across the parking lot.”

Simon closed the curtain and spun around with a big smile. “Mr. Todd! Do we have time to go say hello? He’s a big Ant-Man fan, remember? You remember.”

“Actually, I really don’t remember, kiddo. I must not have been around for that conversation,” I chuckled. “Come on, grab your backpack. Let’s go see the sausage man.” Every time I jokingly called him that, images of the special sausage I’d played with on the night we met flashed through my mind.

Yeah, probably best not to go there.

We still weren’t discussing that night, although we’d been flirting a little more lately. He’d been acting a little strange for the past few weeks, like he had a secret that he wanted to share but didn’t quite know how. Every time he started to look like he might confide in me, something happened or someone interrupted us.

That’s okay, I had all the time in the world to figure out what was going on with him. It wasn’t like we were on a timeline or anything. When I’d first come to town, I’d been too nervous about the new job and getting Simon settled to even think about dating anybody—especially my new boss.

But the more I got to know Todd, the more I found that I wanted to know about him. The fact that a single omega still in his twenties had built this entire business on his own was nothing short of admirable. And to decide to expand into craft beers and then go so far as to hire someone with my background? Quite impressive, if you asked me.

I hadn’t realized that the apartment he’d included with my contract was originally intended to be a rental unit, along with the others in my building. Cody had let that slip about a month ago when he’d been sharing a story about a friend of his who’d been on the remodeling crew that had taken a couple of old outbuildings and turned them each into five-unit apartments.

Yeah, I admired the way that Todd was planning for his future and slowly improving his property one step at a time. So many small business owners jumped the gun and tried to grow too fast, too soon—but not Todd.

After the years I’d spent with my flighty ex who was constantly moving from one project to another, I had nothing but respect for the way he was putting down permanent roots here. Of course, Victoria had grown up stupid rich and had parents who were never around. I tried to make allowances for that when she made her mistakes. I couldn’t help but wonder what Todd’s background was like.

“Come on, Daddy. You’re walking too slow,” Simon complained, tugging on my hand as he dragged me across the parking lot.

“Sorry, kiddo.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “I was lost in thought and got to lollygagging there.”

“You use funny words, Daddy. What does that one even mean?” Simon slowed down to peer up at me with fresh interest.

“Lollygagging? I hadn’t thought about it, but I guess that is a funny word, isn’t it? I don’t know, my mom used to use it. Basically, it just means that I was taking my time and moving too slow because I wasn’t paying any attention, or something like that. I’d have to look it up to get you an accurate definition,” I added, knowing how important accuracy was to my son.

“We can look it up later,” Simon said after a moment’s thought. “It’s important to know what the words mean that you use, remember? You remember.”

“Yes, I remember,” I chuckled as I opened the back door that was used by the kitchen staff.

“Mr. Todd!” Simon rushed ahead of me, racing over to give Todd a high five. “I told you that you would see me today because my mommy was coming to see me, but she wasn’t able to make it. She has a very important job, you know,” he explained politely. I winced at the sound of him smoothing things over for Victoria. Was I inadvertently modeling the wrong behavior for him by never calling her out for thoughtless behavior? I didn’t like the idea of my son thinking that he was less important than his mother’s damn job.

Todd caught my eye over Simon’s head with a plethora of unasked questions flashing over his face but he covered it with a smile. “Is this the famous Ant-Man shirt you were telling me about? And, holy cow, I’m going to go blind looking at those shoes.” Todd pouted playfully. “I wish they had those in my size.”

Simon nodded so fast that he made me think of a bobblehead. “But did you see the lights when I came in? Look.” He stopped and jumped in place a few times to make his shoes go off. “Aren’t they cool?”

Todd held a hand over his eyes. “Stop, you’re blinding me.” He squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head to the side.

“You’re silly, Mr. Todd. I wish we could talk more, but I have to go to school now.” Simon stopped, that vulnerability showing again as he hesitantly spoke while staring at his shoes. “Unless maybe you’d like to come with us? I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to help take me to my first day of school.”

At Todd’s questioning look, I shrugged as if to say that it was fine with me. He knelt to give Simon a quick hug. “I would love to come along and see you off to your first day of school, sweetie pie. Thank you for inviting me; how did you know that I was feeling left out?”

I could have kissed the man for turning the tables and making Simon feel about ten feet tall when my son immediately beamed with pleasure. As Todd stood, he shucked his apron and tossed it over the back of a kitchen stool before reaching out to take Simon’s hand. Simon’s smile turned hesitant. “But you’re working; are you sure that you can leave?”

Todd looked surprised by that. “Are you kidding? There’s no job that’s more important to me than you are. Besides, I own the place, remember? You remember.” Todd shot me a wink as he used Simon’s favorite phrase. “Maybe if I’m not here, staff will actually get something done.”

Davis and Tony both began to laugh. “Are you serious, boss?” Davis grinned. “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.”

Simon frowned. “You guys shouldn’t have any of your sausage parties while Mr. Todd is gone. Work is important.”

That had both of the men laughing even harder as we left the kitchen and made our way out to the parking lot. Todd shook his head. “I’m pretty sure that whole sausage party thing can die a quick death anytime now, right?”

I snorted. “Yeah, I’m right there with you.” I glanced down meaningfully at Simon and made a mental note to explain later why it was best not to make a big deal of things that you wanted him to forget.

As we drove Simon to school, a feeling of rightness settled over me with Todd sitting beside me, while Simon sat behind us safely ensconced in his booster seat. How much different would life have been if Todd had been Simon’s carrier parent? Yeah, no… I didn’t need to go down that road. Not only was it unfair to Victoria—who, for all her faults, wasn’t a bad person—it was also little too deep of a thought for me to be having about my cute, friendly boss.

My boss with the great ass. Yeah… not going there either.

We ran into Tom and a couple of the guys he was close to when we arrived at the school. I was slowly getting to know the other parents of the kids that Allie had introduced into our lives, but Simon knew them much better than I did, thanks to having spent the last couple months in Allie’s care.

“Well, well, well. Look what we have here, boys. A rare Todd sighting.” Tom swung his arms out wide to stop the two men he was walking with in their tracks as he dramatically paused.

Todd chuckled. “Yeah, I know. I don’t leave the restaurant as often as I should. Hey, Liam! Hi, Cecil! How are things? It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Have you guys met Hugo? He’s Simon’s dad.”

“We’ve met,” I answered for them, happy to have had their names provided. “It’s nice to see you guys again. First day of school, huh? How crazy is this?”

“It’s only crazy to you newbies who haven’t yet experienced the joy that is the solitude only to be found during school hours when our munchkins are safely elsewhere and we suddenly find that we can have lives again,” Tom laughed.

The tall, thin guy beside him with the long brown hair—Liam, I thought it was?—shook his head. “Puh-lease, Tommy boy. Sell that shit to someone who hasn’t seen you tear up every single school year after you leave the campus.” He smirked at me. “Trust me, this guy is going to spend the rest of the week lamenting how fast time flies and the fact that his babies are growing up too soon.”

“Speaking of kids, where are yours?” Todd asked, looking around them as if searching for their kids.

“Are you kidding? Those little jerks ran ahead of us. They’re somewhere on the playground, I assume,” Cecil answered. Now his name I had no problem remembering, because from the moment I’d met him, he’d made me think of an adult version of Simon.

“Daddy.” Simon tugged frantically at my hand. “I hate to be rude, but I don’t want to be late.”

“Oops, we wouldn’t want that to happen.” Cecil grinned. “Hey, we’re all going over to The Salty Stix for a cup of espresso and some of Pierre’s pastries after we leave here, if you guys would like to join us.”

“And maybe then you could tell us how you guys both happen to be here on this fine morning,” Tom added.

“Oh, I appreciate the offer, but I’m going to have to get right back to The Sausage Shack. Maybe next time?” Todd answered before I could respond. An odd look passed between him and Tom, but I just shrugged it off. Not my business.

Simon started pulling my hand again, so we quickly made our goodbyes and headed to his classroom. The kids were already lining up and Simon quickly released our hands to rush over. I started to reach for a hug, but the horrified look on his face had me covering it with a high five. “Have a good day, kiddo. I’ll see you after school.”

He looked relieved. “Thanks, Dad. See you later.” Simon gave us both a jaunty wave as he rushed off to join his new classmates.

When I started to tear up, Todd chuckled. “Is it that hard to see him start his first day of school?”

“I’m not sure if it’s that, the fact that he called me dad instead of daddy, or that awful moment when I realized I couldn’t hug him because it wouldn’t look cool in front of the other kids.” I leaned closer so that I could speak in a voice just above a whisper.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll still call you daddy and give you all the hugs you want after school. How about I buy you a cup of coffee on the way home to cheer you up?”

“Are you sure?” I glanced at him in surprise, only briefly taking my eyes off Simon who still waited in line for the door to open. “I thought you had to get back to the restaurant.”

“You bought that? Good.” He grinned with relief. “That means they did too. No, I just didn’t want to get the nosy third degree about why we were here together, or field any awkward questions from Tom. And now that we know where they’ll be, we can go to The Slow Grind instead.”

“You’re devious.” I grinned, only to tear up a second later when the door opened and a smiling, matronly woman stepped out to welcome the children into her classroom. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and smiled when I saw Todd taking pictures of Simon meeting his teacher on his way into the classroom.

After the door closed, Todd grabbed my hand. “Come on, sad daddy. You need some coffee to clear away whatever allergies are making you tear up right now.” He winked as he pulled me away and led me toward the parking lot.

The whole way to the coffee shop, Todd was chewing his lip and appeared nervous, like he wanted to say something but didn’t know how to get the words out. I wondered if I should ask, but before I could, we were pulling up in front of The Slow Grind. I quirked a brow when Todd ordered green tea. “Since when do you not drink coffee?”

Todd looked vaguely uncomfortable. “I’m just not in the mood, I guess.”

We took a table near the counter and settled down to enjoy our drinks. Todd grimaced at the taste of his tea. “Okay, now I’ve got to ask—why are you putting yourself through that if you don’t even like it?”

He opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally mumbling, “I’ve heard it’s healthier, that’s all.” His eyes shifted to the side as if he were considering saying something more, but then gave his head a slight shake and focused on me again. “Thank you for letting me join you guys this morning. It was fun seeing Simon so confident. I’ll send you the pics I took; I figured you’d want them. I know I would, if it were my baby starting school.”

“Thank you for thinking of that,” I murmured. “And the thanks are all to you for joining us. You snapped him out of a bad morning and made things right again by coming along.”

Todd tilted his head to the side. “What happened with that anyway?”

I ran a hand across my freshly buzzed head as I took a deep breath. “His mother disappointed him again. She was supposed to have been here for his first day, but she didn’t show up or answer his call. I don’t know where the hell she is, but it broke my heart to see him so sad. He kept watching for her, you know? It just…” My voice trailed off as I tried to put my frustration into words.

“You’ve never mentioned your ex, but then, why would you have? It’s not like we’ve had a lot of long talks, is it?”

Not really wanting to go into detail right now when I was finally starting to relax and enjoy myself, I just shrugged. “We aren’t together anymore and I have custody. There isn’t really much more to say than that, except that I wish she’d step up more often and not let him down.” Todd looked like he wanted to say something else about the subject but remained silent. I was struggling to think of what to talk about, when inspiration struck. “I know we’re not talking about the night we met, but how about you let me give you a do-over?”

“Are you propositioning me?” Todd smirked playfully. “I mean, you just said you wanted to do me all over, right? Or did I not hear that correctly?”

I grinned. “I didn’t say that, but I didn’t not say it either. I guess it depends on your answer?”

Todd smiled so wide, I could see his molars. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. So tell me, what would a do-over look like?”

“I don’t know… how about you let me take you out on a date?” I held up a hand. “And nothing involving crazy jungle rooms or clubs with caged dancers.”

“Hell, you just eliminated our two best options. But okay, I’ll take a risk.” He gave me a slow wink before taking another sip of his tea.

I was so excited by how well things were going that I didn’t see her walk up before a curtain of long blonde hair slapped me in the face and a wiggling butt landed on my lap as Victoria grabbed my face with both hands and smacked a loud kiss on my mouth to greet me. I shoved her off and pointed to the chair between me and Todd. She moved over to the chair, but turned slightly so that she was giving Todd her back and focusing all of her attention on me as she began to talk.

“Oh, my God. I was just grabbing a coffee on my way to your place. This is so much handier than driving all the way out to the boondocks. Where’s my honey bun? We need to get him to school soon, right?”

“Vicki, you missed it,” I sighed. “Simon started school over half an hour ago. Thanks for showing up for him. Again. You can’t keep standing him up like this and ignoring his calls when he tries to reach out, especially after you were the one who was so insistent on a young child having a damn phone in the first place.”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder, sending out a strong cloud of intense floral perfume. “Did he try to call? Huh. Must’ve been a dead area or something. Honestly, if you didn’t insist on living in the sticks, it wouldn’t be so difficult for me to be punctual.”

“Or, you could just come in the night before and get a room somewhere. I would think that would be a better idea than missing your kid’s first day of school.”

She obviously didn’t want to hear what I was saying, because she rolled her eyes and looked over her shoulder to finally acknowledge Todd’s presence. She gave him a chilly smile before turning back to me. “I guess taking him to school already explains why you’re not at work and are sitting here with some rando on a work day.”

I was not in the mood for her elitist, high-society bullshit today. If you didn’t have a pedigree, you didn’t rate above rando in her estimation. “Forgive me, I should’ve introduced you. Vicki, this is my boss, Todd. And as you have no doubt figured out—Todd, this is Victoria, Simon’s mother.”

Vicki turned her attention back to me and began talking about some big event she was attending in the nearby wine country tomorrow, effectively blocking Todd from our conversation. Before I could interrupt, he was on his feet. “Excuse me, I’m just going to go wash my hands while you guys catch up.”

After he was gone, Vicki relaxed a few degrees. “Good, now that the interloper is gone, tell me all about your life here in dullsville.”

“Vicki, I’m not in the mood for your games. I’m not trying to fight, I just don’t want to sit here and watch you be rude to a friend. Especially when I’m still trying not to be upset with you.”

She tapped a well-manicured fingertip against her chin. “Wasn’t that always one of our biggest problems though? I wanted to fight things out but you always refused to engage. Always the pacifist, never the alpha warrior that one might expect you to be.”

“Picking my battles and refusing to argue over stupid things doesn’t make me a pacifist or less of an alpha. It makes me smart, or at least I’d like to think so.”

“Hmm. Whatever you say, babe.” She rose and looked around. “Ah, there they are. Excuse me, I’m going to powder my nose.”