By the time Anna pulled her car into the school parking lot across town, she’d come to a single conclusion:

Like many women out there, she suffered from Mr. Darcy Syndrome. Thanks to Hollywood and Matthew MacFayden (Anna was a lone wolf and preferred 2005 Pride & Prejudice), it was the strong, silent, and sexy types that revved her engine.

Not that her engine had been revved in a while.

But considering that her first dabbling into dating a modern-day Mr. Darcy had resulted in Julian and no father to share her baby boy’s first steps or the first diaper change, Anna figured she’d learned her lesson.

The fact that her knees were still wobbly from the encounter at Herbal Heaven proved her wrong.

Anna groaned. She needed to put Mr. Green Eyes behind her for good and focus on meeting a nice guy who wanted to be a part of her son’s life. A nice guy who maybe wore glasses and didn’t spend all day with his butt on the sofa watching ESPN.

Number one priority: her ideal match was a guy without a hidden past.

Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt for a lifelong reminder of her bad decisions.

Really, she didn’t feel as though she were asking for too much.

She caught sight of Julian’s lanky form standing by the school’s chain-link fence, and Anna pulled the car up alongside him. The passenger side door cranked open, and his body collapsed on the leather seat, his knees bending like chicken wings up against his chest.

Jules fumbled for the seat adjuster and sent the seat cranking back. With a scowl, he muttered, “Shaelyn does this on purpose, doesn’t she?”

Anna directed the car out of the lot. “Only out of love, Jules.”

When Shaelyn had moved back to New Orleans a year ago, she and Anna might as well have been strangers. Anna was a year older, which felt like no time at all today. But, while growing up, that year had been an impenetrable gap. Anna was partly to blame. Back then, she’d been too focused on friends, cheerleading, and new boyfriends to give too much thought to her short, bubbly cousin trailing behind her. It hadn’t helped that Anna and Shaelyn had gone to different schools all their lives.

And now—well, now Shaelyn was part owner of Anna’s prized boutique and the two cousins had never been closer. The same went for Jules, who adored Shaelyn and her boyfriend, Brady, to pieces.

Sometimes, Anna couldn’t help but wonder if he preferred them to her, his own mother. On those rare days when she let herself be sucked down by regret and guilt, it was a struggle to remember that she and Julian were a team.

She glanced over at Jules, giving in to the sort of motherly affection he evaded, and ruffled his short, blond hair. “How do you feel about pizza?” she asked, reaching for her cell phone as she kept her other hand on the steering wheel. “We can pick it up on the way home and watch Survivor tonight.”

“Mom, you do realize that there are other food groups besides pizza, right?”

Anna feigned ignorance. “Seriously? I had no idea.”

Ben & Jerry’s Rocky Road was her other favorite food group.

“Greens are a thing,” Julian pointed out.

She slid her son a look of horror. “Who are you and what have you done with Julian?”

An unexpected blush burned the crests of his cheekbones. “I’m still Julian.”

“Nuh-uh,” Anna said, wagging her finger at him as they slid to a stop at a red light. “You’re not getting out of this one. The last time Shaelyn tried to feed you broccoli you told me you were tortured at dinner and to never send you over to her house unfed again.”

Clearly uncomfortable with the spotlight, Jules slid a hand through his hair.

“Is this because of a girl?” Anna prodded, as they continued along and she pulled onto their street. “What’s her name?”

“Mom.”

“Don’t ruin this for me, Jules. I’ve been waiting for this conversation my entire life.”

Jules leveled her with a disbelieving glance. “You’ve been waiting your entire life to talk about sex with me?”

Anna’s stomach dropped all the way to her feet. “What? No!” She parallel-parked the car in between two others, and then pointed at the teenager slumped in the passenger’s seat. “No sex,” she said loudly, “You’re too young.”

“I’m not, actually.”

“Well, then, I’m too young for you to be having sex. No sex for you until I’m fifty. And we’re not even going to mention the word ‘sex’ again after this conversation until I hit forty-five.”

A sly grin worked its way onto his face. “Guess I don’t have to wait too long, then. Aren’t you forty-two or something?”

As much as Anna wanted to cry at the thought that her son didn’t know her age, she knew he was just pulling her leg. Julian Bryce was a prankster through and through, and she was so thankful that their relationship had returned mostly back to normal after . . . everything that had happened last year.

Although she did often wish they could talk about the past—actually discuss it rather than pretend it didn’t exist.

Soon, she told herself. Julian just wasn’t ready yet, and she understood that. And, if she were completely honest with herself, perhaps she wasn’t ready yet either.

They both climbed out of the car from their respective sides, but as Anna started up the path that led to their 1920s Arts-&-Craftsman-style home, Julian was already heading off in the other direction.

“Where are you off to?” she called out, hand cupped around her mouth more for effect than acoustics. “I thought we could do pizza and beer.”

“Mom, you’re so embarrassing,” Julian said, stopping in his tracks to turn around and stare at her.

Anna tapped her nose and then pointed at her son. “Beer was obviously a euphemism for milk.” As he’d grown older, and with no father figure in the picture to influence him, Anna had found that wit and sarcasm worked best with her son. Hugs and motherly affection only went so far.

But sometimes, Anna desperately missed his small, wriggly body tucked up against her side for movie night. They’d kept up the Friday night tradition through the Thomas the Tank Engine days to Pixar’s best. Now, if Anna wanted to watch a movie with him, it was a scheduled affair with guts-and-gore action movies. Two popcorn bowls as opposed to one, two couches instead of a shared sectional.

For so long, Julian had been her best friend as well as being her son. Now, he had other best friends, and Anna had Shaelyn.

Except that Shae also had Brady, and Anna couldn’t keep her cousin all to herself just because she was lonely.

Another sign that you should get back out there and start dating.

Without even realizing that the words had been vocalized, she heard Julian’s response loud and clear: “Just don’t get on Tinder, Mom. They’ve got loads of creeps on there.”

“How do you know about Tinder?” The thought of her baby boy on a dating website was enough to send Anna into an apoplectic fit. “You better not have an account.”

Julian waved away her worries with a flick of his hand and a teenage snort. “Um, no way. Tinder is gross.”

Oh, thank Go—

“Love Scope is better.”

“Julian,” she started, in her sternest listen-to-me-now voice, “if I hear one more word about you being on a dating site I’m revoking your Xbox rights for a month.”

His face broke out into a grin, and she just about strangled him right then and there.

Her eye twitched. “You’re pulling my leg again, aren’t you?”

The grin widened and he darted forward to drop a kiss on the top of her head. “Mom, for all of your business skills, you are way too gullible.”

“Says the guy who I convinced for years that unicorns were real,” she grumbled good-naturedly, altogether too relieved to know that he wasn’t on any dating websites.

“Unicorns are real,” he said. “We just haven’t found evidence yet.”

It was a long-standing debate between them.

He reached out and patted her head like she was a good dog. “Mom?” he asked, and Anna instantly went on alert.

“Yes, baby?”

Blue eyes dropped to her face. “I really do think you should date. You deserve someone, like how Shae has Brady.”

And just like that, what felt suspiciously like tears stung her eyes. “We’ll see,” she murmured. She wasn’t getting her hopes up any. Over the years, she’d given dating a try time and again, and always she’d slunk back home with her dejected tail between her legs.

An image of Mr. Green Eyes flashed in her mind’s eye, and she very quickly shoved it away. They’d barely exchanged two words. And he certainly hadn’t seemed enamored with her in the slightest.

“You going next door?” she asked, already knowing the answer. Since the Ajax family had moved in over the summer, Julian and the eldest son, Toby, had become inseparable.

Jules nodded. “Yeah, we’re going to go all out and play Madden until we can’t see straight anymore.”

Anna patted his arm. “Sounds absolutely lovely,” she lied with a bright smile. “Tell Mr. Ajax hello for me.”

A sly smile lifted Julian’s lips. “You know, Mom, Mr. Ajax is single.”

Oh, Anna knew that already quite well. Sumner Ajax had asked her on a date the second weekend after he’d moved in with his two sons, and he routinely asked her out every few weeks. But her fear of things not working out and living next door to the guy always shut down any thoughts she had of taking him up on the offer.

Anna didn’t like complications.

Julian’s father had provided enough complications to last her a lifetime.

His was the gift that kept on giving.

“Have a good time, Jules,” she said, walking backward to her front door so she could keep an eye on him.

“Want me to give him your number?” he shouted, mimicking her earlier move and cupping his hand around his mouth.

Like mother like son.

Waving him off, she ducked into the house and then waited in front of the window until she saw him disappear into the Ajax house.

It was time to call in the reinforcements.