“That was the best time ever, Daddy,” Luke said.
Owen smiled and looked down at his son bouncing on his toes, moving in front and behind him as they walked out of the haunted house. If jumping beans had feet, that would be Luke right now.
He wanted to spend some extra fun time with Luke today since Luke was having another sleepover at his grandparents’. It’d help with the guilt that he was going out with Jill tonight.
“You weren’t scared?” Owen asked.
“No way. That was awesome.” Luke’s carefree giggle made him laugh.
“I was even scared a few times,” Owen said winking.
“Daddies aren’t supposed to be scared of anything. You’re too big to be scared.”
Owen only nodded. Kids—to just think everything was so simple in life. He wanted to correct Luke, let him know that real life wasn’t like that, but the truth was, Luke needed to be a kid as long as he could. Not many lost their mother so young and he was determined to let Luke enjoy as much of his childhood as he could.
“Someday you will be just as big as me.”
“I hope so,” Luke said. “Can we get burgers for lunch today? Meat helps you grow.”
Owen looked at his watch and held back his laugh. He still had four hours before he was dropping Luke off with his parents, then going home to get ready for his date.
“Sure. We can do burgers. Anything to make sure you get as tall as me, right?”
They made their way to his SUV, climbed in and Owen pulled out and made his way toward Route 50 where he let Luke have his pick of restaurants for his burger.
Once they were inside and seated with their food ordered, Luke looked at him, his big brown eyes searching. It was a look that Owen was checking for often, his radar tuning him into the fact something might be wrong.
“Do you think my Halloween costume is stupid for school?”
“Of course not. Why do you ask?”
“Because Bobby said dressing like doctors for Halloween is lame and that everyone should be a superhero or a celebrity or an athlete. I don’t want to be what everyone else is being.”
Owen smiled, knowing that Luke got that from him and not his mother. Ashley always had to be part of the crowd. She always had to be doing what everyone else was. Luke had never been much of a follower and Owen hoped he continued to be that way.
“There is nothing wrong with wanting to be your own person, Luke. Just remember that.”
“But what if it’s different than everyone else?”
“There is nothing wrong with being different, either. Embrace who you are and what you like in life. If you’re happy, then that is all that matters.”
“But I want to have friends too,” Luke said.
Owen frowned. “Don’t you have friends at school? I thought you did.”
What was he missing? He talked to Luke every night about school and hadn’t once gotten the impression there were problems. Maybe he needed to talk to the teachers before those parent-teacher conferences that he signed up for in a few weeks.
“I have friends. But some of the other kids don’t.”
“What does that mean?”
“Some of the girls are mean to other girls. Leah gets picked on because she wears glasses and Mandi gets picked on because she doesn’t dress the same as the other girls.”
“There are a lot of people in this world who need and wear glasses, Luke. You just wait, in the next few years, you’ll see how many need them. I hope you aren’t picking on anyone because they’re different.”
“No. I wouldn’t do that.” Luke dipped his head. “Mom would do that though. She’d make fun of someone if they were different or dirty in a store.”
Owen sighed. They didn’t talk about Ashley much, and he always took Luke’s lead. Since Luke brought it up he’d have to address it, but it’d have to be done delicately.
“Sometimes in life, adults don’t always do the right thing. Look at it this way, if some of the things your mother said about people in the store were said about you, how would you feel?”
“I’d be hurt if it was all I had. Grandma Mary always said if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
“Grandma Mary was right. And I’m glad you remembered that and I’m glad she taught you that.”
The fact that Ashley’s parents had such a big influence on Luke’s life was one of the reasons that Owen was willing to make visitations work, even so many states away. Too bad none of those things rubbed off on Ashley.
“I miss Grandma Mary and Grandpa Steve.”
Luke hadn’t said that often so Owen’s radar was rising. “Would you like to call them?”
“Can I? Can I call them now? I want to tell them about the haunted house.”
A busy restaurant at lunchtime wasn’t the best place, but the smile on Luke’s face made him cave. “We can see if they’re home right now.”
Owen pulled his phone out and dialed Ashley’s mother. “Hi, Mary. It’s Owen. Luke wanted to call and say hi.”
“I’d love to speak with my boy. I was just telling Steve that Halloween was Tuesday and I wondered what Luke was going to be.”
“I’ll let him tell you all about that and what we did today.”
Owen handed the phone over, then sat there and listened to his son’s excitement and knew that for as many fears as he had in life right now, lack of his son’s happiness wasn’t one of them.
Several hours later, Owen dropped Luke off at his parents’, with Luke dashing ahead of him into his room at the house. Owen’s old room that his parents redid for Luke so that he’d have a nice space he’d feel comfortable in.
“Are you going to be out late tonight?” his mother asked him.
He wasn’t sure how much he wanted to say right now. If he told his mother he was going on a date, she might get pretty nosy when now wasn’t the time. Not with Luke around and not when Owen still wasn’t sure how things were going to work out.
He was extremely conflicted for someone that always knew his path in life.
“I’m not sure yet. If you have any problems with Luke, you know you can call me.”
His mother laughed. “There won’t be any problems and you know that. Have a good time tonight and don’t worry about anything.”
He leaned in and kissed her cheek, glad she didn’t question him, and then left to go home to shower and change. If his mother saw him in a suit, she’d figure out easily enough what he had planned.
It was just about twenty minutes to Jill’s place. He parked in the lot and made his way to her apartment door. She was on the first floor of the complex. It looked to be a fairly new area.
He only had to knock once before she opened the door. If he stopped breathing for a second, he wasn’t admitting, but there was a moment where he was wondering if he’d be able to catch a breath if he needed to. Thankfully she knew CPR.
He had no clue she could take his breath away like that. Sure, he was attracted to her in scrubs and even in the jeans she’d worn on their other date. But in a little black dress and pumps, yeah, it was going to be a long night indeed.
One where he hoped to hell he could control his body enough to not reach in and grab her forward by the back of her neck and crush his mouth to hers.
If the smirk she was sending him was any indication, she knew exactly what he was thinking. “I meet with your approval, I see.”
He lifted his hand up and spun his finger in the air. “I need to see it all just to make sure.”
She turned in a little circle with her arms out and when he saw the back of the dress exposed a lot of her bare skin, it made him wonder if she had a bra on. He was positive he was in for a long night now.
***
Jill was trying not to laugh at the expression on Owen’s face.
She was pulling out all the stops tonight. She hadn’t been on a date like this...ever. Darren never took her out to a fancy restaurant when they were dating. Then again, it wasn’t like they had any money when they were younger.
Even when they were married, money was tight and a night out just didn’t happen often. She was too busy working full time while Darren finished up school, just working part-time when it suited him.
She understood his future career came first back then, but she wished she’d looked at the bigger picture before they jumped into marriage.
But here she was going on a nice fancy date with a doctor who asked her, and she wasn’t about to say no. She was going to dress up in the black dress she’d never worn before, but bought on sale in a weak moment a year ago, along with her sexiest heels.
She was going to give Owen Taylor something to look at.
“You look pretty good yourself. I’ve never seen you in that suit before.”
“You’d know if I’d worn this suit before?”
“I’ve seen a few different jackets on you, but you don’t wear a full suit often,” she said.
He normally just had a shirt and tie on, or scrubs if he had biopsies scheduled. Once or twice he’d have a suit jacket on, but not like the black suit he was sporting in her little apartment. They made one fancy couple at the moment.
“If you’re ready, we can make our way to the restaurant,” he said.
“Let me get my jacket and we can go.”
He held his hand out for her to proceed, then opened his car door and helped her in. She’d been thinking gentlemanly traits were lacking in the dating world today and was genuinely surprised and touched at the same time that he seemed to be making the effort.
“Stay,” he said when he parked the car at the restaurant. She did because she knew he was going to go around and open the door for her again, making her feel a little bit like Cinderella. For someone that wanted to move slow in a relationship, he seemed to be shifting into a higher gear.
He reached for her hand after he’d opened the door for her, then helped her down and threaded their fingers together. They walked into the restaurant, and into what she knew would be the best date she’d ever had in her life.