“Who is that?” Georgia whispers to Darcie behind me.

I turn and face them again. I’m surprised because I figured these two knew everyone at this school.

They already knew my name and Jade’s on our first day. Scary as shit, let me tell you.

“I have no idea, but I need to find out.” She sips her drink.

If I were among friends, I’d have made some smart-ass joke about their teenage behavior, but I’m just as enamored by this man.

His blue suit jacket is stretched across his broad shoulders with the front open, so I can see his taut waist with a crisp white linen shirt tucked in and a polka dot tie laying around his neck undone. The tips of his dark strands look damp and to top it off, a scruffy beard adorns his chiseled jawline. He’s not completely put together, as though he was running late and had to rush out the door.

He stops at the top of the stairs, says something to Principal Weddle that makes him laugh, gives the boy a hug, and then a fist bump. The boy smiles from ear to ear and heads inside.

Weekend Dad.

“Is he Henry’s dad?” Darcie poises it more like a question. “I thought...”

She’s cut short when he approaches us. I’m a good five steps away, but his blue-eyed gaze meets mine first before moving to Darcie and Georgia.

“Hi, I’m Reed. Can one of you lovely ladies let me know what time school is finished?”

Again, his intense gaze finds me. Does he remember me, too?

“Um.” I swallow down the extra coating of saliva in my mouth.

“Three-o-five,” Darcie says, tilting her head as though she’s trying to figure him out. “Tell me—”

“Thanks a lot. See you, ladies.” He tips his head to them. “Victoria, nice to see you again. I’m late, but we should catch up.” He doesn’t wait for a reply and climbs back into the Uber waiting by the curb.

Funny, but no staff member is screaming at him to get out of the way.

“Did he really just leave when I was mid-sentence?” Darcie asks Georgia.

“That he did,” she confirms, hiding a smirk I bet is begging to show itself.

I step away, not bothering to say good-bye because well, my thoughts are elsewhere.

It all comes back to me in a cyclone of competing thoughts. Reed Warner. The best man at my wedding. Jesus, who put him in a Weird Science machine and popped out Chicago’s most beautiful man?

“He must be the dad. One of those weekend dads.” Darcie’s phrase makes me stop for a second at the edge of the sidewalk.

Reed is a dad? To a kid Jade’s age? Then again, I don’t think he and Pete kept in touch for long after we moved to Los Angeles. A million scenarios bounce around in my head. Is the boy a result of a one-night stand? Is he married? Does he split custody with the boy’s mother?

The questions keep coming the entire train ride into downtown. I try not to think about him, but he’s on my mind more than the strawberry rhubarb pie I passed over at the grocery store yesterday. And just like the pie, indulging might feel good in the moment, but afterward, I’d only feel regret.

---

Opening the glass door to my newest place of employment, I rush over to the ringing phone, removing my jacket as I sit down and answer it at the same time.

“Good morning, thank you for calling the RISE Foundation, this is Victoria, how can I help you?”

“For starters, you can get your ass on a plane back to Los Angeles.”

Jagger Kale—my old boss.

I smile. “You got me this job,” I say, leaning back in my chair and glancing at the clock. “Honeymoon over already?”

“First off, I got you that job because I’m awesome. Second, how do you know I didn’t just nail Quinn and now she’s passed out next to me in post-cunnilingus bliss?”

I don’t encourage his crass mouth with a laugh, even if I’m smiling.

“Thank you again,” I say with genuine gratitude.

For Jagger to hook me up with Hannah when I was leaving his company in Los Angeles shows what a good guy he is. Yes, he can be arrogant and egotistical and probably too self-involved, but there’s just something about him that makes it difficult not to like him anyway.

“How’s the new assistant?” I ask.

“He sucks. He gives me attitude.”

“I gave you attitude.”

“Not the same thing.”

I miss him, too, though I’d never admit it. We had a good thing going in Los Angeles. Jagger was my first boss post-divorce and I teetered on that line where he had good reason to fire me more than once at the beginning. I was cynical and hated all men. Until he got his shit together and reunited with Quinn, he was the epitome of everything I hated. I knew he’d prove the stereotype wrong.

“I’m just staring out at the ocean from my deck. How’s Chicago? I sent you a stock of Vitamin D.” He chuckles.

There’s some noise behind him and his hand muffles the receiver. I swear there are kissing noises.

“Victoria,” he says matter of factly.

“Leave the woman alone. Hi, Victoria.” Quinn’s singsong voice tells me she’s living her real-life fairy tale.

“Hey, Quinn.”

“Hold up, I’m putting you on speaker,” Jagger says.

A second later, the sound of crashing waves is the backdrop to our conversation. I miss the ocean. The warm weather, sand between my toes and the sun made me a happier version of myself.

“How is Jade doing?” Quinn asks. “Adjusting?”

Plates and cups clatter in the background and I’m guessing they’re putting out breakfast on the deck.

“She is.” I turn on my computer because Hannah could come through the door at any moment. “So, you’re not sick of your new husband yet?” I ask in jest.

Quinn giggles and then I hear her squeal followed by kissing noises once again.

Stab me in the heart, why don’t you? Between school and work and Jade and my mom, the most tongue action I’ve gotten lately is from my mom’s cat, Moe.

“Well, I hate to interrupt, oh that’s right, you called me.”

“Sorry,” Quinn says with a soft chuckle. “We’re still in that can’t keep our hands off each other phase.”

“No apologies necessary. I’ll just go back to daydreaming about your latest hero and wishing someone like him enters my life.”

She laughs. “You liked Van, huh?”

Quinn’s a romance novelist and I’m lucky enough to get all her books pre-release.

“How could anyone not?” My stomach clenches remembering the hot moment when he cornered her against the wall, the urgent kisses and sultry lovemaking.

“Is he based on me, too?” Jagger asks.

I laugh.

“No, babe,” Quinn says.

“You’re imagining what other guys would do to you?”

Quinn laughs now. “I’m not the heroine. It’s fiction, babe. You know…not real.”

“Even so, tell me what Van does, I bet I rock your world tenfold,” Jagger says with his usual cocky arrogance.

“Good luck with that.” I type in my password on the computer and click open my email.

“Right here on this table.” Jagger’s voice is faint like he’s walked away from the phone, signaling my cue to hang up.

“Okay you two, thanks for calling to check up on me. Gotta go. Talk soon.”

I press end as Quinn tries to say goodbye and based on her giggling I’m guessing that Jagger’s probably undressing her.

The silence of the office still feels strange to me having gone from a company of hundreds to an office with three to five people in it, depending on the day.

Jagger’s friend, Hannah Crowley, a multi-millionaire in her own right, decided to start a foundation to empower young girls. Knowing I had to relocate due to my mom’s declining health, Jagger scored me an office assistant position with her charity. It is less responsibility than I’m used to having, but I work daily with two amazing women and at this point in my life I couldn’t ask for a better place to be.

I’m responding to a few emails when the glass door swings open and the louder of my two co-workers rushes over and collapses in the chair across from me.

“Holy hell, did you hear what happened last night?” Chelsea asks.