Rosie’s heels clicked on the hardwood as she came back toward the bar after locking the front doors for the night. The place was empty save for me and her, and the quietness wrapped itself around me like a nice cozy blanket.

It had been one hell of a night.

My brain was spinning a mile a minute, and my body was still trying to recover from being so close to Zach on the dance floor. I could still feel the soft press of his hand against my hip as he guided me through an effortless routine. He’d been so respectful and kept his hands in safe places, not assuming that we were anything more than acquaintances.

A small part of me had wanted him to touch the small of my back. To caress my cheek. To graze my lips with his.

But that would only make knowing I couldn’t have him worse.

“How are you feeling after that rollercoaster?” Rosie asked as she plucked her half-empty coke and grenadine from the counter and sipped it through her straw.

I groaned and untied my apron. “Confused.”

“You told me he was cute, girl, but you didn’t say he was that cute. Correction. You can’t call a man like that cute. He’s just downright sexy. Those eyes. That scruff.” She giggled and fanned herself teasingly. “No wonder you let him take you back to that hotel.”

“And put a baby in me,” I muttered.

“Hey now, Sam is a gem. And he’s going to be a nightmare when he gets older if he ends up looking anything like his father.”

I moaned in exasperation as I started sweeping behind the bar. “I can’t even think about that right now. My plate is full enough. He’s back for good apparently. I’m going to have to see him all the time. What if he finds out about Sam? How am I supposed to handle that?”

Rosie shrugged one shoulder and put her drink down to start wiping down the bar. “Guess you should have told him five years ago when you first found out, huh?”

“Very insightful, thank you.” I scowled at her.

“Hey, I’m just saying. Nobody put you in this little predicament but you. I support you and have your back, but that doesn’t mean I can’t point out when you did something silly.”

I loved Rosie for her straightforward, no bullshit honesty. People like her were rare to come by. But sometimes, like right now, all I wanted was for someone to tell me that everything would work out.

Rosie leaned her hip against the bar and crossed her arms. “Jo,” she said, and I looked up at her. “Even if he is staying in town, does it really impact you? Or will you continue to do your thing? Work the bar, hustle like the badass mom you are, and go about your normal life? Why does him coming back have to change anything?”

She didn’t understand. “You’re right. Nothing has to change. And knowing him, he’ll probably get bored and bail after a month or two. Once his mom is on her way to being able to live on her own, I’m sure he’ll want to get back in his plane.”

“So you’re stressing for no reason. Just don’t think about it. Unless, of course, you want to think about it.”

I wasn’t quite sure what she was getting at. “What does that mean?”

She shrugged and pushed her hair back off her forehead before resuming her work of wiping down the bar. “I’m just saying. The guy likes you. Couldn’t you feel that? And I’m no expert, but I was picking up on vibes that you like him too.”

“I’m with—”

“Brett. I know. We all know.” Rosie collected some of the remaining empty glasses from the bar and headed to the kitchen to do one more cycle through the dishwasher. She paused at the swinging door and looked back at me. “But you’re not married to him, Jo.” Then she left me alone at the front of the bar, my mind playing her words over and over again until they sounded foreign.

No, I’m not married to him. But I’m committed. And he’s been in Sam’s life for so long. It would be wrong for me to put my needs ahead of everyone else’s.

Zach was simply off limits like he’d always been.

It was a quarter to one in the morning when I pulled into the driveway and put my old truck in park. I sat in the cab for a couple of minutes, staring up at the dark entrance of my two-bedroom rancher. It was a small place, but a decent one, the best I could afford when I first moved back to Houston.

The siding was a pale yellow, which I liked against the brightness of the pansies and petunias planted in the boxes beneath the two front windows. A cobblestone path led from the side of the driveway up to the front door, which was pushed back a bit under a small canopy. At night, like right now, it was pitch black at the front door.

Brett never thought to leave the light on for me when I came home late.

I sighed and got out of the truck smelling like booze and fries. I fished my keys out of my purse by the light of the inside of the cab, and once I had my house key ready, I locked the truck and went to the door. I fumbled with the lock for a minute in the dark.

I stepped inside and closed the door gently behind me, locked the deadbolt, and then kicked off my work shoes and padded silently down the hall toward the kitchen.

All I wanted to do was sit in my corner of the sofa with a cup of tea and read my book for a little while. It would take my mind off of Zach, and I needed to distract myself if I had any hope of falling asleep.

The kitchen light was on. I came around the corner from the hall and stopped when my gaze fell upon Brett sitting at the kitchen table.

It was my dad’s old table, the one Ryan and I had grown up sitting at. It wasn’t pretty on the eyes as the wood was worn, and the upholstery on the chairs was an outdated paisley print, but it was precious to me. Brett had his dirty work boots up on one of the seats as he leaned back in the chair at the head of the table, a bottle of beer clutched in one hand.

“Hey, baby,” he said, his words a little slurred. His eyes were heavy. He’d been drinking for a while. Probably since he got home from work around five o’clock. He dragged his once bright blue eyes up and down me. “How was work?”

I dropped my purse on the kitchen counter and went to the stove, where I set to filling up the kettle and turning the element on. “It was all right. Pretty busy for a Wednesday actually. Ryan stopped by, and he and Rosie flirted like high school kids.”

Brett snorted and rolled to his feet. I didn’t say anything when he had to rest a hand on the table to steady himself. “Do you think that brother of yours will ever have the balls to ask her out?”

I shrugged and turned back to him, bracing my lower back against the counter. “Who knows? They’d be good together, I think. And a couple we could double date with. Which would be nice. And Sam already calls Rosie ‘Auntie.’ Them getting together would just make the title more official.”

“Double date?” Brett smirked and came to me, resting his hands on my hips. He loomed over me at his height of six foot four. He was a good-looking man, not as good looking as he’d been when I first fell for him, but still handsome. He had a thick head of unruly blond hair and a square jaw decorated in stubble. I liked him clean shaven, but he didn’t have the will to shave every day. “I don’t want to share my woman with another couple on a date.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Then maybe you should start taking me on dates. It’s been forever since we went out.”

“Oh come on, baby. We don’t need fancy restaurants to have a good time. That’s what I like about us.”

I smiled and turned away from him to pour my almost boiling water over a green tea bag in my favorite blue mug. “A change every now and then would be nice. Maybe we could go bowling. Or dancing.”

“Dancing?”

I nodded and stirred my teabag around in my mug. “Yeah. Dancing is fun.”

Brett patted my ass and made a sound in the back of his throat. An unimpressed sound. “What’s got my girl talking about dancing all of a sudden?”

“Nothing.” I shrugged, now wishing I hadn’t said anything at all. It was easier to just agree with him. “I just saw a couple dancing tonight, and it looked like a good time. It’s been a long time since I—”

“Since you danced with someone?”

I nodded.

“Who?”

I sighed and squeezed out from between his big frame and the counter. “It was a long time ago, Brett. When I was still in the Coast Guard.”

“Oh. Good. I don’t need any guys putting their hands on my woman. Fuck that. You’re all mine, baby.” He reached for my hips and pulled me back against him. My tea sloshed over the rim of my mug and burned the side of my hand as he stooped down to press a sloppy, drunk kiss to my cheek. “I’m off to bed. You going to bring that sexy little ass of yours into the bedroom soon?”

I forced myself to smile. “I just want to drink my tea and read a couple of chapters of my book. Then I’ll be in.”

“All right,” Brett said, patting my behind again as he let me go. He grabbed his beer and finished the last quarter of it in two massive gulps. Then he left it on the table instead of putting it in the recycling at the back door ten feet away. He headed down the hall to the bedroom and called back to me, “I can’t believe I fell for a book nerd.”

I waited for him to close the bedroom door and then went to my son’s room. I pushed his door open softly, and the warm light from the hallway spilled across the pale blue carpet and the foot of his bed. I could hear Sam’s soft breathing as I closed the door behind me. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark before moving to sit on the edge of the bed to run my fingers through his soft reddish-brown hair.

I hated that I worked nights. It took precious time away that I could be spending with Sam. I meal prepped his dinners and his lunches before work almost every day so that he wasn’t eating whatever Brett decided to order or burn, and we spent our mornings together, but it wasn’t enough. I was missing out on precious time that I would never be able to get back.

When my dad was at a point where he was willing to pass the bar over to me, I would have the flexibility to create my own schedule and maybe reduce my night shifts to only one or two per week. Right now, it was five days, sometimes more if someone called in sick. Sam had told me on numerous occasions that he wished I was home more often, which broke my heart.

Ryan was a great uncle and took Sam on Thursdays and kept him overnight. They usually went to the pool or the arcade, then made an obnoxious dinner of chocolate chip pancakes or something of the variety. Afterward, when they were both stuffed to max capacity, they would watch a movie while lying on pillows and blankets in Ryan’s living room. It was rare that either of them made it through the entire film. Usually, they’d fall asleep and re-watch in the morning before Ryan brought Sam back home.

I didn’t know what I would do if I didn’t have Ryan and my dad helping me through this. Even though I had Brett, I still felt like a single mom.

I leaned over and kissed Sam on one chunky cheek. “Sleep tight, kiddo. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Waking up and having breakfast with Sam was the highlight of my day, and I was already looking forward to waking up and giving him a big hug.

Part of me hoped Brett had to work early so we could have a mother and son half day.