Tom and Suzie were gonna owe me big for this one. Who knew that building a swing set was so much work? We were making pretty good progress though, if I did say so myself. Rachel’s boyfriend Brad was a lifesaver. I just hoped she kept him around for a while because I really liked him. At least he and Linc seemed to know what they were doing, which is more than I could say for me and Nathan. I had no idea a swing set was going to be so much like a jigsaw puzzle. The two of them had divided out the parts and pieces by the letter that was on them and according to the directions. I swear it was like we bought the damn thing at Ikea instead of the home improvement store.

As we started assembling it, I was trying to concentrate on the building and not on listening for a car in the drive. I knew he wasn’t coming so I wasn’t sure why some part of my brain was still hoping he would show up. His face when I said “daughter” pretty much told me that. He wasn’t hateful about it or anything, not like some of the guys I had hooked up with; they acted like I had the plague once they found out I had a kid. But still, it was obvious that whatever it was that we had started, and there was something, was over. I should be glad I found out he didn’t like kids now instead of later because Em was the most important person in my life, and that wasn’t going to change.

I just hated that he had to be one of those guys. Like that one guy who said “Wow, you have a kid? If I wanted to deal with kids I would have just stuck to women.” But Justin wasn’t like that. He just looked, I don’t know, disappointed maybe. It had been awhile since I had connected with someone so quickly. Okay, actually I was pretty sure I had never connected with someone that quickly, and of course, it had to be someone I couldn’t have.

As I glanced toward the house, thinking I’d heard something again, Nathan said gently, “Sweetie, you know he isn’t going to show, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” I sighed. “I just had a great time talking to him and was really disappointed to find out he doesn’t like kids.”

“Doesn’t like kids? Oh, Justin loves kids. You should see him with them when he is working with them. He is the very best therapist we have with children.”

“Then what is the deal? I mean you saw his reaction last night and like you just said, he isn’t coming.”

“All I know is that one day we were talking about this hot new doc, and I said that I never date anyone who works at the hospital. Justin says that was his rule number two, and I’m like really you have rules? And he says, yeah, that he has three of them. Number one is no repeats, number two is no one from work, and number three is no one with kids. Well, you know I agree with one and two for the most part, but I told him I love kids. He said he does too but that he isn’t interested in being anyone’s stepdad, so rule number three.”

As Nathan told his story, the very last of my hope Justin would show up faded. Didn’t it somehow figure that the one time I meet someone I actually enjoyed spending time with he would have to have a stupid rule about kids?

Just as I decided it was better to know that up front rather than after I gave in and slept with him, I heard a car in the drive. Then I heard the car door slam and that voice—God, how did I already recognize his voice—call out, “Hey, Mark, are you guys out back?”

I just stood there thinking that I had to be imagining it. Didn’t Nathan and I just discuss the fact that he wasn’t coming?

“Mark?” he shouted again.

I shook myself out of my surprise and yelled, “Yeah, just come through the gate; we’re all back here.”

He opened up the gate, carrying boxes of something. “I brought donuts. I wasn’t sure how late you guys were up or how drunk you got, so I figured you might need a sugar fix to getcha going.” I walked over to him and took the box.

“Thanks, let me put these inside on the kitchen counter. Linc, this is Justin. You were too busy chasing blondie last night to meet him.”

“First of all, Justin and I have met before, both at work and at the club, and I’ll have you know I wasn’t chasin’, I was catchin’.” Linc winked.

I shook my head at Lincoln and continued with the introductions. “That over there is Brad. He is my sister Rachel’s umm friend,” I said with a question in my voice.

“Yeah,” Brad chuckled. “Friend works for now.”

“Want to walk inside with me, Justin?” I turned and headed in. As he followed me inside I thought about what I was going to say. I didn’t understand why he was here. I mean, generally in just a hook up, I didn’t care if the men didn’t like kids, but just hooking up wasn’t what I wanted, so I really needed some answers. I sat the donuts down and turned around and he was right behind me. “You actually came. I really didn’t think you were going to.”

“Neither did I to be honest with you.” Justin shrugged, looking around my kitchen. I knew what he saw there. My fridge was covered in drawings Em had made, her plastic bowl and matching cup with her favorite cartoon character on it were in the dish drainer, a small collection of little plastic animals sat on the bar. My whole house was full of evidence that I was a father.

“Well then what are you doing here, Justin? Nathan told me about your rules. And as you can see”—I gestured around the room—“I’m definitely a man with a child, so I’m not exactly sure why you’re here.”

* * *

“Well then, what are you doing here?” Mark asked, and hell if I knew how to answer him. I just needed to come. I was aware that nothing could come of it. I looked around the house and the evidence he had a daughter was everywhere. He wasn’t just a man with a kid. You could tell by just looking at his house. He had pictures on the fridge that were obviously drawn by a child. The one in the middle had two square houses sitting side by side. Between them were four stick figures. It looked like a little girl with tons of curly hair in the middle and a man and a woman on one side. On the other side was a man, Mark, I presumed, and they were all holding hands. There was a cat sitting off to the side and they were all smiling these big red smiles. On the top, it said “Us.” He wasn’t just a father, he was a dad. Like a real dad. And that was special. But I wouldn’t have expected anything else from Mark.

“You said she’s four? What’s her name?” I knew that didn’t answer the question he’d asked me, but I didn’t really have an answer so that was what came out.

“Emma.” He just stood there watching me, giving me time to get my thoughts together.

“I really enjoyed talking with you last night. I don’t remember the last time I had such a good time actually.”

“Me too,” he said softly. “However, I hear a ‘but’ in there, Justin, so let’s just go ahead and get it out there. But you don’t date men with kids.”

“But I don’t date men with kids,” I agreed. “I just can’t go there. But I really do like you, and I’d really like it if we could be friends. We have a lot in common, and I’d really like to just hang out. You know, be friends.” Man, I thought, I sounded like an idiot. Like I was in fourth grade or some shit: Will you be my friend? Check yes or no. What the hell.

“Friends huh?” Mark looked at me like he was trying to decide if this was a great idea or the biggest mistake in the history of time. “Yeah,” he said, letting out a breath. “Friends. Okay, I can do that.”

“Great. Good. All right. Friends.” I breathed a sigh of relief. At least he didn’t tell me to get out.

“We should probably head out there and help them with the swing set. They are probably wondering what happened to us in here.” Mark handed me a couple drinks to carry out to the guys.

Man, who knew putting a swing set together was so much work. It took us the rest of day to get it all finished. About midday we stopped and ordered pizza for lunch. As we all sat around the table on the deck, I looked around the yard. I had noticed earlier that there was no fence between the two houses, but I wasn’t sure what to make of it. “What is the deal with the fence? Are you still getting it put up?” I asked.

“No, it’s finished.” Mark pointed to the house next door. “That house belongs to Suzie and Tom, and we share a backyard.”

“Suzie and Tom? Who are they?” I searched my memory from last night, trying to remember anyone with either name. But I couldn’t remember anyone.

“Suzie is my ex-wife, and Tom is her husband. They live next door, and we share the yard so Emma can just go back and forth.”

“You live next door to your ex-wife and you share a yard? Isn’t that kinda weird?” I was trying to wrap my brain around that but just couldn’t. I didn’t have many exes since rule number one meant I never let anyone get to that point. But none of my friends who had them got along with them all that well. And especially not the ones who had been married.

“It was weird at first.” Mark chuckled. “But now it is just the norm for us. Suzie has been my best friend since we were kids, and Tom is a great guy. He loves Em like crazy. It just works for us because we think it’s best for Emma.” He shrugged, like living next door to his ex-wife and her new husband was no big deal.

I looked around the table where we all sat and spoke to the guys. “It’s not just me, right?” I asked them. “It is weird?”

Lincoln chuckled. “Hell yeah, it’s weird. Or it would be for anyone else. You just have to meet Suzie and see all of them together to get it. Shit, I’m just shocked they aren’t all just sharing a house at this point. Y’all wouldn’t catch me living next door to any of my exes.”

“Well, actually honey,” Nathan said sweetly. “You do live next to one.”

Lincoln looked over at Nathan with a lazy smile. “You mean Ricky? Now, sugar, you know one drunken hook up does not an ex make.”

I watched their exchange, amused. They were such an odd pair, but they had been best friends as long I had known them. Nathan was pretty. He was small but muscled, with the prettiest green eyes and a really sweet smile that made him look innocent and harmless. Until he opened his mouth. And then he was all sex and sass and camp as hell. Lincoln was tall, dark, and Texas. Even today he was dressed like he was going to work on a ranch instead of building a swing set. Western style jeans, boots, a button up shirt, and, of course, a ball cap on his head. Outside of work, where he had to wear his paramedic uniform, I don’t think I had ever seen him without a hat or a ball cap. He was a nice-looking guy. Sexy and laid back with a slow Texas drawl. Mark had good friends, which just made me wonder even more what I was doing here. He didn’t need me hanging around wanting to be friends.

“Well, guess we need to get back to work,” Brad said. “I know you want to have it done before they get back, and I want to take Rach out to dinner tonight. So, let’s finish this up.”

Mark’s phone notification went off, and he pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it. “Yep, we do need to get back to work. That was Suzie; they have decided to come back later today instead of tomorrow, so we only have a couple more hours to get it finished.”

We went back to work on the swing set and the joking around and good mood continued. I was working on putting the pink princess tent top on the fort section when I looked over at Mark. He had his shirt lifted up, using the tail to wipe the sweat off his face, his abdomen all exposed, sweaty, and hard. How the hell does an accountant have a body like that? It just wasn’t fair. I reluctantly dragged my eyes away and saw Nathan watching me with a smirk on his face. Friends, friends, just friends, I mentally repeated to myself over and over. You would think the fact that I was working on building his daughter’s swing set would be enough to make me remember that, but damn, he was so sexy, all sweaty and manly and building stuff. Who knew I found a guy building shit to be such a turn on, but man I did.

“You about done up there?” Linc called up to me. “I think once you get that attached and we add the swings, we’re done.”

“I’m almost done.” I was reaching round, trying to hook the outside corner while I held the others in place. “I just need to get this one corner attached, but it is giving me trouble. Once I figure that out, I’ll be finished.”

“Here, let me help. Maybe you just need an extra set of hands.” Mark headed up the ladder and into the little fort area, and the already small space seemed to shrink. He reached around me, his front to my back, holding on to one side. “See if you can reach around, pull it down, and hook it while I hold this side down.”

And fuck if it didn’t feel good to have the length of him pushed up against me like that. I closed my eyes for just a second, letting myself enjoy the feel of him surrounding me. And just as I popped the final corner in place, I got a reminder of why we were just friends...

“Daddy!” a little girl squealed. “Oh, my goodness! Y’all got me a castle. Mommy and Bampás told me there was a surprise, but they didn’t say it was a castle. Mommy, Bampás, look; it’s a castle! Daddy, where are you? Nathan, Linc, did you see my castle? Did you help build it? It has a pink top. Do you know where my daddy is?”

I turned around and looked at Mark. “Did she even take a breath?” I asked.

“No.” Mark laughed, stepping back away from me. “Emma rarely takes time to breathe.”