“You’re really good with her,” she told him.
He turned his head and looked at Kayla in his arms. It was where she’d wanted to be the minute they climbed out of his SUV. Surprisingly, he was good with it. More than good and wondered what it could possibly mean. Kayla’s easy acceptance of him was somewhat...humbling.
“Thanks. She’s an easy kid. It’s hard not to be good with someone so mild mannered.”
Shelby burst out laughing. “You should see her at bedtime when she’s not ready to go down.”
“When does she go to bed?” It was a little after seven right now and they were standing in line for ice cream, Kayla bouncing on his hip jibber-jabbering about what he thought was strawberry and pink.
“Around eight. It might be a little later tonight. It will depend on her behavior.”
“Sorry. I wouldn’t have suggested this if I knew it would mess up your plans.”
“It’s not a problem. We have a schedule I try to follow, but I understand life doesn’t always allow for that. We make adjustments when need be.”
He couldn’t believe how laid back she was about it. His sister was a tyrant when you messed up the nap and bedtime schedule of his nieces. Maybe that was why he didn’t often see himself with kids because he saw the amount of work it took and he’d never want to put that on just one person’s shoulder if he wasn’t around. And he’d never been around often...before.
They moved up in line and he ordered a chocolate milkshake, Shelby, a chocolate vanilla twist on a cone and a baby strawberry vanilla swirl in a cone for Kayla.
“I’ll take her,” Shelby said when their order was handed over.
“She’s fine. You want to stay with me, right, Kayla?”
Kayla nodded her head. “Jay.” Then to his utter shock, she placed a wet kiss on his cheek. His heart just thumped once, twice, and then landed with a thunk at his feet, almost like a water balloon popping, sending water everywhere. This time it was his emotions though, sailing through his body.
Shelby was giggling. “Kayla is kind of affectionate. Sorry about that.”
“Nothing to be sorry about.” He sure the heck wasn’t feeling an ounce of anything other than happiness over it.
They made their way over to a table in the shade, Shelby reaching for Kayla, but she wanted no part of getting out of his arms. He didn’t want to let her go either. For first dates, this was turning into more than he bargained for...in a good way.
Once their ice cream was finished, they walked back to his car, him still holding Kayla, but this time, reaching his hand over and threading his fingers through Shelby’s too. If anyone looked at them, they might think they were a family.
There were those thoughts of a family he’d never had before. Always so focused on his career and advancements. Being a hero. Being someone other than the smart athletic kid from his hometown. Just wanting to make a difference in the world. In someone’s life.
Now that his world had changed, his thinking needed to. He still had hopes of getting out of the teaching position. He was just biding his time, putting feelers out, trying to find the right position that would put him in some kind of a role other than standing in front of recruits all day flapping his lips.
It didn’t matter he was once in those recruits’ shoes.
It didn’t matter that he couldn’t get out of the classroom fast enough.
It didn’t even matter that he’d looked up to most of those professors before...whoa, did he? Do some of them look up to him now?
Back then all that mattered was he was getting through each step to move on to the next.
Now, it seemed all that was in the past was so far gone in his mind that he couldn’t remember the excitement. Maybe that was a good thing.
Looking over at Shelby now he was wondering if it was time to find something else to be excited about.
A different challenge. Something more personal. Something just for him.
Was it selfish to feel that way? Maybe it was time to be a little selfish. Or at least just focus on one person and not the big picture.
Kayla giggled when her melting ice cream dripped on his arm. He smiled and told himself he was focusing on two people now, and neither one of them was him.
***
It’d been way too long since she’d had her hand held. So long she didn’t remember the giddy feeling it evoked. The warm fuzzies that flooded through her veins. The heat of one palm against the other. The smile that never wanted to leave her face.
Even when Ethan held her hand, she hadn’t felt this strong of a response. Was it that she was more attracted to Jared? That would be wrong, right? Ethan had been her husband. She had to feel attraction for him, and she did, but it seemed dimmer and dimmer each day. Maybe she should have more pictures of him around, but all she had was the one and it was in Kayla’s room.
They walked back through her front door. “Come on, Kayla, you need to get cleaned up for bed.” She saw the pout getting ready to appear and quickly said, “If you cry, Jared’s feelings will be hurt. You don’t want to hurt his feelings, do you?”
Kayla turned her head and looked at Jared. He’d gotten the hint and tried to put a sad face on, which was pretty adorable if she had to admit. “No. Don’t be sad,” Kayla said.
Kayla turned and put her arms out to Shelby. “I just need to go clean her up. I won’t be long.”
“I probably should go.”
She didn’t want him to but was trying to find a way to say that. “It’s up to you. But if you don’t mind waiting, it will be just ten minutes or so. You could watch TV or something.”
“I could do that,” he said.
She walked to the back of the house and grabbed pajamas out of Kayla’s drawer, went to the bathroom and undressed her, then placed her in the tub quick. A sponge bath would be good enough.
“Play in the tub?” Kayla asked.
“Not tonight. We’ll just wash you up. Tomorrow you can have a long bath.”
“Okay,” Kayla said, rubbing her eyes. This could be good...or bad, depending on how tired Kayla really was. Overtired normally spelled breakdown.
Kayla was quickly changed, then ran out to the living room, her arms wide open and into Jared’s, giving him a hug and a kiss. It probably wasn’t a good thing to let Kayla get too close to Jared. Shelby would have to think about this some more and have a talk with him. Kayla had to come first.
“I’ll be right back,” she told Jared.
Once Kayla was settled in, her bear in her arm and the door shut, Shelby went back out to the living room. Jared was dwarfing her little love seat. Nothing was big in her house, nothing really needed to be. Ethan hadn’t been that big of a guy at just five foot seven.
He patted the space next to him on the couch and she made her way over and then flopped down, thinking it wasn’t real sophisticated on her part. Then again, she couldn’t pull off sophistication with a whole celebrity makeover team.
“She all set for the night?” he asked.
“For the moment. Once she falls asleep she should be out. I can’t tell you how happy I was when she started to sleep through the night.”
“How old was she? One of my nieces didn’t sleep through the night until almost a year. The other at three months. My sister was a walking zombie the entire time.”
Shelby laughed. “That’s a good description. Kayla was about five months. At two months she was just getting up once for a bottle. Then she’d fall back to sleep. It wasn’t too bad after that. Thankfully I wasn’t working. By the time I went back, it was easier.”
“How hard has it been being on your own?” She gave a snort. “Sorry, stupid question. And insensitive.”
“It’s fine. It has its moments.”
“I’m sure a lot of moments.”
She didn’t want to talk about it. She wasn’t the only single mother out there. The only widow who had a child that never met their father. No use having any self-pity.
“I got through.”
He dropped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “I’m sure it’s more than getting through. You’re a pretty tough chick.”
She laughed. No one had ever said that to her before. She always thought she was weak. Resourceful, sure. But tough? Not so much. Not until the last year or so when the realization really hit her it all fell on her shoulders. “I won’t bore you with the times I wasn’t so tough.”
“Everyone has moments of weakness.”
“I’m guessing you don’t have too many.”
It was probably the wrong thing to say when she saw his expression change, only she wasn’t sure why. Then she remembered he didn’t always want to teach, so there had to be a story behind that. “Sorry, that was wrong of me to just assume that since you’re a man you don’t have any weaknesses.”
“Everyone has weaknesses at some point in their life. Some more than others. It’s how you get through them that makes you the tough one,” he said, his smile tight.
“That’s a good way of thinking of it.”