Eleven-fifty-five Saturday at the McDonald’s on Peterson, Jade and I walk in, hand in hand. I glance around, not seeing Reed or Henry, so I order a happy meal for Jade and a meal for myself.

We sit down with our food in a booth that Jade picks out. So far everything’s going great. Until the door opens behind me and Jade’s eyes widen, a huge smile overtaking her small face.

“Henry!” she exclaims, her hand up in the air.

Like the other day, I smell him before I see him. That musky and citrus mix that’s like a heat-seeking missile right between my legs.

“I would have bought you lunch,” he says, arriving at the edge of the table.

Henry and Jade talk about the play area and I take him in. Faded jeans, a black pullover jacket, and a pair of soccer sneakers. A memory of going to one of his soccer games at a park once flashes through my mind. It was like a rec league or something. I thought he was jaw-dropping in a suit but his casual look makes me want to nuzzle into him on a Sunday afternoon all day.

“Don’t you know yet, Mr. Warner, I’m the independent type.” Jade glances over to me with a strange look on her face.

A smile creases the edges of his eyes and an embarrassed flush, runs through my body. How stupid did I just sound?

“I do know that Ms. Keebler.”

“Clarke now.”

He rocks back on his heels, a look on his face to suggest he had wondered.

“So, you’re not the cookie maker anymore?” he chuckles, and I eye Jade because the poor girl still holds her father’s name. “Who doesn’t want to be associated with E.L. Fudge? He’s the best.”

Jade smiles and then goes back to her conversation with Henry.

“Usual, Henry?” he asks the little boy.

He nods at Reed and I really need to finalize who he is to him.

“Great, I’ll be right back.” He taps the table with his knuckles and then heads around the row of tables to the front.

“Can we play?” Jade asks.

“After you eat. Come over here, Jade.” I slide closer to the wall, waiting for her.

Her face loses the excitement. “I’ll sit with Henry.” She situates herself and I wonder how the fact that she picked out a booth did not set off any alarm in my mind.

“Um, no Jade, just while we eat.” I pat the spot next to me. Henry looks at me like I have three heads and what’s the big deal if he sits next to Jade.

The kid will understand one day it’s not Jade sitting next to him I’m worried about, it’s the fact that--

“Perfect.” Reed slides in next to me, his strong thigh pressing against mine. “Couldn’t have set this up any better if I’d tried.” He winks, and I slide until my entire left side of my body is pressed to the wall.

Jade slides down into her seat across from me, focusing on her meal again. Henry sits down next to her and Reed hands him his meal. He doesn’t open the sauces, doesn’t put the straw in his cup, which I believe might be soda and he lets the kid set everything up himself. My eyes glance to Jade’s spot. Her nugget box is opened with the fries in the lid, sweet and sour sauce open and sitting next to her ketchup. I added the straw to her milk and have a napkin there for her to clean up after. The toy is tucked into my purse until she eats.

“Looks like a car.” Reed tosses Henry the toy and the little boy catches it.

“Have it.” Henry shrugs and sets it between him and Jade.

“What did I get?” Jade sets her eyes on me.

I shoot her my non-verbal ‘you know the rules’ look.

“Henry got his. Can I have mine?”

My eyes look over to Henry and Reed, both looking between us. Not judging, just intrigued.

“Eat some nuggets.” I nod my head to her uneaten food.

“Come on. I want to know what I got,” she whines, and I close my eyes because the last thing I want is for this to become a whole thing over a McDonald’s cheap toy.

“Jade,” I give her my warning tone, but I can already tell it’s not going to work today. “Eat.” I’m a little more curt this time around.

Reed gets the hint. “Henry, eat your meal.”

Henry’s eyebrows crinkle at Reed’s authoritative voice. I’m sensing whoever Reed is to Henry, he’s not an authority figure.

Henry does take a bite of his hamburger.

Meanwhile, Jade crosses her arms over her chest in defiance.

“If you don’t eat, you don’t play.”

A small sound escapes Reed, but thankfully Jade didn’t hear it because her eyes are set on challenging me. I play her game, not really caring what Reed thinks. I want to drive him away anyway. Maybe I should hold the toy hostage longer, so she throws a tantrum and then he’ll realize he doesn’t want a ride on our crazy train.

Jade slides forward, picks up a nugget and then nibbles it.

Once she’s finally eating, I look at my plate no longer interested in eating with Reed right next to me. I pick up a fry and eat it, then take a sip of my soda. This is not a first date. This is nothing. After repeating that a few times, I finally pick up my chicken sandwich and take a bite. When the tomato and lettuce slide out of the sandwich because of the abundance of mayonnaise and it lands in my lap, I repeat to myself that this is a good sign. After all, we want Reed to run far far away.

“Shit.” Reed’s hand moves over to pick up the vegetables out of my lap.

“You said a bad word,” Jade scolds him.

His head flicks her way at the same time my hand grabs his wrist to stop him from plucking something out of my crotch. An electric current shudders through my body.

“Sorry.”

“He says that all the time,” Henry says and him, and Jade talks about parents swearing. “My grandpa is the worst. He says the f word.” He lowers his voice once he gets to f.

Jade’s jaw opens although I’d bet the house in Vegas her dad uses that language around her.

“Once my dad put up the finger at someone in the car next to us. Then the guy rolled down his window and if I’d collected money for a swear jar, we’d be going out for ice cream after this.”

Reed chuckles lightly to himself and excuses himself.

“My grandpa yells at his neighbors, saying get the potatoes out of your damn ears.”

Jade laughs uncontrollably, rolling all around the booth. “I don’t have a grandpa.” She doesn’t say it in a mean way,, she says it like it is the way it is. “I have a grandma though.”

“Does she say funny stuff?”

Reed returns with some napkins and water. “Here.”

“Thank you. It’s not too bad actually.” I focus on the stain on my jeans which thankfully, should be fine once they dry.

Jade continues telling Henry things my mom says. Reed is soaking in their conversation with a few looks my way.

“My grandma says it’s a good thing my mom left my dad because a rotten apple spoils the whole barrel.” Jade shrugs not understanding exactly what it means.

“Your parents are divorced?” Henry asks as though we’re not sitting right across from them.

“Come on you guys, eat up.” Reed encourages them, now willing to set some rules.

The two take a bite of their meals, but I know my daughter. “Yeah.” She looks at Henry. “Yours?”

Henry looks over to Reed, not for permission, but something else. I just can’t put my finger on the way he looks at him.

“My parents died.”