Molly was exuberant after Carter picked her up from his parents’ house. Working at the museum meant he couldn’t pick her up directly after school, but it gave Molly a couple of hours with her grandparents every afternoon, so he was far from complaining.

“How did everything go today, Artemisia?” He asked, scooping her up in his arms and spinning her around.

Molly laughed. “Great! We got to learn about famous artists today! I get to do a paper on Picasso. Or, not a paper. We make this board with pictures and stuff on it.”

“I’m sure you’ll make a great one,” Carter said, setting her down. “Do you have everything?”

“Yup!” Molly said, proud. She’d been scatterbrained when he’d first started her on this routine, always forgetting things at his parents’ or at home or at school. Now she had it all handled.

Carter said a quick ‘Hi’ to Nan and Pops and then drove Molly home. A part of him wanted to just let him and Molly have dinner there, and sometimes they did, but he didn’t want to become dependent on his parents. He’d been all right as a single parent, and as much as he appreciated Nan and Pops’ help, he wanted to know that he was still Molly’s primary caregiver.

“How is your new job?” Molly asked. “And your new boss? And the new museum? Can I visit it soon? What kind of art does it have?”

Molly had asked him similar questions before, and they’d visited the museum once or twice, but he had no problem explaining it again. “The new job is fine. It’s very similar to my old one.”

“Does this mean you have a cranky boss again?” Molly asked, wrinkling up her nose.

His last boss had been rather cranky. Oftentimes it had felt like no matter what he did, she would never be happy with it. When kids were involved, people tended to care more, but it also meant they were stricter about things. Everyone had their own opinions about what was good for the children, what the children deserved, and so on. Carter had a feeling that it was because when it came to children, everyone’s instinct was to behave like a parent, and everyone parented differently.

“No, this boss is different.” Carter tried to smother his grin, remembering Leticia. Leticia was as different from Diane as possible. Leticia was laid back and fun to spend time with, even if it wasn’t strictly in a work capacity. Diane was straight laced to a fault and didn’t seem to have a life outside of her job.

The fact that Leticia was gorgeous didn’t help, either. Carter couldn’t believe that she’d never been in a serious relationship. Sure, she was beautiful, all curves and light brown skin, but surely someone had to have seen the vivacious personality.

It made him a little angry, honestly, to think that all anyone had ever seen in her was a quick hookup.

Carter thought about that. If he was already getting protective of Leticia… Well, they were coworkers, yes, but surely they’d already proven how well they could get along. Maybe this was the perfect relationship to try for. He could go slow because of their work relationship, work himself up to a proper date instead of diving right in.

And he honestly liked Leticia. He wanted to spend more time with her. God knew he was still attracted to her. She’d been dressed professionally at work but he wasn’t able to banish the image of her tight dress from the club or how she’d looked with nothing on at all.

He pulled into his driveway and helped Molly get out. “Can I do some drawing?” She asked.

“I don’t know, have you finished your homework?” He replied.

Molly nodded solemnly. “Yes. I promise.”

“Hey now, remember I told you, promises are for very big things only. You can’t break a promise.”

“Okay.”

Carter had always tried to teach Molly the importance of that. Promises were giving your word, and that meant commitment. You didn’t give that lightly.

“So, you did your homework. I suppose you can draw while I fix dinner. Spaghetti okay?”

“Okay!” Molly cried, dashing for the door and then racing upstairs. She didn’t care what they ate for dinner when she got to do her drawing. Carter blamed it on having two parents that were invested in the arts, even if they couldn’t do art themselves. Or maybe she’d gotten all the talent that he and Olivia hadn’t had, like it had skipped a generation or something. Whatever the case, he tried to foster her desire to create art as much as he could.

On that note, maybe Leticia was also a good person to date because of her job. She loved art, he knew that. How could he be expected to date someone who didn’t understand how much he loved art, who didn’t appreciate it the way he did? How could he be with someone if they didn’t agree with him on nurturing Molly’s own artistic talent, making sure she got to explore it as much as she wanted?

And if he was being honest… he was kind of tired of mourning. Not that he didn’t care about Olivia any more, but it was just—he was tired of missing her. It took so much time and energy, missing someone. It was a nice change to be excited for the day without feeling the weight of his loss hanging off of his shoulders.

He could still love Olivia, but he could remember the good things without focusing on the loss. He could move forward—and it was what she told him she wanted, time and again, when they knew it was the end. Not right away, of course, but she had wanted him to find happiness with someone again. Maybe now was the time, now that he could miss her without missing her, without actively mourning.

It felt like a weight that he hadn’t even known he had was being taken off of his chest, piece by piece. Carter smiled privately down at the pasta bubbling on the stove.

Yes. Perhaps now was the time.