Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“I have meetings Tuesday,” she says, dipping a fry into ketchup. “Potential sponsors I met at the gala. But I’m probably going to work from home the rest of the week.”
Harmless answer to Travis if he’s listening but coupled with the expression on her face, it tells me that on Monday I might be able to snag some time for lunch at her house. I manage to slip her a wink unnoticed and she dips her head with a knowing smile.
When we’re nicely stuffed, the waitress brings a dessert menu. Travis isn’t a milkshake fan so he opted for a brownie sundae. Danica and I both passed, although I ordered a second beer.
Danica nudges Travis. “I need to use the restroom.” Travis slides out of the booth and Danica scoots out, taking her purse with her. “Be right back.”
I’ve moved farther into the booth so I can turn at an angle and rest my back against the wall, my arm on the table. Travis folds his arms and leans forward a little. Because he’s only nine, he looks diminutive in that position, but the expression on his face is hard and unyielding.
It gives me a moment of pause, but it’s his words that almost send me into a panic. “Do you like my mom or something?”
My eyebrows fly up so fast, I’m surprised they don’t shoot off my face. I sit straight up and turn toward him. “Excuse me?”
“Do you like my mom?”
Every instinct based on denial kicks in. “Yeah… sure. We’re friends, so of course I like her.”
Travis rolls his eyes and if I wasn’t so nerve-wracked, I might even laugh. “I’m nine years old, not stupid. I see the way you two look at each other.”
Deflection.
“What do you mean?” I ask tentatively, picking up my beer to take a sip.
I get another eye roll. “You look at her like you might want to kiss her?” I choke on the ale, eyes watering. “And she looks like she wants to kiss you. I remember what that looked like when my dad was alive.”
Oh shit. Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.
“Um… well… I think…” My mind is blank and while I want to be truthful with him, I don’t want to be insensitive. I’d also very much like his mother in on this conversation, but she’s in the damn bathroom right now.
“It’s okay if you like each other,” he says, and I blow out an embarrassingly loud and obvious breath of relief. Travis ignores it. “I mean… you’re cool and my mom thinks you’re cool. And I don’t want her to be lonely, so I want to know if you like her. Like in the kissing way.”
“In the kissing way?” I ask, feeling myself flush hot.
Travis grins at me. “I know things. Kissing means you like her romantically. It’s more than friends.”
I deflect a little longer but more than being afraid to answer the question, I’m now insanely curious about something. “How do you know things? Is there someone at school you like in a kissing way?”
Travis screws up his face. “No way. I’m too young for that.” No, you’re really not. I remember kissing Amelia Slater in third grade on the playground. It was on a dare but I had liked her and wanted to kiss her. “Besides… this is about you, not me.”
My lips twitch at his earnest bearing and how deftly he brought that back around. “Okay… got it.”
“So…,” he prompts. “Do you like her? Because it’s okay if you do. I mean, I’m cool with that.”
There’s no thought of denial, deflection or word trickery. I tell him how it is. “I like her a lot.”
Travis grins, then spots something over my shoulder. His smile still in place, he says in a low voice, “Mom’s coming. We’ll keep this between us men.”
I hastily take another sip of beer so I don’t laugh at how unbelievably fucking cute that was. When his mom reaches the table, Travis says, “I have to go to the bathroom.”
“Okay,” Danica says pleasantly, tossing her purse into the booth and sliding onto the seat. As Travis walks away, she turns to me, “What were you two talking about?”
“What do you mean?” I hope my expression looks innocent enough.
Danica smirks… a mom who knows when she’s being bullshitted. “You were leaning in toward each other like you were telling secrets.”
I know better than to try to hide stuff from such a person and Danica is more than formidable.
“Your son,” I say with a jerk of my head toward the bathrooms, “just called me out. Wanted to know if I liked you in the kissing way.”
Danica slaps her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh, her eyes exhibiting both amusement and horror. It drops away just as quickly. “What did you say?”
“I played stupid at first, but your kid is as smart as you. After much berating, I admitted I liked you a lot and then you reappeared, so that was the end of the conversation.”