Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I’d joked with the women at work that I was worrying that I’d completely lost all interest in men. I could pass right by an objectively handsome man and feel absolutely nothing.
I blamed being an overworked, underpaid, single parent of a kid going through a really difficult phase.
So it was a complete shock that, amongst my fear, anger, and relief as I stood in the bar parking lot, there were some interesting… flutterings going on thanks to that tall drink of water standing in front of me.
Sure, maybe you could make an argument for the fact that he’d saved my girl being a part of the interest.
But he was also just stupidly good-looking.
He was tall, wide-shouldered, with the carriage that came from being in the military. He had dark hair and a slight beard that contrasted nicely to his ice-blue eyes.
He also seemed insanely fit under his white tee with all sorts of interesting black and gray tattoos up his arms.
I couldn’t tell exactly how old he was. Men aged so damn well it wasn’t fair. But I would say he was probably closer to forty than thirty. And there were charming little crow’s feet kissing the corners of his eyes and just the slightest bit of gray starting at his temples.
I was kind of disappointed I had to meet him under such strange circumstances. Because any other day if I had felt such a reaction to a man, I might have decided to hang up my years-long celibacy streak, grab a hotel room—or backseat of a car—and have some much-needed stress relief.
“That is the third time you’ve zoned out,” Allie’s mom Britney said as she sat across from me at She’s Bean Around for our weekly coffee date. “I’m starting to worry I’ve suddenly become boring,” she added. “You want to talk about it?”
All I’d been doing was talking. Mostly about Daphne. But also Allie. And the fracture in a friendship that the girls had going strong since the first Mommy-and-Me class I’d gone to and met Britney and Allie.
Britney had been a breath of fresh air for me. Amongst a sea of perfect mommies who didn’t seem as strung out from lack of sleep as I’d been, Britney had dark circles that rivaled mine and looked perpetually ready to burst into tears at any moment.
She’d been older than me, of course. And while she wasn’t a single mom, she was the stay-at-home partner in her relationship, so she was bearing most of the child-rearing responsibilities.
We’d bonded over our mutual struggles, our fears that we were missing some inherent ‘mom gene’ since so many of the other moms seemed to have it all together.
We, and our kids, had been close ever since.
“So you know how I mentioned the guy who saved Daph?” I asked, absentmindedly stirring the iced coffee that was steadily sweating down the sides and onto the table. But thanks to the fact that the chicks at this coffee place used coffee ice cubes, it wasn’t getting watered down.
“Callum.”
“Callow,” I corrected.
“Right,” Britney said, reaching up to slip her blonde hair into a clip, then letting out a grumble when half of it fell back out. “If I ever say I’m going to cut my hair again, talk me out of it,” she demanded.
“It’s a lesson we all have to learn firsthand, I’m afraid,” I said.
“Anyway. What about Callow?”
“I maybe left off the part where he was ridiculously, uterus-achingly handsome.”
To that, Brit’s brows rose. “Oh, really?” she asked, her brown eyes bright. “Handsome and willing to save a girl he didn’t even know? How did your panties not burst into flames?”
“They almost did,” I admitted. “I honestly have done very little other than think about him since,” I added.
“I’m assuming you two didn’t exchange numbers.”
“It wasn’t exactly that kind of situation. What was I supposed to say Hey, thanks for saving my daughter from almost certain statutory rape… can I give you my number so we can get glandular some other time’?”
“Well, maybe not those exact words,” Britney said, getting a little laugh out of me.
“I don’t think I even told him my name,” I admitted. “But I’m not exactly above getting dressed in something low-cut and going to hang out at Redemption in the hopes of seeing him.”
“What’s stopping you?”
“A moody teenager at home, for one,” I said.
“Listen,” Britney said, leaning in a bit. “Motherhood is really important. It’s a huge part of your life. But I don’t know if it is healthy for it to be your whole life.”
“I have work.”
“That you hate,” she said, shaking her head.
I mean, yeah. It wasn’t like I’d ever dreamed of working at a hotel for the rest of my life. But it had been one of the few jobs I’d been able to find that let me work the overnight shift, so I could have Britney and her partner Sam keep an eye on Daphne for me.