“So you’re dating Dane?” she goads.
“No. Ugh.” I blow out a breath. “He isn’t dating because he doesn’t want his daughter to get hurt.”
“That’s so sexy.”
“I know.”
I kick at another pebble. It rolls down the sidewalk and into a pile of dirt near a dandelion. It had a softer landing than I’m going to have.
Another mother and daughter exit the gym, and I find myself waiting to see if Dane and Mia come out next. They don’t. My shoulders sag.
“Any chance you’ll be back before the weekend?” Grace asks. “I have an extra ticket to a show on Broadway.”
“No, but I forgot to tell you. I scored an interview with Archon Sports.”
“I love it,” she chirps. “That would be a good fit for you, I think. They’re really cutting-edge on a lot of things industry-wise. I bet you could work your way in and make a name for yourself.”
“I hope so.”
“Me too. But, dude, I gotta go. I have an article due in the morning, and I’m about twenty percent done.”
“I’m jealous.”
“Only you would be jealous of work.” She laughs. “I’m off to order takeout and get some words down. Call me later and tell me what happens with Archon. And Dane. Really Dane. That’s what I want to know.”
“Nothing is happening with Dane,” I insist. “I’m leaving here by next weekend. What would be the point?”
“You are lame. Lame, lame, lame.”
“Goodbye, Grace.”
“Bye.”
I tuck my phone back in my pocket and spin on my heel to see Dane and Mia coming out of the gym. Wide smiles split their cheeks, and I wonder if it’s their grins making me grin or vice versa.
“Why didn’t we get you as our coach?” Mia asks.
“Aerial said she wanted to see that back tuck.”
“But she could’ve come over for a minute. The minis got you. No fair.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” I say, coming to a stop in front of them. “I’ll ask Aerial if I can get you next time. How’s that?”
“Awesome, because we told Aerial tonight we wanted you. No offense to her.”
“You better have been nice,” Dane warns, his touch of a southern drawl prominent. “I better not hear you were disrespectful.”
Mia looks up at him. “Have you ever heard that?”
Dane laughs. “Well, it better not start now.”
“It won’t.” Mia turns to me. “What are you doing now?”
I glance at her father. He has a hand jammed in a pocket of his work jeans as he studies me.
“I’m going to grab some food and do some work,” I tell Mia. “Adult stuff. Yuck.”
“Come feed the fish with us.” She bounces on her heels like she’s just cured cancer. “It’ll be fun. There is one huge one—Grandpa calls it a koi fish.”
“They’re all koi fish,” Dane says.
“Anyway, there’s one huge one I call Shamu. You have to see it.”
She takes my hand and tries to pull me toward Dane’s truck. I don’t move despite her best efforts. Instead, I take in Dane’s reaction. It changes the longer I watch. The corner of his lip turns upward. His brows follow suit. The lines on his face smooth as he bites the inside of his cheek.
“You scared of fish?” he asks.
“What? No.” I laugh.
“I’m going to say goodbye to Madison. You two get in the truck.” Mia runs down the sidewalk toward her friend, leaving her father and me alone.
We watch her little ponytail swish behind her as if we aren’t sure how to proceed. I run my palms down my shorts and hope they don’t leave sweat marks in their wake.
Finally, Dane turns to me. “So you going or what?”
“Yeah. I need to prepare for an interview this week, and I haven’t checked the news in so long.” I make a face. “I’m a news junkie. I have it on in some capacity a hundred times a day. I don’t think I’ve even turned it on today.”
“That’s what happens when you have breakfast with Penn.” The words are tossed out there as if he’s just continuing with our conversation, but the way his jaw tics proves it’s more.
I snicker to myself at the touch of annoyance in his tone. “Penn was in the café when I came in to pick up breakfast for me and Mom. We chatted over coffee for about five minutes.”
Dane shrugs, but the relief is evident. “You’re lucky you just talked to him over coffee. Otherwise, he would’ve thought you were getting married.”
Mia dashes by. “Let’s go, people!”
“You guys have fun,” I say. Wishing for a split second I was going with them, I glance at Mia. There’s a feeling in my chest I can’t explain, but I’m not sure I can fill it with any amount of cheesecake when I get home.
I start toward my mom’s house when Dane grabs my arm. His fingertips warm my skin, sending shock waves through me. “Go with us,” he says.
“I thought you didn’t do things with women?”
He considers this. “I don’t take women home, because they always leave. You’re different.”
“How’s that?”
“We aren’t going home, and you’re already leaving. That won’t be a shocker when it happens, will it?”
“Come on!” Mia shouts.
Dane lets go of my arm, my skin immediately cooling. It’s only temporary. He shoots me a smirk that sends my body temperature bolting upward.
“Let’s go,” he says, motioning for me to follow.
I do. Maybe because I want to spend time with them, even though I shouldn’t. And maybe because I want to watch his butt in those jeans.
“Isn’t it cool?” Mia asks. Another handful of cereal straight from the box goes into the water. The fish come to the surface, their colors spectacular against the dark water. Oranges, reds, even blues and whites pop against water as they go crazy for the breakfast food. “I don’t see Shamu yet. Wait until you see him. He makes these look like babies.”
The pond is much bigger than I imagined. Dane told me on the way that his dad moved into a smaller place on more land shortly after I left and inherited an established koi pond in the process.
When we pulled up to the little ranch-style brick home, I fell in love. It’s warm and inviting with its deep-red brick and large chimney right up the middle. A few miles outside of town, it’s also serene. There were three deer in the front yard when we arrived.
“I’m going to the shed to see if there’s more cereal,” Mia says.
She jets off toward a little outbuilding, singing a song from the radio as she goes. I can’t remember ever being that happy and carefree.
“What?” Dane comes up behind me, making me jump.
“I was just thinking how happy she is.” I turn to face him. “It’s really a testament to your parenting.”
“Better be careful or you’ll give me a big head.”
I pause. “What? No pun? No punch line?”
His grin splits his cheeks in two. “If your brain goes there when I say ‘big head,’ I win. No punch line needed.”
“Not what I meant.”
“It is what you meant. You said so yourself.”
Rolling my eyes, I turn away and change the subject. “If I ever lived here again, I’d want something like this. Smell that?” Inhaling a lungful of fresh air, I close my eyes and blow it out. “It’s so clean.”
“It smells like manure. I think Dad’s neighbor just fertilized his fields.”
I laugh. “It smells better than New York City.”
“Can I ask you something?” He steps around me so we’re shoulder to shoulder. “I never had you pegged as a city girl. What changed?”
We walk across the grass toward the field behind the house. Trees loom overhead, their leaves rustling in the breeze as I ponder his question.
As we come to a stop, Dane leans against the trunk of an old oak tree. “Even after the whole Katie thing, I still didn’t think you’d stay away this long.”
“I probably wouldn’t have. At first, I just didn’t want to see the two of you. I didn’t let Mom talk about you at all—or about anything here, for that matter. I just didn’t want to know.”
“Why?”
I shrug. “I didn’t want to miss you all, I guess. And I had a bunch of anger, and that sort of filled a spot inside me for a while. Then I filled it with work and deadlines, and . . . it was easier pretending this place didn’t exist.”
Gazing across the meadow, I think back to the years I spent inside my apartment or an office building. Most of them were spent alone or with Grace. It felt fine at the time, but now I’m not sure I’ll be able to get back to that place again mentally.
I glance at Dane.
I’m not sure I’ll be able to forget him again.
“But you’re back now,” he says, a grit to his tone. “Maybe you’ll stay?”
My laugh is weak. “If I came home now, it would feel like I failed. And like I wasted the last decade of my life.”