Asking For A Friend

by Parker, Ali

  “Are you sure? Banana chip?” He grimaced and Annie laughed.

  “I’m sure. I’ve had it before,” she said. “You should try it.”

  “Maybe next time.” The disgust on his face said he wouldn’t be having it next time either, but Annie let it go. Eventually, he ordered Annie’s mix for her, green apple and mint for me—which caused another horrified look—and chocolate chip for himself.

  “Bor-ing,” I sing-songed to him as we walked back to the car.

  Pointing his spoon at me, he said, “Classic. There’s a big difference between boring and classic. This is delicious. Tried and tested, it’s always a good call.”

  “I want a classic flavor next time too, Mommy,” Annie said, and I frowned at her. She always ordered something decadent and outlandish. When she fell into step beside Layton, I realized it had nothing to do with Layton’s insistence that his dessert was delicious, but everything to do with the man himself.

  It was an odd thought, but she’d never had a father figure or a male role model in her life before. I supposed it wasn’t so strange that she already looked up to him. He had taught her something she enjoyed today, was knowledgeable about it, and was patient with her questions.

  It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that she was already willing to switch ice cream flavors for him. A frisson of anxiety ran through me when I thought about what would happen if Layton never wanted to see her again. Or about what would happen if he did and she got attached.

  As soon as it hit, I pushed it away. I couldn’t worry about all of this anymore. They enjoyed each other’s company and I really didn’t think Layton would ever intentionally do anything that would hurt Annie.

  I would have to take it as it came and make do as best I could. I would also have to hope and pray I was right about him, and that I hadn’t ended up making a mistake by introducing the two of them. Listening to them banter on the way home quelled my fears somewhat.

  Layton was a good male figure to have around, for however long he would end up staying nearby. That was good enough for me for now, knowing he would be good for her. He already had been. I knew the fishing was going to be a memory she would treasure.

  “Here we are,” Layton said, pulling up to our house. He walked us to the door and gave Annie a hug goodbye. “It’s was so nice to meet you.”

  “Thank you for taking us fishing,” Annie said, after releasing him. “And thank you for the ice cream.”

  “My pleasure.” He smiled warmly at her before turning to me. “Thanks for everything today. I’ll see you on Monday.”

  “Sure,” I replied, then said to Annie. “You should get inside, honey. I’ll be right there.”

  Layton started closing our front door with a final wave, but I slipped outside just before the door shut. He turned back to the house with a small smile and an arched brow. “Forget something?”

  “Yup,” I said cheerily. After a quick glance back to make sure the door was still closed and Annie wasn’t standing in the window, I closed the couple of paces between us and wound my arms around his neck. “This.”

  Without waiting for him to react, I pushed up and pressed a kiss to his lips. He needed no further invitation. His arms slipped around my waist and his lips parted. The kiss lit a fire inside me and for just a second, I allowed myself to be in the moment.

  No worries about Annie, Layton or later. There was nothing but the two of us and I couldn’t get enough of him. Too soon, the moment ended. He rested his forehead against mine and smiled. “I was wondering if I was going to get one of those today at all.”

  “If it helps, I’ve been wanting to do that all day,” I admitted, before stepping away from him. “I’ll see you on Monday, Layton.”

  “Bye,” he walked away with his hands in his pockets, giving me a slight wave before taking off. I sighed happily, turned and went back inside to find Annie. Sneaking out to kiss Layton had been impulsive, but I was glad I did it. Now I had to get back to reality.

  Chapter 38

  Layton

  Sunday morning arrived hours before I was ready for it to. I woke up to my phone ringing and groaned, hoping it wasn’t Clayton Reeve with another annoying surprise. Rolling over on my bed to grab my phone on the nightstand, I frowned when I saw it was Craig.

  “This better be urgent if you’re calling at seven-thirty on a Sunday.” I greeted, falling back onto the bed. “What’s up?”

  “You have to get down to the site,” Craig said, his voice strained and tense. “I’m sorry to be bothering you this early, but we need to talk and we need to do it now.”

  I sat up, immediately getting moving. Craig wasn’t the kind of guy to make a call like this lightly. If he was calling this early to tell me we had to talk, there had to be a problem. “What’s wrong?”

  He exhaled a deep breath. “It’s not good, but we’ll talk when you get here.”

  We ended the call on that note and I hurried to get showered and ready, arriving at the site less than thirty minutes after he called. It was a cool morning, crisp and clear.

  Craig was waiting for me with a cup of coffee and a worried scowl. “I’m sorry to get you out of bed this early.”

  “That’s okay.” Try as I might, I couldn’t bring myself to be irritated or even too worried about what was going on. My day with Marissa and Annie was still in the forefront of my mind and contrary to what I might have believed I would feel about spending the day with a six year old, I’d had a lot of fun.

  Annie was a great kid and seeing Marissa with her was even better. I hadn’t expected to like it as much as I had. Marissa was in her element when she was with her daughter and the time with the two of them together had me in a better mood than I’d been in for ages.

  Craig cocked his head, studying me. “What’s got you in such a good mood? I was expecting to be reamed for waking you up and dragging you down here on a Sunday morning.”

  “Nah.” I waved my hand, taking a sip of my bitter coffee. “What’s going on? Why are we meeting here?”

  He puffed up his cheeks and shook his head. “We’re meeting here because we have a problem. This site’s going to come to a standstill if we can’t get the client to cough up more money.”

  I frowned, narrowing my eyes. “Money for what? Aren’t we on budget?”

  “We are.” He sighed, lifting a hand to scratch the back of his head. “Well, we were. The contractors are threatening to quit if we don’t increase their wages.”

  “Why?” Things like this were known to happen on job sites, but they hadn’t happened very often on mine. Craig was very picky about who he worked with and we had iron clad agreements in place to prevent shake downs halfway through the project.

  “Apparently the workers aren’t satisfied with what they’re getting paid,” Craig huffed, clearly frustrated. His face was red with anger and his hazel eyes were blazing from it. “They agreed to the prices they’re charging us, but now they’re claiming the contracts were signed last year and didn’t make provisions for an increase over the New Year.”

  “That’s ridiculous.” If this had happened a week ago, I would have been inclined to tell the contractors to walk and just found new ones, despite the disruption. I didn’t appreciate being shaken down on my projects and I made a point of not getting strong armed into price hikes.

  Today however, I couldn’t bring myself to the point where I could get worked up about it. “As ridiculous as it is, I think we’re going to have to agree to the increase.”

  “Are you serious?” Craig lifted his brows incredulously, thrusting his coffee cup at me. “You’re going to let them get away with this?”

  I shrugged, running a hand through my hair. “They’re not getting away with anything. It’s more important for us to keep up with the timeline on this project than it is to waste time with negotiations or finding a new team. It shouldn’t be a problem for us to raise their pay. Marissa built a buffer into the budget for unforeseen expenses. We should be able to pay it from t
here.”

  He stilled, looking at me questioningly. “Marissa again, huh? Is she to thank for your good mood this morning?”

  Nodding, I felt my lips curl up at the corners. I couldn’t help the grin. I’d had a really good day with her and Annie yesterday, and I was still coming off the high. “We spent the day together yesterday.”

  “What about the kid?” He asked the question sincerely, scratching his beard as his gaze stayed locked on mine.

  I understood his puzzled expression. I wasn’t ordinarily the most kid-friendly guy on the planet. “She was with us.”

  His eyes widened so much I could see where his lashes ended in the corners. “You spent the day with a woman and her child?”

  “I did.” Then, just to see his reaction, I added, “And I enjoyed it. A lot.”

  He frowned before flashing me a ‘you got me’ smile and busting out laughing. “You said that with such a straight face I actually believed you for a minute there.”

  “I said it with such a straight face because it’s true.”

  His laughter ended abruptly and his brows pushed together. “You’re not fucking with me? You actually spent the day with Marissa and her kid and enjoyed it?”

  “Yeah, they’re both great. I took them fishing. I even taught Annie how to bait a hook and everything.” I said proudly, and I was damn proud of it. Having Annie look at me like I was a superhero because I knew how to fish had been strangely satisfying. Knowing that I had taught her something she was likely to remember, and maybe even brag about being able to do so gave me a sense of achievement.

  Craig’s jaw dropped as he watched these thoughts play out. “You took them fishing and actually spent time talking to the kid?”

  “Are you going to repeat everything I say today?” I teased, smirking.

  He nodded. “If you keep saying shit I have to repeat to know I understood it correctly, then yes. I didn’t even know you fished, and it never occurred to me that you would even know how to talk to children, much less actually do it.”

  He mimed an explosion next to his head. “Consider my mind blown.”

  “Prepare to have it blown some more, because I enjoyed it so much I took them for ice cream after. Annie wanted ice cream when we drove past the shop and I saw my chance to spend more time with them, so I stopped.”

  His brows lifted and he stood there with his mouth gaping open. “Who are you and what have you done to my friend?”

  “That might be a good question for Marissa,” I shrugged. “But I don’t know, I never thought I would like spending time with her kid, but I wanted to try it.”

  “And she let you?” Craig asked disbelievingly. “I find it hard to believe that you convinced her to even let you meet the kid. My mom was so crazy protective of me, she would have made you jump through hoop after hoop before letting you meet me.”

  “Who said I didn’t jump through hoops? It sure feels like I did. She took some convincing, that’s for sure,” I said, remembering how opposed she had been to the idea at first. In the end, I was pretty sure only Annie agreeing that she wanted to meet me changed Marissa’s mind about saying no.

  “How was she with you?” he asked curiously. “Sometimes the kids can be as protective as the parents. I was super protective of my mom. I think I glowered through the skull of every man who had the audacity to come to our house.”

  Laughing, I imagined a young Craig scowling at his mom’s boyfriends. I’d seen pictures of him when he was young. With his mop of shaggy brown hair, he’d always been muscular and tall. Burly even. He preferred Herculean to burly, but I would settle for powerfully built. I was man enough to admit my best friend was built much like the buildings he’d made his living building.

  “I think Annie likes me, actually,” I told him, quite sure Annie had given me a much easier time than Craig might have as a child. “She was sweet. She loved fishing, so I think I won a couple of points there.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Suck up. I never thought I would see the day you were looking to score points with a six year old girl.”

  “Neither did I, actually,” I chuckled. “When you put it like that, I can see why you don’t believe me. I’m not sucking up though, I just wanted to do something fun with them.”

  “Uh huh,” he winked, laughing. “Sure, you were only thinking of them.”

  “Of course,” I shrugged, then gave up on the joke. “Seriously, I wanted her to like me. Things are good with Marissa, but the only way it can continue is if I get along with her daughter.”

  “You could get along with her like a house on fire,” he said. “But I’m still not sure things between you will carry on.”

  “Why not?” Annie liked me, Marissa let me meet her. There was no reason for it to end now, not until either of us decided things weren’t good anymore. I wasn’t likely to make that decision any time soon and I doubted Marissa would either.

  He released a heavy breath, sympathy suddenly darkening his eyes. “I don’t mean to sound like a naysayer. It’s great that you found a woman you actually want to have some kind of relationship with, but with her being a mom—”

  “What are you saying?” I frowned. Craig had been supportive of my relationship with Marissa thus far. What had changed?”

  “I’m not trying to say anything bad about her, I swear,” he said, shaking his head. “I just think you should be careful.”

  “Careful of what?” I prompted when he trailed off again, staring at a spot on the ground a couple of yards away.

  When he slid his eyes back to mine, I saw a sadness in the hazel depths I hadn’t realized was there.

  “My mom never really let another man in after my dad. You still don’t know what happened with Annie’s father. You should just be careful of getting in too deep before you have the whole story. I’d hate to see you get hurt.”

  I hadn’t considered Annie’s father again after Marissa told me he wouldn’t be a problem. I figured she would talk to me about it when she was ready, and for now, I was going to stick by my decision. “I’ll be careful, I promise. But things between me and Marissa are better than they’ve ever been. She’s someone I think has to be in my life now.”

  I surprised myself by saying that, as much as my words had clearly surprised Craig. But though they were unexpected, they were true. Whatever was headed our way, Marissa and I were in a good place and I couldn’t imagine not having her in my life right now.

  Chapter 39

  Marissa

  Sunday was a girls shopping day for Annie, Denise and I. My little girl was fast becoming not so little anymore and was growing like a weed. In the past few weeks, she’d gotten so much taller that she had outgrown some of her clothes and most of what was left wasn’t going to last her much longer either.

  Denise wanted to pick up something new for herself as well, so she decided to join us. The mall was quieter than usual since it was a Sunday morning. Most people who were there had gone for brunch and just hung around the food court. The shop assistants smiled lazily and had none of their usual bustling energy as they flitted between customers.

  Annie held my hand as we made our way to her favorite shop, a department store for kids, with toys everywhere and even a huge doll house. Chatting to Denise while we walked, she looked up at her with wide eyes. “Guess what! We went fishing yesterday with Mommy’s boss.”

  Denise smiled, shooting me a wink over the top of Annie’s head. “Yeah? What did you think about him?”

  “He’s so cool,” Annie gushed. “He showed me everything in his tackle box and let me help him with the bait.”

  “Really?” Denise asked. “Did you enjoy it? I used to love fishing.”

  “I love fishing, too.” Annie told her. “Especially when you catch one. It’s so exciting.”

  “That’s true.” Denise agreed. “How many did you catch?”

  Annie told Denise all about fishing and Denise, to her credit, listened with rapt attention. We walked into the store, talking as we s
elected a couple of items for Annie to try on. Denise asked many questions about Layton, and Annie seemed more than happy to answer them. She couldn’t stop talking about him.

  When we took our first trip to the changing room, Annie went into the stall, while Denise and I each took a seat right outside the door. I offered to help Annie change, but she told me in no uncertain terms that she wanted to do it herself.

  “So,” Denise said, once Annie was out of earshot. “How did the meeting really go? I wanted to call you last night, but I didn’t know what time you were getting home and I didn’t want to interrupt.”

  “I think it went really well for an introduction,” I told her honestly. I’ve been thinking about it since we got home, and I don’t know how the day could’ve gone any better.

  Denise laughed lightly. “I’d say. I think she’s in love with him. You might have some competition.”

  “First of all,” I giggled. “I’m not in love with him, and secondly, I could never compete with Annie. She’s the best.”

  “That she is,” Denise agreed. “But how was she with Layton? And how was he with her? I’m dying to know. It sounds like she had a good time, but what about him. Do you think he enjoyed the day?”

  “What do you think?” Annie interrupted us, bursting out of the stall wearing a pair of jeans and a blue sweater she had picked out. She gave a slow turn and stretched her arms up over her head before kicking her legs out to the side. “I like both of these. They’re comfortable.”

  Denise and I inspected the outfit, taking note of the sizes she’d tried first because they fit really well. They were big enough that we weren’t going to have to come back in a week or two but not so big that she didn’t fit into them yet.

  “I think both of those can go in the yes pile,” I said finally. Denise nodded her agreement and Annie clapped her hands excitedly before going back into the changing room to try on the next outfit.

  Turning back to the Denise, I answered her question about Layton and our day with him, hopefully wrapping it up before Annie came out. “It looked like he enjoyed himself. I think he may be as besotted with her as she is with him. You should have seen the two of them together, it was so damn cute. He explained everything to her so patiently, he was amazing with her.”