by K. C. Crowne
“No worries. We want to get this right.” I turned to the cupboard to get a good look at the food inside. It was all premium stuff – organic kids’ food with ingredients that sounded damn good. “How about this —” I grabbed a couple of small containers from the rightmost stack, “Oats with banana, blueberry, and dates.”
“Sounds perfect for breakfast.”
They required a little milk and a little microwaving, so Grace and I worked together to prepare them. I popped them in the microwave, and Grace removed a couple small dishes from the cupboard. After a few minutes of work, we had two bowls of kids’ oatmeal ready to go.
“Here,” she said, sticking her finger in the food. “A little warm.”
“Got it.” I grabbed the nearby bottle of milk and splashed it on each dish.
Grace stuck her finger in the food one more time, nodding. “Great.”
The food good to go, each of us picked up a bowl and set it in front of each of the girls, along with some spoons. Rose and Lily happily went to work, totally focused chomping on their meals.
I stepped over to the stacks of food and looked them over one more time.
“Damn, look at this stuff. They’ve got kale and quinoa bowls, coconut curry…there’s even freaking ratatouille! I might swipe a couple of these for lunch at the office.”
Grace laughed, shaking her head as she slipped her phone out of her pocket to answer an incoming call.
“Mind keeping an eye on th em? It’s my roommate-slash-coworker and I’m not sure why she’s calling this early.”
“Of course.”
She smiled before answering and stepping away. As she spoke to her friend, I popped a pod in the Keurig and prepared to throw down a cup of coffee faster than I ever had in my life. I wasn’t trying to listen in on her conversation, but since Grace had only stepped into the adjacent living room, I couldn’t help but overhear.
“OK, so they’re doing a nine class today for me? I mean that’s good but…no, don’t tell them to cancel, I can handle it.”
I smirked as I heard her speak, my eyes on the girls as I added a splash of half-and-half to my coffee. One thing I’d always loved about Grace was how she never backed down from a challenge.
“Wait, what?” There was major surprise to her voice. “No, no way! I don’t have time for a blind date.”
A what now?
“Will, I know you’re just trying to help, but I’m kind of busy for the next two weeks. I don’t care how cute he is, he’s going to have to wait. Besides, who even goes on blind dates anymore?”
Grace’s friend was planning a blind date for her? That was certainly a development I hadn’t expected.
I mean, she was a grown, single adult and there was nothing strange about it. Dates were what adults did. Really, the shocker was how a gorgeous woman like her was still single. Or, at the very least, not fighting off guys with a particularly large stick.
It was a shock. But the date itself wasn’t the thing I was most shocked by – the real kick in the arse was the fact that I was so damn jealous.
Chapter 15
GRACE
I had to admit, it was pretty damn cute the way Hayden’s jaw clenched at the mention of the date. The way he was pretending not to listen but was so clearly listening was almost enough to distract me from the conversation with Willow.
“Come on – you have to tell me you’re at least a teensy-tiny bit interested.”
“I don’t know. I mean, like I said, who does blind dates anymore?”
“Everyone does blind dates. We just call them ‘on-line’ dating now. What do you think an app like Tinder or Hinge is other than a blind dating service?”
She had a point. But it still felt kind of weird.
“At least on the apps you get a picture. And some stupid blurb where they try to be funny.”
“Well, I can most definitely provide a picture.”
She trailed off, and as she did, I sidled in front of the girls, helping them spoon their fancy oatmeal into their little mouths. While I did, Hayden tried to look busy by checking his phone as he cleaned up the kitchen, preparing both of us a couple of coffees. But there was no doubt he was listening in.
The zwoop sound of an incoming text sounded from my phone, and I eagerly checked the message to see the pic.
“See?” she asked. “Handsome, right?”
Willow was right about that. The picture was of a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties, dressed in an LL Bean flannel and dark jeans, a pair of boots on his feet. He stood in front of a massive valley, the view behind him sweeping. He was tall, and while he was a tad on the scrawny side, his smile and eyes were warm, his face loaded with wholesome handsomeness, a mussy shag of oak-brown hair on his head.
“His name’s Chris. And you’ll never guess how he even got this conversation to happen.”
“How?” I asked, spooning a bit of oatmeal into Lily’s mouth, Rose giggling over in her chair as Hayden played with her.
“He just got a membership at the gym and passed by your class and was blown away by how gorgeous you were – his words, not mine. He has a yoga class with me and must’ve seen us chatting because he asked me after one of our sessions if he could have your number. Being the careful friend I am, I told him that I’d chat with you first before handing over your contact info.”
“Smart.”
“Hey, I look out for my ladies. Anyway, here’s your bio – he’s new in town, just moved here from LA to take a position at the Denver offices of this tech firm he works as an executive for. And his vibe is amazing, funny, charming, and just the right amount of cute. He’s outdoorsy, funny and, here’s the part you won’t get from Tinder, I can confirm that he’s nice and tall.”
I laughed, my face feeling hot from the idea that he was so blown away by me.
“I don’t care if he’s tall or not,” I said. “I’m more interested if he’s, you know, nice.”
“Sure, sure. But it doesn’t hurt, right? Anyway, you want to think about it? He told me that Friday night would be perfect, and he’d do all the planning. His words,” she cleared her throat, changing the pitch of her voice to speak in a very deep tone, “‘she gives me the go ahead, I’ll send her a text with the time and place. All she has to do is show up.’ So, what do you say?”
My eyes flicked up to Hayden, who was still getting things organized in the kitchen, doing his best to pretend he wasn’t listening.
“Let me think about it. I mean, there’s still the issue of me taking care of the girls. Not like I can go out on a date while I’m looking over them.”
“Just ask Hayden to cover for you.”
“Um...”
“What, would that be too awkward?” Willow chuckled. “It’s fine. I’m sure he’ll be accommodating. And he doesn’t strike me as the jealous type.”
“It’s not that he’d be je —” I stopped myself, my eyes going wide as I realized what I’d almost said.
Willow laughed. “Think about it. Maybe take the drive to work to toss it around and we can talk about it when you get here – no commitment on-the-spot, right?”
I sighed, then nodded. “Sure. OK, I need to let you go and focus on the girls before I accidentally poke Lily in the eye with a spoonful of small batch, artisanal, locally-sourced oatmeal.”
Willow laughed. “Perfect. Give the cuties a kiss for me, OK?”
“Will do.”
I hung up and set my phone down.
“Sorry about that,” I said. “Work stuff.”
“And other stuff,” he said with a wry smile. “Sorry – couldn’t help but overhear.”
“Oh, you heard that?” I asked, playing dumb. “Sorry, Willow…you guys met, right?”
“Tall, pretty, nice with kind of a space-cadet thing going on…”
“That’s the one. Anyway, she wants to set me up on this blind date for Friday and…” I shook my head, as if speaking the words aloud made me realize what a bad idea it was. “Never mind. Not to ment
ion it’s totally selfish of me to even think about that kind of thing while I’ve got the girls to worry about.”
“You should do it.” There was total confidence in his voice, not a trace of hesitation or doubt.
“W…what?”
I took a quick glance at the girls to make sure they were staying focused on their meals, then stepped around the counter to pick up the mug of coffee he’d prepared for me.
“You should do it. I like to take hikes on Saturday morning. I was thinking about checking out this amazing property around here. So, I was going to ask you to look after the girls for a few hours anyway. If you want to take the night off, that’s more than fine with me.”
He’d laid out the plan with such perfect clarity and nonchalance that I found myself wondering if there might be some sort of catch.
“Are you serious?”
“Sure. No problem with me to spend the night with the girls. Right, ladies?” He turned to the girls with a big smile on his face, Lily and Rose smiling and cheering right back at him.
“See? They’re down with the idea.”
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, feeling a little strange and nervous about it all.
“Let me think about it. I’m still not even sure if dating is on my radar right now.”
“Well, if it tips the scales one way or another, I’m in favor of it. Go out – have some fun. Get the most expensive thing on the menu and have him pay for it.”
He followed this up with a wink, and before the conversation could go on the front door opened in the distance.
“I’m here!” Nancy’s sing-song voice carried through the house. Quick footsteps sounded, growing louder and louder, culminating in her bursting into the kitchen, bags hanging from her arms.
“Good morning, one and all,” she said, zipping from place to place in the kitchen, as if checking things out. She was a blur of activity, and all Hayden and I could do was stay out of the way. Her last stop was the girls, giving them little cheek pinches as she looked them over. “Ladies are seeming in top form – nice work.”
“Nothing to it,” Hayden said with a grin.
Nancy turned around, leaning against the kitchen bar across from the girls. Hayden hurried over and helped her with her bags.
“To be completely forthright, I had trepidations about leaving the ladies in the care of two non-professionals. I’m most pleased to see that my fears weren’t justified. They’re fed and changed and ready for the day. You two make a fine team, I must admit.”
Hayden and I shared a glance, as if neither of us knew quite what to say to this.
“Anyway,” Nancy continued. “If you both want to finish getting your own days started, I do believe I can take over from here.”
“Yeah, that’d be great,” Hayden agreed.
“Thanks, Nancy.”
I felt a touch overwhelmed and hurried out of the kitchen after giving the girls two quick pecks on their chubby cheeks. I changed in my room, grabbed my gear for work, and was soon on my way.
The day was bright and sunny, and I rolled down the window as I pulled out of Ryan and Carly’s property. As soon as I was en route, I found myself thinking about the blind date. To my surprise, the biggest aspect of it that my mind fixated on the most was Hayden’s reaction.
He’d been totally fine with it. Not just totally fine but encouraging. He’d wanted me to go. And that reaction made me realize that part of me had been holding out hope that he was interested in me.
Stupid. I sighed, shaking my head, and feeling dumb for even letting my mind, and my heart, go to that place.
There was no reason to think he was into me like that. And even if he were, why would I want him? Sure, he’d been my teenage crush, the guy I’d always held out hope would be the one to be my first. But in the cold light of day, that was nothing more than a silly, young girl’s fantasy.
I was a grown woman now, and it should’ve shamed me to the core that I was considering not spending an evening with a potentially awesome guy because of Hayden. Willow had set up the date, Hayden had told me it was a great idea, and yeah, Chris looked pretty freaking cute.
It was like the universe itself was rolling out the red carpet for the date. There was no reason to say no.
I nodded, filled with fresh determination at my decision. I’d drive to work, tell Willow that the date was on, then start getting myself mentally ready.
It was time to turn the page, to start a new chapter – one that a certain heart doctor wouldn’t be a part of.
Chapter 16
HAYDEN
For a man who could perform a quadruple bypass with his eyes closed, I was sure feeling like a clumsy idiot.
What the hell had I been thinking? Willow was serving Grace up on a silver platter to some random bloke, and I’d stood there like an idiot, cheering her on.
Why? I wanted her, and I wanted her like mad. Sure, it would’ve been a bit on the obvious side to ask her not to go on the date, but I could’ve at least hinted that it wouldn’t be a good idea. Hell, I could’ve easily solved the situation by telling her I didn’t feel comfortable handling the twins on my own.
But I didn’t do any of that. Now it was Friday night, and I had to spend the evening bumming around the house while Grace was out quite possibly getting swept off her feet.
I spent the drive from the office to Ryan and Carly’s place trying to come up with some way I could put the kibosh on the date. Thursday night had flown by in a whirl of activity, with Grace and I taking over for Nancy and being busy with the kids nonstop for the next few hours.
We’d fed them, bathed them, and by the time we’d put them to bed at half past seven Grace had been ready to turn in, as well. She’d made herself a little something in the kitchen, then gone up to her room to take a bath before going to bed. We’d exchanged a total of maybe a hundred words over the course of the evening, just about every one of them being about the kids. Once she’d gone to bed, I’d ordered some delivery Italian, having that with a glass of wine then hitting the sack myself.
The morning had been the same, with Grace heading out earlier than usual to get to class, and me running things solo before Nancy showed up and took over.
So, we hadn’t had time to talk about anything, let alone her date. And what could I have said, anyway? That I wanted her to cancel? Yeah, no doubt she’d go for that.
I was not looking forward to the evening ahead. The only bright spot was that I’d be spending time with the girls, and they’d be in bed after a couple hours.
I sighed as I pulled up to the house, Grace’s car parked behind Nancy’s white Honda crossover. As I stepped through the front doors I was greeted with total commotion, the girls making all sorts of noise.
“I’m here!” I shouted, checking my watch to make sure I was on time, which, I was, then slipped off my suit jacket and hung it up. I rolled my sleeves on the way to the living room and was greeted with the sight of the girls running around the room, both thumping into each other like it was a free-for-all at a bumper car rink. The tall stand next to one of the couches had been knocked over, and the coffee cup that had been on top spilled onto the floor. Nancy and Grace were doing all they could to keep up.
“There’s the Kiwi!” Nancy exclaimed as she chased down Lily. She had to raise her voice to speak over the girls. “Mind giving us a hand?”
“That’s what I’m here for,” I said. “Just tell me what to do.”
“Can you get Rose?” Grace asked. “We need to get them into their highchairs for dinner, but I need to clean up this coffee before it soaks into the rug.”
“Got it,” I said, not wasting a moment before rushing over to help.
Nancy picked up Lily, and I handled Rose. The girls were full of squirmy energy as we carried them over to the highchairs. As soon as we had them strapped in, the twins went bananas, both understanding that highchair time meant food time. Once the girls were set, I glanced over my shoulder to see Grace on all fours,
her perfect, round ass pointed right at me as she wiped up the floor.
And just like that, I was back to thinking about what I wanted to do with her, how much I’d rather spend the evening in bed with her instead of eating pizza and watching HBO Max, hoping she wasn’t between the sheets with handsome old Chris.
“Sorry about the disaster you walked in on,” Nancy said as she scooped out a pair of the fancy organic meals onto a couple of plates. “The girls had been down for their afternoon naps, but a delivery driver showed up and ignored the explicit directions to simply leave the package. Instead, he rang the doorbell, and all hell broke loose.”
She placed the plates in front of girls, handing me one of the spoons. “So, they’re wild with energy right now. The good news is that it means they’ll be all kinds of tired come early evening. I’d recommend putting them down at six thirty or so, which means you’ll have the remainder of the night to yourself.”
“Ok, great.” I tried to make myself sound chipper about it, but the truth of the matter was that I’d been looking forward to hanging out with the girls. I loved them like crazy, and on top of that they’d be a welcome distraction from the other matter.
“Alright,” Grace announced as she entered the kitchen, grabbing a washcloth from the counter and wiping her hands. “The disaster has been cleaned; the hand-woven Tibetan rug untainted by my coffee.”
“Perfect,” Nancy said. “I was just telling Hayden how the girls will likely be down early tonight, so you two should have an easy night of it.”
“Oh, awesome,” Grace said, a smile spreading across her face as she spoke. “I actually was going out for the evening, so that’ll be perfect with Hayden being here by himself.”
“Out for the evening?” Nancy asked.
“Right.” I did my best to not let my true thoughts on the matter show. “She’s going out with a friend, and I’m going for a hike in the morning. So, we’re swapping solo duties.”
“Well, as long as you’re both comfortable handing the girls on your own. Remember I’ll be available if you need long-distance help.”