Love on the Outskirts of Town

by Zoe York

  Matt slowed down as they passed the ponies. “You can see us from the ticket line,” he said quietly. “If you want me to wait with her?”

  It was a nice offer, but…

  Before she could say no, he picked up the pace again. “Or we can all get tickets together. Besides, we need to find out what else they have here, don’t we?”

  “Okay,” Emily said.

  Natasha rolled her eyes. “Well, now that we’re all in agreement…”

  Matt chuckled, warm and low.

  Once Emily was astride a pony, and they were both watching from the other side of the fence, he bumped his arm against hers, a gentle nudge with his elbow. “Thanks for the invitation, by the way.”

  She gave him a solid, suspicious side-eye.

  He grinned. “A guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do to get his mini fair fix.”

  “I’m glad we could help you with that.” She couldn’t help but smile. “So you’re just in town for a couple days?”

  “Yeah. There’s a regional training thing at the conference centre. I was strong-armed into attending by my boss, but I’m not complaining now.” The look he gave her, like the nudge with his elbow, was just right. Warm and interested, an obvious opening for her to take the next step, but not pushy.

  Natasha knew this routine. This was her routine, although she was rusty at it. She let her smile grow as she looked back and forth between Matt and Emily. On the third slow swivel of her head, his gaze darkened, turning hot and incandescent just for a moment.

  Oh, yeah, she knew this routine well.

  Her breath caught in her throat. She let her lips part on her next exhale, her eyelashes fluttering against her cheek as she dragged in a ragged breath. You affect me, her body language screamed. And it felt good to admit that, even if they couldn’t do anything about it.

  It had been too long since she’d flirted with someone. She used to do it at work all the time, but since having Emily, she’d morphed her bartender persona into a tougher, no-nonsense friend. She liked that role, too.

  But it was nice to be wanted as a woman.

  Really nice.

  “What’s next?” he murmured, and none of the answers that sprang to life fully formed were even remotely acceptable.

  She turned around, scanning the other activities. “The inflatable corn maze, probably. We’ll have to go through with her, though. Despite all evidence to the contrary today, she’s pretty shy.”

  “Emily Kingsley, age three? Defender of all things pink?”

  “Yeah, that was…something. She doesn’t usually like strangers.”

  “That's smart,” Matt said, and something in his voice dragged her attention back to his face. God, his eyes were dangerous. Hot and bright and way too clever. “But maybe I don't need to be a stranger.”

  “That’s—”

  Before Natasha could set the record straight, Emily was hurtling towards them again, her pony ride over. “Mommy! That was fun!”

  “Yay! Do you want to do the corn maze next?”

  Her answer was a gasp, then she bounced back and forth between them all the way to the maze, and through it—twice.

  Next they went to the ice cream truck. They carefully ate miniature ice cream cones at a picnic table and Natasha tried not to replay Matt’s words in her head. Maybe I don’t need to be a stranger.

  What was happening?

  “All done, Mommy.” Emily beamed at her. “Can I show Matt my new shoes?”

  “Sure,” Natasha murmured. Focus.

  Her daughter pivoted all her attention to their new friend. “I have new running shoes.”

  Matt grinned, a shallow dimple popping in his right cheek. “They look fast. Are they fast?”

  She took off, running in circles around the table.

  “Sugar high,” Natasha said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. She’s adorable. It’s a good age.” There was something in the way he said it that made her curious, and he met her inquisitive gaze with a boyish grin. “I’m a newish uncle. My nephew Calvin is almost one. And my younger brother is newly married, too, so I hope there will be a baby there soon enough.”

  “Sounds like a big family.”

  “Not as big as some around here, but yeah, we make a lot of noise at holiday dinners.”

  She laughed. “I just have one sister. We’re close—Emily and I live with her family—but it’s never mayhem, even with our three kids all sharing a space.”

  He gave her a look that made her heart jump. “So it’s just the two of you?”

  He’d essentially asked if she was single earlier, but she’d sidestepped the topic. Now he was curious again, and damn it, there was only so much curiosity a girl could take. And something about him weakened her usual resolve to keep all of this tightly private. “Yeah. Always has been. Her dad lives in Toronto.” And never wants anything to do with her, except today, maybe, but who knows because he hadn’t called back.

  “Mommy, can we go on the climbers?”

  Natasha flashed a quick glance at her watch. “Yep. We have another half hour before we need to go over to the school to pick up your cousins.”

  The next twenty minutes were spent circling the climbers, with Matt being called upon frequently by Emily to help her reach the highest rungs—and then be immediately rescued.

  He was endlessly patient, constantly amused, and managed to give Natasha a delicious chunk of his attention even as he entertained her tiny, demanding spawn.

  Her pulse thumped in her neck. Time was getting away from her. She needed to find a way to say goodbye.

  Or…not. Or something, the details of which she couldn’t bring herself to guess at. She hadn’t tried dating in years—hadn’t had the energy to play the games, and wasn’t comfortable introducing Emily to anyone yet.

  Ha. Joke was on her. Emily had done the introducing for them.

  When her daughter crawled under the play structure, Matt made his way back to Natasha’s side. The way he looked at her, his gaze hot and piercing, she was pretty sure his thoughts were in the same place.

  She wasn’t wrong.

  He leaned in. “Like I told you, I’m in town until Thursday night. If you two are free for dinner…”

  Crap. “I work every night.”

  He gave her a regretful smile. Right. So that would be the end of that.

  “Today was nice, though,” she heard herself saying. “Very nice. Thank you for entertaining both of us.”

  “Thanks for letting me tag along. Maybe we can stay in touch.” He pulled out his phone. “Can I have your number?”

  Can I get your hopes up? But they’d really had a good day together. She didn’t need to be cynical and shoot herself in the foot, even if this didn’t turn into anything. Maybe he’d go home and realize, wow, that was a dead-end way to never get laid. Or…maybe not. “Sure,” she finally said, and he laughed.

  “Hard decision to make?”

  “Well, you know, I guess I’ll take pity on you,” she said softly, not meaning it at all. Flirting still felt good, felt right with him. “Gotta throw hot guys a bone every so often or they’d never score another amazing playground date.”

  “You know it. We’re hard done by, for sure.” He grinned. “Is it Kingsley? Like Emily?”

  She nodded and spelled out her phone number for him.

  He tapped the screen, and her phone started ringing. She pulled it out and answered the call. “Hello?”

  He grinned at her. “Hey, Natasha, it’s me, Matt.”

  “Oh, right. Icing novice. I remember you.”

  “That’s right. Remember how much fun we had at the park?”

  Her heart skipped a beat. “Yeah. I do.”

  “I was thinking we should do that again sometime soon.” He held her gaze as he spoke into the phone. “I’d love to see more of you and Emily.”

  She didn’t respond. She couldn’t breathe. How was he this perfect? She forced herself to inhale, her breath hitching at the top. �
��Are you for real?”

  “Yep.”

  She laughed and nodded. “Yes, we’d love that.”

  She was still shaking her head as she ended their call and tapped on the number to add it to her phone book. First name, Matt. Surname…

  “I should put you in here as Mr. Too Good To Be True, but what’s your last name?”

  “Foster.”

  Her thumb froze over the keyboard. No. Not Foster. Anything but…

  She didn’t want to look up at him. Didn’t want to see that sharp jaw, those bright eyes, the dark brown hair that fell over his eyes just like his brother’s.

  The man she’d wanted to be the father of her baby.

  The man who hadn’t been, and who’d broken her heart a little.

  It had been almost four years since she’d seen Jake, but now she knew with sickening certainty that’s why Matt had seemed comfortable and familiar to her.

  Heat swarmed her face. She kept her head down and hit save without adding his last name.

  Matt.

  That’s how he’d live in her phone book. Just Matt. And if he called, she’d have to dodge him.

  She forced herself to smile as she closed her contacts app and stuffed her phone into her bag. “Okay, we need to go.” She lifted her voice. “Emily! Time to go pick up Noelle and Logan from school, baby.”

  Her daughter came racing across the playground and threw her arms around Matt’s legs. “Bye,” she said. “See you later.”

  They wouldn’t, though.

  Today had been yet another episode in the ongoing saga of Natasha’s terrible luck with men. They would never see Matt Foster again.

  Chapter Three

  Matt couldn’t wait to see Natasha and Emily again.

  Gone was his interest in hitting a bar tonight. Instead, he ordered room service for dinner and replayed the conversations from the afternoon in his head.

  He’d been off his game for too long. Or maybe he didn’t have the right game to date a single mother. He frowned at that thought because, damn it, he liked her.

  “So it’s just the two of you?”

  “Always has been. Her dad lives in Toronto.”

  What kind of man would abandon this woman? That child?

  He pulled out his phone, not for the first time, and clicked on her contact information. It was too soon to text her. He was here for three days. He’d reach out tomorrow and see if they wanted to grab lunch since she worked at night.

  Yes, he’d like to see her again. And Emily, too. He knew they came as a package deal, and the fact that didn’t scare him at all? Surprising didn’t touch it.

  Huh.

  Matt Foster and a gorgeous single mother.

  Stranger things had happened, of course. He’d hit a dry spell for the first time in his adult life, although right now he was wondering why he’d ever lost faith in the pursuit of women. Because Natasha was all woman, and he was very interested in pursuing every inch of her. It wouldn’t be his usual modus operandi, but maybe that had been the problem.

  Maybe he could try something a little more serious for once in his life. A friendship.

  And they could see where that might lead.

  Or not. That would be her call, and for the first time in ages, Matt had to face the reality that he might not measure up. Oh, they had chemistry, there was no doubt. But more than once this afternoon he’d seen wariness in her eyes.

  If she was reluctant to trust someone now, it might be that she’d had her trust broken before.

  He was out of his depth. He thought about his brothers, his circle of friends, and wondered who he could call, who might be able to advise on how to handle this. When you grew up in a small town, your siblings were your best friends. He was the second youngest of four boys. They’d grown up around the corner from the Minellis, four boys and a girl. Matt was the same age as Tom Minelli, and of the entire crew, Tom was his closest, oldest friend.

  But Tom was also the responsible one. The serious one.

  He definitely would know the right way to woo a single mother, but that advice would also come with a dose of hard reality about how Matt wasn’t the right kind of guy for a woman like that.

  He didn’t want to hear that nonsense.

  On the other hand, Tom’s oldest brother Zander, who was the same age as Matt’s oldest brother Dean, had married a single mother. A widow named Faith with a little boy. Eric.

  And Zander had been a confirmed bachelor before he met Faith.

  In the end, he chickened out and called Sean instead.

  His younger brother answered on the second ring and sounded tired. “Hello?”

  “Did I wake you from a nap?”

  “Nah. I was just stretching out on the couch a bit before dinner.”

  “Jenna home tonight?”

  “Yeah.” In a single syllable, his brother went from tired to happy. “She pushed me out of the kitchen because she’s just reheating some soup.”

  “Sounds good.” It sounded perfect. And for the first time all day, those thoughts he hated threatened to close in again.

  Matt had thought he knew what it was to be happy.

  He’d been wrong. And he’d spent the last six months painfully aware of the yawning deficit in his life, but hadn’t known where to start in rectifying the problem.

  “Do you want to come over for dinner?” Sean asked.

  “Nah, but thanks. I’m actually in Port Elgin for a couple of days.” He exhaled. “Last minute work thing. I’ll be back Thursday night.”

  “I’m going to the Search and Rescue training site Friday morning to put Tom through his paces if you feel like being punished.”

  He huffed a laugh. “I might need it after this week.”

  “That bad?”

  “That something. The course will be whatever it’ll be, but honestly, I—” I met someone. The words died on his tongue. “Yeah. Something. Anyway, I should go.”

  “All right, man. See you Friday.”

  “Good deal.”

  He stared at the phone after he ended the call. Wondered why he hadn’t told his brother about Natasha. About the warmth in his chest, a new and interesting feeling that made the generalized worry that plagued him seem less scary.

  But of all the Foster brothers, Matt was the last one anyone would think to have feelings of any kind—and especially not sensitive ones about a single mom. Sean might get it. Jake and Dean wouldn’t. Like Tom, they’d have reservations about the harm he might do.

  Would they be wrong?

  Fuck, he didn’t know. And he didn’t want to dig into that question, because what if they weren’t?

  Natasha took her time putting Emily to bed. It was a bittersweet cuddle for reasons she understood too well but didn’t want to name. She didn’t want to give them power in her head. This was enough. This was perfect.

  When she got up, she thought about going straight to bed herself, but she could hear her sister moving around in the kitchen. She went up to offer help and found Meredith putting the last of the dishes away.

  “Sorry,” she said, but her sister waved her off.

  “Dan’s fallen asleep reading Logan a story,” Mer said. “I thought maybe you’d done the same with Emily and I had the television all to myself tonight.”

  Natasha half-laughed, half-sighed. “I did think about an early night.”

  Her sister twisted around and gave her a searching look. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you want tea?” That was Meredith’s way of saying she didn’t believe nothing was wrong.

  “Sure.”

  “So much detail, don’t overwhelm me all at once.”

  Natasha shook her hands, wiggled her arms, and rolled her shoulders before taking a deep breath. She didn’t want to get all the way into it, but she’d learned her sister was a good listener, and always had her back. “I was thinking about regret. Not a healthy place to dwell, so now I want to shake that off.”

  “Fair e
nough. Do you want to talk about it?”

  No. Yes. Sort of. “We met someone today. At the cooking class series.”

  “A guy?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And he was a complete monster.”

  She laughed. “No. He was really nice.”

  Meredith didn’t say anything.

  Natasha sighed. “We had to share a table. Emily demanded pink icing and he made that happen for her.”

  “That is nice.”

  “Right? What kind of guy gets that when a three-year-old demands something, it’s not rude, it’s just…they’re little and they don’t know that the world is not their oyster just yet?”

  Her sister snorted.

  “But he didn’t blink. He just clicked with Emily, which was nice, and then…” She trailed off. And then. Her chest pulled tight.

  “You’re not ready to date yet.” Maybe if her sister had phrased it in the form of a question, she’d have corrected that misunderstanding.

  She was ready, in a guarded kind of way. She missed sex, although the thought of having sex and the very real consequences that can come from it also terrified her.

  Maybe she just missed third base. Second base was pretty good, too.

  Matt would round the bases like he had all the time in the world because he’d knocked it clear out of the park.

  Yeah. He would.

  With someone else.

  “Yeah,” Natasha said quietly. “I’m not prepared to handle all of that.”

  The truth, even if the real question was different. Was she ready to date? Maybe, yes. Was she ready to date a Foster? No, never.

  Meredith squeezed her arm. “You got burned, and more than once. But not all people are like David and Jake.”

  They rarely talked about Tasha’s most humiliating period in her life, when she chased after Matt’s older brother when he wasn’t interested and had made that clear.

  She didn’t want to start talking about it now, either, but maybe she needed to get it off her chest. Process it, four years later. “Yeah, I know that. David is a special kind of narcissist.” She told her sister about his text. “If it’s so urgent that we need to talk, why didn’t he call today? But I can’t let him manipulate me like that, I can’t care about it too much, because he doesn’t care at all. And Jake…” Natasha winced. “That was just a mistake all around. One I need to forgive myself for and move on, but that’s easier said than done when it’s the biggest mistake of my entire life.”