"Wiley knocked me over," Brandon said.
"It's true," Reid put in. "I saw it happen."
"I believe you. Just get cleaned up."
"Okay."
As Brandon left the room, Reid moved toward the kitchen sink to wash his hands. She gave Wiley a treat, happy when he settled down on his blanket in the family room. Apparently, he was tired out—at least for a few minutes.
She grabbed the sandwiches off the counter and took them to the table, then sat down. Reid joined her a moment later.
"Everything looks good," he said with a smile. "Especially those cookies."
"We have a rule in this house—dessert after the meal."
"Got it. You're tough," he said with a grin.
She couldn't help but smile back at him. "Not that tough, trust me. If I were, I probably wouldn't have made cookies at all and just stuck to healthy snacks."
"What's wrong with a little flour, butter, sugar, and chocolate chips?"
"Pretty much everything you just said, but warm chocolate chip cookies are my downfall."
"Really?" he asked, giving her a speculative look. "So those are your Achilles' heel?"
"So to speak. But don't get too worked up. I won't do just anything for a cookie."
He laughed. "Good to know."
"You don't have to wait for Brandon if you're hungry."
"I'm in no hurry. It's nice to talk to you."
As his gaze settled on her face, she felt the need to turn the conversation away from herself. "So, have you always lived in Half Moon Bay?"
"I've been here since I was six. Before that, we were in San Francisco. I actually went to elementary school at Crestmoor."
"Really? I'll have to look for you in the old pictures in the attendance office."
He laughed. "Please, don't."
"Why not? I bet you were a cute kid. Is your family still here?"
His smile dimmed a bit. "My mother and sister are. My dad took off a long time ago, so I know a little something about fathers disappointing their sons."
She wondered if that was partly behind his offer to rebuild the doghouse. "How old were you when he left?"
"I was six when he took off the first time. That's when my mother brought me here to Half Moon Bay. Her sister lived here, and she let us stay with her for a while. A couple of years later, when I was ten, my father came back. He got a job as a teaching pro at the golf course and he stuck it out for two years before deciding to take off again—right after he got my mother pregnant with my sister. Since then he's only shown up every few years."
"I'm sorry."
He shrugged. "It is what it is."
"So he's a golf pro?"
"Sometimes. In reality, he's probably more of a con man. He's the kind of guy who is funny and charming and everyone likes him, but no one really knows where he makes his money. He does teach golf, and he has worked at a lot of clubs around the country. He's also done some real-estate investing with some of the country club people he plays golf with. Only a small amount of that money ever seems to come back to my mom and my sister, however."
"What does your mother do?"
"She's an assistant manager at a florist right now. She's recently gotten into a lot of holistic hobbies—meditation, yoga, painting, who knows what else? She changes jobs as often as my dad does." He paused. "I know it was hard on her to get over him, but I just wish she and my sister would stop waiting for him to come back, for some miracle to happen, but they just can't seem to stop imagining some moment where he'll show back up and tell them he loves them and wants to make them happy. My mother gave him a million chances to be a husband and a father. He just isn't cut out for it."
"I guess you always want the person in your heart to be the actual person in real life, but unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way."
"That's true." He paused, tilting his head as he gave her a curious look. "Do you want your ex-husband back?"
She took a breath at the blunt question. "You get right to the heart of things, don’t you?"
"Just want to know where your head is at."
"No. I don't want him back."
"Not even for your son? That's why my mother took my father back. She said it was for me. She wanted him in my life. But that wasn't the real reason. She wanted him with her. Like you just said, she wanted him to be the guy of her dreams."
"My situation is different. Kevin and I met in college. I got pregnant my senior year, and we did the right thing by getting married. But neither of us were ready for marriage or a child. When Brandon was a year old, Kevin said he was done. He couldn't do it anymore."
"I can't believe he left you with a baby."
"It shocked me, too. But in reality, even when he was with me, he wasn't with me. I honestly don't even know why I ever thought I loved him." She paused, realizing how deep their conversation had gotten. "Anyway, he's not in my life, and while I would like for him to show up for Brandon, that doesn't happen very often. What hurts the most is watching Kevin disappoint Brandon."
"I get it. I was always bothered more by my sister's tears than my own feelings. She's had a hard time accepting that her father doesn't really care about seeing her."
"You said you were twelve when she was born, so she must be a lot younger."
"She's turning eighteen in a little over a week, and she'll be graduating from high school in a few months. I can't quite believe it. Tara is amazing, a really great kid—young woman," he amended. "She keeps telling me to stop calling her a kid, but that's how I see her."
She could see the fondness and brotherly pride in his eyes. "She must be thinking about college."
"She is. She got accepted to San Diego State; she's heading down there in the fall. I can't quite believe it."
"That's a great school. When we were in San Diego, I met a lot of alumni from the university; they all loved it."
As she finished speaking, Brandon came back into the room and sat next to Reid.
"I'm starving," he said.
"Then let's eat." She passed the plate of sandwiches to Reid, then put some fruit on Brandon's plate, telling him the cookies would come after he finished his lunch.
Over the meal, Brandon kept up a steady stream of conversation, bouncing around from subject to subject. Reid somehow managed to keep up with it all, asking questions and laughing at Brandon's juvenile jokes.
"You shouldn't encourage him," she told Reid after Brandon told a particularly silly story.
"It was funny," Reid said without apology. "Trust me, I've heard worse at the firehouse."
"I want to be a firefighter when I grow up," Brandon announced.
She looked at her son in surprise. "When did you decide that?"
"When Reid got you out of Wiley's doghouse. It was cool. I want to put out fires, too. Reid said I could come to the firehouse one day."
"If it's okay with you," Reid put in. "And, of course, you're welcome, too."
"When can we go, Mom?"
"Uh, I don't know. We'll figure it out."
"I'm on duty Monday. You can come by after school," Reid suggested.
"Can we go, Mom? Can we?" Brandon asked.
"That sounds like a possibility." She didn't really want to commit to more time with Reid, but Brandon's desire was hard to resist.
"Can I ride on the fire engine?" Brandon asked Reid.
"You can sit on it. But we won't be taking it out."
"Oh, okay. Can I turn on the siren?"
"How about the lights?"
"I guess. Do you have a pole to slide down?"
"No," Reid said with a laugh. "But we have a lot of other cool stuff. I'll show you when you come." He paused. "What are you guys doing this afternoon?"
"We're going down to the beach to collect seashells," Brandon said.
She frowned, having totally forgotten she'd promised to do that.
"Great idea. It's a nice day for that. The clouds have cleared since this morning. It's a lot warmer now than when I
was out surfing."
"You surf?" she asked in surprise, immediately picturing Reid bare-chested, in sexy swim trunks.
"As often as I can. I grew up on the water."
"It's fairly rough around here, isn't it?"
"Not that bad unless there's a storm coming. Did you ever surf in San Diego?"
She laughed at that question. "No, I never even considered it. I'm a good swimmer, but the ocean scares me. It's so powerful."
"And there are sharks," Brandon put in. "Have you seen a shark, Reid?"
"I have not. Fortunately, they don’t come around too often. Surfing is fun. It's challenging, exhilarating—"
"Terrifying," she put in.
"No risk, no reward."
"That's a much easier attitude to have when you're a single guy and not a mom with a kid," she couldn't help pointing out.
"Can you come with us to the beach?" Brandon asked Reid.
Reid glanced over at her. "I could come along, if that's all right with you."
She hesitated, then decided she needed to answer that question without Brandon listening. She turned to her son. "If you're done eating, why don't you run upstairs, and grab a sweatshirt and your bucket and pail, and whatever else you want to take to the beach, okay?"
"Okay. I hope you can come," Brandon said to Reid, and then ran out of the room.
Reid turned his penetrating gaze on her. "I feel a no coming in my direction."
"I don't want you to get the wrong idea, Reid."
"And what would that be?"
"That I'm interested in going out with you. I'm not." She felt like a liar at the end of that statement, but it had to be said.
"Well, that's direct."
She swallowed hard. "It's not that you're not attractive—"
"Or that you don't feel the chemistry," he finished, a knowing gleam in his eyes. "But you're afraid. You don't like to take risks."
"Not when my son is the person who could get hurt. We don't even know each other, so this shouldn't be a big deal."
"It's just a walk on the beach, Jessica. Do you really think we're going to fall for each other over seashells?"
His teasing question made her feel like an idiot. "When you put it like that—no. But why waste your time on someone who just told you she's not interested?"
He leaned forward. "Because you are—and so am I."
A little shiver ran down her spine at his words. The air between them sizzled with anticipation. If she leaned forward, she could kiss him.
No! What was she thinking? She couldn't kiss him. She'd just told him she wasn't interested in him.
Her thoughts had barely finished forming in her brain when Reid leaned over and touched his mouth against hers. The heat was searing, but the kiss was over way too fast.
"Just thought we should get that out of the way," he said lightly.
She stared back at him in bemusement. "I can't believe you just did that."
"And I can't believe you told me you weren't interested."
Before she could reply, Brandon came into the room, with his bucket and pail in his hands. "Are we going now? Is Reid coming?" he asked. Wiley jumped up and barked, adding his plea into the mix.
Three males—all waiting for her to say yes…
It was just an afternoon at the beach as Reid had said. What could possibly go wrong?
Five
After a brisk walk on the beach, Jessica sat down on the sand while Brandon and Reid took turns throwing a tennis ball to Wiley, who happily moved between the sand and the sea.
The wind gusted, and she drew her thick sweater more tightly around her body. While it was bright and sunny, there was a brisk breeze and a fog bank drifting closer to the shore with each passing minute. The Northern California beaches were definitely more rugged than the ones she'd left behind in San Diego. The ocean current was stronger, the beaches rockier, and the landscape a bit more wild.
Because it was mid-February, there weren't too many people on the beach, a few body surfers, an older couple walking hand-in-hand along the shoreline, two women and several kids having a late afternoon picnic, and a group of teens attempting to launch kites into the air.
She wished she'd thought about getting a kite. It was a good day for it. But as she heard Brandon's laugh ring out, she smiled, thinking that right now, a tennis ball, a sandy, wet dog, and a man giving her son plenty of attention was all any of them needed. For the first time since she'd moved Brandon away from his home and his friends in San Diego, she felt like things might be okay. They could be happy here. They would make more friends and they would have more days like this.
She wasn't quite sure that Reid was having as much fun as she and Brandon were, although he seemed to be. He was a carefree, easygoing kind of guy. She didn't think he worried about too much. He seemed easily able to adapt to whatever situation he was in and to embrace it for what it was. She liked that about him. She also liked that he could relate to Brandon's situation. Maybe that's why he was being so nice. Reid's father had left when he was young, and he knew what that felt like.
But as she saw Brandon give Reid a look of hero adoration, she also knew that her son was falling fast and furiously for Reid, and that could be a problem.
She hadn't expected to deal with this kind of situation so soon. She certainly hadn't been looking for a man, but here was a really good one—handsome, sexy, funny, happy…
Her hand crept to her mouth, her lips tingling at the memory of their quick, hot kiss in the kitchen—something else she hadn't expected. Reid certainly didn't waste time. He went after what he wanted, and she was both flattered and terrified that he seemed to want her.
But that couldn't happen.
Actually, it probably wouldn't happen.
Reid might enjoy playing with Brandon, but she doubted he really wanted to date someone who was divorced and had a child. He probably just hadn't thought it through that far. But she didn't have the luxury of living minute to minute; she always had to consider the future, not just her future but also Brandon's.
Still, as Reid had said, it was just an afternoon at the beach; she couldn't let herself get too far ahead.
A few minutes later, Reid came over and sat down next to her. "Your kid and your dog have a lot of energy," he said with a laugh, his cheeks red from the wind, his blue eyes sparkling.
Her gut clenched with a sharp, stunning jolt of desire that stole her breath for a second.
Reid must have seen something in her face, because his gaze darkened. "Jess?" he said softly. "What are you thinking?"
"Nothing," she lied.
"Sure about that?"
He held her gaze for a moment, then she forced herself to look away.
Brandon was picking up seashells, a good thirty feet away from the water, and Wiley was digging in the sand next to him, so they were happily occupied. She wouldn't have minded if they were a little closer; then she could have used them as a buffer for a conversation she didn't want to have.
"Jessica?" Reid repeated.
She turned back to him. "Thanks for playing with Brandon."
He frowned. "You have to stop thanking me for hanging out with you. It's not a chore. Although…" He paused, tilting his head. "If you want to show your gratitude, I can think of something better than words. In fact, I believe our all-too-brief kiss was what you were thinking about a second ago."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do."
She saw the teasing light in his eyes. "You like to shake things up, stir the pot, don't you?"
"Only when the pot is as pretty as you are."
"That's a terrible line."
"It sounded better in my head," he admitted. "You're too serious, Jessica. You need to loosen up."
"I'm loose. I mean," she amended quickly, "I'm not that serious. I can have fun. I'm here, aren't I?"
"You are—at least physically. But I feel like you're carrying a lot of weight on your shoulders."
"I'm a single mom. I have a lot of responsibilities and a lot of worries."
"Like what? What's at the top of your worry list?"
She shook her head. "You don't want to hear about all my problems."
"How about one?"
"Brandon is always at the top of the list. I've been worrying about him since before he was born. I was only twenty when I got pregnant, twenty-one when he was born. Sometimes, I feel like we're growing up together, and I'm not sure that's a great thing."
"He's a good kid, Jessica. He's funny, caring and respectful. From what I can see, you've done a lot right. And it sounds like you've done it on your own for a very long time."
She appreciated his words more than she could say. "He is a good kid. I just don't want to screw him up."
"I think screwing your kids up is part of being a parent," Reid said with a laugh. "They have to have something to blame you for."
She smiled. "You're right. Heaven knows, I blame my parents for a lot. And now I feel guilty for saying that, because I'm sure they did their best."
"My parents didn't come close to doing their best. It wasn't just my dad who went in and out of my life; my mom was good at disappearing, too. She gets on these kicks and throws herself into them with complete obsession, completely forgetting everyone else in her life. My sister's eighteenth birthday is a week from tomorrow, and it's a fairly important milestone, but my mom decided that instead of being here for that, she had to go on a yoga retreat to India with her new Yogi guru or whatever you want to call him."
"Wow, India, huh?"
He nodded. "She read that book several years ago, the one where the woman goes to different countries to find herself. She said she was inspired. Since then, my sister has spent a lot of time sleeping on my couch or staying with her friends while our mother is seeking enlightenment."
"Maybe it will make her a better person."
"That's an optimistic viewpoint."
"So what are you doing for your sister's birthday?"
"I told her I'd take her to dinner, but she didn't sound excited about it. I think her exact answer was…whatever."
"She probably wants to do something with her friends."
"I said they could come."
Forever Starts Tonight Page 4