“Who?” Hunter looked at his son over his laptop.
“Josie.” Eli gazed at the homework spread out on the table all around him. He tapped his pencil on the table, then added, “I guess I sorta get it. But Mom’s prettier.”
Hunter looked at his son. “Your mom is beautiful, Eli.” Amy had always been pretty—to look at. But her beauty was skin-deep. Underneath was something else entirely.
No point being negative. Chances are she’d be coming through town for the holidays. Sometimes it went well, sometimes it didn’t. But he wanted his son to have a relationship with his mom, no matter how he felt about his ex-wife.
“So are you going to date her?”
Hunter looked at his son again. “What?”
“Are you going to date Josie?” Eli’s bright eyes challenged his father unflinchingly.
“No.” No matter how much he wanted to. “She’ll be heading back after the holidays, anyway.” He kept his voice neutral.
“If she wasn’t leaving, would you?” Eli’s gaze continued to burn into his.
Hunter studied his son for a long time. “Yes,” he answered truthfully. “But I don’t know if she’d want to date me, kid. It’s not that easy, you know?”
“Why?” His son’s eyes narrowed a little.
He hedged. “It’s just not. Women are...complicated.”
Eli sighed and looked back at his homework. “I know.”
Hunter stared at the top of his son’s head. “What does that mean?”
“Woman are complicated.” Eli was bright red when he looked at his father. “I asked Dara if she’d have lunch with us...at the county show.”
Hunter bit back his smile. “Did she say no?”
Eli shook his head, then shrugged. “She didn’t say anything.”
“You should ask her again. You might have surprised her. What did you say?”
“I don’t know.” He paused, thinking. “Something like, ‘Have lunch with me at the next show.’”
Hunter nodded, fighting the urge to laugh.
“She just stood there, staring at me.” Eli looked at his paper.
“Did you ask her or tell her?”
Eli tapped his pencil again. “I think I asked her.”
“Ask her again.”
Eli frowned at his paper, the pencil tapping faster. “It’s no big deal. I gotta get this done.”
“Need help?”
Eli shook his head.
Hunter sat, trying to stare at his computer. His son had his first crush and he didn’t know what to tell him. He thought Dara was a nice enough girl, but they were both so young. And shy. Eli had probably scared the shit out of her, at the very least surprised her. But Hunter knew better than to push. If Eli was done talking about it, then they were done talking about it. Eli had homework and so did he.
He had a good group of fourth-ye
ar vet students, partly because he was so hard on them. The semester might be winding down, but clinical rotations weren’t. Not like the patients disappeared because it was winter break. If his students didn’t like it, they could take a look at the long waiting list of eager candidates waiting for any open spot to remind them of how lucky they were to be there, working through the holidays.