His First Choice

“Is Wednesday okay?”

“Yes. Kacey and I don’t have any plans.”

“Do you think we could talk her into watching Levi?”

“I don’t think we’ll have to twist her arm.” If her sister had still been up, she’d be sitting there eavesdropping and nodding her head emphatically.

He suggested a couple of places they could go. She told him to surprise her, because she truly didn’t care where they went. And if she knew, she’d start looking forward to it, picturing the evening in detail, building it into more than it could be.

But she couldn’t let him hang up. Not yet.

Because he might be canceling that date before he’d ever made a reservation.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

GLAD THAT HE’D changed his mind and taken a beer back outside rather than going to bed on a Tressa low, Jem stretched out in his seat, bantering back and forth with the woman on the other end of the line.

He’d forgotten what a natural high that could be. He’d been into Tressa. Really into her. But he couldn’t remember the sound of her voice ever wiping away everything bad in his world.

He’d been into other women, too. A few of them.

Nothing compared.

He’d asked Lacey Hamilton out on a date. And she’d actually said yes.

She said yes! He felt like his junior high self, ready to race his bike to the top of the mountain that stood just outside his hometown and scream at the top of his lungs.

Instead, he sat there sipping beer, unable to wipe the goofy grin off his face.

“Jem?”

“Yeah?” Had she changed her mind about going to bed with him after dinner? Okay, it might be a little premature, but...he was ready. More than ready.

If she was...

“On another note, I still haven’t told you the reason for my call.”

Thinking back, he figured she was right about that. He’d hijacked the conversation to talk about dating.

She said yes!

Maybe she’d changed her mind about the tile or paint color in the room he was building for her—a common phone call in his line of work.

“It’s about Levi.”

His feet came back down to the ground with a flop as he reminded himself that she was off the case. She couldn’t take his boy away from him.

And then he realized that she wouldn’t take his boy away from him. He’d just talked about how well he’d gotten to know her.

It seemed he really had. If he were abusing Levi, she’d take him in a heartbeat. And he’d expect her to. Otherwise, they were on the exact same side.

“What’s up?” His tone was even when he finally spoke. Coming from a place of confidence, knowing Lacey was his partner on this one. Not his adversary.

“Has he ever talked to you about learning to swim?”

“Yeah, of course. He loves the water,” he answered and then tried to remember specifically what Levi had told him. “There’s a pool at Tressa’s place and she was adamant about making sure he knew how to swim so there wouldn’t be any danger of accidental drowning. I told you how she overdramatizes everything. But she handled it. She taught him to swim all by herself.”

He’d been proud of her. She’d taken control of herself, been positively productive and done something good for their son without Jem’s help.