Unsuitable

He shook his head. “No.” He took his cap off and scrubbed at his hair. “I spent all weekend fighting with Sky. We broke up. I moved out.”

“Oh, Reec

e, I’m sorry.”

“It was the right thing to do.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Hah. No.”

Mia ran around for her umpteenth turn on the slide. There was usually a queue of kids and she had to wait her turn. She loved this, but she was making Audrey dizzy. “I’m here if you do.”

“You’re my employer.”

That stung and it shouldn’t have. Because there shouldn’t have been any fantasies associated with Reece that suggested she was more, that suggested they were more. There shouldn’t be the desire to lean slightly sideways and rest against his arm, and pretend he might put it around her and hold her up.

“Do you ever think about having another kid?”

She’d wondered when he’d ask that. It was a basic job security question after all. “I figure I pushed my luck with one.”

“Why?”

“Assuming I could talk Mia’s surrogate dad into doing it again, or find another appropriate donor, I’d need to take maternity leave again, I’d miss out at work, again.”

“And work’s more important to you?”

There was the bitter tone again. “You’re mad with me.” It was astonishing, but he was.

He sighed. “Sorry. She’s a great kid. You’re a great mother. I’m being unfair.”

“I’m an absent mother and there’s no guarantee a second kid wouldn’t be a little shit. It’s enough that I do what I can to make sure Mia stays a great kid, and having a good job to fund that is part of it, and yes, I like to work.”

Mia waved from the top of the slide and Audrey waved back. “As mad as my job can make me at times, as much as I worry about missing out on time with her, I’d go insane without it. I know that’s not considered normal. It’s the reason my parents don’t want anything to do with us. That’s their call. And I’m okay with all of that.”

He bumped her with his shoulder. “I’m okay with it too.”

She smiled and bumped him back. “So why’d you poke the bear?”

“To prove I’m not such a nice guy.”

“What happens if I tell you that didn’t work?”

He grinned at his feet. “I’ll have to try harder.”

“Why would you want me to think you’re not a nice guy? Nice guy is part of your skill set.”

He got up and went to Mia.

“Reece?”

He jammed his cap on walking backwards. “It’s all right for some of us skiving off. I’m still on the clock.”

He helped Mia climb into the wooden fortress. He kept glancing back at her. Her brain was too slow to pick up his meaning and then. “Oh my God. You didn’t.” She stood up. “With Carrie.”

He turned and flipped her off and she laughed. It wasn’t an answer but she wasn’t going to get another one right now.

While Mia played, she checked her phone and returned a call to Les.