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“My ex has made me very wary about men. I’ve only dated a few times since my divorce.”
“I can understand that. But you know Zack.”
“Considering he and Travis have been friends for most of my life, I should. Honestly, though, I don’t know that much about him. But I hope we’re going to get to know each other a lot better.”
“Good. I hope you do too. Harlan and I worry about you. It’s about time you went out and had some fun. Which reminds me, promise me the next time you go out with Zack you’ll let us keep the kids.”
“You don’t need to do that,” Laurel protested.
“We want to. You know we love having them. Promise you’ll ask me.”
“He might not ask me again.”
“I doubt that. Promise.”
Laurel laughed. “Okay, I’ll ask.”
“Mommy, Cody took the swing I wanted,” Katrina said, running up to her.
“Were you sitting in it?”
“No but I was gonna.”
“Let’s go see if he’ll share.” She stood and Katrina immediately grabbed her hand. “I’ll be back,” she told Savannah.
After leaving the park, Laurel stopped by the grocery store and picked up ice cream, promising Cody and Katrina if they ate their dinner they could have ice cream afterward.
Her phone rang shortly after she put the kids down. Zack’s name showed on her caller ID. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he said. “Are you busy?”
“No, I just put the kids to bed. What’s up? Did you need something?”
“Yes. Would you go to dinner with me next weekend? Saturday night?”
“I would love to. Dressy or casual?”
“I thought we’d go to Blue, the restaurant at the winery.”
“Definitely dressy,” she said. “I haven’t been but I’ve heard it’s really good.”
They talked for a long time, until Laurel looked at the clock. “Do you know we’ve been talking for two hours?”
“No, I didn’t realize it was so late. I should let you go. Tomorrow’s a work day.”
“Okay. I enjoyed talking to you,” she said, and then felt like a dork.
But Zack only said, “Me too.”
She hung up with a sigh. He seemed too good to be for real.
*
For the nextseveral days, Zack talked to Laurel every night after she put her kids to bed. After the first night they didn’t talk for long, since she had work in the evenings now, but they talked long enough to get to know each other better. Their plans were on to go to dinner the following weekend, assuming her babysitter didn’t crap out on her again.
“What’s the deal with you and Travis?” Levi asked Zack one day that week.
They’d met at Zack’s office at the airport to talk about how many people they would need to hire once the terminal was complete. Travis wasn’t there since he had a flying lesson. The construction had been going pretty smoothly. However, Levi was being a royal pain avoiding Dana DeLong, the architect, as much as possible. He disappeared every time the three partners and Dana were scheduled to meet.
