AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Always is, Grace. You don’t have to ask to put money on the credit card,” I explained for what had to be the hundredth time. My patience was waning. “Thank you.”
“Of course. Have a nice evening!”
I hung up the call and pressed my forehead to the glass of the window, needing a quick second to recalibrate and cool down. It was such a minor thing, and I knew that—knew it far too well. But it was times like this that I fucking hated being the only parent.
“Everything okay?” David asked through another mouthful of steak as I slipped back into my chair.
“Lucas’ practice ended early,” I explained. “They wanted me to pick him up.”
“Ah, got Grace to do it?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I just wish I could put her on the call list sometimes so I didn’t have to always be the one that deals with this shit,” I grumbled, turning my phone face down on the table and stabbing my lobster with my fork. “Sometimes I wish Jan had just fucking divorced me so that Lucas still had another parent that could handle things when I’m busy. It’s like every goddamn day they call me with something new, and it’s never actually to do with Lucas, but to do with teachers orpracticeor scheduling conflicts, and I just don’t have the capacity, you know?”
“So what you’re saying is your son needs a mother,” David offered, and I shot him a look.
“What I’m saying is that in an ideal world, I could marry someone that I didn’t need tolove, because fuck that. I’m not doing that shit again. And then I could add her to the call list, and she could handle half of the calls,” I explained, eyeing him warily as he swirled his whiskey in its glass.
“You know,” he started, and I could have sworn I could physically see the gears turning in his head, “my kid, Ava, you remember her?”
Absolutely not. No. Nope. Do not bring her into this, for the love of God, please.“Yeah, of course,” I said, keeping my voice as level as I could manage.
“She’s starting up a company. Elite Matchmaking, or something she called it. I think it’s got a catchier name than that,” he said.Oh, thank god, I could breathe again. “She just moved to town a couple of months ago, so it’s all in the beginning phases right now, but I’ll set you up for a meeting withher. Apparently, she’s like some fuckin’ guru when it comes to this shit, except, shockingly, for herself. Maybe she can find you someone.”
And my breath was lost again. A meeting with Ava was my worst fucking nightmare right now. “Dave, I don’t think?—”
“Hey,” he interrupted, pointing his steak knife directly at me. “Unless you want to marry that nanny of yours, it’s worth a shot. I mean, how many dates have you been on in the last year? Twenty? Thirty? And none of them have stuck.”
The idea of marrying Lucas’ nearly sixty-five-year-old nanny wasn’t exactly appealing to me, especially when the possibility of her needing retirement soon was on the cards. “I appreciate the offer, genuinely,” I lied, shoving a piece of lobster in my too-dry mouth and swallowing. “I just don’t know if Ava would be of much use when I don’t want arelationship. I just want convenience.”
His stare turned harder, and I knew that look. That was hisdo it or I’ll make your life a living helllook. For a split second, I felt bad for Ava having to deal with that look her entire life, but then remembered that I was the one on the receiving end this time—and I was the one going to have either come clean that I’d recognized her well before I’d slept with her, or play pretend that I had no idea.
I was fucked either way.
“You got any meetings tomorrow?” he asked.
“No,” I answered, and it was far too late that I realized hewasn’tchanging the topic of discussion. He was checking my fucking availability to meet with his daughter. “David, please.”
“This is good for you,” he insisted. “It’s worth a shot. And it would really help Ava out with gettin’ her business off the ground.”
I watched in horror as he took his phone out, lifting it to his ear as he chewed on his piece of steak.
“Ava, kiddo, great news,” he said, and I could actually feel my last bite of lobster rising in my esophagus. “Adrian’s gonna meet you tomorrow. How’s eleven work for ‘ya?”
For a split second, I wished I could hear what was being said on the other end of that phone call.
“No, no, he’s thrilled!” David insisted, winking at me. “I can book you two in for a reservation at that Japanese place across from SkyLine since your office isn’t ready yet.”
He scooped up a bit of his baked potato with his fork and shoved it into his mouth.
“Honestly, kiddo, it’ll be great. Don’t worry about it,” he continued, andfuck, I felt bad for her. She had to be panicking as much as I was. “Nah, eleven’s the only time that works.”
“David—”
He held up his fork to shush me. If it wasn’t for all the good times I’d shared with this man, I would have called our friendship off there and then. “Great! There you go, Aves, gotcha a client. Ain’t that hard.”
Chapter 7
Ava
