Tempted by the Single Dad, page 12
“See?” Sam said. “I told you to own it. Look where it got us.”
“That wasn’t me. You’re sending out the tycoon vibe,” she whispered to him. “That’s why we got the good table.”
“Ha. Let me tell you how men think.” He pretended his fingers were a meter. “Tycoon vibe, gorgeous legs, tycoon vibe, gorgeous legs.” His finger meter went off the scale every time he said “gorgeous legs.”
He thought she had gorgeous legs! That meant he’d looked. She could feel her confidence growing by the second.
That’s what being with a man like him did. His confidence just rubbed off.
“Let’s start with some calamari.”
She looked at the price of it, and hid a gulp.
When the waiter came he ordered a grotesquely expensive imported beer, and steak and lobster, the most expensive thing on the menu.
Was he showing off?
She cast him a look, and saw that he had not given his order a second thought. He’d simply ordered what he wanted.
“What are you having?” he asked her.
Old habits died hard. She could feel herself looking through the appetizers trying to find something inexpensive. He was paying, he’d already made that clear, but she couldn’t make it feel as if she was taking advantage of him.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” he said as the waiter hovered. He took her menu from her and gave it back to the waiter. “Bring her the same.”
“That’s very controlling of you,” she said, glaring at him.
“Think of it as masterful,” he said with a wink.
“I can’t eat that much,” she protested. “And I think I’ve had enough butter for one evening.”
He grinned at her. “There’s no such thing as enough butter. And I’m hoping you can’t finish, because then I’ll get more.”
His grin was so open and so mischievous—unconsciously charming—and she remembered her original goal. It was to keep his mind off Cody.
And it seemed to be working! What an unexpected bonus to see him looking happy and at ease.
And just like that, the moment of self-consciousness, of feeling somehow like she wasn’t good enough for a place like this—or a guy like him—evaporated.
And they were just two people, doing what two people did. Getting to know each other.
What two people on their first date do, her mind insisted on telling her.
She took a sip of the beer that had arrived. “I had no idea beer could taste this good.”
“Stick with the tycoons,” he told her and lifted his glass to her. He came away with a deliberate foam moustache over his upper lip. It made her laugh.
She was not sure if anything had ever felt quite so wonderful as laughing with Sam Walker.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ALLIE BURIED HER upper lip in the foam, too, and made her own moustache. Then they were both laughing.
The food came.
“This is easily the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten,” she decided. She ate every bite, including all the butter.
“I saw crème brûlée on the menu. My favorite. I’m not sharing.”
So two servings of crème brûlée arrived and the top was fired to golden, crunchy perfection right at their table.
“Am I in an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?” she asked him, when the waiter had gone.
After dessert they sipped coffee, and she coaxed him to tell her about his business. He did, but then he turned pensive.
“I’m pretty driven. I like my work, a lot. Until Cody, it pretty much crowded out everything else.”
“Maybe you just didn’t find anything else you liked as much,” she said.
“There really has been no room for anything else. My marriage was the first casualty.”
“In what way?” She knew this hadn’t just “come up.” There was a warning in here. Enjoy everything he had to offer. Get attached to the stuff. But not him.
“I worked too much. She looked elsewhere.”
His wife had had an affair? On Sam Walker? Looking at him, realizing how much he had come to mean to her, Allie found it difficult to believe. Worse, he seemed to think it was all his fault.
“That sounds like two people contributing equally to the demise of your marriage,” she weighed in.
She actually felt she wanted to hit this woman she didn’t know. How could anyone be so stupid? To be married to this man and step out on him?
“No, I take full responsibility.”
He would, she thought, and yet he had made it pretty clear his wife had stepped out on him.
“She found someone new, and you are somehow responsible for that choice?” Allie pressed him.
“I got married, way too young, shortly after my parents died. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out I was trying to replace the sense of family I’d always had. But because I was so young, I felt I had to prove I could look after my wife. Not just look after her, but be the best at looking after her, the way my dad had been the best at looking after my mom. To me that meant being successful. Not just a little successful, a lot successful. Obsessed with successful, actually.
“Ironically, of course, since I thought I was doing everything for us, I pretty much neglected her. Long hours. Lots of traveling. She found someone who liked spending time with her. Who made her feel special. She stepped out. After we split up, she married him and got the life she always dreamed of, which, as it turned out, had nothing to do with having a great car or the best house on the block.”
Allie hated her. “Sam, I’m sorry.”
“I learned from it. Moved on.”
Allie knew he was telling her exactly what he had learned from it. He was telling her not to pin any hopes on him. That steak and lobster and crème brûlée was all he was offering.
He was warning her he had priorities that did not involve a family.
“Cody has changed everything now, though, hasn’t he?”
Something darkened in his eyes. It was not just Cody that had changed everything, but the awareness of loss lurking around the corner, waiting to pounce.
“I’ve had to pull back, because of Cody, but thankfully, I’ve been developing a team of really good people for years. They’ve stepped up. The business is thriving despite the challenges of the last few months.”
* * *
Sam realized it was getting late. He had lost track of the number of times the coffee cups had been filled.
Allie made him laugh. And talk about things he had not talked about before. He loved how she frowned at the menu, and felt uncomfortable, and then came into herself, and then felt uncomfortable again, and couldn’t even begin to hide how the prices on the menu made her feel.
He liked spoiling her.
And he liked being a grown-up, too. But he thought he’d be glad when Cody was back, acting as a buffer between them.
His phone rang. Its ring tone was a very distinctive boing, boing, boing.
“Normally, I’d ignore,” he said, “but it’s Kathy and Bill.” She nodded her understanding and he saw his own sudden concern mirrored in her eyes.
“Hello?”
“Uncle Sam?”
Again, he was not quite sure how he’d become Nicole’s uncle, but he realized he had no objection to it.
“Is everything all right?”
“Yes.”
“Then what are you doing up? It’s very late.”
“I have jet lag.”
“Are you whispering?”
“I took my mum’s phone and found your number in it. She told me I wasn’t to bother you.”
“It’s no bother.”
“We’re going to the San Diego Zoo tomorrow. Cody really wants to come. Mum said I wasn’t to ask you, though.”
“Why’s that?”
“She wouldn’t say, but I think she thinks you’re sad without Cody.”
Sam closed his eyes. Is that how people perceived him? Leaning heavily on a three-year-old to meet his emotional needs?
“I do miss him,” he said carefully, “but I’m not sad. Allie is taking care of me.”
He looked across the table at her. She looked like that was news to her.
“So could he come with us tomorrow?”
“How do you know he wants to go with you?” Did he really think a six-year-old was going to help him unlock the mystery of communicating with his three-year-old charge? If so, he was about to be disappointed.
“It’s the zoo.”
This was said as if he was an idiot.
“Okay. I agree. Cody would like the zoo.”
“Could you make it seem like it was your idea?”
“How am I going to do that?” he asked. “I didn’t even know you were going to the zoo.”
“You’ll think of something,” Nicole proclaimed confidentially. “I’m so happy. I love Cody so much.”
Those words, spoken by a child, made him feel choked up.
He hung up the phone. Allie could obviously piece together most of the conversation from hearing one side of it.
“It’s good for him to be around other kids,” Sam said when the look on Allie’s face suggested that, like Kathy, she wondered if he was sad without Cody.
“Well, it looks like I’m in charge of looking after you,” she said.
He needed to set her straight on that. He’d only said that because it seemed like a simple thing to say to assuage Nicole’s fears for his well-being. He didn’t need looking after because Cody had other plans. He had a million things he could do. Should do. He could drive into the office, for one.
Or drive, period. Drive down the road the way that car was meant to be driven when there was no three-year-old in his car seat. And no dog throwing up. It had been eight months since he’d had a drive like that.
So, he needed to set Allie straight.
That he didn’t need her or anyone else looking after him. He never had.
Instead, he found himself smiling at her.
“More grown-up things?” he said hopefully.
She smiled back at him so angelically it filled him with suspicion. “Yes, but on my terms.”
“What does that mean?”
“Free,” she informed him.
“What have you got in mind?”
“There’s free yoga on the beach every morning.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“You’ll love it,” Allie told him.
“Women in stretch pants doing incredible things with their bodies,” he said, conceding to her way too easily. “What’s not to love?”
* * *
In the morning, he called Kathy, and asked, ever so casually, what their plans were for the day.
She told him they were planning an overnight trip to the San Diego Zoo and he suggested Cody might like to go.
“Are you sure?”
“It’s the zoo,” he assured her.
“You could come with us. And bring Allie.”
Sometime during the night, he realized he had become quite attached to the idea of having some more time with Allie to himself.
“We’ve made some plans,” he said, still ever so casual. “But I’ll drop by with some stuff for Cody and make sure he’s up for it.”
“How about if we come your way? Popsy can’t come to the zoo. He’ll have to stay home. And we’ll need to get a car seat from you.”
The family arrived at the cottage in a flurry of activity, energy and superhero capes. Poor Popsy looked more than ready for a day without children, and crept off to Allie’s bedroom.
Cody leaped into Sam’s arms, took both cheeks in his pudgy hands, and regarded his uncle solemnly. Another one making sure he was all right.
“You want to go to the zoo, buddy?”
Cody nodded vigorously and squirmed down out of Sam’s arms. He and Bryan spread their arms and zoomed around the kitchen while Nicole yelled instructions at them.
Kathy placed her hands over her ears, gave him one long searching look, just like the one Cody had just given him. Her gaze drifted to Allie, and she gave a small nod, apparently satisfied Sam would be well looked after.
He fetched the car seat out of his vehicle and an overnight bag was organized for Cody. Then he and Allie were alone in the house. It seemed very quiet.
He was acutely aware of how great she looked in yoga pants. If somebody would have told him, a few days ago, that he would be looking forward to yoga on the beach, he would have scoffed.
In fact, if they had told him he would be looking forward to anything, he would have scoffed.
And yet, here he was, walking through the sand, carrying a yoga mat, with a beautiful woman at his side, feeling as if spring had come after a long, cold winter of darkness.
As it turned out, there was quite a lot not to love about yoga on the beach. Allie had failed to mention to him that the free, midmorning class was attended mostly by middle-aged and senior ladies who, whilst wearing yoga pants, were not exactly filling them out the way he had imagined.
Allie, who looked fantastic in the multicolored stretch pants and large T-shirt she was wearing, had placed herself where he couldn’t see her.
Unless he really stretched—which, come to think of it, was the whole idea of yoga.
The teacher, a tyrant who seemed as if she had recently been released from her duties as prison guard or as a drill instructor for the marines, didn’t approve of him stretching to try to catch a glimpse of Allie’s downward facing dog. Or maybe she just didn’t approve of him, specifically, or the entire male species, generally.
“She was mean,” he told Allie after the class. They were sitting on their yoga mats, in the sand, in a shady area. He had his back braced against a tree, and his legs straight out in front of him. He took a tentative sip of some kind of green slime drink that Allie, in the spirit of keeping things free, had packed with her.
Allie’s legs were still crossed in a serene lotus position. He felt like every muscle in his whole body was screaming.
“I’ve never thought she was mean,” Allie said.
“Mr. Walker, press the perimeters of pain,” he said, imitating her voice. “You’re mean, too. A workout like that calls for a milkshake at the very least, and what are we drinking? Sludge.”
“It’s called Green Goddess. It’s spinach and kale and celery. It’s good for you.”
“Nothing called Green Goddess is good for a man.”
“Okay, yours is called Green Guy, then. And it’s good for you.”
“Why do those words always go hand in hand with something that tastes terrible? Like broccoli. Is there broccoli in this?”
He was making her laugh. He loved making her laugh.
After they finished their sludge, they walked back to the cottage. Allie was taking her job of keeping him entertained during Cody’s absence very seriously. She dug old bikes from under the porch.
He eyed the one she offered to him suspiciously. “This seems rusty in all the wrong places.”
“Don’t be a chicken,” she said. “I’ll race you to the beginning of the bike path.”
“I’m not fully recovered from yoga yet. And I’m lacking proper nourishment. And—”
She was on her bike and gone like a bolt of lightning. He wasn’t just going to let her win!
He’d been right about the rust. The gears didn’t work properly and he had to drag one foot on the ground to aid the mostly seized handbrake.
All of which turned out to be good. She beat him in the race. And he got the view he’d been vying for through an entire yoga class.
“I won,” she crowed.
“I’m learning to be less competitive,” he said.
Partway through the day, racing down a hill behind her, hearing her laughter, and feeling the thrill in his stomach from the speed, and her, and not knowing if he could stop, Sam was aware of something.
Despite the possible danger of crashing, he felt carefree.
Happiness had slipped in on him.
She stopped her bike. They were at a rocky outcrop that overlooked the ocean.
“Look,” she breathed, “a whale.”
But he didn’t look at the whale. He looked at her face, radiating joy, and Sam Walker was filled with a sense of well-being.
“Race you home,” she called as she took off again.
“You haven’t got a hope,” he yelled after her, knowing he didn’t have the least bit of desire to wreck his view by getting in front of her. It was fun, though, to see her going as hard as she could, rising up on those pedals and casting anxious looks back at him.
Every time she did, he pretended he was working really hard to catch her.
Back at the cottage, she told him she had a wiener roast planned for dinner.
“Uh-uh,” he said. “It’s my turn. I’m planning dinner. And I’ll give you a hint. I’ve had about all I can handle of budget-friendly for one day.”
“But didn’t you have fun?” she asked, a bit anxiously.
“I did have fun. Now it’s my turn to show you some fun. And I just want to see you wear the nicest thing you own.”
Her mouth moved. She was going to protest. But in the end, he could see intrigue won out.
Somewhere along the way they had thrown caution to the wind. They were exploring each other’s worlds, trading places, and they were doing it with all the fascination and openness of exploring a foreign country.
A voice inside him tried to be heard.
It said, Slow down. Be careful. But it seemed the brakes on the bike weren’t the only ones not working today.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ALLIE STOOD IN front of her mirror. The nicest thing she owned was a dress she had tried on only once, and thought she would never wear again.
