She looked startled at the apology, which made Nate think maybe he didn’t do enough of them.
“I should have texted Gram to let her know where I was. I do know the rules. I thought my friend would be with me.”
He wanted to talk to her about this boy she had invited over after school but decided to pick his battles for now.
“Jess has a flat tire on her bike. We’re going to run downtown to the bike shop and we’re talking about getting a pizza. Want to come? You can get a personal-size with your own toppings, if you want.”
Sophie had a long history of being picky when it came to her pizza toppings, which he had learned how to work around.
She appeared to consider the merits of staying home by herself with her video games or spending more time with Jess and the girls. They won.
“I guess,” she said, saving and shutting down the game.
Nate figured he would take a shrug and an unenthusiastic response as a win in this case.
* * *
In the end, they decided to wait for the tire to be repaired at the bike shop, which didn’t take long. They were done and ready to be on the road again in about twenty minutes.
All three of the guys working in the shop couldn’t seem to take their gazes off Jess, each vying for her attention. She didn’t seem to notice. Could she possibly be unaware of the attention she attracted?
“All done,” Mike, the very married store owner, said with a flirtatious smile at Jess. She either didn’t notice or had decided to ignore him.
“Thanks for doing it so quickly.”
“Anytime.”
She paid for the repair, which Nate would have liked to do, then she walked her sister’s bike back outside the store to his truck.
“What a beautiful evening.” She lifted her face to the sky and he fought the urge to kiss her again right there in the middle of downtown Cape Sanctuary.
“It really is.” He looked around. “What’s your pleasure? We can go to the pizza place or we could grab one to-go and eat it at the park.”
“Good idea. Anything that will help me wear out the girls so they’ll sleep well tonight gets a thumbs-up from me.”
The best pizza in town was at a restaurant right next to Driftwood Park in the downtown area. Jess took Sophie and the girls to the park while he went inside and ordered for them.
He knew the owner of the restaurant, who offered to deliver the pizzas to them at the park so Nate didn’t have to wait inside on such a lovely May evening.
They weren’t the only people doing the same thing. As he walked back to the picnic table Jess had claimed, he greeted several other families he knew from town who were gathered around their al fresco meals.
Sophie was pushing the girls on the swings and laughing at something they had said when he slid onto the bench of the picnic table near Jess.
“The pizzas will be ready in about fifteen minutes.”
“Perfect,” she said. “This was a great idea.”
Dinner with a lovely woman and some cute kids? He had to agree.
“They look like they’re having fun.”
“Sophie is great with them. She must do a lot of babysitting.”
“Some. She’s watched your nieces a few times to help out since their brother came along. She watched all three of them once a year or so ago but hasn’t tended him for some time.”
“Silas has some behavioral issues that make him somewhat, er, challenging for the average babysitter. I think Cody’s mom usually watches him when Rachel needs help.”
“How old is he now? Three?”
“Not quite. He’ll be three in September.”
“That can be a challenging age. Sophie used to hold her breath when she didn’t get her own way. That certainly made life interesting. She grew out of it, eventually. Now she just snaps at me instead and storms off.”
“She’s a teenager. It’s a tough time for every girl.”
He suspected there was more to Sophie’s anger at him than that but she had become very closemouthed and secretive lately and wouldn’t open up.
When he pressed her, she just snapped even more, claiming she didn’t know what he was talking about, that she wasn’t acting any differently.
“So this appointment Rachel and Cody took Silas to. Is everything okay? Does it have to do with his autism?”
Jess gave him a surprised look. “You know about that?”
“I heard Rachel talking to my mom about it once when we bumped into them at the farmer’s market.”
“I don’t know how public she’s been with his diagnosis so I didn’t want to say anything if you didn’t know. Yes. They have an appointment with an autism clinic associated with UC Davis. It starts early in the morning and is supposed to last several hours.”
“That’s rough.”
“The appointment or that Silas has autism?”
“Both, I guess.”
“He’s a sweet boy who just has some extra challenges to deal with right now. If anyone can handle it, it’s Rachel and Cody.”
“I completely agree. They’re good people. And they have each other, which has to be a plus.”
He saw a shadow briefly cross her expression but the delivery person from the restaurant found them before she could comment.
“I’ve got a medium cheese pizza, one with all veggies and a personal with only pepperoni and olives.”
“Yes. That’s right. Thanks, Aspen,” Nate said. He tipped the girl, who was a few years older than Sophie and whose older brother worked for him during the summers when he was home between semesters at college.
They dug in while families played around them and the streetlights of town began to come on as the sun started to fade over the water.
This probably wasn’t the best way to go about keeping his distance from Jess Clayton but right now he wouldn’t trade this evening for anything.
16
Jess
If the afternoon spent building sandcastles on the shore of Sunshine Cove was enjoyable, the evening at the park was sheer perfection.
Jess didn’t expect to enjoy it so much. Mainly, she had agreed because the girls were excited about the idea when Nate suggested it.
She enjoyed her own company and had no problem eating her meals alone. She had become so used to her solitary existence that she had almost forgotten how much she enjoyed fun conversation, delicious food and enjoyable companions.