We played games while we waited for our pizza. Once it was delivered to our table, we sat down and dug in.
“How are you feeling after today?” I asked Jace.
“Good. I want to go back. Ronnie said I could go back anytime I wanted.”
“Did he?”
“Yep.”
“Now you can stand up for yourself and you don’t have to have a girl defend you,” Nash said.
I nearly choked. I kicked his shin under the table. “Stop,” I hissed.
“I can fight for myself,” Jace said proudly.
“I’ll remind you both that the girl defended you,” I said.
“But he doesn’t need some girl to stick up for him,” Nash said again. “Jace can handle himself.”
“I’m sure he can, but I’ll remind you, Nash, that it is only because some girl stepped in to help you out.”
He smiled. “True.” He turned to Jace who was sitting next to him. “When a girl steps in to help you, it means she likes you.”
I couldn’t refute the claim without throwing Caitlyn under the bus. “It means the girl has compassion.”
“And she likes you,” Nash teased with that silly, sexy smile I loved and hated at the same time.
“Caitlyn is my friend,” Jace said. “I know she likes me.”
“Exactly,” I agreed. “Good job.”
“Do the kids that pick on you pick on anyone else?” Nash asked.
Jace shrugged. “Sometimes.”
I didn’t want to ruin our evening by talking about the rotten kids. “Are you ready to win more tickets?” I asked in an attempt to change the subject.
Nash gave him a stack of coins for the machines. “Win lots of tickets,” he said.
“You can’t tease him about the girl thing,” I scolded.
“I’m not teasing him,” he said.
“That’s teasing.”
“Fine. Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. I don’t think I did, but I think it’s important he knows this moment doesn’t define him. Don’t you think it’s better if he can keep it light? What good does it do to have the kid feeling bad about it?”
It was crazy that he knew my kid better than I did at times. Technically, it wasn’t that crazy. “You’re right, but don’t tease him.”
“I won’t. I would never. I forget he’s a kid sometimes. He’s very mature for his age.”
I smiled. “Yes, he is.”
“Thanks for inviting me to dinner,” he said. “This was fun.”
“Come on,” I said with a laugh. “You could be out with some hot woman going to some even hotter club right now. I know this isn’t the way you normally spend your Saturday nights.”
He leaned forward. “I’m already with a hot woman and I haven’t been to a club in a long time. I don’t know if you got the memo, but a thirty-eight-year-old man hanging out at a dance club isn’t all that cool. Some of those women could be my daughter. I come off as the creepy old guy trying to hook up with a college girl. It isn’t cool.”
I laughed at the idea of him ever being called creepy. “You aren’t creepy.”
“They think I am.”
“I doubt that.”
“What about you?” he asked.
“What about me?”
“Do you go out?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes. “You see what I do on a Saturday night. I haven’t been to a club in forever. I think I went once after Jace was born, but not since.”
“You don’t ever get a babysitter and go out?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t get to spend a lot of time with Jace as it is. I don’t want to take away any more time by going out and getting drunk.”
“Have you ever dated anyone after he was born?” he asked.
I wasn’t sure why he was asking. If we were anywhere else, it would almost feel like a first date. “No.”
“Really?”
I shrugged. “It’s hard to think of myself as a woman on the market. I can’t say I feel sexy a lot of the time. For the first three years, I got so little sleep, I couldn’t think about dating. I had to choose between sex and sleep. I chose sleep.”
His eyes darkened. “You haven’t been with a man since your son was born?”
I leaned forward. “Since I got pregnant,” I whispered.
His gaze dropped to my mouth. “That’s a long time.”
“It was.”
“Was I your first?” he asked in a husky voice.
“There was one guy,” I lied. I didn’t know why I needed to lie, but I did.
“Just one,” he breathed.
“Two now.”
There was a heavy moment. If we were at the office, we would have been naked already. We weren’t there. We were surrounded by screaming kids. Jace rushed over and dropped a stack of tickets on the table. “Wow!” I exclaimed. “You did good.”
“Can we go buy something?” he said.
“I’ll take him,” Nash offered.
“Thanks. Be careful. It gets pretty vicious up there.”
Nash grabbed Jace’s hand. I watched as they made their way through the crowd. It was the most adorable thing I had ever seen. I couldn’t stop watching them. When they came back, Jace had himself a bouncy ball and a crappy plastic toy.
“Nash says we can go get ice cream,” Jace announced.
I looked up at Nash. “He did?”
“It’s a Saturday night. Let’s live a little.”
“That works for me,” I said. I was happy to extend our fun evening.
“I was thinking we could pick up something and then go back to your place,” he said.
That gave me butterflies in my stomach. “There’s a place near our house. We’ll be able to make it back before it melts.”
We went through the drive thru of the ice-cream shop and took our ice cream back to my place. We sat around eating and sharing each other’s ice cream.
“Jace, you need to brush your teeth and get your jammies on,” I said.
“I don’t want to go to bed,” he pouted.
“You don’t have to go to bed right now, but you need to get ready for bed,” I told him.
Nash was still sitting at the kitchen table. “I suppose I should go,” he said.
“You don’t have to,” I said. “Not yet.”
I sat down at the table with him. “He had a good time today,” I said. “Much better than I thought he could.”
“Are you saying you didn’t think I was fun?”
I smiled. “I knew you were fun, but I didn’t think a kid would appreciate your humor.”
“You think I’m fun?” he teased.
“I think I’ve had some fun with you.”
“I’ve had fun with you.”
“Thanks,” I murmured.
“What’s with this girl that tried to protect him?” he asked.
“She is the daughter of my best friend. They’ve been friends since preschool. Joss, my friend, and I spend a lot of time together. It’s very convenient that our kids get along so well. I’m not sure it would be the same if they weren’t friends.”