The Single Dad and his Soul Mate

by Rebecca James

  “Isabella is a sweet lady,” Maria said. “It was no problem. I didn’t want you to be alone during all this. You’re such a devoted grandson; it warms my heart.”

  I felt myself blushing. “Nonna’s been good to me. It’s late. Go on home. We’ll be fine now. One of the guys from my club will pick me up when I’m ready to leave.”

  “The motorcycle club you told me about?” Maria asked, slipping on her coat before I could get out of my seat to help her.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve always wanted to ride on a motorcycle.”

  Was she hinting she’d like me to take her for a ride? It was the least I could do. I opened my mouth to offer, but she was already waving to me and walking away. Bemused, I watched her, listening to her boots click on the shining linoleum floor until she got on the elevator.

  I turned and headed for the recovery room where they allowed me to see my grandmother for a few minutes.

  “We’ll be moving her to a room shortly,” a male nurse informed me. “I’ll come to the waiting room and get you when we’ve got her settled.”

  I thanked him and headed down to the lobby and outside where I could get enough reception to make a call. My phone had a ton of texts, and my eyes flicked over them. I opened those from Flynn first.

  I hope everything is okay with your grandmother. Call me if you need anything.

  And an hour later, Matteo? Is everything okay?

  I tapped out a message to Blaze’s inquiry, making him aware I’d be spending the night at the hospital but would need a ride the next day before calling Flynn. I expected to wake him up, but he didn’t sound as though he’d been sleeping.

  “Matteo?”

  “Yeah, hi. Sorry, I didn’t see your texts until just now. Reception’s crap here.”

  “Where are you?”

  “City General. They took Nonna’s appendix out.”

  “Is she all right?”

  “Yeah. She’s in recovery. They did it without having to open her up.”

  “Laparoscopy.”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s good.” Flynn sighed. “I was worried.”

  “That’s nice of you,” I said.

  “I’m not a total asshole.”

  “I know that. I hope you stayed at Dante’s a while and had fun.”

  “What? Oh, yeah. Actually, I’m still here. Coop fell asleep, and Isaac convinced me to stay in their guest room. All the dogs are in the bed with Coop. He’s going to be thrilled when he wakes up to that.”

  Suddenly, I wished I could be there with them.

  “Good. Glad you’re not driving home this late. I’m going to stay here tonight.”

  “I, uh, guess I won’t be seeing you tomorrow night after all.” He sounded odd, and it didn’t escape me we were right back where we used to be, with me putting him second. Or third or fourth.

  “Can we see how it goes? I don’t even know how long they’ll want to keep her.”

  Flynn cleared his throat, and for a moment I froze, sure he was going to tell me to just forget it. Instead, he said, “You okay there by yourself? Did you go by ambulance?”

  “Maria helped me get her ready and drove us here. She just left.”

  “That was really nice of her,” Flynn said, tone neutral.

  “Yeah. She was a big help.”

  A few more words, and we disconnected, and I couldn’t help but feel things had shifted and not in a good way.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Flynn

  Soon after Thanksgiving, I called the Methodist church on Lilac Street and spoke to a woman named April who assured me they had plenty of room for Cooper in their parents’ morning out program. She invited me to bring Cooper to visit, so I got him dressed and we drove there.

  “I think we need a dog, Daddy,” Cooper said on the way. “One like Butch or Angel.”

  I couldn’t help smiling. The two dogs were very different.

  “Maybe when we get a house. Our apartment doesn’t allow pets.”

  “When will we get a house?”

  “As soon as I can save up enough money.” I parked in front of the church and zipped up Coop’s jacket and pulled up the hood before getting him out of the car. Snow from the night before lay in a fine coating over the grass and coated tree branches and everything else that morning traffic hadn’t marred.

  “I wanna walk,” Coop said, so I let him down from my hip and held his hand. He was growing up, and the knowledge pierced me like a needle to the heart.

  Inside, the sound of children playing echoed off the walls of the long corridor. Doors were marked off by age groups, and when we got to the one marked three to five-year-olds, I opened the door.

  The large room contained around ten children and two adults. A woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties with a mane of thick red hair and a blue paint smock over her clothes approached me, smiling.

  “Mr. Bishop?”

  I nodded.

  “April Masterson.” We shook hands.

  “And this must be Cooper.” April got down to his level and admired his jacket and the toy motorcycle in his hand.

  “Mad drives a modercycle,” Coop told her, and I inwardly flinched. Coop was already attached to Matteo. I was a terrible father.

  “Does he?” April asked. “And who is Mad?”

  “My friend,” Coop said.

  “Well, I hope I can be your friend too. I’m Miss April, and this is Mr. Doug.” The man who appeared older than April and had been helping a young girl with her paints at the table smiled and approached us.

  “Doug Beachboard,” he said, shaking my hand.

  “Nice to meet you.”

  Like April had, Doug got down at Coop’s level and spoke to him a few minutes.

  “Cooper!” I lifted my eyes to see Tafari running toward us. “Are you here to play with me?” she asked excitedly.

  Coop looked up at me. “You can go play while I’m talking with Miss April and Mr. Doug,” I told him. Cooper grinned and took Tafari’s hand. She led him to an easel where she and another girl had paper pinned up dappled in colorful paint.

  “Since he already had a friend here, I thought we’d try it,” I told April and Doug. “But I’ve never left him anywhere before except with my friends.”

  “We have two openings. We’d love to have him,” April said. “If you’re interested, we could go look at the paperwork.”

  Was I interested? I looked over at Coop, who appeared to be having a great time.

  “He can play here while you step into the office with April,” Doug said, indicating a room with a glass window.

  “All right,” I said, and followed April into the room, glad when she left the door open. I could both see and hear Cooper from where I was sitting.

  “He’s in capable hands here, I promise,” April said with an understanding smile.

  “I’m sure he is. It’s just—I’m a single parent, and this is hard.”

  “I understand,” she said. “If you don’t want him to do three days a week, we have an opening in the Tuesday and Thursday morning group as well, nine to twelve. This one is Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, same time.”

  “I guess we’ll do the three, since he’s going to want to be with Tafari,” I said.

  “All right.” April took some papers out of her desk. “We don’t provide breakfast, but we do give the children a late morning snack. Does Cooper have any allergies?”

  “No,” I said. “Not that I’m aware of. But I guess he could be allergic to something and I don’t know it.”

  “We’re all trained to handle medical emergencies; don’t worry. And we wouldn’t serve the kids anything unusual.” Her blue eyes met mine. “Usually fruit if no one’s allergic. But you can pack him a snack if you’d rather.”

  “I may do that.”

  April began filling out the papers. I kept an eye on Cooper, noticing he didn’t even look around for me. Doug had put a smock on him and was letting him paint with the two gir
ls.

  “We’ll need proof of vaccinations. Is he up to date with those?”

  “Yes,” I said. I took out my wallet and handed her a paper.

  “Wow, you’re prepared. That’s great.”

  “I like to be,” I said, remembering how Matteo used to tease that if there was an alien invasion, I’d have a pack ready for that in the car.

  When we’d finished signing up Cooper, I wrote out a check for the first two months and headed back to get my son.

  “When do I get to come back?” he asked me as we left.

  “Monday morning. Did you have fun?”

  “Yeah. I like painting, and I like Tafari. And Coco.”

  “Was that the other little girl you were painting with?” I asked.

  “Yeah. She’s nice. And pretty. But I’m going to marry Tafari when I grow up.”

  I chuckled as I buckled him in his car seat, unable to imagine the day when Cooper would be old enough to marry anyone. Hadn’t it been yesterday he’d been in cloth diapers? Where did the time go?

  I took Cooper grocery shopping, and after we’d taken everything out of the reusable bags and put it away, I fed Cooper lunch, read him a story, and let him nap while I went over the books for the store. I called Joey to make sure everything was going okay and was glad to hear him say it had been busy all morning. So busy, he’d had a tough time of it alone. I was going to have to hurry and hire someone part time for our busy days.

  When Cooper woke up, we did a puzzle together and then packed his backpack for Gloria and Jessica’s.

  “Can I take my Ricky Zoom pajamas?” Cooper asked.

  “Sure.” I put his bamboo toothbrush into a reusable fabric wrap and tucked it in among his clothes for the next day. We walked downstairs together and into the shop, where Joey had just finished ringing up someone. Joey high-fived Coop.

  “Going somewhere?” he asked my son.

  Coop nodded. “Aunt Glo and Aunt Jess’s. I’m spending the night.”

  Joey raised a speculative eyebrow at me. “Sounds like a lot of fun.”

  I helped Joey close up and count out the register then drove the bag by the bank on the way to Gloria and Jessica’s.

  The moment we walked into the townhome, Cooper went running for his bedroom.

  “Oh, wow, new toys!” he shouted from down the hall.

  “You spoil him,” I told my friends.

  “It’s only a couple of things,” Jessica said, leading me into the spacious living room where Gloria waved at me from her cozy spot in the oversized chair.

  “We were just drinking some hot tea. How was your evening with Matteo last night?” She poured me a cup.

  “Kind of short. At least the part with Matteo, anyway.” I told them about his getting the call about his grandmother. “Which just proved to me everything’s the same. One call, and he’s running to her.”

  “Do you think you’re being fair?” Jessica asked. “I mean, she’s an old woman, and he’s her only living relative, right?”

  “Yes, and I’m sure I wouldn’t be half so resentful of her if he’d just tell her about me and what we are to each other. As it is, I’m this big secret. I can’t be the one who helps him take his grandmother to the hospital—this Maria person is.”

  “Maria?” Gloria asked.

  “Some woman from Isabella’s church she was trying to fix him up with. Not the first or the last, unless Matteo decides to marry her,” I said sourly. I rubbed my eyes. “Hell, I don’t even like myself right now.” I blinked back sudden tears. “I want him to let go of whatever pull his grandmother has on him and to put me first.” I looked at my friends’ sympathetic faces. “But that’s not going to happen. So I’m going to end things with Matteo tonight. That is, if he can make the time to come over. I’m still not sure about that.”

  “We’re really sorry,” Jessica said.

  I nodded. “Me too.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Matteo

  “Are you sure you’ll be all right?” I asked Nonna for the third time. “You didn’t eat much.” I looked at the hospital tray where the chicken, broccoli, and applesauce sat barely touched. Blaze had picked me up that morning and taken me to get my bike. Flynn’s friends had left a key to get into the garage tucked under a flower pot. From there, Blaze had dropped me home, and I’d showered and changed and headed back to the hospital. I’d been there all day. She appeared better than she had that morning, but I was worried.

  “I’m fine,” Nonna said. “You try eating this hospital food. Are you going out with Maria, by any chance?”

  “No.”

  Nonna frowned, appearing pale and unusually small in the hospital bed. “I just don’t understand why, Caro. She is so attractive, so caring. Look how she helped out last night when I felt sick. It’s like God brought her to us. Without her there, who knows what might have happened? And I worry about you. I won’t be around forever. You need someone.”

  I’d been obsessing all day over what might have happened if Maria hadn’t stayed late after I’d left. Nonna would never have done anything about the way she’d been feeling. The doctor had said any longer and her appendix would have burst. Guilt consumed me.

  “You’ll be around for a long time yet, Nonna,” I said.

  “You don’t know that. I don’t understand. Any young man—particularly an Italian man—would be drooling over that girl. Would have asked her to marry him by now. But you…”

  “What?” I waited, holding my breath, but Nonna simply shook her head, looking out the hospital window at the skyline.

  “Who is this date with tonight?” she asked.

  Flynn. “Lynn.”

  Nonna’s upper lip twitched in the beginnings of a sneer. “An American name. Probably spelled wrong too, with multiple l’s like llama. Blond, too, probably.”

  I leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Brunette, actually, with lovely light brown eyes. I have to go. I’ll be here tomorrow and have breakfast with you, all right?”

  She looked at me skeptically before relenting and smiling as she patted my hand. “Bring this Lynn to see me. I might be able to accept an American girl if she can give me a grandson.”

  I quickly left the room. Why had I done that? Given in to the fantasy of telling my grandmother about Flynn? Stupid. It was only going to fire her up. I was a little surprised she’d been willing to bend about an American woman though. I’d thought Nonna would be dead set on Italian Catholic.

  By the time I exited the hospital, I’d recovered my mood enough to whistle a tune as I made my way across the lot to where I’d parked my motorcycle. I’d texted Flynn an hour ago that I was coming, and he’d told me he’d be waiting. The sun was dipping low in the sky. The little bit of snow we’d gotten had melted, leaving only the occasional patch, but the air was still cold enough to nip at my nose and ears.

  I tugged on my leather gloves, mounted my bike, and slid down the visor on my helmet before pulling the clutch and starting the ignition. The vibration of the bike’s motor between my thighs hiked up my already thrumming libido, and suddenly all I could think about was seeing Flynn again, touching him, kissing him, having him under me. By the time I hit the highway, my cock was hard and uncomfortable, so with difficulty, I shifted my thoughts away from Flynn.

  That morning when Blaze had picked me up from the hospital, I’d asked him about his planned proposal to Lake.

  “I couldn’t exactly steal Axel’s thunder. I’ll have to save it until New Years.”

  “Or Valentine’s Day,” I’d suggested, glancing at him.

  “No, I’m not waiting that long,” Blaze had said with finality. “I’m doing it New Years and that’s final.” He’d tightened his hand on the wheel. “Adam’s been having more seizures lately. Still the same, just more often.”

  “Christ, that’s not good. Any idea why?”

  “Could be stress or anxiety, according to the internet.”

  “That why he wasn’t at Dante’s?”

&nb
sp; “Yeah. He insisted we all go without him and promised he wouldn’t leave the clubhouse. Tease went home early because he was worried about him.”

  We were all worried.

  “We’re getting him in to see his doctor Friday.”

  “Let me know how it goes.”

  Adam was street-smart and capable in a fight, his ability to go from zero to a thousand when really pushed was how he’d earned the nickname Skitz in the club—a moniker he no longer used since the attack. His doctor called the seizures that had started occurring well over a year after his injury “awareness seizures.” They were short and could go unnoticed if you weren’t paying attention. Adam would grow still and quiet and stare vacantly into space. Sometimes his eyes would flutter and his fingers twitch, but most of the time he would remain perfectly still. In no more than twenty seconds or so, he’d come back to himself, but he never knew when one was going to occur, and they made him self-conscious. Even worse, he was unable to ride his Harley. I’d heard him say to Tease recently when he’d thought no one could hear, “What’s the point of being in a biker club if you can’t ride?”

  Tease had laid into him, telling Adam we were his family and all the things I would have said if it had been me. I’d told Blaze about it, and we’d both agreed we’d do everything we could for Adam in the coming days.

  By the time I pulled to the side of Flynn’s building, the direction of my thoughts had completely softened my cock, but just thinking about Flynn waiting for me aroused me again. On a whim, I took the fire escape.

  “What in the world did you come up this way for?” Flynn asked when he’d opened the window to my tapping. He wore a lose pair of ripped jeans and a pale pink T-shirt and was barefoot. My cock approved.

  “’Cause I could,” I answered honestly.

  Flynn shook his head and stepped back so I could climb in.

  “Coop with your friends?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  That’s all I needed to hear. Snatching him by the wrist, I pulled him against me and kissed him the way I’d been longing to for days. Flynn clung to me, fingers gripping my biceps before sliding up to tangle in my hair, mouth moving in time with mine. God, it felt good having him in my arms again. I backed him up until he bumped against the wall, his moans driving me to kiss him harder, longer, deeper, until it felt like we were fused together.