The Single Dad and his Soul Mate

by Rebecca James

  “I’m kind of hung up on someone,” I said, the words past my lips before I’d even thought them out. Her expression changed instantly, and she stepped away.

  “Oh.” She shook her head. “I didn’t consider that. An ex?”

  I nodded.

  “She’s a lucky girl.” Turning to the table, Maria started filling a plate with food.

  “I wouldn’t say that,” I said, then rushed on. “I’m not an easy person to be with.”

  She cast me a soft look. “I enjoy your company.” She glanced over my body. “And you’re definitely easy on the eyes. I was ready to jump into bed with you, if you couldn’t tell.”

  My cock stirred. “Well.” I cleared my throat. “I’m just not ready to move on yet.”

  “Strange. Isabella told me a while ago that you never dated anyone more than a couple of times.”

  I turned away from her. “I don’t tell my grandmother everything about my love life. If I told her I was seeing someone, she’d immediately think it was serious and then be disappointed when it didn’t work out. She wants to see me married and a father, but that’s not what I want.”

  Unless it’s with Flynn.

  “Oh. All right. I guess I can understand that. I’m not really into that either at this point in my life. Maybe someday, but not right now. I just want to have fun, you know? A lot of men think a woman wouldn’t be interested in casual sex, but that isn’t always the case.”

  She couldn’t be more clear if she’d turned on a neon sign over her head.

  “Sure.” The room seemed to have gotten warmer by several degrees. It was close to seven o’clock. We had hours before midnight. If things were different, if I wasn’t so messed up, maybe I’d take advantage of what she was so obviously offering. But recent memories of the intimacy Flynn and I had shared made it impossible for me to entertain doing that.

  “I’m sorry, Maria. I really am.”

  She blinked, and for a moment I thought she would leave, and I was going to have to scramble to find someone else to help me out with Nonna until I could hire a nurse, but her face quickly cleared.

  “I understand. No problem. Can’t blame a girl for trying, right?”

  Relieved, I smiled. “Why don’t we watch a movie and enjoy this food?”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  I heard a door open down the hall and slow steps coming our way.

  “Can I get you something, Nonna?” I asked when she appeared.

  “I can help you get ready for bed if you’d like, Isabella,” Maria offered.

  “Bed? Heaven’s, no. This is New Year’s Eve, or didn’t anyone bother to tell you young people that?”

  Confused, Maria and I looked at each other.

  “Paola and Agata will be here in—”

  The doorbell rang, and Nonna headed that way.

  “You should use the walker we brought home from the hospital,” I told her.

  “I’ve used that thing long enough,” she said before opening the door.

  Paola was as short and round as Agata was tall and thin. They were both a decade younger than Nonna. Agata wore a colorful sweater beneath her coat. She’d wound her titian-dyed hair in a bun at the back of her head, and when she hugged me, I could smell the snow in it.

  Paola’s thick salt and pepper tresses were cut into a short bob that emphasized her round face.

  “Matteo! It’s wonderful to see you!” she said, hugging me after Agata let me go. “You are as handsome as ever. And, Maria! What a surprise!”

  For some reason I got the feeling it wasn’t a surprise. I glanced at Nonna, and when I saw she was heading to the coat closet with her friends’ heavy coats, I hurried to help her.

  “Didn’t I tell you I was having friends over tonight?” she asked loudly. “No reason for you and Maria to stay in. Go have some fun! Look, ladies, at the spread Maria has for us.”

  One look at Maria’s face told me she hadn’t been in on this. Hell, I’d figured that out already—no way she would have wanted us to be mid-fuck when Nonna’s friends dropped by, and that’s exactly where she’d hoped we’d be headed minutes ago.

  “We don’t have plans,” I said weakly as Nonna’s friends made themselves at home at the table of food.

  “You should go to a party,” Paola said, mouth stuffed with chicken wing.

  “There’s one at the American Legion,” Agata said.

  “That’s too stuffy for young people,” Nonna said with scorn. “I’m sure they’ll find an exciting place to go.” She handed Maria’s coat to me, and I didn’t have a choice but to help her into it. I grabbed my leather jacket and scarf, having no idea where we were going.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of Isabella, and we’re spending the night,” Agata said with a definite wink.

  For the first time, I noticed the quilted overnight bags sitting by the front door.

  Before I knew what was happening, I was standing beside Maria on the front porch in the softly falling snow.

  “Well.” Maria looked around. “Looks like we’re going out tonight.”

  I chuckled. “Looks like. We’ll have to take your car, unless you’re eager for a cold ride on my bike.”

  “That’s no problem, but where are we going? We’re not exactly dressed for any place fancy.”

  “How about Times Square?”

  “It’ll be a mess,” Maria said doubtfully, then she smiled. “But fun. Maybe we can grab a bite first? I didn’t get any of the food I brought.”

  “Deal,” I said, and we headed for her car parked in the driveway.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Flynn

  No way was I stupid enough to accept Nick’s invitation to go to the party at Lux New Year’s Eve. Even though he and Jeo both had assured me Matteo wouldn’t be there, it would be just my luck he’d show up. I hadn’t planned on doing anything for the holiday except going to bed early, but Gloria and Jess insisted they wanted Cooper to spend the night.

  “Shouldn’t you two have something fun planned that doesn’t include babysitting?” I’d asked them.

  “Hell, no,” Gloria said. “We don’t drink, which makes pretty much every party we’ve been invited to intolerable, and I’m not about to get into that mess in Times Square.”

  “But I really don’t have anything to do,” I complained.

  “Find something. Didn’t you tell me you’re trying to have more fun and to be social?”

  So I’d given in.

  I still hadn’t made any plans when the day arrived, so when I went down to the shop, bringing Cooper with me since his morning group was closed for the holidays, I asked Joey and Adam what they had planned. Joey said he was house and dog sitting at his parents’.

  “I’ll probably have a few friends over if you want to come. I just asked Adam, but he’s going to some fancy thing at that exclusive gay club in Manhattan.” Joey said it in a snooty voice with his pinky finger curled in the air.

  Adam rolled his eyes.

  No offense to Joey, but he was a lot younger than I was, and I couldn’t imagine hanging out with his friends.

  “I’ll probably just call Tyson,” I said.

  “Just call Tyson? That delicious hunk of man’s your last resort? You’re crazy.”

  I chuckled. Tyson had come by the shop a few times, and Joey had been extremely impressed, especially after I’d told him Tyson was trying to win me back.

  “God, I’d climb him like a tree.” He fanned his face with his hand. “Right, Adam?” Joey glanced to where Adam was about to empty the waste bin. “Oh, wait, you’ve never met Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome, have you?”

  “Hold on, let me go sort that into recycling,” I said, grabbing the can from Adam and taking it into the back of the shop where I could hear Joey going on about how hot Tyson was and fantasizing about what we’d probably get up to later that night. My cheeks colored.

  I doubted Tyson would even be available at this late notice. Surely, he’d have plans. I took m
y phone from my pocket and called him.

  “Flynn,” Tyson’s deep voice purred in my ear. He sounded happy to hear from me.

  “Hey. Uh, I know this is late notice, but are you busy tonight?”

  “No plans I can’t change,” he said.

  “Oh, don’t change anything for me. I just thought if you weren’t busy—”

  “One of the guys is having a poker game, and I thought I’d go to that, but I’d rather do something with you. What did you have in mind?”

  Good question. I didn’t want to invite him over—that would be too intimate with Coop out of the apartment.

  “Uh, I’m not sure. Just thought it would be fun to get out.”

  “A bar near Times Square?” Tyson suggested. “Then we could try to squeeze in close to the ball drop. Or we could just watch it on TV from inside the bar.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I agreed. “We could meet there.”

  “I’ll pick you up. It’s on the way—I’m working. We’ll just have to swing by my place so I can clean up. Six okay?”

  “Yeah. See you then.”

  Adam and Joey ribbed me for a good fifteen minutes about my “date,” which I tried to tell them really wasn’t one. In some respects, I’d been glad to have Tyson to get Joey’s mind off Matteo, who he’d also thought was really hot. Especially with Adam working at the shop—the last thing I wanted was for Matteo to hear we’d been talking about him.

  I went upstairs and spent the rest of the morning cleaning while Coop played. At four, I got him ready and took him over to Jess and Gloria’s, feeling suddenly like I was always taking him somewhere and dumping him off. But Cooper was beyond excited to be going and couldn’t stop chattering about it on the way there, until he abruptly changed the subject on me.

  “Why doesn’t Mad come over anymore?”

  I glanced at Coop in the rearview mirror. He had his new teddy bear propped in front of him on the padded bar of the car seat. I’d discovered from my new friends that a lot of kids his age had switched to a booster seat by now, but since Coop still fit in a car seat, I was keeping him in one.

  I’d been expecting this question since Matteo and I broke things off, but when it had never come, I’d let my guard down.

  “Uh, well, he’s just been busy.”

  “Will I ever get to see him?”

  It would be easy to tell him yes, that I’m sure he would and let it go at that until the next time he asked, but I didn’t like lying to him. “Maybe. But this is a big city, and sometimes we just don’t run into people.”

  “But he’s our friend,” Coop said, and my heart clenched. “Why don’t you invite him over?”

  “I’ll think about it after the holidays,” I said, resorting to a lie after all because I couldn’t launch into a discussion about why that wasn’t possible. He wouldn’t understand, and even if he did, it would upset him when I was about to leave him for the night.

  “Did you bring the motorcycle Tyson gave you to show Aunt Glo and Aunt Jess?” I changed the subject.

  “Yeah.” After a beat, “It’s not as cool as Mad’s Fat Boy.”

  “Well, yes, but Matteo’s is real.” I concentrated on the road, not wanting to think of Matteo or his motorcycle or his stupid, dark eyes and thick, soft hair, or the way the stubble on his face grew so fast and scratched my thighs when he—

  I cut off that train of thought fast.

  I lingered at Gloria and Jessica’s for a while, having a snack with them while we caught up. They never brought up Matteo, knowing, I think, that I wouldn’t—couldn’t talk about him. Gloria had been less than pleased when she’d heard I’d started seeing Tyson again, even though I’d tried to tell her it was only as friends. Jess had finally intervened and told her wife to shut up about it because my life was my own.

  Now, as I sat and ate vegetables and dip with them, I could see the disapproval behind Gloria’s eyes when I mentioned what my plans were.

  “Have fun,” Jess said when I got ready to go.

  “Don’t let things go too far,” Gloria murmured when she hugged me.

  “I told you—”

  But Gloria mimed zipping her lips, and I just shook my head and went to hug Cooper where he was playing in his room.

  Alarmed at how late it was, I raced home, showered, and changed into a nice pair of jeans and the tawny sweater Joey had given me for Christmas that he said made my eyes pop. I slipped on brown leather boots that I’d treated for the weather because if you didn’t do that in New York, you couldn’t keep a nice pair of shoes. It had started snowing again, and I decided I was going to convince Tyson to stay in the bar and not venture out into the crowd at Times Square.

  I was ready and watching for his car when he drove up. I locked the apartment, leaving a small lamp on near the window, and carefully picked my way down the steps in case any ice had formed.

  “Hey, you look great,” Tyson said when I got into the passenger seat of his black Toyota Prius.

  “I’d say the same, only…” I left off, taking in his basketball shorts, ratty T-shirt, and big red, black, and white Air Jordans.

  Tyson’s laugh rumbled through his chest. “I hadn’t planned on going in today, but I forgot about some paperwork. Don’t worry; I clean up nice.”

  I knew he did, and for the first time since we’d started hanging out, I thought about what it might be like to date him again. He was different from before. He hadn’t tried to boss me around once, and it used to be he would’ve said something critical about what I was wearing rather than that I looked nice. Maybe not every time, but at least one out of five. I hadn’t heard him do it yet.

  Tyson had moved since we’d dated. He’d left the studio apartment in Soho and now lived in a larger apartment in a nicer building in Chelsea. By New York City standards, the place was spacious, with a dining room connected to the living room and a separate bedroom.

  “Detective’s salary,” he said, reading my expression.

  “Nice.”

  Tyson smiled and began to strip, and suddenly I was looking everywhere but at him.

  “There’s beer and colas in the fridge. Help yourself.” He strode into the bathroom and shut the door. I heard the shower come on.

  I was midway through a Sprite, perusing the pictures stuck with magnets to the refrigerator, when the bathroom door opened and Tyson came out in a burst of steam. His towel hung low on his hips, and when he caught me looking, he grinned.

  “I won’t be long,” he said and disappeared into the bedroom.

  By the time he was ready, it was close to seven thirty.

  “You look great,” I said. He did. He wore khaki chinos and a sky-blue button down that clung to his broad chest and wide shoulders. The diamond in his earlobe glittered. I watched him pull on dark brown cap-toed boots and then rest his big hands on his knees and smile. “Thanks. Ready?”

  I nodded.

  We took a cab and wound up walking the final three blocks to Flashpoint due to the crowded streets. It was a gay bar and much bigger than it looked from the outside, with a spacious dining area to the right end of the establishment, a kitchen in back, and a dance floor on the other side of the bar.

  “Nice place. You come here a lot?” I asked as we took a seat at a table near the window to the street.

  “Sometimes I drop in after work and have a drink,” he said. “But not all that often. The hours are a lot longer at this job, and, well, I guess I’m getting tired of the bar scene, you know?”

  “Yeah. Funny how that happens.”

  We ordered drinks and talked, watching the snow fall outside the window and the various people walking by. Somehow the conversation turned to how things had changed for me since I’d become a father.

  “I know I’ve become more responsible,” I said. “I have to think of Cooper in everything I do.” My thoughts went to Matteo. I could have done a better job there. I’d allowed my son to get attached. What else? “But I also think I’ve learned to look at some things di
fferently, probably from having to explain situations to Coop.”

  “Like what?” Tyson asked, chin resting on his hand as he listened.

  “Just…that there’s always two sides to a story. While one person might be justified in feeling a certain way, that doesn’t mean the other person in the relationship is necessarily in the wrong. Sometimes…things just don’t work out.” I’d been thinking a lot about Matteo and his grandmother, working out in my mind how she’d been there for him in so many ways and how that had to make him feel about her. I couldn’t say I’d been wrong to leave him seven years ago because I needed more than I’d been getting from the relationship. But I could have been more understanding about it.

  “You think the crowd at Times Square will be thinner due to the weather?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “Doesn’t look that way,” he said, glancing out the window at the throng of pedestrians headed in that direction. “We’ll have to leave at least an hour early to get close enough to have a good spot when the ball drops.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Would you mind if we stayed here?”

  Tyson’s eyes met mine. “I forgot you weren’t much for crowds. Sure, I don’t mind. It’s warm and dry in here, plus there’s alcohol.” He smiled and ordered us another round.

  I was beginning to feel a buzz. I wasn’t a big drinker, and we hadn’t eaten anything yet.

  “We’ll have an order of chips and spinach dip,” I told the waitress. I looked at Tyson. “Want anything else?”

  “Some of the salmon dip and crackers,” he told her. “You’ll love it,” he told me when she walked away. “It’s so good.”

  The conversation flowed, and we had more drinks as we ate. Tyson was right: the salmon dip was awesome served with thin crackers that practically melted in my mouth.

  Around ten thirty, someone turned on the TVs over the bar and in the corners of the room. I was drinking the strongest Long Island Tea I think I’d ever had, and my teeth were beginning to feel numb.

  Tyson laughed when I told him. “What the hell does that mean? How can your teeth be numb?”