Park Avenue Player(48)
But he’d made me laugh with his self-deprecating humor, and over the last few days, he’d sent me photos of his other flaws—a jagged scar on his abdomen from a mountain biking accident (though I really only noticed how defined his abs were), a birthmark shaped like Australia on the top of his ass (that was pretty damn defined, too), and a section of his arm that oddly didn’t grow hair.
But the overall package was an attractive one, small flaws and all. Not to mention that I’d stalked his Instagram and watched a video of him dancing some Latin dance—those hips don’t lie.
My phone buzzed with an incoming message.
Benito: I sliced my finger using a table saw this morning. Needed a few stitches. It looks pretty gnarly. Do I need to send photos to continue pleading my case?
I smiled and had started to text back when Hailey came out of her room. She stretched her arms over her head, and her eyes dropped to my phone for a moment. “Who are you texting so early?”
“First of all, it’s ten o’clock, sleepyhead. And second of all, it’s personal, so none of your beeswax.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s a boy.”
“Well, if it were a member of the opposite sex I was talking to, it would be a man, not a boy.”
She shrugged. “From what I can tell, most men just grow taller and wider. They’re still little boys.”
I shook my head and chuckled. Wise beyond her years.
It felt sort of awkward to admit I was talking to a man. But if I expected her to share things about boys with me, I couldn’t be that closed off.
I set down my phone and picked up my coffee mug. “His name is Benito.”
She frowned.
“What? You don’t like the name?”
“No. It’s not that.” She avoided making eye contact and walked into the kitchen. Opening the refrigerator, she spent a few minutes hanging on the door and staring into it.
I walked over. “Are you waiting for something to magically appear in there? Want me to make you banana nut pancakes?”
Her stomach growled loudly, and I laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes. Go sit. You can peel the bananas and mash them for me.”
I grabbed two bowls from the cabinet and took out the flour, sugar, baking soda, eggs, and cinnamon. Setting one of the bowls in front of Hailey, I handed her three bananas and a spoon to use to mash.
“So what’s the deal? You made a face when I said I was talking to a guy named Benito. Does the name remind you of someone you don’t like or something?”
She peeled each banana and let them drop unceremoniously into the bowl. “Are you dating the guy?”
I watched her expression. “No. Well, not yet. But I might. I’m thinking about it, I guess.”
She frowned again. “I thought you thought my uncle was cute.”
I froze. “Why would you think that?”
She started to mash up the bananas with the back of the spoon. “You guys are always looking at each other.”
“Well, he’s my employer, so of course I’m going to look at him.”
She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. You look look at him, and he looks looks at you. You both do it when you think no one is watching. But you’re so obvious.”
There was no point in trying to escape the truth. “Your uncle is a nice-looking guy. It’s hard not to notice, Hailey. But it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Why doesn’t it?”
I sighed. She asked good questions—hard ones, but good. “Well, just because two people are attracted to each other doesn’t mean they’re right for each other in a couple sort of way.”
“Is Benito attractive?”
“Yes.”
“So what does he have that Uncle Hollis doesn’t?”
I shook my head. “It’s not that your uncle is missing anything. We just don’t want the same things, so we’re not compatible as a couple.”
“What does he want?”
Uh…how do I extricate myself from this one? I couldn’t very well say, your uncle just wants to dirty fuck me, like most asshole men. Though—I looked at her—she was a really beautiful girl. It was probably a lesson she should learn to save her some na?ve heartbreak. But that was a conversation best had a few years from now.
I poured flour into a measuring cup and emptied it into the bowl, then slid everything to the other side of the counter so I could sit on the stool next to her.
“I told you I was married before. As much as I was sad about the way my marriage turned out, I’m still hopeful that maybe the right guy is out there for me. For a long time, I wasn’t. But that’s changed lately. And I think that a lot of it is because of you, actually.”
“Me?”
I nodded. “I want a family someday. You reminded me of that. So while I’m a little scared to go back out there into the dating world, I think I need to do it now. It’s sort of time.”
I’d thought I’d explained it so well, but one look at Hailey’s face told me I hadn’t. Her shoulders slumped, and she stared down at her hands. “So Uncle Hollis doesn’t want a family?”
“Oh God, no. That’s not what I meant at all. He wants you. I’m certain of that. You heard him the other day when he said he would do everything in his power to keep you or stay in your life. He loves you and wants you to be his family.”