Now, everything felt like it mattered too much.
Now, I knew how good it could feel to have love, as well as how it felt to lose it.
I sighed. “I think I’ve worked things up so much in my mind that I’m putting too much pressure on everything.”
“It makes sense,” she said after a brief pause, as if she understood what I was trying to say. “You’re a family man now. You don’t have time to mess around like a lot of us do in our twenties. You’re looking for someone who can be a life partner as well as a mother to your daughter.”
“Yeah.” I nodded, feeling a bit choked up with her words and how she seemed to understand my situation without me needing to explain. “The stakes are higher now.” I looked at Charlotte who had cheese sauce all over her face. Then, looking back to Nora, I shrugged and added, “I’m dating for two instead of one.”
“It’s a lot,” she said, drawing in a breath. “Meanwhile, I’m not even doing great at dating for one.”
“Hey, at least you didn’t almost have a meltdown whenMiles grabbed your hand last night.” I hoped a little self-deprecation would help lighten the moment.
“True,” she said, her pink lips spreading into a smile. “And I don’t want to brag too much, but… I totally got a cheek kiss, too.”
“Oooh,” I said, grinning at the back-and-forth. “That’s a big deal.”
“I know, right?” She laughed.
“Daddy kisses my cheek,” Charlotte piped in, apparently paying closer attention to our conversation than I realized.
“That’s right.” I smiled as I leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Because you’re my favorite girl.”
She giggled, pleased with herself.
When I straightened, I caught Nora watching us. Smiling.
“You really don’t need to be nervous about being awkward on a date,” she said. “One glimpse of how cute you are with Charlotte and you’ll steal anyone’s heart.”
I rolled my eyes. “That feels like a stretch.”
But I could feel the heat climbing up my neck, anyway.
I took a sip of my water to buy myself a second. “Okay, but honestly, from everything you observed at dinner last night, do you have any notes for me? Anything I can improve on?”
She considered that, tapping her fork lightly against her plate. “I really don’t think you did anything wrong. You were a complete gentleman, as far as I could tell. You paid attention to your date. You were a great conversationalist. And you already know from our conversation this morning that you have nothing to worry about in the looks department.”
And there it was again. The reminder that Nora found me attractive.
Which I didn’t quite know what to do with since it just wasn’t something Ishouldbe thinking about.
When our eyes met, her cheeks were a little pink. Mineprobably weren’t much better. And for a second, it felt like we both understood something neither of us was going to say out loud.
That there was a mutual attraction there.
An attraction I hadn’t expected, since she’d always just been “Lucy’s friend, Nora.”
The girl whom I’d watched at my sister’s gymnastics meets but never thought much of aside from her being super talented and fun to talk to.
Definitely not someone I would ever have a romantic interest in.
And yet…
I shook my head, cutting that thought off before it went any further.
She worked for me now. That alone made her off-limits.
And I was older. By enough that it mattered.