Page 15 of Worth Loving
She smiled. “The body doesn’t always react the way we want.”
The color in her cheeks intensified, but he wouldn’t point it out.
“Tell me about it,” he said, walking away to put her lunch order in. He brought back her seltzer. “So you said you had the afternoon off. And you came in here. Any reason why?”
It came naturally to him to flirt. Part of the job.
Yet there was something about Molly that made him really want to know.
“Maybe I was in the mood for food I didn’t have to cook or put together myself. Or maybe I wanted some conversation with a man who wasn’t going to brag to me about how wonderful he was.”
He put his hand to his heart. “Compliments will get you everything,” he said.
“I bet you’re the type of guy who doesn’t need to say things for other people to believe it. They just know by looking at you.”
“I like to think so,” he said. “But then I’ve told myself for years if they don’t like me then they can go take a flying leap off a tall bridge headfirst into a pile of rocks.”
“That’s a good attitude to have,” she said.
“I bet you’ve got it. You seem to have your shit together.”
She tilted her head. “Do you think?”
“I’m a pretty excellent judge of character.”
“Good to know,” she said, taking a sip of her seltzer and making him wonder if she was flirting or playing with him.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, he pulled it out and saw Carly calling.
“Shit. Sorry, I need to take this.”
He waved over Kyle to watch the bar while he stepped away. “Sorry to bother you, Dean,” Carly said.
“What’s going on? Is Jonah okay?”
“He’s fine. He asked if he could stop over. We are on the way home from Pre-K.”
He normally got a text that they were home, which had his heart pounding that maybe they’d gotten into an accident.
“Hi, Dad,” Jonah yelled. “Can we stop in? I want a burger.”
He smiled. He couldn’t say no to his kid. There was no reason they couldn’t and go sit in the back for an early dinner. He was getting out at six tonight anyway and he’d never turn down time with his son.
“Sure, come on over. We’ll find you a seat in the back.”
“I want to be at the bar with you,” Jonah said.
“You know you can’t,” Carly said. “Not when it’s open.”
“I’ll see you soon,” he said and hung up then went back to the bar and spotted Molly.
There was no hiding anything. His son was going to come running in and call his name like he always did.
There was a lot of his life he hid, but his son had never been one of them. It wasn’t something he could do, nor would he.
He’d never want Jonah to think Dean was embarrassed because he wasn’t.
“Everything okay?” Molly asked, sipping her seltzer.
