Page 19 of Falling for Her

“Yeah, yeah,” I cut him off. “I promise I will be on my best behavior.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he deadpans, and I burst out laughing.

“Does he need like a special kid seat or something for the car?” I’m not sure if this is a test, so I beat him to the punch.

“No, he just got out of it.” He then snaps, “Okay, I have to go.”

“You called me,” I remind him, and he hangs up. “Goodbye,” I say to the phone that now has dead air.

Asa comes down the stairs in shorts and a T-shirt, wearing white socks. He heads to the door to grab his running shoes.

“I’m going to grab my soccer ball,” he announces as he runs out the back door and comes zooming in not a second later, the ball under one arm.

“Let’s go.” I open the door, and he walks out behind me. He presses the pound sign and the door locks.

I open the door to my car, but Asa says, “We can just walk. It’s not far.”

“Do you play soccer?” I ask him as we slowly make our way to the park.

“Only with my friends, not on a team. I play baseball, though.”

“Do you like it?’

“Yeah, it’s fun. Slow at times, but it’s fun when I’m on the field.”

“I get that,” I say as we round the corner, and I see the park.

He sees a couple of his friends and yells for them. “Can I go play?” he asks me. I nod my head, and he zooms away, dropping the ball on the grass and kicking it to his friends.

As the four of them run and kick the ball around, I sit on a park bench to watch them. Two other kids arrive with their mothers and run right past me.

“Wyatt,” the woman with a baby on her hip yells, “get back here and put on your sunscreen.”

He runs back and grabs the spray bottle from his mother. I sit up straighter as he sprays himself with it. My stomach roils when I look over at Asa. He’s the only one without a hat on his head, and I know, for sure, he definitely doesn’t have sunscreen on. I get up off the bench and walk over to the mother. “I’m so sorry, I know this sounds so strange”—she smiles at me—“but can I borrow some sunscreen for . . .” I point to Asa. “I forgot this morning.”

“Of course.” She hands me the bottle. I feel guilty that he could have gotten sunburned, and I would have been to blame.

“Asa,” I call, and he looks over at me. “Come here.” I motion with my hand, and he runs over.

“Okay, one, we didn’t put sunscreen on,” I tell him as I spray his arms. “Turn,” I instruct, spraying sunscreen on the back of his neck and even his ears. “Why didn’t you bring a hat?” He shrugs his shoulders as I spray every single inch of him twice, and he moves away from me.

“It’s too much,” he complains. “I’m good.” I shake my head when he runs away from me.

“You must be Finley,” the woman says. “I’m Harmony. I was helping Burke find a nanny when he told me about you. Wyatt and Asa are best friends.”

“Hi.” I hold out my hand, knowing by tonight the jig will be up. Lincoln will definitely fire me when he hears I forgot the most important thing a child needs to do when going out into the sun. He’ll figure out I know nothing about childcare. I take a deep inhale. “It’s nice to meet you.” I turn to look at Asa running and think that maybe it’s for the best.

CHAPTER SEVEN

LINCOLN

“I’ll be right back,” Johnson says, walking out of the conference room we’ve been sitting in for the last four hours, going over different routes that each driver might take. Right now, we are up to fifty directions. That’s just too many, and it has to be dialed back down before we make even one move.

Seeing it’s almost 5:30 p.m., I pull up Finley’s number on my phone. The whole day, she’s sent me two texts. One to tell me they left the park and are eating lunch, and then another one saying they got home and would be playing cards.

Me:

I won’t be home for dinner, so it’ll only be the two of you.