Page 19 of The Perfect Distraction

Chapter Seven

Beth kept to herself the next couple of days and tried not to think about Colton at all. However, when Aunt Jenny called to check on her, she couldn’t help but ask her a few questions about him.

“Why didn’t you mention you had new neighbors?” Beth said after they’d exchanged the usual pleasantries.

“Do you mean that handsome young man and his son?” Aunt Jenny replied with an air of nonchalance.

But Beth knew better. Nothing escaped Aunt Jenny’s attention. “Yes. Colton and Joey. How come you never mentioned them?”

“I didn’t think you’d be interested, I guess. Why?”

Uh-oh. Now that she’d piqued her aunt’s curiosity, there’d be no stopping her.

“Well, I’ve gotten to know them a little, and Colton told me that he installed your wood floors.”

“Ah, yes. He did an excellent job, didn’t he?”

“Um-hmm.”

“And Joey’s just the sweetest little boy. Whenever I was outside, he’d come over to visit me.”

Beth smiled since Joey did the same thing with her. “I’m tutoring him,” she blurted out.

“You are? Well, that’s wonderful.”

“Colton said that Joey’s behind in reading, so I offered to help him this summer.”

“How sweet of you. And I suppose that you’ll be spending some time with Colton too.”

Beth swore she heard a note of satisfaction in her aunt’s voice, but she decided to let it slide. “I’m curious. What do you know about Joey’s mom?”

Aunt Jenny made a sound between a cough and a growl. “Not much except that I don’t like her.”

Beth laughed. “Why not?”

“Whenever she came to pick up Joey, she had a look on her face like she didn’t want to be bothered. Like it was an inconvenience to see her son.”

Beth nodded, thinking that Aunt Jenny’s description made sense. So far, nothing Joey had said had given her a favorable impression of his mom. “How sad.”

“I know. As for Colton, he seems like a great dad and a hard worker. He’d be a real catch for the right someone.”

Beth stiffened. Thanks to her nosiness, Aunt Jenny probably thought she was interested, which she wasn’t! “He seems like a nice man,” she said carefully. “However, it wouldn’t be easy taking on someone’s ex-wife and child.”

“You’re right. It would take a special person,” Aunt Jenny said.

Beth quickly changed the subject, asking after her uncle’s health and chatting about other things. She decided not to tell Aunt Jenny about her plans with Joey and Colton for Thursday night lest she get the wrong idea. Besides, she wouldn’t want her accidentally mentioning it to her parents. Even though her family was miles away, they’d probably be thrilled to play matchmaker from a distance.

After she ended the call, she took her book outside to the front porch swing and opened it, pushing all thoughts of Colton aside. She’d wanted a distraction for the summer, but she hadn’t counted on it being a good-looking single dad. As much as she enjoyed Joey’s company, she was in no position to become somebody’s stepmom.

Aunt Jenny was right. It would take a special person to accept Colton’s ex-wife and child into their life, and she knew it wasn’t her.

But by Thursday, she was anxious to see them, especially Joey, whom she hadn’t seen out in the yard at all for the past two days. She’d have been lying if she’d said she hadn’t kept an eye out for Colton’s SUV to pull into the driveway after work, but he must have had evening plans. It hadn’t been until almost nine o’clock at night when they’d come home the previous nights, and they’d gone straight into the house both times.

On Thursday morning, she called Colton to make arrangements to pick up Joey for tutoring. Figuring he might be too busy to answer, she’d prepared a voice mail message in her head, but he answered on the second ring.

“Hey. I’m glad you called,” he said.

“You are?” She realized her voice sounded unnaturally high, but it was too late. The damage was done.