Page 18 of My Hotshot

“Twenty minutes?” I asked, surprised. “That’s three hours earlier than you told me this morning.”

“Iknow, but a double feature sounds fun.”

I opened the donut box and grabbed a chocolate-frosted one, biting in with a dramatic groan. “You’re killing me, Lottie. I amtryingto be the cool mom who goes with the flow, but you’re still my baby.”

Lottie groaned. “I’m not a baby, Mom. I’ll be gone for twenty-four hours. Just a full day. Please, please,pleasecan we go now?”

I chewed slowly.

Then sighed, swallowed, and dropped the rest of my donut back in the box. “Fine. But you’re not getting a singledonut. I need them to fill the void of you not being home tonight.”

Lottie grinned wide. “I ammorethan fine with that.”

“We need to go home so you can grab your overnight bag.”

She looped her arm through mine and leaned into me. “Actually, we don’t. It’s in the backseat.”

I looked at her. “What?”

“I brought it just in case. You’re the one who taught me to always be prepared.”

I stared at her, a little stunned and a lot annoyed.

“Well,” I muttered. “Lesson learned.”

Itwasmy own advice biting me in the ass. I had taught her to think ahead, to be ready, to anticipate. She had learned all of it. And now she was using it to spring her independence on me before I was ready.

“You’ll still be home by noon tomorrow?” I asked, just to be sure.

Lottie nodded. “Yup. I promise.”

We made our way back to the car, weaving through the crowd of shoppers with overflowing bags and kids tugging on parents’ sleeves. The sun was high now, warming the back of my neck, but I felt a little colder inside than I had at the beginning of the morning.

Not only was Lottie in a hurry to spend less time with me, but I had just run into people from Dice’s world. Aero and Sloane had no clue who I was, but that wasn’t the part that had my chest tight.

If I ran intothem, that meant it was only a matter of time before I ran intohim.

And I didn’t know what I wanted when that happened.

Lottie slid into the passenger seat and held her hand out to me. “I’ll put Tiff’s address in the GPS.”

I nodded and said nothing as I handed her my phone.

As I pulled out of the parking lot, I glanced at Lottie.

I knew she loved me. That would never change, no matter how old she got, but it still stung a bit that she was so excited to hang out with friends.

Yes, I was being dramatic.

I focused on the road in front of me and sighed. She would be back tomorrow.

She would have fun with her friends, and I would…

I could order Chinese and finally figure out what color I wanted to paint the walls while I popped open a bottle of wine.

And I also had five and a half donuts that were all mine.

Not exactly the most thrilling Saturday night, but it was better than being back in Oklahoma, married to Lee.

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