Page 101 of Now or Never

“I don’t know,” his dad said, finally speaking after long moments of introspection. “But you can’t just give up. You’re clearly completely in love with her. This is probably going to be the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”

“Yeah,” his uncle David said. “I’m seeing nothing but green flags. You gotta go for it.”

Adam nodded. Even if Chelsea stuck to her guns, he clearly had a lot of issues he needed to work through. His perspective was already shifting. Maybe he’d wasted a ton of time already by fighting off feelings. He knew he had a lot of love to give. Maybe it was time to coat people with it.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll call Dr. Sheffield’s office.”

His uncle pulled him into a hug. “Your mother would be very proud of you.”

He pulled his phone from his pocket as everyone began leaving one-by-one. Only Max hung back for a moment.

“Do you need help finishing off?”

Adam shook his head, then glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’ll finish up by the end of the day. But you should probably stay. The brewmaster is coming for an interview today. She should be here anytime.”

Max’s eyebrows scrunched, then he paled. His eyes shifted toward the door.

“She?”

Adam nodded. “Willow Spencer.”

“Willow? I thought it was a guy. You said the brewmaster was Will something.”

“Exactly. Will—ow. Don’t be sexist.”

Max swore under his breath as he scratched his jaw. “I think she was at the door earlier.”

Adam stopped, his shoulders dropping. He was exhausted. “Fucking hell, Max. What did you do?”

Max shifted his weight between his feet. “I got rid of her.”

“By ‘got rid of her,’ you mean what, exactly?”

Max winced.

Adam shook his head. “I’ll deal with that later,” he said, pulling his phone from his pocket and scrolling through his contacts for Dr. Sheffield’s office. “Damage control with our brewmaster will have to wait.”

thirty-one

Chelsea pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at the notification that had just pinged. It was from hot daddy. She did a little dance as she opened the conversation with him, mentally crossing her fingers that he’d said yes to her last message.

He had.

She squealed.

“What’s that squealing all about?” Jae asked from the porch where she was working on her laptop.

Chelsea typed out a quick “Can’t wait!” to his offer to pick her up on Saturday, then slipped her phone back into her pocket. For a split second, regret washed over her as she wished it were Adam instead. But then she reminded herself that he was a flaky deserter and shook it off. “I have a date on Saturday.”

“Ooh, with hot daddy?”

Chelsea looked behind her where Ben was a hundred feet away, practising on his bike, then turned back to Jae. “Yup. He’spicking me up at seven. I’m finally going on a date. Can you believe it?”

Jae smiled. “I absolutely can believe he wants to take you out. What I can’t believe is how fast you’re ticking off the items on your list.”

Chelsea smiled, mentally checking off “Get some committed dad dick.” “Ilovethat list. I have taken care of my agent, too, and I am on high alert for any scooters.”

“Mm-hmm. All that’s left is to deal with the turd.”

---