Page 65 of Moms of Mayhem
“Yep. Totally fine. Everything is great,” I said,voice about two octaves too high. I stood and brushed imaginary lint off my leggings like that would somehow restore my dignity.
Stevie arched a brow, then followed me behind the partition and to the closest reformer. “You just hit the floor like they were passing out a PTA signup sheet. Who are we avoiding?”
“Beckett Conway,” Shannon said from the back where she and Harper were stacking blocks into a makeshift castle.
I glared at her, but Stevie slapped my arm, getting my attention. “Why do I know that name?”
“Because there’s a statue of him outside the rink?” Shannon said, putting her hands around Harper’s ears. “You should hear the noises coming out of the back room when he’s here every morning, Stevie. Like amateur porn.”
Unfortunately, Stevie was mid-sip of her water when Shannon decided to add that tidbit of information. Water sprayed out of Stevie’s mouth and down her shirt, her eyes wide.
“It’s not like that.” I handed Stevie a towel, helping her clean up while I glared at Shannon. “He’s on long-term injured reserve for the Denver Yetis and is in town only as long as it takes to get him back on the ice. I’m overseeing his physical therapy.”
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Shannon said.
Stevie sat down on the reformer, and the shuttle slid away from the springs. She reached out to grab the foot bar, then turned to look at Shannon. “How old are you? Surely, we’re older than you.”
“Oh, you are.” Shannon added another block to the top of Harper’s tower. “Please get her to talk more about this though, Stevie. Drama feeds me.”
I sighed and rubbed the heel of my palm over my forehead. “I mean, it’s nothing. Beckett’s is Ty’s best friend. He’s also Jace’s hockey coach. And he’s not even staying in town.”
Stevie blinked. “Okay, so naturally you’re flirting with him.”
“I’m not—” I groaned. “Okay. Maybe. But I didn’t mean to. It just sort ofhappened.”
I recapped Sunday’s piriformis massage, and they both cackled in delight until all three of us were crying over how easy it was to make sexual innuendos out of everything he and I were doing.
“So let me get this straight.” Stevie wiped the corners of her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie. “He’s hot. Helpful. Bonding with your teenage son. Taking care of his mom. You know he’s a good guy,andyou get to put your hands all over a professional athlete’s body in the name of science? And you’re mad about it?”
“I’m notmad.” I sat down on the mat next to her reformer. “I’m terrified.”
Harper squealed with joy at whatever tower she and Shannon had just built and then immediately knocked it over like Godzilla. Shannon clapped. “Good job, Harper! Can we do it again?”
Stevie leaned down until she was right in front of me. “Emmy. We don’t know each other very well yet, but I think you’re allowed to be into someone, even if it’s a little messy.Especiallyif you make each other feel good, and I don’t just mean in the ‘rolls two balls over your piriformis’ kind of way.”
“Don’t say balls in front of Harper,” I whispered. “She’ll repeat it and make it sound dirty.”
“Girl, you have a son. No way is my daughter coming outunscathed with two older brothers talking about poop or balls at every possible turn. She’s fine. You, on the other hand…”
I pointed at my chest, not sure what I believed anymore, so I stuck with the facts. “I’m a divorced single mom, and I can’t afford a temporary distraction. Beckett is so much more than a hot body and a pretty face. He’s kind. And good with Jace. And loves his mom. And he listens to me. And that’s exactly the problem.”
Shannon’s head popped up over the tower, apparently still listening. “Wow, you’re down bad. That’s not even crush talk. That’s commitment talk.”
“Stop helping,” I said.
“I’m just saying,” she muttered, “the last guy you went on a date with wore toe shoes unironically.”
“Toe shoes?”Stevie said, her face rightfully twisted in disgust at the mention of my one and only attempt at online dating since coming back to town.
“We were never going to talk about that again, Shannon,” I deadpanned my not-friend.
“Youweren’t,” Shannon said as the tower tumbled again to the sound of Harper’s little “Yay!”“I’m for sure going to talk about it again.”
“But Beckett?” Stevie poked me in the leg, and I looked up at her. “He sounds like he might actually be worth the mess.”
I groaned and flopped onto the mat, staring up at the ceiling fan like it might know the solution to my problems. “I don’t want to drag Jace into something that isn’t real. I can’t let him get attached to someone who’s only temporary and will forget about him the moment he leaves.”
“But what if it is real?” Stevie slid to the floornext to me until our shoulders touched. “He stayed when he didn’t have to, stepped up to help your kid, showed up even on days you’re not scheduled to see him… That doesn’t seemtemporaryto me.”
