Page 90 of Take My Heart
‘Dad, I told you, I’m not working on the house right now. I’ve got too much going on.’
‘What do you have going on?’ Nick asks. ‘This is the first week all winter you’ve had to use the plow.’
‘Yeah, well, I’ve been doing other stuff.’
Sawyer returns with the drinks, interrupting what wasabout to be a very uncomfortable conversation. My family knows I haven’t been working on the house so I don’t know why they’re bringing it up. The house and what I do with it isn’t their business. Jason’s the only one allowed to have a say in it.
‘I thought you were bringing a date tonight,’ Sawyer says to Jason.
‘To meet the whole family?’ Jason laughs. ‘Yeah, I don’t think so. I told her we’d go out tomorrow instead.’
‘Why don’t you want her to meet us?’ Mom asks.
‘Because I’ve only been on two dates with her. It’s too soon to meet the family.’ He takes a drink of his beer.
‘Tell us about her,’ Mom says, sounded excited. She really wants Jason to find a girl and settle down. Now that Nick and Sawyer are in serious relationships, Mom’s hoping Jason will be next. I’m hoping he stays single because if he finds someone, Mom will put all her matchmaking efforts on me. She already tried setting me up last year with some girl from church. I never dated her. We talked on the phone and decided there was no chemistry there.
‘She’s a preschool teacher,’ Jason says. ‘And she has a little girl who’s three.’
‘So she’s divorced?’ Mom asks.
‘No, she was dating the guy and got pregnant. The father didn’t want anything to do with the baby so he took off.’
‘That’s a shame,’ Mom says.
‘You sure you’re ready for that?’ Nick asks.
Jason sets his beer down. ‘Ready for what?’
‘Being a father. That’s a big responsibility.’
‘I’ve been on two dates with her. I didn’t say I was marrying her.’
‘Yeah, but you still need to think about if this is what you want. If it’s not, you shouldn’t be dating her. You’re just wasting her time.’
‘He’s right,’ Dad says to Jason. ‘Don’t be pursuing a woman with a child if you can’t see yourself being a father to that little girl.’
Jason sighs. ‘Okay, yeah, I’ll think about it. Now, can we stop talking about my love life and talk about something else?’
Mom smiles at Jason. ‘I think you’d make a wonderful father. You’re so good with the kids at school.’
‘I’m their teacher, not their parent. That’s different. I don’t know if I’d be a good dad. And I work with teenagers, not toddlers.’
‘Sometimes teenagers act like toddlers,’ Nick jokes.
‘You’ve worked with younger children before,’ Mom says to Jason. ‘You said you enjoyed it.’
‘I did, but again, they’re not my kids. Now that we’re talking about it, I don’t think I’m ready for that, so I guess I won’t be going on that date tomorrow.’ He takes a drink of his beer. ‘Back to being single.’ He turns to me. ‘You want to go to that bar next week? The one where you met Hannah? Maybe I’ll have better luck this time.’
‘I don’t think so,’ I tell him. ‘I’ve got a busy week.’
‘We’d go at night, after work.’
He needs to shut up. I don’t want to talk about other girls in front of Kate. I just had sex with her. I know we’re not dating, but it’s still not right to be talking about other girls when she’s sitting right next to me.
‘Jason, what is wrong with you?’ Mom says in her scolding tone.
‘What?’ He looks around the table. ‘What’d I say?’
