Page 10 of Welcome to Forever
“Even the girls?” Micah soured his face in a weak attempt to make his son laugh.
Ben glanced up, not even cracking a smile. “Dad, I’m in third grade now. I’m allowed to like girls.”
“You are?” This was news to him.
“And I was thinking…” The tone of his voice, more confident now with a hint of wanting, made Micah’s heart beat in anuh-ohrhythm.
“You should start liking girls again, too.” His son swiped at his hair, staring at him expectantly across the table. “I won’t get in the way anymore. I promise.”
“In the way? Anymore?” Micah leaned forward. What was Ben talking about?
“Like with Nicole.” Ben’s gaze fell on the table.
Micah groaned at just the mention of the name. He’d only dated Nicole a couple weeks. “You know that wasn’t you, right? She just wasn’t right for me. Wasn’t right for us.”
“But I think I know who is right for you—I mean us.” Ben looked up, eyes wide like they got when he was about to ask for a too-expensive toy or an extra serving of dessert.
Suddenly, Micah was rethinking taking his son out for pizza. The night was quickly turning into a discussion about his love life. Or lack thereof. “Who?”
“Principal Chandler.”
Kat’s succulent green eyes came to mind. And the sparkling diamond on her left hand.
Clearing his throat, he leaned back and scratched the side of his jaw. He was stalling again, looking for the right response to his son’s suggestion. “And what makes you think we’d be a good match?”
“Because she also likes spinach on her pizza.”
Micah furrowed his brow and followed Ben’s gaze to a table across the room, where Kat was eating alone.
As if sensing people watching her, she looked up from a stack of papers on the table and a slow smile formed. Tonight, she wore her corn silk hair down, letting it cascade around her shoulders.
Micah forgot to chew the last bite of his breadstick and started to choke. After plowing a quick fist into his chest to get the food down, he looked back across the room.
She had a concerned tilt to her eyebrows that relaxed as her gaze moved to Ben, who was happily waving her over with his right arm.
“Ben, she looks like she’s working,” Micah said. And he wasn’t prepared to share space with a woman who looked like that.
“People don’t work at dinner, Dad,” Ben said, aduhunfolding in his voice that made Micah all too aware that puberty wasn’t far around the corner. Ben waved at her again.
Shifting in her seat, she looked around at the other patrons. Then, she slowly got up and began walking in their direction.
The sight of her made his heart, and other places, rev. No more stalling in this Mustang. Those curves were lethal and that face was one he could look at for a very long time.
He didn’t blink.
Good thing for that ring on her finger, because looking at the beautiful woman now, he thought she might be a good match for him, too. She was still Ben’s principal, though, and kind of his boss, so getting involved with Kat Chandler was completely out of the question.
