Page 14 of Second Dance
“That guy has a reputation,” Bella said.
“A reputation? For what?” Peter asked.
“He’s kind of a player. From what I heard,” Bella said.
Peter ignored her, focusing his attention on me instead. “How was your day, Dad? Did you do anything?”
It crossed my mind to mention the dating app but decided against it. God knows what Bella would say about it. And I certainly didn’t want to mention seeing Gillian on there. My daughter wouldn’t want to know I’d loved someone before her mother.
A little voice whispered in my head. What happens if she writes back?
“Not much,” I said. “Took a run. Went into town to the bookstore.” Signed up on a dating app.
“Do you want to talk about Mom?” Peter asked. “You kind of seemed like you wanted to this morning.”
“Do you want to talk about her?” I asked.
Peter forcefully cut a cucumber in half with his fork, causing it to skid off the plate. “I don’t want to talk about the day she died. I’d rather talk about when she was alive.”
“Let’s do that,” I said. “What are some of your favorite memories?”
“Do you remember that time she got in a fight with the ump at my game?” Peter asked, brown eyes lighting up. “And she actually threw a punch at him?”
“Oh, I remember all right,” I said.
“What was she mad about?” Bella asked.
Her longing tone made my heart hurt.
“He called me out at the plate when she thought I was safe,” Peter said. “All of a sudden, I look over and she’s in the ump’s face.”
I groaned, shaking my head at the memory of my tiny wife launching herself at a six-foot umpire. “They banned her from the rest of the game. I had to take her home and then come back for you. She was spitting mad. I heard about it all the way home. That temper of hers was always getting her in trouble.”
“How old was I then?” Bella asked.
“Peter was ten, so you were eight,” I said. “But you weren’t there for that game. I was secretly glad. I didn’t really want you to get any ideas about how to deal with conflict by attacking authority.”
“The guys thought it was cool,” Peter said.
“She never got mad at any of the refs at my soccer games,” Bella said.
“I think she learned her lesson after Peter’s game,” I said. “Once she cooled off, she was actually really embarrassed.”
“I liked going to the movies with her,” Bella said. “We’d get popcorn and a soda to share and we always laughed at the same things. And one time after the movie she took me to get my ears pierced. That was a fun day.”
“Dad, have you thought about dating?” Peter asked.
I blinked, shocked to hear the question out of the blue.
“I have. A little,” I said. “Sonya told me to get on a dating app. One called Second Chance.”
“That’s for old people,” Bella said. “Right?”
“It’s implied in the name that it’s for people looking for a second chance,” I said. “Which inevitably means it’s people old enough to need a second chance.”
“You wouldn’t go on there, would you?” Bella’s eyes widened, clearly horrified. “That’s for losers. All those women on there would only want you for your money.”
“We don’t know that,” Peter said. “There are nice women out there too. I see single moms at my baseball games all the time, and they seem super sweet.”
