Page 59 of Not How I Saw That Going

“Weird!” Crew screams when he sees Ward.

Ward chokes on his drink, then clears it with a cough and a look in my direction. “Did you teach him that?”

I bite back my smile. “Believe it or not, he came up with it on his own.”

Ward’s lips tilt up at the corner and dang it. If the man knew what his smile does to a woman, he’d use it a lot more. “Uh huh.”

Crew takes a seat by Ward, pushing his chair as close as he can to him, and Ward grabs a plate, scooping out what Crew wants. The man may not get along with adults very well, but he’s a natural with kids.

Crew shoves a forkful of noodles into his mouth, but hardly any of them make it inside. I look at Ward, expecting him to be disgusted by the mess of noodles, but he’s smiling instead, holding Crew’s plate under his chin to catch the excess.

Alright.I’ll fake date him.

“You will?” Ward’s eyes shoot to mine, hope in his deep voice.

Stinking mouth. “Yeah, it could be fun.”

Really? That’s the best I could come up with?

“You don’t have to do anything besides attend the gala with me. I promise. I just need to get my mom and Sophie off my back.”

Attend a gala with a handsome fireman as my date?

Okay, twist my arm.

“I can do that.” I nod, already planning to do so much more. Wait. Gala means fancy. I don’t own anything fancy, and I haven’t made enough money to purchase my dream dress yet. Hopefully, Maddie has something she won’t mind letting me borrow.

It could be an entertaining challenge, fake dating a guy who barely smiles.

“Thank you.” Ward nods, and his attention is captured by Crew, who fills him in on the latest Spider-Man show. His concentration stays firmly on my little boy, only drifting to me occasionally, but every time his dark eyes find me, my heart rate kicks up a notch and it’s all I can do to not swoon on the spot.

I’ve been watching too many romance movies.

The two of them barely notice when I close up containers.

“Mom, read it.” Crew thrusts a broken fortune cookie at me.

I gather the pieces and pull out the paper. “You are not illiterate.” Water spews out of Ward’s mouth. I jump from the table, a laugh bubbling up my throat.

“I’m so sorry,” Ward manages to cough out.

“You’re cleaning that up,” I tease and pick up my own fortune cookie, pulling out the paper. “It would be best to maintain a low profile for now.” My voice drops off. Where are these cookies getting their information? I wouldn’t be surprised if the next fortune reminded me to pay my gas bill.

“Your turn.” I hold out a cookie to Ward.

His fingers brush my palm as he takes it, but his hand hovers over my fingers. “What happened to your hand?”

Is there something wrong with my hand? All I feel is fire from his touch. I blink and focus on the bandaids littering my fingertips.

“I hammer jewelry.” My voice cracks. Already my fingers feel so much better.

He stares at me for an extra moment, then pulls his hand back and cracks open the cookie. “A new romance is in the future.” His voice drops at the end, and he swallows. “Who wrote these things?” He puts the fortune on the table.

Crew pulls Ward to the living room and I finish cleaning the table, leaving the lone fortune until the last moment. The timing of its contents are hilarious, which is the only reason I stuff it into my pocket. We will laugh about this someday. Well, I will.

The boys play while I clean, and I can’t say I mind. If a man wants to bring me food, I’ll do the dishes every night.

“You’re doing it wrong!” Crew yells.