Page 102 of False Start

My nails.

Water drenched me, and Sebastian died in a fit of laughter as Kyle struggled to keep his own at bay.

I stood, tonguing my cheek and wiping my wet hair out of my face. “Oh, think that’s funny, do you?”

I took off in a sprint, bending to gather a few water balloons out of the large tin bucket before I was chasing them both down and launching balloons as hard as I could.

It was an all-out war then, and twenty minutes later, we were all soaked, our faces red from laughing, our stomachs growling as we sat down at the picnic table outside and Kyle served us dinner.

He sat down next to me once everyone had a plate and something to drink, and his hand slid confidently over my knee under the table, squeezing.

It sent chills parading over me, the delicious kind that made me cross my legs and squeeze my thighs together.

For a while, we just ate and laughed about the water balloon fight — Sebastian particularly stuck on how he had wrangled me into the whole ordeal. But after a while, when the conversationhad slowed, Kyle cleared his throat and dabbed at the corner of his mouth with his napkin.

“Sebastian,” he said, hand finding mine under the table and wrapping it up tightly. “We’d like to talk to you about something.”

“Okay,” my son said, swinging his feet and chomping on his corn on the cob.

Kyle lifted our hands to rest on the table, smoothing his thumb over mine. He nodded for me to take the wheel then.

“Do you remember when I introduced you to Kyle, and I told you we were friends?” I asked my son.

He nodded, still mostly focused on his food, bless him.

“Well… Kyle and I are actually more than friends. We’re… special friends.”

Sebastian’s legs stopped swinging, his brows folding together. “Like best friends?”

“Yeah, kind of,” I said, and I frowned, trying to figure out how to tell him.

Kyle patted my hand, taking over. “I care very much about your mom,” he said. “And she cares about me. We…”

His voice faded then, and I wondered if he was thinking what I was.

We love each other.

But that was absurd to think, let alone say out loud. It was too much, too fast.

And yet, I’d always loved him. Ever since we were kids.

“We just want you to know that Kyle will be around more often,” I offered. “And that you may see us showing affection to each other the way special friends do. Like this,” I said, holding up our clasped hands.

“And I don’t plan on going anywhere,” Kyle added. “I… I plan to be here, to be a part of your mom’s life. And yours. If that’s okay.”

Sebastian set his corn on the cob down, and I wondered if the seriousness of the conversation was hitting him. Kids always knew. They could pick up even what we tried to cover as adults.

“Are you my new dad?”

I rolled my lips together, emotion strangling my throat. Fortunately, Kyle was still calm and collected.

“I will never take your dad’s place,” he said.

Sebastian seemed almost sad about that. He nodded, hanging his head.

“But,” Kyle added quickly. “What I’d like to do is be your friend. And I want to hang out more, and get to know more about you, and tell you more about me. I’d like to take you fun places, like the zoo and the pool. I’d like to pick you up from camp sometimes, and I hope to be here on my days off. And when the season starts… maybe you could come to a football game.”

Sebastian’s eyes lit up at that, and he looked at me. “Could I?”