Page 3 of Secret Love (The Single Dad Playbook #2)

CHAPTER THREE

FLOWERS WOULDN’T HURT

HENLEY

Rhodes

You forget our meeting?

Running a little late, but I’ll be there.

Weston

Caleb is expecting to see his Unca Hen, so you’d better hurry.

Tell him I’m on my way.

Rhodes

You totally forgot, didn’t you?

No. I need this meeting. I…I’ll explain everything when I get there.

Rhodes

Color me intrigued.

Penn

He’s met someone. You have, haven’t you? Have you finally listened to me and Rhodes and gotten laid?!

Bowie

Back off. He said he’s on his way, and it’s not like we’re in a rush to leave. We’ll be here, Hen. Take your time. I am curious about your answer, though. Wink emoji

I snort at their ridiculousness, but I also speed up to just one mile over the speed limit. The Silver Hills police department claims to love me, but they don’t hesitate to give me a ticket if I’m five miles over the speed limit on Jupiter Lane, our main drag.

A couple of times a month, I meet up with the guys who have become my best friends since we started playing for the Mustangs. What started out as coffee once in a while with a couple of single dads on the team, Rhodes and Bowie, has turned into a necessity in my life. I don’t think I’m the only one of us who feels this way either.

Rhodes’ son Levi is such a cute and funny little boy. He’s three now and there’s never a dull moment when he’s around. Bowie’s daughter Becca will be eight soon, and she’s a sweetheart. She’s smart and adorable and has Down Syndrome. She gives the best hugs and her sunny smile has brightened many of my days.

It’s not just Rhodes and Bowie—now there are five of us who get together.

We talk about kids and life and women, not always in that order. Much to the amusement of the only non-dad in the group, Penn, who I guess started coming because of FOMO, we call ourselves the Single Dad Players. Penn and Weston would show up randomly here at the coffee shop or listen in when we were talking on the road, and I swear, fatherhood must be contagious. Weston suddenly found himself with a baby last year, and Penn started tutoring a kid who’s in the foster care system and got attached. So after teasing us about our meetings for so long, both of them now show up needing lots of advice. Rhodes, Bowie, and I started writing our thoughts on fatherhood in a notebook aptly named The Single Dad Playbook that we bring each time we’re together, but let’s be honest—we’re all winging it 99.9% of the time.

Case in point: the way I’ve crashed and burned today.

I walk into Luminary Coffeehouse a few minutes later, still feeling like a prick. I don’t know what got into me earlier. I’ve never confronted a teacher…or a woman like that before…ever. I leave my aggression in the gym and on the football field, and I’d like to keep it that way.

Knowing how hard Cassidy worked on that project and hearing that a teacher made her feel less than …it wrecked me. My gut is still twisted in knots over how desolate she looked this morning and how she tried so hard to pretend that she was fine after bawling her eyes out.

She hasn’t been herself for a while now. I want her to know I have her back. I want her to know she can always count on me.

But she’d be so pissed if she knew I talked to her teacher the way I did. I’m fucking pissed at myself.

And it wasn’t even the infamous Mrs. Carboni at all.

As soon as I step into the shop, my favorite coffee shop owner, Clara, waves and motions for me to head back to the room where the guys are waiting.

“I’ll bring your Solar Latte in a few minutes,” she says.

“Thanks, Clara.”

I’m hooked on her latte with honey, vanilla, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Even during our regular season, it’s the one thing I’m not willing to sacrifice.

I wave at a few of the regulars. Marv and Walter are here every time I come in, and they usually stop arguing with one another to say hello, but today, I overhear them discussing the Bubbling Brook soup from The Fairy Hut.

“It was inedible last night!” Marv says.

“You’re outta your mind. It was delicious, as usual. It’s your faulty taste buds. You need to go to the dentist, I keep telling ya,” Walter says.

I chuckle under my breath and head back to the small conference room we meet in to avoid interruptions and eavesdroppers. The traffic in Luminary has picked up drastically since we started meeting here, but it’s good for Clara’s business, and most of the customers are respectful of our time.

When I walk in, the guys are laughing their heads off about something. Caleb is on the floor, playing with a dump truck, and when he sees me, he rushes toward me, his arms in the air for me to pick him up.

“Unca Hen!” he yells.

“Hey, buddy.” I pick him up and hold him high in the air. He waits in anticipation and I toss him just high enough to give him a little thrill…and not so high that it makes Weston nervous.

“Do you feed him snacks on the down-low or something,” Penn asks. “He loves me, but not like that.”

“He loves all of you,” Weston says. He pauses for dramatic effect. “Just Henley a little more...” He laughs when Rhodes and Penn both sock him in the shoulder.

“I mean, I love Henley a little more too,” Rhodes says, shrugging. “That goes for you too.” He points at Bowie and Bowie winks. We all laugh at Weston and Penn’s expressions.

“He’s messing with you guys. You know we’ve welcomed you into the inner fu—effing sanctum…” I correct myself for Caleb just in time. “It doesn’t get more loving than that. How’s everyone doing?”

I set Caleb on his feet, holding on until he has his balance. He picks up the dump truck and toddles toward me with it. I take the little car out of the back of it and make it ride on top of the dump truck.

“Question is, how are you?” Bowie asks.

“That’s right,” Rhodes says. “Did the pretty boy get it right?” He nods toward Penn, who grins up at me.

I roll my eyes. “No, he couldn’t be more wrong.”

Penn’s smile drops, and he nods sagely. “You’d look a lot happier if you’d gotten laid.”

“Wouldn’t we all, wouldn’t we all…” Rhodes says.

“I did something so stupid.” I groan. “This morning at the grocery store I met someone beautiful, attractive in every way. She was smart, sexy…my game was on point.”

One of the guys makes an exaggerated gasp and I look around to see all of them staring at me in shock.

“What?” I frown.

“Just processing the fact that we’ve never heard you talk about a woman like this ever,” Rhodes says, pounding the table when he says ever .

“Well, just wait. It’s all downhill from here. When I got home, Cassidy told me about her teacher, Mrs. Carboni, and how she told her she was wasting her time…”

"No, who would say that?" Rhodes scowls. “Let me at that teacher."

"I know, I know. I was pissed too. I went over to the school and guess who's there? Guess who's the teacher in her class?"

" No , it wasn't her, was it?" Bowie says.

"You're kidding,” Rhodes says.

“Yep, she’s there in her sexy librarian getup and I went off on her. All the while, so sad that this woman that I was so attracted to this morning is the very one who's told my daughter she's wasting her time. She tells me in no uncertain terms that she understands my feelings….that she would probably feel the same if she had kids, but then in her polite way, she basically told me to fuck off. Get this—she wasn’t Mrs. Carboni. She’s the sub.”

I take a deep breath.

“So I felt like the biggest prick, and I’m still regretting everything I said. Not to mention, it was wasted on the wrong person and that beautiful woman thinks I’m an ass.”

"That's nothing a pretty bouquet of flowers won't fix,” Penn says.

Weston looks at him like he's crazy. "You clearly don’t know women."

“What? They love flowers! I’ve never given anyone but my mom flowers, and she loves them, but…I just think he should put himself out there.” Penn lifts a shoulder. “Let her know he feels bad."

Everyone stares at him.

He throws his hands up in the air. "What? It's a good suggestion."

"Did you find out what she likes? What did you learn about her during the time you talked?" Bowie asks.

"I found out that she likes cinnamon rolls…and cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese.”

“What are you gonna do?” Weston asks. “I’ve never seen you excited about anyone like this…you need to fix it.”

“It wasn’t so much that I felt like I wanted to pursue her…more the feeling that I wish I could…which is new.”

“Well, why the hell wouldn’t you?” Rhodes asks. “If she liked you this morning, you can win her over again.”

“I don’t know. She looked excited to see me when I walked in and by the time I left, her iciness was…” I do a mock shudder. “And I don’t blame her. I walked in there like an entitled ass and didn’t even give her a chance to talk.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, Penn is right,” Bowie says.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Penn laughs.

“Flowers wouldn't hurt. Send her flowers,” Bowie says.

“I can't do that. Where would I send them? The only place I’ve seen her is at the grocery store and at school—and there’s no way I can send them to school.”

“Why not?” Rhodes says. “Grand gesture. Don’t women love the grand gesture?”

They all laugh and I give them a withering glare until they stop.

“Find out where she lives,” Penn says.

“Right, because that’s not creepy.” My head falls back and I groan.

“Okay, so you can't send her flowers. What else can you do? Let us help,” Rhodes says.

“No, the last thing I need is your help. What would you do, go in there and force her to go out with me?” I say, shaking my head.

“Yes,” Rhodes laughs. “Come on, we can be persuasive when we need to be.”

“I don't need your help. I need to just let it go. It just sucked because it was…” I trail off and they all wait expectantly. “Forget it. Not worth talking about. It's just been a crazy morning.”

“No, you don't need to let this go so easily,” Weston says. “Come on, let's figure this out. What else do you know about her? What’s her name?”

“Her name is Tru. And I hardly know anything…except, like I said, cinnamon rolls. And she's hot. And she had an upbeat, sexy personality too until I ruined it.”

“All right,” Rhodes says. “That's plenty to go on. Cinnamon rolls, hmm, well…what’s her last name? That doesn't seem hard to find out. We can call the school. I can pretend to be a parent…”

“Oh, no, you don’t.” I shake my head. “I don't want you getting involved. Her last name is Seymour…and let's talk about something else.”

“There's nothing to talk about that's as exciting as this,” Penn says.

“How's Sam doing?” I ask.

Sam is a kid that Penn has taken under his wing for a while now. He's in the foster care system and Penn started out tutoring him through one of our charity programs, but they've gotten close over the past year.

“Sam's good,” Penn says. “But he's moved into another house again. I’m supposed to see him tonight and hopefully I’ll find out more about the new place.” He pauses for a second. “So Tru…I like that name, by the way.”

“Yeah, me too,” I say.

Clara walks in with my drink, and I’m happy for the interruption. I shouldn’t have brought up Tru with the guys—they’re not going to let this go easily.

“Thanks, Clara. This is exactly what I needed.”

“Hey, Clara. We need a woman’s perspective,” Rhodes says.

“Here we go,” I mutter.

“Our old man here met a woman he liked and then he went and wrecked it. What should he do to apologize?” he asks.

“When you’re thirty-six, I’ll remember to remind you how old you are.” I point at him and he just laughs it off.

“You’ll still be older, my man,” he says.

“You met a woman you like, Henley?” Clara asks, her full cheeks lifting as she beams at me. “You’re so sweet, you could never mess it up.”

The guys all scoff at that, including me.

“It’s true,” Clara says, laughing. “But…if you think you messed it up, you could apologize and give her a pretty bouquet of flowers or…a gift card to Luminary.” She winks when we all laugh.

“I told you flowers weren’t stupid,” Penn says. “And I like the gift card idea. Nice touch, Clara.”

She lifts an eyebrow. “But really, all you need to do is show her your charm.”

Weston points at me, validated.

Clara pats my shoulder and then sighs. “Don’t let these amazing shoulders go to waste. Look how happy Weston is with Sadie. We all want that for you.”

The guys chime in with their agreement and I chuckle. “Thanks, Clara. I’m happy though.”

“Mm-hmm,” she says, her disbelief evident.

The conversation moves to other things but keeps going back to Tru. I drink my Solar Latte and play with Caleb, trying to distract myself from thinking of that woman with the pretty green eyes and those full lips. The way she turned from warm and inviting to ice-cold sassiness. Finally, I give up and give Caleb a squeeze.

“I better get going, you guys,” I say. “Bree is still out of town, so the girls are staying with me again tonight and I need to make sure we've got everything for dinner before they get home from school.”

“You're going back to the grocery store?” Rhodes winks.

“Nah, I think I’ve done enough damage there today.”

“You know what, Henley? I bet it's not as bad as you think,” Weston says. “Just turn on that charm the next time you see her and she'll be eating out of the palm of your hand. I've seen it happen way too many times to doubt it.”

“I know that's right,” Rhodes says. “You’re not even trying most of the time, Henley, and women are falling all over themselves to get to you.”

I snort. “Yeah, right, when you and Penn are around you hardly leave anything for the rest of us. Not that Bowie or I are interested in all that.” I share a look at Bowie, but he’s shaking his head.

“I think you will be before you know it,” Bowie says, grinning at me knowingly, “and I think her name is Tru.”

I laugh and shake my head. “I’ve made a way bigger deal of this than I needed to. It was no big deal, just sucked that it happened and I feel bad that I was such a jerk.”

“I think you'll run into her again,” Weston says. “In a town as small as Silver Hills, you'll be seeing her again.”

“And if we see her first,” Penn adds, “we'll set her straight.”

“Don't bother,” I groan.

I stand up and give each of them a bro-shake before I leave the room and walk out the door. I never even checked to see the updates in The Single Dad Playbook. It’s best I didn’t write in there today anyway. So far, today has been a fail.