CHAPTER 4
Brynn was vibrating with a combination of excitement and anxiety as she walked out onto her newly constructed deck. The deck she hadn’t really utilized since she’d spent a good two months building it. Out of all the projects that she’d wanted to work on after moving to the main house, this had been the only one that she’d managed to complete.
Sweat had dripped down her back and her muscles had screamed as she hammered, sanded, and stained the monstrosity, but she’d pushed through the pain by envisioning all the Pinterest-worthy nights in her future. A vision of being surrounded by friends with music playing as she sipped from a glass of wine under a blanket of stars had kept her going.
In the six weeks the deck had been finished, there’d been no friends over, no music playing, and no nights under the stars. All of her glasses of wine had been drunk in her bed while binge-watching Netflix.
It wasn’t that she didn’t have friends, she did. There was a time though, after Ryder was born, between work, school, and being a mom, she hadn’t really had any social life. Over the past few years, though, she and Ali and Jess had become really close. But, they had recently found their soulmates and were currently living out happily-ever-afters worthy of the romance novels she loved to read.
She, on the other hand, had given up finding her Prince Charming a long time ago. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in love. She did. She just didn’t want to expose Ryder to all the frogs she would need to kiss before one turned into a prince.
As she turned on her easy-listening playlist and music filtered through the air she wondered if the reason that dating had never worked out for her was because her life had always been a few steps ahead of her peers. She’d been a divorced, single mom before her eighteenth birthday.
She’d always done well in school and had taken summer courses and a few night school classes because she loved learning. When she found out that she was pregnant a month before her sixteenth birthday, she’d gone to her counselor and asked how many credits she needed to graduate. He’d told her that she was only a few credits shy. So, she’d finished those up and enrolled in community college. She got her associate’s degree at eighteen, her bachelor’s at twenty, and her master’s at twenty-two.
Now, at thirty, she was settled into a career she loved. Sure, working at the high school meant things were tight sometimes, but she also counseled people online a few hours a week for some extra cash.
As much as she’d tried to convince herself that her life was full, she’d been feeling restless. Her haircut was exhibit A. And exhibit B was that she was as excited as she was to share pizza with a man that she’d just met. It was a pretty big indicator that living vicariously through her romance novels might not be doing the trick anymore. It might be time to start thinking about dating again.
Her phone vibrated and she checked to see if it was Ryder. She wondered if she’d always react like that, even when he was an adult. Probably.
It was Ali.
“Hey honeymooner!”
“Hello! I just wanted to call and say thanks again for watching the twins last week.”
“Of course! They were no trouble at all.” Ali’s older brother Patrick had passed away last year, leaving Ali as the guardian of his twin sons. The boys, KJ and Ricky, were Ryder’s best friends, and they’d stayed with Brynn while Ali and Kade had gone on a five-day mini-moon.
“I was calling to see if you wanted to send Ryder over and have a night to yourself. I figured you’ve earned it, after sharing a bathroom with three teenage boys for five days.”
A night to herself. That’s exactly what she’d thought she was going to have tonight until tall, dark, and dangerous-to-her-sanity showed up on her doorstep. She wanted to spill every last detail to Ali, but Axel would be joining her any minute. She refrained.
“Ryder’s with Max,” she offered instead.
“He is?” Ali sounded surprised.
“Yep.”
“When’s the last time he’s seen him?”
Brynn had to think about it. “It was a few months ago. Eighth-grade graduation. He didn’t make it in time for the ceremony, but he made it to the dinner.”
“Ryder didn’t mention anything to the boys about seeing his dad this weekend.”
“We didn’t know he would be. Max showed up a few hours ago and asked if Ryder wanted to go camping.”
“Oh, that sounds…fun.”
Brynn could hear the confusion in Ali’s voice. Most people in Brynn’s life thought that she was too easy on Max. Many thought she gave him a pass on his irresponsible behavior. And she saw their point. But as someone who grew up without a dad, she didn’t want that for their son. As long as he wasn’t being hurt by Max’s behavior she had to follow her gut and do what she felt was best for Ryder.
So, if Max came around and Ryder wanted to see his dad, then he did. If he didn’t, then Brynn made up an excuse for him.
“Are we still on for brunch tomorrow?” Ali asked.
“Yep.”
“See you tomorrow,” her friend sing-songed.