Heartless: A Small Town Single Dad Romance

Cade: Luke’s birthday party is on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Talia: Can we bump it to noon? I have dinner plans that night and need time to get ready.

Cade: No, we cannot bump your child’s sixth birthday party to accommodate your dinner plans.

Talia: It’s only two hours.

Cade: Exactly.

Talia: I forgot what a stick in the mud you are.

Cade: Well, here I am. Refreshing your memory. If you can’t make it, please let me know so that I can prepare Luke.

Talia: Don’t be so dramatic. I’ll be there. I just might be overdressed so I can make it back to the city in time.

Cade: That’s fine. Luke won’t care.

Talia: What about you? You always did enjoy me in a pair of heels.

Cade: So did every other guy in town.

Talia: Fuck you.

“You’re acting weird.” I glance down at Summer, who is staring out over the back field, assessing it like it’s the Met Gala or something. She and Willa have been up since early this morning setting Luke’s party up in the hayfield, per his request.

There’s a bouncy castle and a tent with some weird fucking guy in head-to-toe khaki sitting under it who apparently brought snakes and lizards to show the kids. There’s another tent with a buffet-style table covered in things Willa has been baking for days. I know because I tested the icing by swiping it on her neck and licking it off.

It was fucking delicious.

She’s got lemonade with lemons and strawberries floating in it. It’s adorable. She’s got little plates with poop emojis on them that Luke picked out with her. The tablecloths match. Only Willa could take shit plates and somehow tie them into a beautiful outdoor birthday party for a six-year-old.

I wouldn’t have even let him get them, but she just laughed and tossed them in the basket. “Excellent choice!” she said, and Luke beamed.

“Yeah. I know,” I finally reply to Summer. Because I am acting weird. Willa and I have been sneaking around for a couple of weeks, and I don’t want to sneak anymore. I’m trying hard not to scare the shit out of her by being so sure about everything. But the fact of the matter is, I am sure.

I’ve made my mistakes. I’ve lived with the fallouts. I’ve spent years thinking about my life and what it would take for me to give someone a chance again.

And watching this woman plan what I meant to be a simple backyard barbecue for a kid and instead treating it like it’s the celebration of the century is just the cherry on top.

It feels fast, and yet it doesn’t. I wouldn’t have given in to this if it didn’t feel right.

“Cade Eaton.” Summer’s dark eyes are sparkling at me right now, and her jaw drops as she scans my face. Sharp as a tack, this one. I told Rhett once that I loved her because she was good for him but hated that she was smarter than me.

And this moment does nothing but prove that statement.

“You’re in love with my best friend, aren’t you?”

I cross my arms over my chest and look away. Love. I was never sure I could love someone in the way everyone talks about it. My heart has taken too many shit-kickings over the years. My mom. Talia. What Talia meant for the course my life took. All the things I missed out on, which I hate to even mention because I have Luke. But I’d be a liar if I said I never thought about what I might have done differently had life dealt me a different hand.

Maybe I’d be rodeoing. Or traveling all over North America, rolling in the cash that comes from selling top-of-the-line horses.

Maybe I’d be training all day and riding buckle bunnies all night.

All those maybes. But as I watch Willa put little weighted clips on the tablecloth so nothing blows away, I know that none of those maybes would have been right.

The hand dealt to me is what brought her to my front step.

“Yeah,” I grumble, still refusing to look at Summer.

She makes a satisfied little humming noise, and when I peek out of the corner of my eye at her, she winks and gives me a side hug. She’s so tiny that it’s awkward. She doesn’t have Willa’s height or long limbs.

“You should tell her.”

“Tell her?”

She shrugs. “Yeah. I think Willa would want to know that.”

I snort. “So that I can scare her away?”

Her lips curve up slowly. “I don’t think you’ll be able to scare Willa away,” is all she says before giving me another squeeze and walking in the opposite direction.

She drops a truth bomb casually and then just leaves me to overanalyze the hell out of it.

The party is already in full swing by the time Talia deigns to bless us with her presence. I don’t even have to turn to see her because I hear, “My baaabyyy!” in her high, sugary voice.

Her baby. I can’t even stop my eyes from rolling up to the sky when I hear it. It’s a ridiculous thing to say to a child you see once a year and walked away from without a goodbye.

I catch sight of Willa talking to my dad and some of the other parents. She’s wearing an orange dress with little white polka dots and a soft flowing skirt. I want to flip it up and see what’s underneath.

But now, watching the way she stiffens and her fingers crinkle in on the poop emoji cup she’s holding, I want to throw my arm around her shoulder and reassure her. I want to make her cheeks pink again because they’re going pale right before my eyes.

She wouldn’t want me to though. She’s too fierce, too proud. So I look away, because if I stay eyeing her, I’m going to do it anyway.

Luke gives Talia a stiff hug, kind of patting her on her slender back as she mauls him. I wish she wouldn’t waltz into his party late, when she wanted it earlier, and still make it all about her.

If nothing else, it’s very on brand for her.

“Let me see you.” She’s dressed to the nines in a skin-tight dress and high heels that are sinking into the grass as she assesses him. “How did you grow up so fast?”

I hear Rhett snort.

Loud.

Loud enough that she turns a venomous glare at him.

He just smiles back. “Hi, Talia. Long time no see.”

Fucking shit disturber. I always bite my tongue about her around Luke because I want him to make his own decisions about his mother. If he wants a relationship with her one day, I don’t want him thinking I poisoned him against her. It kills me but I know it’s right.

Which is why I bite back my laugh at her brittle smile and the way her eyes pinch. She’s like this beautiful mirage on the outside, all sour on the inside. And if looks could kill, Rhett would keel over on the spot.

Luckily, that’s not the case, and he raises his poop emoji cup toward her in a silent cheers.

Behind me I hear a snicker that sounds distinctly like my dad. I don’t turn, though, because Luke is looking so uncomfortable with everyone watching that all I can think about is getting to him.

“Hi, Talia.” I interrupt the awkward moment by striding forward with my hand out to shake hers as I give Luke’s shoulder a firm squeeze.

“Oh please, Cade. Are we so far gone that we need to shake hands?” Her giggle trills and grates on my nerves. It doesn’t sound like wind chimes the way Willa’s did that day in Le Pamplemousse or the way it does when I step into the house after a long, hard day at work. And Luke’s doesn’t blend in with it at all.

Luke stands there awkwardly, most likely hitting the age where he’s piecing these things together, noting the body language and drawing his own conclusions.

I stand woodenly while Talia wraps her arms around me. One hand rubs up the back of my neck, and I instantly reach up and grip her elbow, pulling her arm away, even as she sneaks a kiss against my cheek.

“Oh gosh”—she laughs—“let me get that for you.” And then she’s standing close to me, licking her thumb and rubbing at my cheek, trying to get the thick layer of lipstick off my skin.

Marking her territory.

It’s been years and Talia hasn’t changed a bit. She’s always playing some game. The difference is that now I see it. I didn’t all those years ago. I saw a pretty package and a willing body.

I was horny and stupid, and she was calculated.

“It’s fine. I’ll get it.” I step away as the surrounding conversation picks back up, which somehow makes me feel better. Like our complicated little family isn’t the center of attention. I desperately want to turn around and check on Willa, but I also know Talia will pick up on it immediately.

And I’m not subjecting Willa to her shit. Not until things with her and me are solid. Official.

I should have made things official already. I’m kicking myself now. The pads of my fingers itch to touch her, to run over her neck reassuringly. Possessively.

“Gosh, Cade. You’re like a good scotch. You just keep getting better with age.” Talia reaches out to run her French-tipped fingers over my shoulder, like she has some sort of right to touch me. Like she’s forgotten our text exchange earlier this week. She was always forward, and maybe she’s always been like this when she shows up once a year.

Maybe it just didn’t bother me before now.

All the same, I take another step back, pulling Luke in front of me and putting both my hands on his shoulders. “How have you been?”

“Good.” She glances around the space in the field. “You know, living in the city. Keeping busy.”

I realize I don’t know what she does, but I also don’t care. She showed up with another man one year, pawing at him like it was going to make me jealous.

It didn’t.

“In Calgary?” Luke asks brightly.

“Yes, honey.” She looks down at him with a big smile. “Handsome like your daddy, but with Mom’s blue eyes.”

“My nanny is from Calgary!” is Luke’s response.

“A nanny! How adorable.” She bends down to see eye to eye with Luke. “Is she here today? I’d love to meet her.”

Before I can interject, Luke tears away. I can’t blame him for wanting to be close to Willa. She’s a comfort to him, where this other woman who lives a little over an hour away can’t bother to visit him more than once a year.

I turn just in time to see Willa’s eyes dropping from my frame down to Luke.

I also see Talia glance over her shoulder and wink at me.