To The Single Dad in the Store by J.S. Cooper

Chapter Nine

“I’m reallynervous for you to turn the phone on,” I admitted to Shelby as she took it off the charger.

“Why, Nellie? What’s the worst thing he could have said?”

“Nothing,” I said. “If he hasn’t messaged and he hasn’t called, I mean, it means he literally thinks nothing of me.”

“Wow…” Shelby looked at me, surprise in her eyes.

I frowned, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You really like this guy.”

“No, I don’t. I don’t even know him.”

“Yeah. You don’t know him, which is why I don’t understand why you care so much.” She shook her head. “But you like him. I mean, you’re not in love with him, I hope. But you care if he’s interested.”

“I guess I do. I don’t really understand why, though. I guess I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Here’s the phone. Turn it on and let me know. I’m going to go to the restroom. Tell me when I come back.”

I walked into the bathroom and closed the door. I didn’t need to use the toilet, but I did need to splash my face with some cold water. I was feeling emotional. I wasn’t sure why the hot dad bothered me so much. Maybe because our interactions had felt personal in some way. Maybe because when I looked into his eyes, I felt a connection and a chemistry with him that I’d never felt with another guy. There was just something about him. He was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, but even more than that, he was a man, a real man. And there’d been something about the way he’d looked at me. It felt special.

I took a deep breath, dried my hands and my face, and headed back into the bedroom.

“So …” Shelby’s eyes sparkled. “Guess what?”

“What?” Butterflies in my stomach were starting to fly.

“He sent you a message …”

“Oh gosh. And what?”

“He left you a voicemail.”

“No way.” My jaw dropped. “What did he say?”

“I didn’t listen to it, silly. I’m not that invasive, but his message didn't seem bad.”

“What did the message say?”

“Well, his message said …” She pulled up the phone. “So, Nellie, can I ask you why you decided to leave a letter for me? I can’t tell if you want to kill me or make love to me. Which one is it?”

“He did not say that!” Heat rose in my cheeks. “Oh my gosh. I can’t believe he said that!”

“Well, it’s a good question.” Shelby pointed out. “Do you want to make love to him or do you want to kill him?”

“I don’t want to do either. I just was trying to be friendly and give him some helpful advice and—”

“You told him he was bangable?”

“What?” My jaw dropped.

“I looked at some of your previous messages.” She laughed. “You totally told him he’s bangable. I can’t believe you.”

“I can’t believe I did that.” I put my face in my hands. “I’m so embarrassed.”

“Don’t be embarrassed. I’m going to use that line myself on someone.” She pushed a button on the phone. “So now we’re going to listen to the voicemail. Okay? I can play it on speakerphone.”

“Okay,” I said nervously. “I don’t know if I want to hear it, though. What if he tells me that he hates me and to never bother him again?”

“Girl, why would he call you to tell you that? He texted you, and you didn’t respond to him. If anything, it’s him that’s bothering you.”

“Yes, but I am the one that left him the letter in the first place.”

“Come on, let’s hear the voicemail. Maybe it’s not so bad.”

“Fine. You can play it.”

She pressed the button to retrieve the voicemail and put it on speaker.

“You have one new message,” the machine said while I chewed my lip anxiously.

“Hey there, Nellie, it’s me, Steele.” His voice was deep and melodic, and I shivered. It was so husky and warm, and I loved it.

“Not sure if you got my last message, or if you’re hiding somewhere in shame. But I figured if we were going to talk, it should be in person, not over the phone, and definitely not over text message. You’ve got my number. Call me. That is, if you really want to help me with my kids and possibly have some fun. I’ll be waiting.”

“Oh my gosh!” Shelby screamed after the message finished. “Oh my gosh, what are you going to do, Nellie? What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. That was kind of a crazy message. Can you play it again? I am not even sure what I just heard.”

“Girl, he totally wants to bang you too! He totally wants you to be the mom of his kids!”

“No, he doesn’t want me to be the mom of his kids. That’s crazy. He probably wants me to be his nanny or something.”

“He wants you to be the hot nanny that he bangs. Oh, this is totally like this porno that I watched last week.”

“Shelby, I don’t want to know about the pornos that you watched.”

“What?” She grinned. “It’s one of my fantasies.”

“What do you mean it’s one of your fantasies?”

“I mean, don’t you look up certain pornos?”

“I don’t look up any pornos.”

“Sure you don’t. When you look online for pornography, what do you look for?”

“What do you mean what do I look for?”

“Everyone has a type of porn they are into, right? Guys want to look for threesomes and maybe MILFs. I mean, I don’t know. I like to look for nannies and hot dads.”

“Really? Why? You’re not a nanny.”

“No, I’m not a nanny, but I like hot older men, and I can picture myself as a nanny to a very hot dad.” She winked at me.

“Oh, Shelby, this is way too much information that I didn’t need to know.”

“Well, now you have to tell me, what porno are you into?”

“What? I mean, honestly …” I paused. “Fine. The last porn I looked at and that was ages and ages ago happened to be strangers on a train.”

Shelby looked surprised. “Strangers on a train, are you joking?”

“No.” I laughed. “I just thought that it seemed kind of cool and sexy to meet a stranger and have sex.”

“Ohhhh, I totally get it,” Shelby said. “I’m so stupid.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It wasn’t strangers on a train. Was it?”

“What?”

“It was strangers in the grocery store. You totally do want to bang that man.”

“I do not want to bang Steele.”

“Oh my gosh. You said his name,” she said in a singsong voice. “Are you going to call him now?”

“No. I’m not going to call him.”

“Call him, girl. You don’t know what he’s thinking. He might think you don’t like him.”

“I don’t like him.”

“Yeah, right.” Shelby handed me the phone. “Call him. Okay?”

“I’m not calling him. I’m going to start putting away some of my clothes. And I think I might have a shower before the pizza gets here.

“Okay. You don’t have to tell me what you’re going to do. Nellie, I love being here with you.” She laughed as she headed toward the door. “Now, call him because I want to hear exactly what he has to say as soon as I come out of the shower.

“I thought we were going to eat pizza.”

“Well, over pizza.”

“No, I’m not going to tell you over pizza because I do not want Hunter to hear anything.”

“So that means you are going to call him.”

“No, it doesn’t. What do you mean?” I said, flustered.

“You said you don’t want Hunter hearing about the call. So that means you’re planning to call.”

“Fine. Maybe I will call. I just don’t know what to say.”

“Just be cool, calm, and sexy. Your normal self.

“Should I tell him I’m in college?”

“Do you think he knows you’re in college?”

“I don’t know. Why would he know I’m in college?”

“Maybe don’t tell him you’re in college yet. I don’t know. If he asks if you’re in college, don’t lie, but if he doesn’t ask, don’t tell him.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to call him. You go and have a shower, and I’ll tell you everything afterward. Okay?”

“Okay, good luck, Chica.”

“Thanks, Shel.”

Shelby left and I sat in the chair next to my desk. I held the phone in my hand, grinning. I felt like an idiot, but I was happy, really happy. Not only had he texted, but he had called and left me a voicemail as well. I didn’t really know what it meant except that he’d thought about me at least twice and that he didn’t absolutely hate me.

And maybe, just maybe, he was a little bit intrigued by me just as much as I was intrigued by him.

I quickly dialed his number before I lost my nerve. It rang three times and I was just about to hang up when he picked it up.

“Well, hello,” he answered.

“Hi, is this Steele?”

“Yes, it is. And I’m guessing this is Nellie, my half-secret admirer.

“I’m not your secret admirer. I just said that to make you feel good.”

“Well, it made me feel very good.” He chuckled. “How can I help you on this good afternoon, Nellie?”

“I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t at the grocery store stealing anyone else’s groceries from their cart.”

“I don’t really think that’s considered stealing, Nellie. You hadn’t actually purchased the items yet, correct?”

“No. I hadn’t purchased the items yet, but I obviously was going to purchase them.”

“Well, just because you were going to do something doesn’t mean that you did. In contract law—”

“I know. I know you’re an attorney. Please, don’t bore me.”

“Well, that’s the last thing I’d want to do is bore you.” He laughed. “So I’m surprised to hear from you.”

“Why?”

“Because I left this message three days ago, and you didn’t call me back.”

“Well, I was busy.”

“Busy with your boyfriend?”

“No, I wasn’t busy with my boyfriend.”

“So you were busy because of something else, or you don’t have a boyfriend?”

“Why do you care?”

“I’m just curious because if you were my girlfriend, I would not appreciate you flirting with another man.”

“Well, I’m not your girlfriend. So it doesn’t really matter what you think. Does it?”

“You’ve got a mouth on you, don’t you?”

“I don’t have a mouth on me just because I can speak up for myself.”

“Well, you’re very opinionated.” He laughed. “I like that.”

“Really? You didn’t seem like you liked it in the grocery store when I was telling you how to look after your kids.”

“Well, was it really your place to come up to me in the grocery store and tell me off, Karen?”

“Oh no. You’re not going to call me Karen. If you call me Karen one more time, I’m going to hang up the phone.”

“Wow. You really don’t like that, do you?”

“Would you like it? It’s not exactly a compliment.”

“It wasn’t really meant to be.”

“Well … it wasn’t.” I wasn’t sure what to say now. “What do you want, Steele?”

“What do I want? You’re the one that left the letter for me.”

“Yeah. Because I was trying to help you.”

“You were trying to help me by telling me I had insta-kissable lips and I was a bangable dad?”

“Well, no. I was just trying to buddy you up so you would accept the help. I mean, I—”

“So do you want to bang me, Nellie?”

“That is a really inappropriate question, Steele.”

“Maybe.” He chuckled. “Look, I really want to continue this conversation, but the kids need dinner, so I need to go and cook something. But maybe we can talk later?”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

“Or maybe I can take you on a date sometime.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“Or maybe you can come over for dinner sometime?”

“What? To your house?”

“Well, that’s normally what someone means when they say come over for dinner.”

“But I don’t even know you. I’m not going to go to your house.”

“Well, you know me and you know my kids, and you can’t really expect me to try and pull something with my kids there, can you?”

“Well, no …”

“And you said you wanted to help me with my kids, right? If you really want to help me, a single father.” He paused. “I mean, I’m not trying to pressure you into anything, Nellie. If you’re not interested, then I won’t bother asking anymore.”

“No. I mean, sure. I can come to dinner, and I can give you some pointers and some tips.”

“You seem really good with kids from the way you’re talking. Are you some sort of teacher?”

“Yes. Yeah. I guess you could kind of say that,” I lied. I wasn’t a teacher, but I could be. I mean, I did teach Shelby how to flirt with guys when we were in high school. I knew that was a lame way of trying to make myself feel better for the lie. But I wasn’t about to say, No I’m in college and I have no idea what I’m going to do when I graduate.

“Awesome. What grade do you teach?”

“Well, let’s talk about this more at dinner,” I said with a small laugh. I did not want him to ask me any more questions about teaching.

“So when do you want to come for dinner?”

“Well, you’re inviting me. Shouldn’t you offer a particular day?”

“What about tomorrow?”

“Okay. Tomorrow’s fine.”

“Great. It’s a date.”

“Okay. It’s a date, I guess.”

“I’ll text you my address, but I really gotta go. The kids are dying for my attention, you know how it is.”

“I know how it is.” I laughed like I knew, even though I really didn’t.

“Bye.” He hung up before I could make a smart remark about how nice it was that he was now paying more attention to them.

I blew out a deep breath. I just made a date with the guy from the grocery store, a single dad, for dinner at his house. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what to think or what to say. I was in way over my head, but I kind of liked it. It was kind of fun, and I was really excited to see him again. I just had to ensure that I didn’t tell any more lies. Maybe when I got there, I would explain to him that I had misspoken.

Well, maybe I wouldn’t volunteer that information unless he asked me.