Page 49 of Love is Grand

Getting close, tucking her hair behind her ear, I said, “We’re having a baby, and I hear Weezie is happy about it. I want to have her to the hotel, spoil her, let her know I’m here for her.”

“There’s that whiplash again.”

After sucking on Shell’s earlobe a few seconds, I broke free and whispered, “Nah. This is what I want, and we’re doing it.”

I had no idea how I was going to pull this off—be a dad, a giving partner, cool to Weezie, and work. But I’d make it happen.

Shell

After I made sure Weezie buckled herself in the backseat, I drove off from school, willing my hands not to shake.

Weezie missed her dad, but was also angry with him. She blamed herself for his leaving. I knew this because she told me a few times, and I did everything I could to discourage this line of thinking.

Then she’d spent time with Adam and Rylan, and fell in love with everything that was them. They were all I heard about from her, things like, “Rylan said Adam is bringing her coffee,” and “Adam carried me to bed,” and “Did you know Adam may get a puppy?”

In her mind, she dreamed of an Adam for me ... and now Cal showed up again.

“Mommy, can we go to the park?” Weezie asked, and this time, I had one better for her.

“Remember Cal?”

She nodded. Of course she did. “Your special friend? My baby’s daddy?”

I had done my best to explain that Cal had been a special friend, and we cared so much for each other that we created a baby. When I thought about it, it sounded like a crock of shit, but I didn’t know how else to explain my situation.

Even with his newfound caretaking gig and renting a house, Cal wasn’t marrying me. He was easing his own guilt and satisfying his curiosity, and probably wanting to keep the booty-call connection open. Which in a lot of ways didn’t bother me, because it wasn’t like I was going to date and get some with two kids at home.

“Yes,” I told Weezie. “He’s visiting and staying at the Grand, and he invited us swimming.”

Luckily, I was prepared for a reaction of mammoth proportions from Weezie, because she started hooting and hollering in the backseat.

“Did you bring my suit?”

I nodded.

“Yay! Can I get chicken tenders?”

The frugal single mom in me wanted to say we’d see, but I knew Cal would charge the entire pool menu to his room if she wanted.

“Sure can,” I said, wondering who the hell I was these days.

“See? I can swim,” Weezie later called to Cal from the pool.

He was sitting on the edge drinking an iced tea, watching her after ordering me to sit in the lounge chair. That was after the chicken fingers for Weezie and the grilled chicken salad and fries for me. Cal watched me eat every bite over his fish tacos from the other chaise in the cabana.

Of course he’d rented one, complete with a TV so Weezie could watch a show from her towel on the grass while sucking down a Shirley Temple. If she had stars in her eyes when it came to Adam, then Cal could hang the moon. He didn’t take his attention away from my daughter in the pool, his attention solely on her.

My gaze, however, was focused on his muscular back and the lines where it met his board shorts. Pregnancy hormones still had a hold on my libido. Thank God for Weezie, or we’d be back in his room already, the whole resort gossiping about us.

Cal got Weezie’s attention. “Hey, want to take a break?”

“Can I get ice cream?” my daughter, the opportunist, asked.

He nodded and walked her over to the bar where he grabbed a towel and wrapped her up before setting her on a stool where Teddi fawned all over her.

Next thing I knew, Cal approached without Weezie. “Theodora is going to get her a sundae and keep an eye on her. Is that okay?”

I wanted to argue, but I didn’t. “Thanks. She’s having the best day of her life, it seems.”