Page 25 of Doctor Holliday

“Wait.”

Keaton squeezed his eyes closed and hung his head over his phone laying on his kitchen counter.

“Did you say you have a date?”

Ruby wasn’t prone to squealing. Not since she had turned ten and deemed herself too old to act like a silly baby. And yet her voice had just jumped a few octaves—Keaton hoped it was just surprise and not disapproval.

He had been with a woman since he and Alyssa divorced. Not that Ruby needed to know that. The woman had been a quick little rebound thing, and she knew it. She had suggested it, actually. A businesswoman, a few years younger than him, breezing in through town on a quick trip. They met at a bar. She invited him to her hotel. They spent a few nights kind of using each other and kind of having fun. Neither of them had believedanything would come of it. Neither had wanted anything to come of it. Hence, Ruby never had any idea and never would.

Butthis.

Lucy.

Lucy Holliday was different.And she mattered.Already.

He needed Ruby, the number one woman in his life, to be okay with him dating.

Maybe more.

“I do.” He rested his hands on the Formica countertop and waited for her reaction.

“Cool.”

Her one-word response was so chill, soabsent even, that Keaton wondered if she was talking to him or if she was carrying on another conversation with her mom or stepdad.

“Cool?” He cleared his throat.

“Yeah.” This time her tone sounded a little bit like she was thinkingit’s about time. Parents got divorced. Happened all the time. Keaton knew that. It wouldn’t surprise him if half the kids in Ruby’s class were being raised by divorced parents. And yet, the casual way Ruby sounded right now made him sad. His parents had been married fifty-seven years when his dad passed away. His aunts and uncles were all still married. Sounded dumb, because after all, it was he and Alyssa who had destroyed their marriage and damned near destroyed each other in the process, but Keaton sort of missed the good old days.

When marriage was a commitment. Not the thing that happened after a show-stopping wedding.

“Okay.” He straightened and made his way to the refrigerator. He had made a seven o’clock reservation but suggested to Lucy he could pick her up around six. It would take a bit to get to her place, a bit to drive to the restaurant—weekend traffic wasn’t wonderful—and they could have a cocktail before dinner.

Keaton was a beer man. But if he was going to put on nice clothes and take Lucy Holliday out for dinner at The Harbourview, he could drink an Old-Fashioned.

“But wait. Dad?”

“What?” He froze again, waiting for his little girl to give him hell for his planned date.

“Where’re you going? What’re you wearing?”

Keaton chuckled as he pulled the fridge door open. He grabbed a plate of leftovers from last night and carried it to the microwave.

“I’m taking her to dinner. The Harbourview.”

Silence.

Keaton held his breath. Maybe that made her snap. Saying the wordher. Taking her to dinner.

“That’s fancy, isn’t it?” she asked him. “Mom! Is?—”

“Rube!” He cringed as she hollered at Alyssa, asking her if his restaurant choice was fancy. Alyssa wouldn’t give a damn if he took the Queen of England out for dinner. But still. It wasn’t her business.

“Yep.” His ex-wife’s voice carried over the phone. “Why do you ask?”

“Dad has a date.”

“Nice.”