to the settlement offer. We’re ready to sign the final papers.”
“The day you backed into the ditch.”
“Yeah.” My fingers curled around the wineglass stem. “I was so sure I’d made the right decision to leave Jake. In the beginning I was strong. I mean, it hurt like crazy, but I refused to stay in a marriage when my husband’s brains and sense of honor shifted below his belt.”
“He cheated? On you? Is the man blind?”
His words were good for my ego. Rather than go through the gory details, something I preferred not to discuss, I turned the question around to him. “What about you? What’s your story?”
“It isn’t pretty,” he said, focusing on his beer. “I knocked a woman up one night when I was too drunk and horny to care about using the proper protection.”
Rocco was nothing if not blunt. “Kaylene was the result?” I asked, seeing what he meant when he said it wasn’t pretty.
“I didn’t believe the baby was mine until Kaylene was tested. It shook me up, being a father and all. It wasn’t the way I saw myself. Up until then I’d pretty much done as I wanted, but this kid was a responsibility I couldn’t ignore. Her mother wasn’t much of a mother, and so I took her as much as Tina would let me. By the time Kaylene was three, she was living with me about seventy-five percent of the time. I worked for old man Potter, and we got along good. Then Tina got herself killed in a car crash, so Kaylene came to me full-time.”
“Potter sold you the business?”
“No, I couldn’t afford it. He never had a family, so when he got cancer, I helped him as much as I could, taking him in for treatments and doctor appointments. I lived with him for a while there toward the end, caring for him. When he passed, he left the company to me. That’s the reason I never changed the name.” He took another big swallow of his beer. “Told you my life wasn’t pretty.”
I appreciated his honesty. “You’re a good father and a good person.”
He shrugged. “I try. Don’t think Kaylene will sing my praises, though. I don’t want her making the same mistakes her mother and I made.”
The server delivered the pizza, and as if she had pizza radar, Kaylene immediately appeared. I reached for my fork and knife, and spread the paper napkin on my lap. Rocco held a thick slice dripping with cheese halfway to his mouth and then he paused. He set the slice down and stared at me aghast. “You don’t eat pizza with your hands?”
I hadn’t realized using a fork would make him uncomfortable. “Not generally, but I can, if it bothers you,” I said, and set the utensils aside. Reaching inside my purse, I pulled out a small bottle of hand sanitizer and gave it a little squirt, then rubbed the liquid into my hands. When I finished I took a slice of vegetarian pizza.
“Do what makes you most comfortable,” he said.
“Okay.” I reached for my fork and knife. It was the way I always ate my pizza.
Rocco grinned and I had to say his whole face brightened. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as classy as you, Nichole.”
I smiled back at him. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I meant it as one.”
I ate two slices of pizza and it tasted like heaven. Rocco consumed his entire pie.
Kaylene was up and down for most of the meal and complained when it was time to go.
Rocco walked me to where I’d parked my car and leaned over the top of the door after I slid inside. “Thanks for everything.”
“Any time,” I said, and to my surprise I meant it. I liked Rocco and I liked Kaylene.
Rocco stepped back, and I was prepared to close the door when he said, “If you don’t mind me saying so, I think your husband is an idiot.”
I smiled, soaking in the balm of his words. “I don’t mind in the least.” The truth was, I agreed with him. Jake and I could have had a good life together.
“Come golf with me,” Kacey Woodward, my best friend, encouraged me.
“I can’t,” I told her, pressing the phone to my ear as I wiped down the kitchen countertops. Owen and I had enjoyed our evening together, but we’d made a mess.
“Why not?” Kacey pressed.
“Golf and the country club aren’t part of my life anymore.” I’d gladly given that up. Sean was