her. She always responded, but he didn’t write back.
In early August, she and Katie met Seth and his two girls at a family restaurant that had crayons and puzzles to keep his young daughters occupied. The girls insisted on sitting on either side of Katie, which seemed to thrilled her daughter. She helped them color pages and played games while Seth and Holly talked about single parenting.
“I’m glad you and Katie could finally make it out to dinner,” he said. “My girls adore her.”
“She thinks they’re wonderful, too.”
“Maybe she could babysit some night and you and I could have an adult dinner somewhere, you know, with tablecloths and china.”
Holly smiled. “Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t know that I’m ready to let her babysit alone just yet. She’s only twelve.”
Katie must have overheard because, without looking up, she said, “I’ll be thirteen in two weeks.”
“Really?” Seth said. “Thirteen.” He looked at Holly. “Ah, the teenage years.”
She chuckled. “Don’t remind me. I don’t know how she grew up so fast. Seems like only yesterday we were pulling baby teeth.”
“Mom,” Katie moaned. “Don’t tell baby teeth stories.”
Seth smiled. He had a nice smile. A kind smile. A dad-kind of smile.
She tried to picture him leering at her the way Ben did when they were in bed, or giving her a smirk like Ben could when he knew he was being snide or funny. But no.
“I bet you were cute with no front teeth,” Seth teased Katie.
“It was awesome. I could slurp spaghetti through the opening.”
Holly rolled her eyes. “I’m such a great mom; I let my child slurp spaghetti.”
Seth laughed. Like his smile, it was a pleasant laugh. Not too loud. No braying like a mule. Just polite…unlike Ben, who would throw his head back and laugh like he wanted the whole world to know he’d heard something hysterical. He didn’t care what anyone around him thought about his laugh. Ben never brayed, but he would sometimes snort at things and those snorts would make Katie and Holly laugh.
After dinner, Holly and Katie helped Seth get the two girls into their car seats. Then Katie climbed into Holly’s car and shut the door.
“Thanks for dinner, Seth. You didn’t have to, but we enjoyed it.”
“I’d like to take you to dinner, Holly. Just us. A real date.”
“Seth.” She smiled. “Thank you. I’m flattered. I really am, but you know I’m seeing someone.”
“Seems more like you’re dating a ghost. He’s not here. He can’t be here for you when you can’t be first in his life.”
God, she hated that Seth was right. Ben would always be a SEAL first and a private citizen second.
“What Ben and I have is none of your business.” Her reply came out a little sharper than she’d intended. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
He smiled and touched her arm. “I like you, Holly. I like your daughter. My girls are crazy about Katie, too. I think we could be good together.”
Her heart ached. She dropped her gaze to the asphalt to steady herself before looking up at him again. “Good-night, Seth. Thank you again for dinner.”
As she opened the driver’s door, he said, “Think about it, okay?”
She nodded because words failed her. He was a nice guy. So considerate. Wonderful with his girls and hers. He was here and she knew he would make an ideal husband for someone. Was that someone her?
“That’s all I ask,” he said. “Think about us.”
That weekend, Katie went over to a friend’s house for the night. Holly called Diana and Bethany and invited them over for a ladies’ night in. She had the blender going with margaritas when the ladies arrived.
“Margaritas,” Bethany said. “Yay. Tell me we have chip and dip to go with them.”
“Of course,” Holly said. “Diana, margarita or wine?”
Her sister-in-law scoffed. “Margarita. Extra-large please.”
Holly chuckled. “Extra-large? What did the boys do now?”
“They were wrestling, nothing new there, but Harvey jumped off the couch onto Hank like they’ve seen professional wrestlers do and broke Hank’s arm.”
“Oh, my goodness,” Holly exclaimed. “When did this happen?”
“Last night. So, when you called today, I tossed all childrearing responsibilities to your brother and ran. Besides, he was sitting right there in the room when it happened. He should have stopped them, but no. He was watching the Padres on television.”
Bethany handed a large margarita to Diana. “Here you go, honey. You get the first one.”
“Thank you.” Diana took a long sip and said, “More tequila next time.”
Holly chuckled.
The ladies gathered