is gorgeous. Has cute kids. I can see why Slade fell for her.”
“It sounded more convenient than anything,” Shannon said. “At least from what you described.”
“True.” Erika clicked back to Slade’s profile and quickly scrolled to a photo where he was surrounded by a dozen beautiful women in bathing suits. As she tried to zoom in, her finger clicked the mouse, and she suddenly liked the photo.
“Oh, no.” Erika squealed. “Oh, no. Oh, no.”
“What? What happened?” Shannon asked.
“I just hit Like on a photo with all these women surrounding him. He’ll know I was stalking him.”
Shannon laughed. “Maybe he won’t notice.”
“Do I unclick? Do I unlike?” Erika sounded frantic.
How was she supposed to meet Slade for brunch with her son when he knew she’d been snooping?
“I’m sure he doesn’t even log on,” Shannon said very unconvincingly.
“Right. Even though he’s licking his wounds about the woman he reconnected with on this very platform.” Erika laughed, letting out a sigh.
“Hey, Mom. Are we going?” Scott asked, coming into her room.
“Yeah. Any second. I’ll just log off.”
“What were you doing?” he asked.
“Uh-oh. I’d better let you go.” Shannon hung up.
Scott started wandering over, and Erika went to click away from Slade’s profile but in her rush clicked Like on some other random photo.
“What were you looking up? The new PlayStation for your favorite son?”
Erika smiled and shook her head. “In your dreams.”
“I have been dreaming about it.” He smiled, and she gave him a quick hug.
“So, who’s this guy we’re meeting?” Scott asked.
“Just a friend of Drew’s. He had a rough couple of days, so we’ve been trying to keep his spirits up.”
Scott didn’t look the least bit bothered by this revelation. Erika didn’t date, but she had a lot of men who were friends. It wasn’t unusual for Scott and her to meet up with a North brother for pizza or one of the fellow coworkers from Silver Ridge for a quick lunch.
“I’m starving,” Scott announced. “Hey, can we pick up Jeremy for breakfast?”
Erika smiled. “Sure. Why not?”
Scott made his way to the door as he texted his best friend, and Erika glanced at herself one more time. She was wearing a yellow sundress and a white cardigan. Silver Ridge wasn’t exactly dripping in spring weather yet, but she’d been looking for an excuse to wear her new dress since she bought it a few weeks ago, and Sunday brunch won.
Meanwhile, the images of the swimsuit-clad women surrounding Slade made her wonder what he actually did for a living. He mentioned he owned his own company, but there wasn’t much said beyond that. By the looks of it, he owned some sort of beer company or maybe a swimsuit company. Why else would you have a dozen women clinging to you?
Not that it mattered to her one way or another.
By the time she’d swung by Jeremy’s house to pick him up, parked the car, and walked inside the restaurant, she didn’t care. In fact, she was one hundred percent over caring why he liked to hang out with large groups of women.
However, when she spotted Slade in the restaurant, she knew he knew she’d been snooping. He sat there so smugly it killed her to have to do a walk of shame. The boys were already eyeing the buffet tables, so at least they wouldn’t be paying attention to whatever Slade might say.
Not that it mattered, anyway. Slade was just passing through town.
“How are you doing this fine morning?” Erika asked.
“Doing well. Thanks.” Slade smiled wider. “You?”
“Good. Doing really well.”
The two boys looked at each other and sat down as the server came over and filled the water glasses and took their drink orders.
“Can we go now?” Scott asked. “I’m starving.”
Erika smiled and nodded as the two boys darted to the stack of empty plates at the head of a buffet table.
“Preteen boys.” Erika laughed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even introduce you to my son.”
“I can tell which one is yours.” Slade’s eyes connected with hers, and she felt an unexpected flutter.
“Really?”
He nodded. “He has your eyes.”
She sat back in the chair and beamed. “Thank you. I often catch his father in him, so it’s nice to hear.”
Slade nodded slowly. She could tell he wanted to ask, but he left the subject alone.
“So, you were online this morning.” Slade grinned and glanced toward the buffet tables. “Catch anything interesting?”
Erika rolled her eyes. “I wanted to see what Penny looked like, and the next thing I knew, my fingers started clicking things they