Not Quite Dating

Swiveling in her seat, Jessie pointed out her son. “See the boys playing follow the leader?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s the one in front, with the striped sweatshirt.”

Jack’s face lit up. “He looks like you.”

“I think so, too.”

Danny’s head popped up to look over at her, then glanced beyond her to Jack. He said something to his friends before running her way.

“Hey, Mommy.” Jessie wiped his hair out of his eyes. He needed it cut.

“Hey, buddy.”

“Who’s that?” he asked, pointing at Jack.

“This is a friend of mine. His name is Jack. Jack, this is Danny.” It was strange watching the play of emotions stream over her son’s face. He went from curious to a little scared in a few seconds.

“Howdy, Danny.” Jack tilted his hat toward her son.

Danny’s eyes grew wide. “Are you a real cowboy? Do you ride a horse and everything?”

“I’m from Texas and have been known to ride a horse on occasion,” Jack told him with a tad more Texas in his voice.

Jessie sent him a Don’t encourage him look, or at least she hoped he understood her body language.

“I want to ride a horse, but Mom says it’s dangerous.”

“People fall off horses and get hurt all the time,” Jessie told him.

“I fell from my scooter; it didn’t hurt very bad.”

“Horses are a lot farther off the ground,” Jack told him.

Good, Jessie thought, he was watching his words.

“But riding is easy to do and not dangerous at all with the right horse.”

Jessie beamed Jack an angry look. “We don’t know anyone with any kind of horse, so there’s no need to get excited about something that isn’t going to happen.”

Jack met her gaze. “Actually, my dad lives on a ranch in Texas. He has lots of horses, young and old.”

Jessie pressed her lips together. “We aren’t in Texas.”

“Could we go sometime, to your dad’s ranch?” Danny asked.

“I think that’s a great idea.” Jack kept looking at Danny and ignored Jessie’s facial expressions. “Maybe someday we can do that.”

Danny tugged on Jessie’s sweater until she lowered her eyes to his. “Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“Texas is a long way away, Danny. You’ll have to settle for the pony rides at the fair for now.”

Disappointed, Danny turned toward his friends on the playground. “Hey, I wanna play,” he called to the kids and then ran over to them.

“Why did you do that?” Jessie asked Jack the minute Danny was out of hearing range.

“Do what?”

“Encourage him to visit your dad’s ranch? You know I can’t afford a trip to Texas.”

Jack actually started to look guilty. Which was good, considering the position he’d put her in. Disappointing Danny happened on a daily basis, from the toys she couldn’t afford to the backyard he didn’t have to play in. Promising pony rides in Texas was just mean.

“He seemed so excited.”

“He’s five. He gets excited about bubbles.”

“Texas is a three-day drive from here,” he told her.

Jessie crossed her arms over her chest. “Stop. OK. You know I can’t go. Between taking time off work, the cost of driving…Maybe in the five-year plan that would be doable, but it isn’t right now. I’ll be lucky if I can scrape enough together to give Danny any Christmas at all. A trip to Texas isn’t something I can make happen.” Jessie hated to admit it, but things were too tight for words. She’d even considered taking on a part-time job, but that would mess up the schedule she and Monica had worked out. All the fun things in life would just have to wait.

Jack looked as if he wanted to say something, something profound, but instead he lowered his gaze and offered an apology. “I’m sorry.”

The words sounded as if they were new to him, so Jessie didn’t push it. “It’s OK. I know you didn’t mean any harm.”

“No, it’s not OK. I should have kept my mouth shut.”

Jessie eased the tension with a smile. “Your dad really has a ranch?”

“Texas is a big state; lots of people have land there.”

“Seems like no one in California has land, outside of the farmers midstate. Heck, I’d settle for a yard and a fence.” She couldn’t even get a dog for Danny if she wanted to.

“I have a feeling one day you’ll get everything you want.”

Jack. The ever-optimistic dreamer. Cute, great kisser, selfless, giving, ambitious, and, she needed to add again, dreamer. Dreamers fluttered to a different flower when the need hit.

“Listen, Jack, about last night…” Jessie looked away from his gray eyes to study a couple of ants that had found a crumb on the table to attack. “That shouldn’t have happened.”

“What, the ride in the limousine? I brought it back, no one even missed it.”

Jessie’s shoulders slumped. Darn the man, he wasn’t going to make this easy. “Not the limo. You know that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Oh,” he said, acting surprised. “You mean that amazing kiss.”

She shushed him and took in the people around them to see if anyone was listening to their conversation. “It was a mistake.”