the idea of seeing her again. It had been, what, two weeks ago now?
“Why are we going here first?” Connor asked.
“Because your uncle is in desperate need of coffee.”
That was true, anyway. He’d stayed till around one a.m. at the office the night before, updating a presentation, immediately scrapping the update after getting new information from Elaine, and then making a new set of changes.
When he’d gotten home, he’d taken a while to unwind, the way he sometimes did when he worked late. He’d watched a couple of episodes of a TV show before going to bed, which he regretted now. The show hadn’t even been that good. Depressing, too. He always teased Dee for watching Hallmark movies, but maybe she was on to something.
Despite the late night, Dylan had picked up his nephews at the appointed time, and he gave himself a lot of credit for that.
“You always need coffee,” Noah declared as they got out of the car.
“That’s right, buddy.”
They went inside and he quickly scanned the café. His gaze stopped briefly on a blonde woman at the counter, hunched over her phone. Not Paige. He felt a foolish jab of disappointment as he got in line.
Connor asked, “Can I get a cupcake?”
Dylan raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said you wanted cider donuts at the orchard.”
“I could get both.”
“Ha. Your mother would kill me.”
Connor straightened. “Miss Reynolds!” Dylan looked up, startled, as Connor trotted over toward someone. A blonde woman in a bright blue sweater…
Holy smokes. It was Paige. And Connor knew her? She met Dylan’s gaze and her mouth fell open.
Connor reached her side, and she beamed down at him. “Hi there! How are you?” Dylan got out of line and walked up to her with Noah.
Paige’s brow furrowed slightly in confusion. The sweater brought out the blue in her eyes, bright as an October sky.
“You’re not Connor’s dad.”
“Uh, no. Uncle.” He found himself short of breath. “I’m his mom’s sister—her brother.” He didn’t usually trip over his tongue like this. A dozen times a week, he made calls to important clients. Even when they asked him questions that he didn’t, strictly speaking, know the answers to, he didn’t stumble.
“Connor was in my class last year.” She looked to Noah. “And you’re his little brother, right?” Noah nodded.
“She was my favorite teacher,” Connor told Dylan.
“I’ll bet.” He said it without thinking, a little more emphatically than necessary, and her eyes widened.
Connor asked, “How do you know her?”
“We met here a little while back,” Dylan replied, without quite being able to take his eyes off Paige. Again he imagined a boyfriend. Any moment, a man would probably come up and put a proprietary arm around her waist.
She said, “I’m kind of addicted to the pumpkin spice lattes here.”
“We’re going to pick our own pumpkins,” Noah told her. He was gazing up at her, clearly smitten.
“Wow. That sounds like so much fun!”
“It’s a place called Happy Harvest Farms,” Connor explained. “You can pick your own apples off the trees, and they have cider donuts.”
She nodded. “I’ve been meaning to go there! I tried to get someone to go with me, but they said no.”
“You should dump him,” Dylan said lightly.
Her cheeks flushed pink. “Oh, it wasn’t—it was my best friend. There’s no him.”
No boyfriend. She was single. This simple bit of information buzzed through him. She’d let him know that on purpose, too.
She turned to Connor again. “You know Miss Garza?”
Connor nodded. “I wanted to be in her class. But I got Mrs. Goff.” He made a face.
“Mrs. Goff is a good teacher, too,” Paige said in what sounded like an obligatory tone.
Connor shrugged, clearly unconvinced. “Why didn’t Miss Garza go with you?”
“I tried to talk her into going, but she’s very busy lately. She’s planning a wedding, and it’s very complicated.”
Connor screwed up his face. “Why?”
“Right now, they’re having some disagreements about flowers.” She cast an amused glance at Dylan.
He shook his head. “What a hassle. Everyone should just go to the courthouse.”
Her expression softened. “Oh, I don’t think that. I mean it doesn’t need to be big or expensive. At all. But it should be someplace special. Because finding someone you love enough to spend the rest of your life with, that’s amazing.”
“I—see what you’re saying.” He’d been talking to this girl for two minutes, and they were discussing true love. How did that happen?
She said with a laugh, “I didn’t mean to make a speech.”
Noah grabbed his wrist and tugged. “Let’s get apples!” Dylan didn’t blame him for being antsy. They’d been standing there in the middle of a coffee shop for a little while now.
“Have you ever had apples you picked yourself before?” she asked Noah. He shook his head. “They taste so much better than apples from the store.”
“You could go with us,” Connor said.
Awesome idea. Maybe having the boys around wasn’t so bad. He doubted she’d take them up on such a spontaneous suggestion, though, so he gave her a graceful out. “Miss Reynolds probably has other things she wants to do today. Though she’s definitely invited,” he added, as if that weren’t one-hundred-percent obvious.
“I’d love to,” she said, surprising him.
It took him a moment to remember it was his turn to talk again.
“Great! Uh, why don’t we give you a ride? We can drop you off back here later. That way we won’t get separated.” And that way, they’d have a lot more time to get to know one another.
“It’s better for the environment, too.”
“Yes, exactly.” That hadn’t been on his mind, but the fact that she thought of it pleased him. “Let’s go.”
“Did you want to get a coffee first?”
Right. He’d come here for coffee. In fact, until he’d seen her, he’d been
