Page 97 of Heartache & Playdates
“Peyton,” I said as I handed her a ten-dollar bill at the same time I heard my name from behind me.
“Peyton?”
I turned around and a man stood in front of me, who was familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on where I knew him from. He was tall with sandy blond hair and movie star good looks. He looked like he could be a Hemsworth brother, or at the very least one of the Chrises. Evans. Pine. Pratt. Or Hemsworth.
Was that where I knew him from? Was he an actor?
No. If he were an actor, how would he know my name?
“Hi.” I smiled as I tried to place him.
“Nick.” He placed his hand on his chest. “Nick Locke.”
“Nick!” I shouted.
Of course it was Nick. He had the same mischievous green eyes, and square jaw. He’d definitely grown into his lanky frame. He was filled out with wide shoulders and muscular chest and chiseled arms.
He pulled me into a warm hug, both emotionally and literally. He radiated heat and I gladly absorbed it. “I heard you were back in town.”
“Yep.” I wondered what Maddox had told his friends. Did they know about Lina?
He stepped back and wrapped his hands around my upper arms. “And that you’re in the BMC.”
“BMC?”
“Baby mama club.” Nick winked
Well that answered my question andthatwas the Nick I remembered. He was always saying borderline inappropriate things but getting away with it because of his charisma, and I didn’t think the deep dimples that kissed his cheeks hurt either. I’d always appreciated his bluntness because I knew where I stood with him. He had zero filter and in the world I grew up in, politics and the government, it seemed like people were always saying the “right” thing or whatever would get them what they wanted.
I would gladly take an ugly truth over a pretty lie any day.
“I didn’t know there was a club.” And if there was, I didn’t know if I was in it. It’s not like I had a child that I’d raised, and I wasn’t sure where that left me. I sort of felt like I was in parental limbo. I’d had a child but given her up for adoption.
For years, when anyone asked if I had kids, I told them no. But now, now that Lina was in my life, would I say I had a daughter but didn’t raise her? Would I say that I was a birth mom but had given my daughter up for adoption?
I didn’t know what I was or where I fit into her life. It made a lot of insecurities I’d thought I’d grown out of come back again.
“Wow!” His eyes unabashedly scanned me from head to toe. Normally, I would feel self-conscious under that type of scrutiny, but there was something about Nick that put me at ease. “You look fucking hot.”
“I do?” I asked, smoothing my hand over my wrinkled Roger Rabbit T-shirt and sweats.
“Yeah, you are a serious smoke show!”
The compliment didn’t come off as cheesy or even gratuitous, it was Nick, so it came off as charming. “Thanks. How have you been?”
“Good. I own a media group, have the number one trending relationship podcast, and am a dad.”
“I heard. Isabella, right?”
“Bella, yeah. She got dropped off on my front doorstepThree Men and a Babystyle.”
“I heard.”
“Yep. Her mom was young and having a tough time.”
“Yeah.” I knew that most people would probably have an opinion on Bella’s mom, but I knew better than most that people shouldn’t judge a situation that they haven’t been in.
I’m sure people judged me that I hadn’t stood up to my dad.
