Page 96 of Now and Then

She smirks. “The fact that you eat like a wild animal makes me feel marginally better.”

I swallow. “Uh-uh, don’t bullshit me, woman. What were you going to say?”

Silence overtakes the kitchen.

I can practically see her mind turn over and over.

“It’s just . . .” She looks at the ground. “I don’t look like you and Greer.”

“Explain.”

She huffs and takes a bite of her egg roll. This woman is so apt to dispel her own advice, forcing me and Greer to open up when she’s a vault.

“I went on a date last night,” she mumbles quietly.

“Wait, you did?” I’m shocked. I knew she still had her Find Love profile, but she hasn’t mentioned any plans to go on dates. “How did it go?”

“Lasted all of about three minutes.” Her shoulders slump.

“Okay, and what else?”

“We met at that new burger place. The one near the movie theater in Willow Ridge?”

I know it. It’s new, kind of a hipster joint with an outdoor area with yard games.

“This is so embarrassing.” Her voice sounds completely defeated, something I’ve never heard from her before. Navy sits at one of the newly delivered barstools, crosses her arms in front of her, and says, “We met outside the restaurant and were waiting for a table. He seemed nice, bit younger than me, handsome. We’d only been doing the small-talk thing for a few minutes when he suddenly says, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think this is going to work. You’re not really my type.’ At the same time, he makes this gesture to my body.”

My stomach drops. I’m sorry, but . . . I swear, those three words are my arch nemesis.

“What an asshole,” I say, taking her hands in mine. “Obviously, he needs glasses.”

“I mean, I get it,” she says. “I’m not thin or in shape. I’ve still got the last ten pounds of baby weight to lose.”

“And? Who cares?”

“Rowan’s in preschool, Sutton.” Her smile pulls up at the side in her quintessential Are you dumb? look.

“Navy,” I say while pulling up a stool beside her. I turn her face to me. “Any man who doesn’t see how beautiful you are inside and out isn’t worth your time. Who cares that you haven’t lost all your baby weight? You’ve been busy raising a wonderful kiddo, co-parenting like a rock star, and creating a life for yourself at Ground Up.”

“Yeah, but—”

I cover her mouth with my hand, earning me a death glare. “You are a bombshell.” I grin at her and pull my hand away. “If a man can’t see that, that’s his problem. And I’m almost certain Batman wanted to take you home.”

She rolls her eyes again. “He was being nice.”

“You are literally hopeless.” I push back from the counter, throw our trash away, and make a quick exit upstairs toward the master. “C’mon, hurry up and finish eating.”

A few minutes later, her feet pound up the stairs after me. I’m wrestling with a fitted sheet when she bursts into the room.

“Holy cow.” She freezes in the doorway, eyes darting this way and that. “Don’t ever let me give you shit about color choices ever again.”

“You like?”

Navy has excellent style, so I do not take her opinion lightly.

“Sutton, this room is going to look amazing.”

Relief washes over me in a way I didn’t expect. It’s one thing to picture the final product, but seeing it through someone else’s eyes—seeing it through Navy’s—makes it feel real. Like this isn’t just some project. It’s a home. His home. Maybe even mine someday.