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Dean had taught rookies how to improve their shot, shown teammates how to tweak their stick handling, and managed a rowdy roster of hockey players with more than their fair share of ego.

He’d never taught a kid how to ride a bike.

Before he could respond, Vivian stepped outside with a juice box, obviously surprised when she saw him standing there with Pip. Apparently, Victor hadn’t shared his guest list with her, either.

She smiled, lifting her hand in greeting. “Well, hello, stranger,” she said, with an ease that instantly calmed him down. He’d been a bit worried about how she might react toward him after their last encounter. A one-night stand in Boston was one thing, but continuing the affair was another.

Vivian hadn’t cried after their interlude on the couch. Not that he’d expected tears. While she’d been blindsided by that outburst of emotion in Boston, to Dean, it made perfect sense. It would have been weird if she hadn’t been impacted by the moment, stuck in that place where she was moving forward and looking back at the same time. Dean suspected if he’d been in her shoes, he would have broken down as well.

“We’ve got a mechanical issue,” he said, holding up the detached training wheel.

“I can see that.”

Pip turned toward her mother. “Can I take the other one off?”

Vivian stopped beside them, her eyes moving from the bike to the wheel in Dean’s hand. He could practically see the debate playing out in her expression. Pride in her daughter, warring with a healthy dose of overprotectiveness.

“Pip,” Vivian started.

Pip’s stubborn stance—legs spread, arms crossed—made it clear she wasn’t going to back down. “I don’t need them anymore.”

“You might not,” Vivian agreed. “But they do make crashing less likely.”

“Nobody in my class still has training wheels,” Pip insisted, hitting her mother with the same argument she’d used on him.

Vivian looked at Dean, closing her eyes dramatically. “I didn’t think I’d have to deal with those kinds of comparisons until middle school,” she murmured to him. “And I figured it would be in regards to tech stuff…like a cell phone.”

Pip heard but clearly didn’t understand what that meant, or why Dean was chuckling.

“You’ve raised a precocious kid. Well done, you.” Dean was only half joking about that, because Vivian really was raising an intelligent, thoughtful, funny child.

She crinkled her nose in response to his comment before turning her attention back to Pip. Vivian was going to say no. Dean could see it, and so could Pip, whose shoulders sagged.

“I don’t mind teaching her,” he said, before fully thinking it through. He wasn’t sure why Pip’s unhappiness bothered him so much, but it did.

Vivian studied him.

“Only if you’re okay with it,” he hastily added.

Way to fucking overstep, idiot.

“You’d really do that?” Vivian asked.

He nodded as Pip started bouncing up and down excitedly.

“I suppose it is time,” Vivian conceded. “Okay. No more training wheels.”

Pip let out a squeal loud enough that it probably echoed through the entire cul-de-sac. “Yes!”

Dean walked back to his car. “I keep a set of basic tools in my truck. Just in case.” He retrieved a wrench from the toolbox before returning to the bike. He removed the remaining training wheel as Pip watched him with rapt attention.

“There,” he said a minute later, setting both training wheels just outside the garage.

Pip stared at her bicycle. “It looks different.”

“It is different,” her mother reminded her, in a tone that said she was having second thoughts.

“It looks fast!” Pip grinned, revealing a true daredevil’s heart that caused Vivian to groan.