A Father In The Making by Carolyne Aarsen Page B

sigh. “It’s Nate. I don’t know if I’m overreacting to him or if I’m reading too much into simple actions.”
    â€œWhat actions?”
    Mia pulled her hands away from Evangeline’s, twisted her fingers around each other and let her hands rest in her lap. Her broken nails and rough hands mocked her. The hands of a florist.
    Not anymore.
    â€œRight now, Nico needs me a lot. Trouble is, according to Dr. Schuler, he also needs Nate. And it’s scary how quick Nico has attached himself to Nate and how easy Nate is with the boys.” And even more scary how she felt this heightened sense of awareness. “I feel like he’s winding himself into our lives.” Her foolish thoughts slid back to that moment in the flower shop–the brush of his lips on her forehead and the faint thrill it gave her.
    â€œ Our lives? As in you and the kids?”
    â€œI can’t let this happen. I don’t have the reserves—the strength.” Mia looked up at her friend, catching the sympathy in her eyes. “He doesn’t own a home. He hasn’t settled down since he left Denny’s parents’ ranch. I can’t afford to let him take up even the tiniest space in my heart. I have four kids. I have a divorce behind me. My life is a tangle of obligations and trouble and mess and there’s no way I can fall for him.”
    â€œAnd yet you have.”
    â€œNot all the way,” Mia said. “But I’m teetering. And I’m carrying so much baggage that if I tip even a bit more, I will fall. And I don’t know where I’ll land. And I don’t know if I can trust that he’ll be around to pick me up. I mean, what man would want to be saddled with four of another man’s kids? I feel like I’m making the biggest presumption in the world by even thinking he might be attracted to me.”
    Evangeline gave her a gentle smile. “I’m not blind. I see the way he looks at you when you’re not looking at him. No man looks like that at a woman he’s not interested in. I also think Nate is enough of a realist to know what he’s getting into by being attracted to you. And I think he genuinely likes your kids.”
    In spite of her misgivings, Mia’s heart fluttered and anticipation sang through her. Had that casual kiss meant what she thought it had? Could she dare think that he wasn’t toying with her?
    â€œNate is a good-looking guy,” Evangeline continued. “And he’s great with your kids.”
    â€œToo great for a single guy,” Mia put in, her innate common sense quenching the hope Evangeline’s words had created. “It takes nothing and he’s making the girls smile, Josh laugh and Nico’s eyes sparkle the way they used to.” She wrapped her arms around herself in a protective gesture. “Al never even could make the boys laugh the way he does.”
    â€œMaybe if Al had a cowboy hat and horses,” Evangeline said with a twinkle, her lips pursed as if considering that scenario. Then she grew serious. “I can see what your problem is. But I remember you talking to me when I was so confused about Denny. I had the same issues, only he was the one with the baby. I was afraid and you talked to me about how life isn’t always neat and tidy. That sometimes it’s messy. And you are right. Falling for Nate right now seems like a mistake. I know from what Denny has told me about him, that Nate had a desperately hard life before he came to the ranch. Maybe he doesn’t think he deserves any happiness. But maybe, just maybe, he needs a reason to stay. Maybe he’s never had a reason to settle down. Maybe you could give him that reason.”
    Evangeline’s quietly spoken words wound themselves around Mia’s lonely and confused heart. But even as the part of her that still longed for her own happy ending, even as the part of her that still hoped romance would come