“No, no,” he said quickly. Blow the operation. Like they were spies. So cute. “I could be there.” He couldn’t believe that she’d been the one to suggest it. “We can choose a place where I can sit at the bar and not be too noticeable. If you need to pull the rip cord, I’ll be right there. I’ll, I don’t know, pretend to run into you and invite myself to sit down to dinner. I’ll be your buffer. And then you can go home. Or whatever else you’d want to do on a weekend.”

He immediately felt like a nerd for suggesting that she’d head home. Just because he packed it in and spent the night in his boxer shorts after a bad date didn’t mean that Mary would. He could picture her dancing the night away in some red-cushioned basement club, or strolling along the glittering water at Brooklyn Bridge Park, a slim cigarette between her fingers. No. Strike that. Something about that image was wrong. He mentally replaced the cigarette with a big red sucker. That was better.

“Okay. That sounds good.” She paused for a second. “Do you have any time constrictions or neighborhood preferences?”

For one semi-dizzying second, John felt like they were arranging a date between the two of them. She was asking him where and when they should meet. He cleared his throat. “I’ll be free anytime after seven. I can meet you anywhere.”

“I’ll set it up with Estrella, then, and text you when I know what’s what. You’re sure you want to do this? Trick her like this?”

“The woman deserves it.” And John really wanted to see Mary dressed up for a date again. Though he didn’t say that last part out loud.

CHAPTER SIX

“WEIRDLY, I’M ACTUALLY free right now. Via’s getting Matty from basketball practice and the two of them are going on a date. Wanna grab a drink?”

Sebastian Dorner leaned against the cashier counter at Mary’s shop, one eye still on the gorgeous dining room table he’d just dropped off. He was a furniture maker, mostly custom, but every once in a while, he built something on spec and let Mary take a crack at selling it.

“Jeez, I can’t remember the last time you were spontaneously free,” Mary mused. “If ever.”

Sebastian had been a single dad since Cora had died five years ago. Any time that he spent with friends was carefully orchestrated with babysitters. And considering that Mary and Tyler were usually those babysitters, it was often a thing of great difficulty to go out on the town with Seb.

“One of the wonders of having a live-in girlfriend,” he said with a small smile on his face.