“Can I watch some of the game, too?” Matty asked, blinking those sleepy gray-green eyes up at his dad. His sucker dad.

“Sure.” Matty would be asleep again in about three minutes anyways. With his kid on his chest, his dog snoring into his thigh and his best friend across the room, Seb didn’t feel alone. He let his mind drift back to the date. The pretty woman and the warm good-night kiss.

He sighed. It might be strange, but he preferred the second half of his night to the first.

SEBASTIAN PLUNKED DOWN next to Shelly and Grace, two of his favorite staff members at the school. They were straight shooters. And both of them had lost their husbands so when they’d found out he was a widower, they’d sort of adopted him into their group of two. He sat with them at most of the staff meetings.

“And that hair!” Shelly was whispering to Grace. “My God, silkier than a woman’s!”

“I was too busy trying to pry my eyes off his face,” Grace whispered back.

“What’re we discussing?” Seb asked as he handed each of them a stick of gum, their usual routine before one of these meetings.

“The new counselor, Via DeRosa, brought her boyfriend to the end of our happy hour on Friday.”

“Oh.” Seb was surprised. Usually Grace and Shelly were gossiping about someone they’d seen on The Voice or Dancing with the Stars. Not an actual person.

“And let me tell you,” Shelly continued, “that boy could be on television with that hair.”

“I’ve met him, actually. At the farmers market at Grand Army Plaza a few weeks ago.”

“So you agree then?” Grace asked.

“Oh sure. Totally. Great hair.” He grinned at his two friends and leaned back, letting them continue gossiping without him.

His eyes wandered around the room and he did a double take when he realized that Via was looking at him. Studying him, actually. She jumped a little when he caught her eye. He sent her a little salute and instantly rolled his eyes at himself.

A salute? What the hell was that?

She apparently didn’t think it was the dumbest thing a man had ever done in the history of the world, though, because she sent a wave back his way.

The meeting was more of the same. Updates and policy reminders and handouts and the prerequisite get-up-and-jiggle-around as a full staff. This time, Seb found himself catching Via’s eye and grinning when Principal Grim had them bending forward into a shoulder shimmy, apparently to gear them up for the week. Via just grinned right back.

After the meeting, Seb picked up Matty from the after-school program and started digging through his backpack the second they hit the sidewalk. “You didn’t eat a single one of these apples I cut for you?”

“I tried one!”

Seb identified a single green apple slice with approximately three tooth marks in it. “Right. Well, it doesn’t count as your green thing for the day if you don’t actually eat it.”