“No, I’m not. Sadly. She’s a bit of a . . . well, she’d say a romantic, but I think she crosses some lines in her quest for love.”

I can’t help but feel a small sense of satisfaction at the idea of Casey thinking I’m worthy of her son. As a mother, I know how prickly I’ll be someday when my child enters the dating realm.

But Cole and I are not in that realm. Right?

“I need to clean up a little bit of this mess,” I say, turning toward the pots and pans strewn about the kitchen.

Cole captures the crook of my arm with his hand and holds me in place. “No. You heard Mom.”

“Just a few things. Just let me pick up the trash and rinse the dishes.”

“If I let you do that, she will kill me.”

“Cole . . .”

“She explicitly said to leave them there.” He releases my arm. “My guess is that she knows you clean up messes every day, and she’s trying to give you some time off. Let her.”

“I . . .” She’s trying to do me a favor? That’s what this feels like. “Are you sure? We could make quick work of it.”

He rolls his eyes and motions for me to follow him out of the room. I begrudgingly follow, the idea of leaving a mess for the woman who fixed the meal eating at my conscience.

Cole picks up the remote out of his dad’s chair and mutes the news station on the television. I mosey around the room and check out Cole at various stages of his life.

“You were a cute kid,” I say, pointing at a photo of him with a big, toothy grin.

He comes up beside me. “Ah, third grade. I hated that year.”

“Why?”

“I was really fast and bigger than most of the kids in my grade. So I could throw harder and swing the bat with more speed than the rest of them. I took a lot of shit. It wasn’t the best time of my life.”

I frown. “The thought of this little guy getting teased or whatever happened to you makes me sad.”

“And that’s why you’re a good mom.”

I smile to myself as I walk to another cluster of pictures. “What about you? Do you want to be a dad?”

When he fails to answer me, I look over my shoulder. He’s standing next to the coffee table, looking at me like I’ve just asked him to solve world hunger.

“Cole?”

“I don’t know,” he says, running a hand over his chin. “I’ve always thought that I would be.”

“You’re great with the boys on the team.”

“I just . . . I’m in a very strange part of my life right now.”