The man laughed. "Like ice fishing?"
"Yeah, like ice fishing," she said. "In fact, nothing fish related."
"Damn, there goes the whole afternoon." The man smacked the table.
She raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
"I'm kidding, of course." He chuckled.
Even though she opened her mouth to respond, the waitress came over to collect the check. Sebastian ignored the way the woman's eyes lingered on his bicep and handed her his credit card.
"Do you want a boy or a girl?" Sebastian asked.
She had been focusing on the simpering gaze of the waitress and blinked in surprise. "Pardon?"
"The baby," Sebastian said. "Do you want a boy or a girl?"
"I don't know." She chewed her bottom lip.
"Oh, come on." His grin was teasing. "Haven't you thought about it a teensy-weensy little bit?"
She blew out a sigh. "I guess. Mmm…Maybe a girl?"
"A girl, huh?" He eyeballed her. "Looking forward to buying all of those fancy clothes?"
"No," she said haughtily. "Well, okay, maybe a little. But mostly it's because I never spent much time around boys. I was an only child, and my dad worked all the time. It was pretty much just me and my mom growing up. I don't know how well I could raise a boy."
"I think you would do fine with either gender," he said.
"And what do you want?" She crossed her arms. "Let me guess. A boy, right?"
"Actually, a girl would be fine." His expression was wistful. "I can imagine a little girl with wavy, golden-blond hair just like yours. And green eyes too."
"So you want a mini me?" She was startled. "Why?"
"You have no idea how cute you are, do you?" Sebastian said, staring deep into her eyes.
His response threw her off guard. She drew back, blinking in shock, as she tried unsuccessfully to think of something to say. Luckily, she was saved by the waitress coming back with the credit card. Though saved was a relative term. The woman was once again eyeballing Sebastian as if she'd like to make a permanent home in the guy's pants. Sebastian once again ignored the woman's interest and stood up.
He extended his hand to her. "Are you ready to go?"
She hesitated before grabbing his hand. The guy tightened his grip on her fingers and pulled her to her feet. The two of them left the restaurant hand in hand, which was a strange occurrence after spending the last two years being single. She'd forgotten how palms became warm to the touch and how it felt when fingers intertwined.
As he led her down the sidewalk, her focus was still on his hand. She took a step toward his car, but he tightened his grip and pulled her away.
She frowned at him. "Aren't we going somewhere?"
"Yeah, but we're going to walk." His eyes twinkled.
"Walk?" She scrutinized him. "Where?"
The guy grinned and nodded at the park behind them.
"The park?" She was flabbergasted.
He tugged her toward it. "How long has it been since you've visited one?"
"Not since I was a little kid," she said. "Why? Do you make a habit out of coming here?"
"No, but I think we'll have a good time." He led her onto the sand.
Good God, the father of her child was a lunatic. "You don't expect me to play, do you?"
His response was climbing up the stairs and sitting on a double slide designed for two kids to go down side by side.
"Oh God, you do." She was ready to walk back to the bakery.
"It'll be fun," he said.
She shook her head. "How is this a training exercise?"
"When we have the baby, you'll have to come to places like this all the time," he said.
"I don't need to train to know how to push a child down a slide." She snorted.
"Well, then, it'll help me to get in touch with my inner child." He winked at her.
"I think you're in touch with your inner child already, if you ask me." In fact, he may have needed to back away from his inner child a few hundred feet.
"Do you know what I think?" Sebastian grinned.
"I'm not sure I want to know what you think."
Ignoring her comment, the man continued, "I think you want to go down the slide, but you're too scared of what people will say if they saw."
"That's not true." There wasn't anybody around anyway.
"Prove it," he said. "Come down the slide."
"Nope." She shook her head. "I know you're baiting me."
His eyes twinkled. "Chicken."
"I am not!"
"Bak-bak-bak." He flapped his arms as if they were wings.
"You're so juvenile." She rolled her eyes.
He continued to flap his arms.