Zack(58)

“Maybe this is completely doable,” Ryker muses. “If I can find a good nanny like you have…this could totally work.”

“Sure it can,” I tell him confidently. Seeing firsthand just how well it is working out for me and Ben, I see no problem in encouraging him on this path. Of course, no guarantee he’ll find someone as awesome as Kate, but maybe he will.

And just thinking about her has my mind now running off in a different direction. As I glance at my watch, I know she’s getting Ben ready for bed. I had planned to call and check in soon, so I might as well do it now.

“I’m going to make a quick call to Ben,” I say to Ryker.

“Take your time, man,” he says with a smile.

I dial Kate’s cellphone, mainly because I know she has it on her and wherever she is, so too will Ben be.

She answers in a haughty voice. “He who seeks the most wonderful nanny in the world, speak and you shall be recognized.”

Shaking my head with a smile, I gaze down at my beer bottle and have a deep longing for home. “Most wonderful nanny in the world?”

“If you insist on calling me that,” she says tartly, “I will not stand in your way.”

“God, you’re weird.”

She rewards me with a husky laugh. Not a sweet giggle that she normally delivers, but one that is low and promising. It immediately makes me think dirty thoughts about her, and I do not need to be sporting wood in this bar.

Clearing my throat, I ask, “Ben available?”

“What do I look like?” she asks impudently. “His social secretary?”

But before I can even say anything, she’s pulled the phone away and I hear her say softly—indicating that Ben is right beside her, “Hey…Bilbo Booty Butt…your daddy’s on the phone.”

“Daddy,” Ben squeals into the phone. “I miss you so much.”

And, yeah…I’m definitely starting to like him calling me “Daddy.”

“Miss you too, little man,” I tell him softly. “So what did you do today?”

“Kate and I went to the library, then grocery shopping. We got a fake rat to hide in your bed,” he rambles on, and I hear Kate yell in the background, “Secrets Ben. We have secrets.”

“Oh, that was ’posed to be a secret,” he says, and giggles. “And I just finished playing Chutes and Ladders with Sutton.”

“You mean Kate,” I correct him.

“No, Sutton. She’s here. And Olivia too,” he says.

“Oh,” I say, absolutely shocked and confused that they would be at my home. “Okay…well, are you getting ready for bed?”

“Yup,” he says. “Kate’s getting my bath ready.”

“All right, buddy. Let me talk to Kate and then I’m going to have her put you on Facetime just before you get into bed and we’ll read a book together, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy,” he says, and then he’s gone and Kate’s back on the phone.

“Before you ask, Sutton and Olivia invited themselves over. I agreed and we ate dinner together, played games with Ben, and once he goes to sleep, we’re going to drink a little wine,” she says all in one breath of air. “And before you worry, I only intend to have one glass, as is Sutton, since she’s driving, but Olivia said she might have more than one since Garrett isn’t here to say otherwise. Any other questions?”

I blink repeatedly, staring at my beer bottle and willing it to give me some type of smartass response to tell her. I come up pitifully short and look to Ryker. No answers on his face either.

“No other questions,” I say quietly, still with no clear answers as to why Sutton and Olivia are hanging with Kate. But that’s a bear I’m not ready to tangle with right now. “Call me when Ben’s getting in bed so I can Facetime with him a bit. I’m just finishing up dinner and will be back in my hotel room before long.”

“You got it, Kemosabe,” she quips. “Be about twenty minutes. Later.”

And she disconnects the call.

I lay my phone on the bar and pick up my beer, kicking it back and chugging down the last bit. When I set it down, Ryker says, “Having another?”

“Nah,” I tell him as I get up and fish some cash out of my wallet. “Got to get back up to the room so I can talk with Ben in a little bit. But, dude…enjoyed the talk.”

And I did. I can tell Ryker will be a good friend. Maybe even better than Alex and Garrett because we have something in common. We’re both single men that have lost our women.

“Yeah, me too,” Ryker says as he holds a finger up to the bartender to order another beer. “Catch up with you tomorrow.”