1. The Intrusive Side

1

THE INTRUSIVE SIDE

T hree Years Later

Dane had watched his baby sister marry Royce Kennedy a few hours ago. Now he was enjoying the reception while his two kids were running around and playing in their formal wear and having a ball.

If it brought back memories of his own wedding to Mel nine years ago, he pushed it off.

His ex and he were divorced and were co-parenting their two kids as well as anyone could have hoped for.

Sure, Mel had a boyfriend. Her second one since they’d divorced three years ago. He hadn’t been on more than four dates in that time. All setups that he hated, but he’d been pressured by others to give it a try.

The fact his sister was set up by her employers only made him roll his eyes .

But at least Chloe was happy and Royce was perfect for his sister.

He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to say that about anyone in terms of his own life. That he had the perfect person or could even find one.

He didn’t have any ill feelings toward marriage and relationships, just that he’d failed at his and still looked back to see what he could have done differently and realized there was nothing.

He and Mel weren’t suited. End of story.

They had two beautiful kids out of it that were his world.

“Dane, how are you doing?”

He turned his head from where he’d been watching Tiffani on the dance floor with his sister.

“Hi, Carolyn. Diane. I’m doing well. How are you?”

“We are great,” Diane said. “Weddings are a wonderful thing, aren’t they?”

“They are,” he said. “Especially when the couple is in as much love as Royce and Chloe.”

“We are good that way,” Carolyn said, brushing her knuckles over her shoulder. “No one wants to give us credit, but we deserve it.”

Dane smiled at the two women and was thrilled they didn’t know him well enough that he’d worry they’d interfere in his life.

His sister swore that Grant and Garrett were the best employers ever, and from what he’d heard, there was nothing to say otherwise.

But the matching up of people to him was on the intrusive side.

Hey, whatever worked for people and it worked for his sister so he wasn’t complaining .

“I’m sure you let everyone know you get the credit,” he said, grinning.

“We do,” Diane said. “How come someone as young and good-looking as you is here all by himself?”

He snorted. “I don’t do so well when it comes to relationships in case you haven’t heard.”

Carolyn waved her hand. “Nonsense. One hiccup doesn’t mean you give up trying.”

He’d humor the two women. “I haven’t given up,” he said. “Just have a change of focus. The kids come first.”

“Of course they do,” Diane said. “Always. But we are glad to know you haven’t given up.”

The two women dashed away giggling like schoolgirls.

“What did they want?” his mother asked when she returned to their table. His mother had been mingling and half keeping an eye on Tyler. They had to divide and conquer when he was at these things and knew the kids couldn’t be contained together.

He was just happy Tyler was willing to not be glued to his side so much lately.

For a solid year or more, his son only wanted to live with him and not Mel. The exchanges every four days had gotten better, but that was only because he had to do a lot of convincing that Tiffani needed her little brother to watch out for her so he should go where she is to keep an eye on things.

As much as he would have loved to have full custody, he wouldn’t do that to his kids or his ex-wife.

Mel loved the kids and was in a good spot in her life. The kids were as well adjusted as could be and that was all he could ask for.

If he had to lean on his parents a lot when he had his kids overnight for his on call weeks, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

No thirty-five-year-old wanted to spend the night at their parents’ house, but it was better than letting his kids stay the night without him when it was his turn to have them and he was called in. He just stayed there too, and that way if he was called, the kids weren’t disturbed and were unaware of it but still looked after.

“Just talking,” he said. “Nothing major.”

“Are you sure they weren’t fishing?” his mother asked. Doreen Grey had thought the whole thing was crazy that Chloe had been secretly set up, but you couldn’t tell his sister anything. Chloe had always been headstrong, but it worked well for her.

Maybe if he was as strong as his sister at times and put his foot down, things would have turned out differently.

Then he looked at Tiffani twirling in her light green dress and knew that was wrong. Change one thing and you change the course of so much. He’d not change a thing if that meant not having his children.

“I doubt it,” he said. “They’ve got bigger things to think about. They are over there talking to Elise now. Probably trying to figure out who to set her up with.”

“How much longer, Dad?” Tyler asked, running over to him. “I want to get out of this suit.”

“I don’t blame you,” he said, pulling his son close to him and under his arm. “I want to get out of mine too.”

“But you wear a tie all the time. These are horrible.” Tyler was grabbing his tie that was loose on his neck and pretending to hang himself with it in a silly fashion like his kids always were.

He grinned and winked at his mother. “They are pretty bad. The wedding is winding down. Let’s go gather your sister.”

“Can we get pizza, please? I didn’t like dinner.”

He knew his kids wouldn’t eat much of the wedding food. Though he felt they ate well, it was a little rich and fancy for their liking.

“I suppose we could stop and get pizza on the way home. I can order it now.”

“Yes!” Tyler said, doing a fist pump and running out to get his sister.

“You’re a good dad,” his mother said.

“I try to be.”

“You don’t need to try,” his mother said. “It’s in your blood and don’t ever let anyone take that away from you.”

He sighed. “Mom, no one has.”

“That’s right,” his mother said. “No one could say you weren’t a great father.”

“Just a lousy husband,” he added.

“You weren’t that either. Melanie wanted something no one could give her. Why do you think after two years she and her last boyfriend broke up? This one won’t last either. Tiffani doesn’t like Ethan.”

This was news to him. “Why doesn’t she like Ethan? What did she say?”

“Just that Melanie would rather spend time with Ethan than them. Or more like Ethan always tells them to go find something else to do in their rooms.”

He let out another sigh. “She’s seven,” he said. “She still thinks we need to spend every minute entertaining her. Tiffani does that with me too.”

“And you do that with her,” his mother argued.

“No,” he said. “I don’t. She has to learn, unlike her mother, that life is about division and priorities. They are with me half the time and Mel and I talked about this. Neither one of us is going to spoil them. They are given the same rules at both houses and somewhat the same attention.”

His mother rolled her eyes. “You’re too nice of a guy, but I understand. And you know as well as I do you spend plenty of time with the kids.”

“I do,” he said. “Because the times I’ve got them when I’m on call I can’t. But I don’t want them to expect every time they are with me it’s a free for all.”

“Rules,” his mother said. “We know. We’ve got it.”

“Tyler said we are having pizza,” Tiffani said. “I want spaghetti. Can I order that instead?”

He looked at his mother’s grin. “I can cook us spaghetti at home if that is what you want, but I already told Tyler he could have pizza.”

“But I want to buy spaghetti,” Tiffani said. “Mom doesn’t cook it often. I get it out.”

He shrugged. “You can have it the way I make it. It makes no sense to buy that when I’ve got it at home for you.” Because she wanted to eat it all the time and he made sure he always had it on hand.

Tiffani batted her eyelashes at him and he kept his expression the same. She knew he didn’t give in often and wouldn’t now. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll eat pizza. Mom normally lets me have my way though.”

“I’m not Mom,” he said. “But you can pick toppings on one side for you and Tyler can on the other side.”

“Sweet,” Tiffani said. “I want mushrooms and black olives.”

“Ewww,” Tyler said. “I don’t like black olives.”

“There won’t be any on your side,” Dane said. He didn’t want to get into a battle here about this .

“But the juices move to my side,” Tyler whined.

“Nope,” he said. “Olives don’t have juice. When the pit comes out all the juice does too.”

“It does?” Tyler asked.

“Yes,” his mother said. “Juice free olives go on pizza.”

“Okay,” Tyler said. “I want sausage on my half. And you’re going to eat my side, right?”

His mother was laughing at him and he did what he always did. Played the peacemaker because Tiffani was frowning, as she’d want him to eat her side too.

“I’m going to have a slice from both of your sides because I’m starving.” He grabbed them both by the waist and pulled them close, had them giggling and added, “I might just eat the whole thing and leave nothing for either of you.”

“Nooooo,” Tyler said.

“I want pizza,” Tiffani said. “You can’t eat it all.”

He kissed them both on the cheek and congratulated himself on handling that the way he had. Now his daughter wanted it rather than giving him a hard time about wanting to order spaghetti.

“You’ve got a way about you,” his mother said.

“Glad someone thinks that,” he said and stood up, reaching for his kids’ hands. “Let’s get out of here and I’ll order the pizza in the car.”

“Elise,” Carolyn said the minute they left Dane’s side. They weren’t getting anywhere with Chloe’s brother so could pivot back to the target at hand. “How are you doing?”

“I’m great,” Elise said.

“You do look lovely today. So different than we are used to seeing you,” Carolyn said.

“It took a lot of work for this to happen,” Elise said. “Who has the time?”

She and her sister-in-law laughed. “We know that feeling well,” Diane said. “But we’ve had our fair share of weddings lately.”

“I’m sure you have,” Elise said.

“You looked nice dancing with Zander,” Carolyn said. “Almost like a couple...”

“He’s like another brother to me,” Elise said. “Eww.”

“I heard that,” Zander shouted from the end of the table where he was talking with Royce. Everyone knew what the two of them were up to...everyone but Elise it seemed.

“That is why I said it so loudly,” Elise said to Zander while she pointed at him.

“See,” Carolyn said. “You even get along well.”

“Sorry, ladies,” Elise said. She lowered her voice to a normal level now. “He’s not my type. A great guy but not for me. You’ll have to find someone else for him.”

“That’s too bad,” Diane said. “But we are up for the challenge. Between him and Gabe and Dane. All those eligible bachelors here.”

“We’ve got someone in mind for Gabe,” Carolyn said, thinking it was time to plant their seed. “Remember we talked about that.”

“Oh yeah,” Diane said. “Sorry. I just forgot.”

Elise watched the two of them look at each other. This might be working.

“I guess that keeps you ladies busy in your retirement, doesn’t it?” Elise asked.

“It does. It’s not easy coming up with ladies worthy of those men,” Diane said .

“I’m sure it’s not,” Elise said. Her eyes shifted to Gabe. He’d moved next to Royce and Zander. This was getting good in her mind.

“You really should let us try to set you up,” Diane said. “If not with Zander then maybe someone else.”

“No chance with Zander,” she said loudly again.

“You can’t blame us for trying,” Carolyn said, putting her hand on Elise’s arm and leaning in close. “It’s fine. We’ve got people lined up for Gabe and maybe Zander.”

Elise seemed to hesitate and the two of them took their leave fast while they were ahead.

“That was horrible of us,” Diane said.

“Nope. It was perfect. Now we just have to figure out what to do about Dane. Any thoughts?”

“Nothing,” Diane said. “It almost breaks my heart to see him sitting there by himself while everyone was out having fun.”

“He’s not alone,” Carolyn said. “He has his kids. Anyone we think of has to understand that.”

“We might have our work cut out for us, but that’s never stopped us before,” Diane said.

“Nope,” Carolyn said. “But tonight, we can celebrate in our success. One marriage and another on the hook and ready for the bite to let the world know what we’ve known all along.”

They laughed some more and moved closer to their husbands to compare notes on a good night.