Second Chance

I rush Danny into school and gave him a quick kiss before sending him off to play with the other kids. Danny had lost his favorite stuffed animal this morning and had to find it or all hell would break loose. Who knew that a stuffed German shepherd would become so important to the kid.

Danny had done really well with the move and had adapted great to his surroundings. I thought that he really deserved a big surprise so after I dropped him off for the day I drove an hour out of town to pick up a little surprise that I knew he would love. After a pit stop to the local grocery store I got the surprise home and took it out into the back yard. I was sitting on the lawn chair playing tug of war with Danny's surprise when a familiar voice brought me out of my trance.

"Cute German Shepherd, what's it's name?" standing in my neighbors lawn was the man I'd left speechless just nights ago.

"Jacob, what... what are you doing here? Did you stalk me or something?" I stood up from my place on the lawn chair.

"Might want to see who your neighbors are before you settle in." He hopped over the fence and bent down to pet the now wired puppy. He flashed a quick smile in my directions.

"Dog got a name?" he asked again.

"Haven't decided on one yet." His voice was slowly starting to melt my cold demeanor, or maybe it was just this Florida sunshine.

"So why can't you give me your number? You left me without much of an explanation last week." His smile faltered but the pup quickly brought it back to his face with all of his jumping.

"Life is just really complicated for me right now." I couldn't look him in the eyes.

Jacob looked out to the pool when he noticed the teenage mutant ninja turtle floaties by the diving board.

"You can't swim?" He laughed, amused, until he looked at the tree house, too big for an adult but perfect for a small child. As if a truck had hit him.

"You have a kid?"

I quickly checked the time on my phone only to see I had twenty minutes until Danny was done school. Shit, running again.

"Jacob, come over for dinner. I have to go. I'll text you with more details. I'm so sorry." I quickly stole his phone from his pocket and put my number in it under a false name. If he wanted to see me I could at least make him work a little. With that I took the dog and ran out to my car.

As I peeled out of the drive way I heard "See you later Bridge!"

"Mom whose dog is that?"

"Babe, he's ours! What should we name him?"

"Puck. I like the name Puck."

Well the kid really did like the hockey game. I wonder if Jacob could get us tickets again.

My phone started to buzz in my back pocket to see it was an unknown number.

*So whatcha name the dog?- Your Neighbor*

Oh he thought he was funny eh?

*Puck but I was rooting for Tuuka. Be at my house at 5:30. *I laughed as I pressed send.

*Not cute.*

I closed the text and got Danny into the car for a quick stop at the local grocery store to pick up some supplies for dinner. I had decided on burgers, hotdogs and mac and cheese. I knew Danny would eat and it didn't make me seem lazy to Jacob. The fact that I was trying to make him like me to some extent was alarming to me. I hadn't been with anyone since him, I'd been on dates but those were forced on me by friends. No one was ever good enough to bring home to meet Danny. Danny was fine with just us. He liked my coworkers but recently he started to ask where Dad was which I quickly invented the response that Dad was actually Batman and was to busy protecting Gotham to come home. He liked that excuse so it stuck.

Danny had started to watch The Amazing Spiderman for the millionth time so I quickly put on the water for mac and cheese and started the grill. I was halfway through dinner when I sent Jacob a text.

*You like cheese on your burger? Or are you a hot dog man?*

Soon a very tall figure was standing next to me.

"I like cheese on my burger. I also like hot dogs. Looks good."

He'd changed into a plain white V-neck shirt and cargo shorts. I'd just noticed his full sleeve and half sleeve of tattoos on his arm. If he wasn't already dreamy now he was drop dead gorgeous.

"Good dinner is almost ready. Can you go stir the mac and cheese?"

He disappeared through the glass door and never came back out. I pulled the food off the grill and set it on the table in the kitchen, and quickly grabbed the mac and cheese. I found Jacob sitting on the couch with Danny on his lap watching Spiderman. My heart nearly burst out of my chest. It was too cute for me. All I could think was how cute Jacob would've been with Danny as a baby and how I'd deprived him of that chance. I broke out of my thoughts and called out that dinner was ready.

Notes

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