Begin Again Read Free Page B

on my way over. Abby only eats cheese, right?”
    That’s why she liked Zach . He was a super sweet guy and the fact that he was gorgeous didn’t hurt, either. They were taking things slow. They’d kissed and touched, but she’d been too nervous to go any further because of the kids. He was so great with them. She waited a month before she introduced him to either one of them and they both liked him immediately. Abby always talked his ear off, but he was patient and listened to everything she had to say. Joey loved to use him as his personal jungle gym. Zach never minded and would laugh and play along.
    She told him about Abby and the drama with her brother. He kn ew that Joey’s dad was MIA, and when she gave Zach his name, he unfortunately had never heard of him. Tomorrow night she was going to a wedding reception for one of his good friends and she was going to finally meet some of the people she’d heard stories about.
    “Pizza sounds great, and yes, she only eats cheese. She’ll be excited to see you and tell you all about her first week of Kindergarten.” Journey loved that he was sincere in his affection towards her kids. It couldn’t be easy being involved with someone with two small kids. It certainly wasn’t easy to have a social life with them, but they were her world.
    “Okay, I’ll see you in about an hour.” Zach opened and held the door for her.
    She wanted to kiss him, but there were people all around. Journey was just going to have to wait until tonight. Maybe after the reception tomorrow night she could ask him to stay over.
    “Bye , Zach.” He shut her door and she watched in her rearview mirror as he walked over to his car.
    Journey was just brushing out her hair when the doorbell rang. When she got home, she changed into knit shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail and scooped Joey up off the floor, going out to answer the door. She smiled as she passed Abby, who had fallen asleep watching some weird cartoon with a talking snake.
    Opening the door , she smiled wide as Zach greeted her with a quick kiss on the lips. She stepped back so he could walk in. He was carrying a large pizza box and a six-pack of beer. He set it on the kitchen counter then he grabbed Joey out of her arms.
    “What’s up , little dude? Do you have all the girls at daycare swooning over you?” Joey started clapping and nodding his head.
    “Swoon? How do you even know what that means? You’re a guy.”
    “What , us manly men can’t use the word swoon? Come on, Joey, let’s get Mommy.” Zach held Joey out as they came at Journey. She played along, pretending to cower against the pantry door. Joey growled at her with the ever present drool running down his chin. She grabbed him from Zach, sliding down to the floor as her little man grasped her face, squealing.
    Zach reache d down with his hand to help her stand up. She deposited Joey in his high chair with some cut up pears. As Zach got plates down, she went to wake up Abby. She didn’t hide her excitement at seeing Zach. While they ate, Abby told them all about her teacher and the friends she’d made already.
    “Aunt JoJo , can Zach sleep over? You can make him chocolate chip pannycakes for breakfast.” She didn’t notice both adults freezing. Journey could feel her cheeks heat up in embarrassment.
    “Well , uh, we’ll see about th-that.” She didn’t know what else to say.
    Abby continued to chatter away with Joey while they ate their pizza. After Abby’s question, things felt awkward with Zach. Journey didn’t know how to do the whole dating thing, especially with kids. Nan agreed to keep the kids at her place tomorrow night, so she could bring Zach home if she wanted to, and she really did. She was worried, though. He just got a taste of the inappropriate questions that kids ask sometimes and now maybe he was gonna realize that she wasn’t worth the effort.
    After dinner she wiped both kids down and set them up in