That made her laugh. She knew there was no way I would ever ask her for money.

“You’re making me hurt, and I need to get back to work while Sammy is still napping,” the workaholic announced in a watery voice. “Text me later.”

“I will. Love you.”

“Love you too. Be my Diana and take what you want!” she shouted before the call ended.

Hanging up, I gripped my phone, took another swallow of the coffee I’d been drinking all morning, and headed back out onto the floor.

Take what I want.

I didn’t have to figure out what it was that I wanted. I knew what it was. Exactly what it was.

And that was Dallas.

But what the hell was I going to do about it? I wondered as I left the break room and headed into the main section of the salon for my next appointment.

Sean had his client in his chair doing what looked like a keratin treatment, and Ginny was sitting at her station, texting on her phone. She looked like as much shit as I did. There were bags under her eyes and she looked pale. She’d come in to work after I did, and all we’d done was wave at each other. I wanted to tell her about what happened with her cousin two nights ago, but…

Well, they were family. Distant family, but family nonetheless. You didn’t talk about matters of the heart with people who were related.

But I could ask her what had been bugging me on and off for months.

Making my way to her station, I leaned over and took a peek at her roots as she finished typing whatever it was she was sending.

Self-consciously, she lifted a hand to her ruby red hair. “I know. It’s about time you did my roots.”

Continuing on to the counter of her station, I leaned my butt against it and took in her clear, stressed but happy face. “Tell me when and I’ll do it for you.”

My boss nodded and raised her eyebrows, eyeing me closely. “How you feeling?’

“Like shit. You?”

“Like shit.”

I laughed and Ginny grinned. “How’d you get your car yesterday?”

“I made the kids drop me off. You?”

“The Larsens drove me.”

We both looked at each other for a moment before I finally blurted out, “Hey, is there something I should know about you and Dallas?”

She tipped her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Why don’t you like him?”

Her mouth formed an O shape before she closed it and sighed. “It isn’t that I don’t like him. We’ve never… hit it off. You know what I mean? When we were kids, he was serious and uptight. When we were older, like teens, it was always like he thought he was better than the rest of us. There’s nothing wrong with him. I guess I just never really gave him a chance. I didn’t know I was still doing that, but he can’t be that much of a stuck-up if he hangs out with Trip, I guess.”

It was my turn for my mouth to form an O. Just as quickly as Ginny had, I closed my mouth too. I could definitely picture Dallas being this mountain of judgmental black and white as a kid. He was still like that.

The difference was, I liked it.

Ginny kept going. “Now, Jackson on the other hand, what a waste of a human being.”

* * *

I am not going to look at Dallas’s butt.

I am not going to look at Dallas’s butt.

Nope. Not doing it.

Not doing it.

As if tempting me, Dallas walked by in front of me, all of his attention on the boy beside him during practice. Deep in the outfield was Josh, running drills with Trip and some of the other boys. But as terrible of a person as it made me, it was Dallas I was busy looking at.

Dallas and the skintight, long-sleeve thermal shirt he had on and jeans I was not going to be focusing on. I was too busy not thinking about Dallas to notice when someone took the seat right next to me. It was the divorced dad.

“Hey, Diana,” he greeted me, his hair combed neatly, hands on his lap.

I smiled at him. “Hi.”

The man, who had to be in his late thirties or early forties, gestured toward my hand, his gaze was wide. “How’s your hand doing?”

“Much better,” I told him, mostly honestly. I was better. Way better. But that didn’t mean it didn’t ache like hell after a few hours of working. I’d been putting vitamin E oil on it every night before bed, but the skin still hadn’t completely healed.

He hissed, craning his neck to eye my hand closer. “Sheesh.”

I pressed my lips together and smiled. “It’ll get even better.”

The man tipped his head to the side, still eyeing me. When he didn’t immediately say anything, I thought he’d let it go. Most of practice had gone by, and the coaches had the boys in a huddle, talking to them before he finally spoke up again.

“I think I told you already I’m divorced.” He’d only told me about ten times since we’d met. “I’m not dating anyone seriously.”

But he was dating someone, and trying to weasel in some flirting. Great.

“If you ever need any help, you could give me a call. I’d be more than willing to help out with anything you might need,” he said softly, obviously fully aware of how nosey the rest of the parents were and how everyone eavesdropped on everyone else.

I felt uncomfortable. Even though I didn’t want to, I tore my eyes away from the boys on the field and turned to look at this guy, knowing exactly what I needed to do even though I really didn’t want to do it. “That’s really nice of you to offer, but my dad helps me out a ton, and between the boys and me, we’re usually pretty good with most stuff, but I appreciate the offer.”