Roseanne changed her clothes three times. She started off in gray slacks, slipped into a skirt, then slid on jeans. Jeans. Yeah, that was the way to go.
Calm and casual.
Glancing at her reflection in the mirror, she frowned. She was fooling herself. She didn't look calm. And there was no way anyone would believe she felt casual.
She messed with her hair for the hundredth time. She'd had it up, then down, then up again, finally deciding to let her blonde strands fall where they may from her ponytail.
It didn't matter what she looked like. This wasn't a date. After checking her reflection in the mirror one last time, she took a deep breath. Now or never.
By the time she loaded Miles into the car and headed toward the city, she was thoroughly exhausted. And it wasn't even nine-thirty yet.
This was a bad idea.
Sunlight glinted through the trees in the park as she and Miles walked toward the playground. They were the first ones there, so they sat on one of the benches while she tried not to stress out about a situation that was totally out of her control.
Her whole life felt like it was out of control these days.
Lisa and Aurora strolled up about fifteen minutes later. Roseanne's stomach took one odd roll when she saw Lisa. Her palms grew damp. Lisa was wearing loose-fitting jeans and an oversized t-shirt, and hiding her eyes behind dark aviator sunglasses. Her hair was down and a covered by a cap. She looked calm—and casual.
And dammit, sexy as hell.
Roseanne's gaze cut to Aurora. The girl sent her a wicked glare, her disdain for the entire situation evident on her face.
Roseanne straightened her back. It was going to be awkward no matter what. She might as well get it over with.
Letting out a sigh, she picked Miles up and set him on her hip. "Baby," she said quietly. "This is Lisa, we talked about her yesterday, remember?" She swallowed the lump in her throat. She'd tried to explain things to him last night, but the poor kid was so confused, she had no idea what he'd say or do.
Miles looked at Lisa, his little brow wrinkled.
"Are you my Mom, too?" he asked.
Lisa offered him a soft smile, "Yes, buddy. It's so nice to finally meet you".
Miles stared at her curiously, his chubby fingers reached out and pulled the aviators off Lisa's face. "You have the same eyes as me." He turned toward Roseanne. "Black eyes, Mommy. Not brown like yours."
"Yeah, I know, baby."
He wiggled to the ground and looked up at Aurora. "You have brown eyes."
Aurora crossed her arms. "No shi—"
Lisa nudged her in the ribs.
"...kidding, Sherlock," she corrected with a scowl.
Miles didn't seem to notice her sarcasm. "Come on. Let's go to the seesaw."
Aurora shot Lisa a pathetic look.
"Go," she told her firmly.
She rolled her eyes and followed Miles.
Lisa slipped her aviators back on. For a moment, Roseanne had seen her eyes, and they'd looked tired and sad and a bit overwhelmed. But she'd also seen pure joy flash in those deep dark orbits when she'd looked at their son. And in that one moment, she'd seen a part of Lisa she didn't know existed.
