This is from my current WIP (work in progress). Of course, I’ve been stuck on it for so long, I hesitate to call it current. Jeff is a single father, and Cole is his thirteen-year-old daughter. I had fun writing this scene. I hope you enjoy reading it. It’s first draft, my work, probably contains errors, may never see the light of day in a book, not for republication anywhere else, and all the other usual disclaimers apply.

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“When you going to find a mother for Cole, Jeff?”

Jeff took a moment to seal the envelope filled with a flyer for the Parents Without Partners fund raising bazaar, “She has a mother, Dyann. She just doesn’t have a relationship with her.”

Dyann handed him an envelope she’d just stuffed, “You know what I mean. She’s a teenager now. She needs a woman’s influence.”

Jeff sealed three envelopes before answering, “She spends holidays and summers with her grandmother, aunts, and cousins. She has plenty of women’s influence — from women who have known her and loved her all their lives. I’m not going to conjure a woman just because she’s a woman for my daughter. I can’t think of a stupider thing to do.”

“I’m just saying…”

“I understand. It’s not open for discussion, Dyann,”

“That’s not the way to snag him, Girl. I seen him come to these meetings for nine years, and he never give a woman a second look. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was gay,” the woman next to Dyann said.

Dyann turned her attention suspiciously to the woman on her other side, “So, just how do you know he isn’t gay, Sherilee?”

“First, you don’t have to be takin’ that tone with me. And second, the man’s sittin’ right there. You all but call him gay to his face. Ain’t a good strategy to getting him interested in you, Dearie. Now shush,” Sherilee waved her hand in Dyann’s direction, “I’ll tell you how I know. When Cole was younger, Jeff used to go out more than he does now. I’m guessing he didn’t find women who clicked with him, so it’s just as he says, he decided to make sure his little girl gets the best attention a daddy can give her. I’m sure if some fine woman comes along and bowls him over, he’ll be getting hisself some just like you’d expect any normal man would do. You just won’t find Jeff out hound dogging around like some men would be doing — gay or straight.”

“See,” Jeff added, “I could still be gay, but either way, I’m not out sleeping around or bringing strange people home for my daughter to wake up to each morning. And, to me, that’s what counts. That my daughter has a stable home life with a parent who loves her and is there for her.”

“But what about you?”

Jeff sealed more envelopes and passed them to the guy next to him who was putting stamps on them, “What about me?”

“Well, don’t you need adult companionship?”

Jeff looked around the table, “It looks to me like I have plenty of adult companionship right here.”

“But…but…what about…?” Dyann couldn’t seem to spit the words out.

Jeff turned to his right and looked Dyann square in the eye, “What about sex?” he paused slightly, long enough to draw a breath, “I think that’s my personal business and not appropriate for a discussion here.” Jeff turned back to the table and asked no one in particular, “What to you think the Spurs are going to do this year?”

This brought a flurry of discussion about their chances with newly hired UNLV coaching great Jerry Tarkanian as the head coach. The guys were divided about whether he could make the leap from the college game to the pros or whether he would be the savior for the franchise. Jeff didn’t care as long as his sex life, or lack of one, wasn’t the main topic for discussion among this crowd. He appreciated the support the group gave him as a single parent — he learned a lot and saved money on long distance calls to his mom or sister about easy parenting questions, but he didn’t like the singles bar hunger to pair off that seemed to permeate so much of the organization. He was as horny as the next guy, but that didn’t mean he needed to try to nail everyone he met who possessed a vagina.

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