Chapter 1
Charlie Spring did not expect, in the 27 years of his life, to be a single father to an incredibly sassy four-year-old named Remy. He didn’t expect to trade late nights of editing manuscripts for late nights of cleaning glitter glue off the walls, or to fall into bed every night exhausted but so deeply in love with this little human who calls him Dad.
What Charlie definitely did not expect, however, was to show up to preschool drop-off one rainy Tuesday morning and meet Mr. Nick Nelson—Remy’s teacher, who somehow looks like he walked straight out of a rom-com and into Charlie’s perpetually sleep-deprived life. And now, Charlie has a whole new problem: he’s falling head over heels for his son’s teacher, and that’s a complication he’s not even remotely prepared to handle.
No, Charlie Spring would not say he's head over heels for his son’s teacher. That would be ridiculous. He’s barely spoken to Mr. Nick Nelson—well, Mr. Nelson, as all the kids call him—and those conversations have been strictly polite: drop-offs, pick-ups, the occasional comment about Remy’s impressive obsession with dinosaurs. But if Charlie’s being honest, painfully honest, Mr. Nelson is a little bit of eye candy.
Okay, a lot of eye candy.
And maybe Charlie isn’t used to noticing things like that—hasn’t let himself, really—not in the four years since his world flipped upside down, leaving him with a baby boy and no idea how to juggle diapers, late-night feedings, and his own broken heart. But now, here he is, a little more settled, a little more put together, and completely unprepared to handle the fact that Remy’s soft-spoken, ginger-haired, unfairly hot preschool teacher might just make him rethink the whole "single forever" thing.
Now, it sounds crazy. It sounds fictional. It sounds fake. And Charlie kind of wishes it was fake, or at the very least fictional—something he could read or edit, because that’s what he does. That’s his job. But no, it’s real. It’s his life.
And as a writer, as an editor, Charlie could put many headings to describe his life. Single Dad Accidentally Falls for Son’s Teacher. Divorced and Destined for Embarrassment at Drop-Off. Or his personal favorite: Help, I’m in Love with Mr. Nelson and He Doesn’t Even Know It.
Unfortunately—no, fortunately—Charlie’s life isn’t just words on a page. It’s painfully, vividly real. And in this very real life, Charlie is a divorced man with a four-year-old little boy named Remy, who calls him "Dada" and "Daddy" (which melts his heart every time). And God forbid that day comes when Remy starts calling him "Dad" instead, because Charlie is absolutely not ready for that. His little boy is growing up too fast already, and everything else in Charlie’s world seems to be changing just as quickly—from the divorce to the endless juggling act of work and fatherhood.
And then there’s him. Sweet, infuriatingly good-looking Mr. Nick Nelson, who smiles too much for someone who probably knows the effect he has on people and who meets Charlie’s gaze just a little too often during pick-ups and drop-offs. Every day. Again and again and again.
It’s driving Charlie insane—the quiet conversations that feel like they’re balanced on a knife’s edge, the impossible daydreams about what it would be like to kiss Mr. Nelson, to run his fingers through that soft, tousled hair. But that’s too much. That’s getting ahead of himself.
Because the truth is, they haven’t even had a proper conversation. Well, maybe they have. If you count a proper conversation as a few sentences here and there, maybe even a full paragraph on a good day. Whatever floats your boat. But, God help him, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for Charlie to ignore the way his life keeps orbiting around a certain ginger-haired teacher with the kindest eyes he’s ever seen.
And yes, before this story begins—before Charlie Spring hopefully reaches the ripe old age of 80 and writes his life story with Mr. Nick Nelson happily tangled up in his arms in their shared bed, as old, gray-haired parents and grandparents—he has to start from the beginning.
The beginning is not exactly glamorous. Yes, Charlie is a divorced man, and not just divorced, but gratefully divorced from a very annoying, very manipulative, and very abusive man named Ben Hope. But we won’t dwell on Ben. Charlie doesn’t, at least not anymore, and for that, he’s incredibly grateful.
The truth is, Charlie has carved out a life for himself—a good life, actually. He has his own place, a routine he can rely on, and most importantly, a four-year-old son who lights up his world. His days are a blend of chaotic joy: finger-painting in the morning, cooking dinner at night, squeezing in work during naptime, and putting his little boy to bed by 8 o’clock. After that, it’s just him and his laptop, writing until the clock creeps toward midnight.
And then the next day, it starts all over again—drop-offs and pick-ups, breakfast spills and bedtime stories. It’s a cycle he knows well, a routine that feels almost normal now. But there are days, mornings especially, when he pulls up to Remy’s preschool, sees Mr. Nick Nelson standing by the door, and for a moment—a brief, fleeting moment—Charlie doesn’t feel like the struggling single dad who’s spent the last four years clawing his way out of the wreckage of his past.
Instead, he feels… better. Lighter. Like maybe the universe isn’t completely stacked against him anymore. And yes, fine, that feeling has a lot to do with the blondish, ginger-haired teacher who always smiles when he sees Charlie, who always crouches down to listen to Remy’s ramblings about dinosaurs, and who—God help Charlie—has the kindest eyes he’s ever seen.
So before we dive into 80-year-old Charlie, happily retired and penning this very story from the comfort of a bed he shares with Nick Nelson, this is 27-year-old Charlie Spring. Divorced. Still piecing himself together. And currently, painfully, incredibly obsessed with his son’s teacher.
And all he can think is: Oh, shit. I’m fucked.