Saturday morning Ray pulls up to Debra's house to pick up Ally. He tries to muster up his courage to ask her out. He never thought he would feel this way about another woman. He walks up to the door and knocks.
"Hi, Come on in." Debra says greeting him.
"Hi. I hope Ally wasn't much trouble last night. She can be a handful." Ray says nervously.
"Oh no, she was fine. They had a great time playing barbie and watching The Princess Diaries." She assures him, "They're upstairs, I'll go get her for you."
"Wait," Ray says, "I wanted to know if you would like to have dinner sometime. Nothing fancy just get a pizza at Nemo's."
"Um, yeah. That would be great." She replies enthusiastically.
"Really? Okay, how about next weekend?" He suggests.
"Sure," she responds, "Well, I'll go get Ally." she says and heads upstairs.
Oh My God, Ray thinks, What am I doing? I'm not ready for this. But she is so sweet and pretty.
"Daddy!" Ally comes bounding down the stairs followed by Debrar and Lily, running right to Ray to give him a big hug.
"
"Hey Sweetheart, did you have fun?" He asks.
"Yeah, we pigged out and Lily's mom painted our nails, see," She holds up her hands with dainty pink polish on her nails, "Just like mommy used to do."
Ally hadn't mentioned her mother in several weeks. He hoped she was still moving forward and beginning to accept it better, "That's great Honey, Say goodbye we need to go get the boys at the ball park."
"Bye Lily, see you at school." Ally says, "Thank you Ms.Whalen for inviting me. I had fun."
"Oh, you're welcome. You can come over anytime." She says, stroking Ally's blonde hair, her heart went out to this little girl who missed her mom. She then turns to Ray, "So I'll see you Friday night?"
"Um, yeah, about 8?" he asks, "I'll pick you up."
"Great, see you then." She says as she closes the door behind him.