Shortly after Maci Bookout ended her bitter relationship with Ryan Edwards, father to her son Bentley, 22 months, last December, the Teen Mom star had a sweet surprise: an unexpected new love with an old childhood pal, Kyle King.
Did Kyle blanche at the prospect of romancing a single, 19-year-old mom? Not at all, Bookout says in the new Us Weekly, out now. "He was very understanding of the whole situation," the Chattanooga, Tenn. native tells Us of her motherly duties. "Since he wasn't scared, he put me at ease."
What makes the 22 year-old Coca Cola merchandiser King so special: "He's responsible, fun, and incredibly caring, and he's just a lot more mature than most guys," Bookout gushes. (Bookout and her little boy even spent the summer in King's native Nashville to be close to him during her college break.)
Once Bookout (a journalism major) "made sure that [Kyle] was really serious about me," she made the proper introductions to little Bentley. After about a day, she says, "they became inseparable!"
Adds Teen Mom's executive producer Morgan J. Freeman: "She was terrified Bentley might not warm up to him, but he did. And now they're having a great time together!"
King admits to Us that surrogate fatherhood took some getting used to. "It was a learning process," he says. "I wasn't good with kids before, but I've learned a lot and now I like it!"
To read much more about Maci and Kyle's promising new romance — how they'll manage their long distance relationship after spending the summer together, how Kyle pitches in with Bentley, whether they've "thought about marriage" — pick up the new Us Weekly, on stands today.
