Least Likely to Fall in Love (11 page)

“I’m glad you said
we
, Dad.” Maddie smiled, showing every single one of her teeth, and he had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “As you may know, my sixteenth birthday is approaching.”

Ryan held up one hand. “We will get your driver’s test out of the way, and as long as your grades keep up, we’ll buy a car in the spring. That’s what we’ve always talked about, and I’m not changing the plan now. I know you think you’re ready to be an independent woman of class and mobility, but give me a couple of months. Then we’ll pick out something nice and safe for you.”

Maddie narrowed her eyes. “Safe? What about pretty? Safety is a lot about the driver, and you know—” She stopped and held both hands out. “Let’s argue about the car later. I wanted to talk to you about dating.
My
dating.”

Ryan pursed his lips and slid onto the opposite stool. This he hadn’t been prepared for. She’d never shown a bit of interest in dating or an actual real life boy. Pop stars, yes. All the time. Movie stars, too. But even in her old school when the kids with more relaxed parents had started pairing up, she’d seemed oblivious. He knew whose fault this turn of events was. And he was going to have a serious talk with Principal Mason about throwing the kid in Maddie’s path.

“So we’re talking specifically about Eric? Has he asked you out?”

Maddie’s cheeks pinkened. “Not yet, but I think he might. I’ve done all the research I can on flirting, and I’m nearly certain that’s what he’s doing. The next step is a date, right?”

Ryan coughed. “Not necessarily. You’re going to flirt with a few boys who don’t turn into dates. Maybe he’s one.” His crossed fingers might count for something.

Maddie frowned. “He’s working on an anti-bullying project just so he can come to my house to play video games.”

Damn it. She had a good point. All signs were pointing to yes, Eric was working his way up to asking her out. Ryan sighed. “All right. Let’s talk about what you want to do when he asks you out.”

“He’s nice. Fun.”

He could hear the hesitation in her voice. “But?”

Maddie’s lips twitched. “But he wears two-hundred-dollar jeans to detention to paint. Who does that?”

“Well, people who don’t have any other choice would do that. People who don’t know any better. Kids trying to get back at their parents. Maybe it never occurred to him that he might get paint on them, or he’s never painted before.”

Maddie tilted her head to the side. And maybe he shouldn’t have been so reasonable. But the flush of his satisfaction from landing his first date in too long had made him a little mellow. And he could threaten the Eric kid with damage to life and limb if he had to.

“Which do you think it is? And let’s not forget that he was serving detention. Do you know what the issue was?” Eric had seemed a normal kid, not too delinquent. When he thought about how normal a kid he’d been at the same age, it wasn’t quite as reassuring.

Maddie nodded. “He doesn’t have anything else, but I’m guessing making his father yell would have been an added bonus.”

Ryan waited for the detention answer. Maddie picked at her cuticles.

“Spill it.”

“Oh, you know how teenagers are. Always looking for a reason to rebel, right, Dad?” Maddie patted his hands. “How lucky we both are that
I
never went through that phase.”

Ryan tightened his lips to contain the amusement. He had a flash of what it might be like to sit behind the principal’s desk all day long and thanked his lucky stars he’d never dreamed of trying that.

“Fine. He was smoking, but I’ve never seen him smoke anywhere else. It might be one of those things
some
kids do to get attention.” Maddie tossed both dish towels in the sink like a perfect jump shot. “And before one concerned parental expression morphs into another, I’d never smoke. Promise.”

Ryan hated what he was about to say, but it was inevitable. “Fine. Invite him to sit with us at the game.” He held up his hands as Maddie prepared for full-on attack mode. “I promise not to embarrass you on purpose.” If it happened accidentally, he couldn’t be blamed for that.

Maddie shook her finger at him. “Fine. You just remember my connection to Principal Mason.” She narrowed her eyes. “You do not want to mess with me.”

His daughter was going to be terrifying as an adult. Some man was going to decide he couldn’t live without her, and she would wrap him around her finger just like she had him from the second she was born. He already pitied the guy, but he was so proud of Maddie. She was going to get everything she deserved because she wouldn’t settle for anything less.

“We have an accord.” He held out his hand. Maddie shook it. And then she said, “Oh, no, what am I going to wear?” As she raced out of the kitchen, her pink cat socks flashing with each step, Ryan took a deep breath. He had more time with her. She was taking her first steps, but he’d stay close enough to catch her if she fell.

He propped his hands on his hips as he surveyed his spotless kitchen. “Well, nothing in here to do. Time to unpack a box or two.” All of a sudden he felt the strongest urge to find the box of photo albums. He could remember the days when Maddie’s biggest problem was which stuffed animal to snuggle with. And maybe for the first time ever he could flip through the pages of his old yearbooks without the twist of guilt in his stomach.

He flipped off the kitchen lights, checked to make sure the doors were locked, and climbed the stairs. As usual, he could hear pop music spilling from under Maddie’s door. She was already on the phone and, from the occasional thuds of shoes hitting the floor, gearing up to wow the Eric kid.

He bowed his head, said a quick prayer that all three of them would survive the experience, and grabbed the first box off the closest stack. “Oh, good. Knickknacks. Just what I wanted.”

He carried it into his room and set it down before he chanced opening the closet door. After the small avalanche stopped falling, he murmured, “I ought to do some gearing up of my own.” Squaring his shoulders, he waded in, prepared to find some Lincoln Lion red certain to wow Principal Lindy Mason. While he waded through his out-of-control closet, he could straighten out his tangled thoughts, too.

“You have no idea what’s going on, do you?”

Ryan’s deep voice and the shock of his warm breath teasing her nape as he leaned closer to talk to her in the crowded stands sent an uncontrollable shiver through Lindy. She’d been irritated when he, Maddie, and Eric scooted her farther down the bleachers.

But happy to see both of them, too.

Then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and rubbed her arm like the cold was getting to her, and she couldn’t walk away

It wasn’t. Ever since he’d sat down next to her, his thigh pressed firmly against hers, she’d felt a whole lot of heat, more than the October cold snap could defeat. She stiffened quickly and glanced around but no one was paying attention to her. All eyes were riveted to the action on the field. The Lions were at third and goal and…

“You aren’t supposed to be here.” She inched away, her arms crossed over her chest to show her disapproval.” Lindy shook her head. She bent her head closer to his. “But, no, I don’t know what’s going on. Don’t tell anyone. That has to be our secret. I’ve picked up a few things, like I think they might make a touchdown now, but I’m pretty sure I only have the broadest strokes here.”

Ryan glanced back down at the team huddled on the field. “Ah, well, a principal who doesn’t know football. I guess there are worse secrets.” When he turned back to face her, Lindy had to sternly lecture herself not to shift toward him. This close, it was hard to catch her breath, but if she acted like a swooning fangirl in front of her students, their parents, and the faculty that had come out to support the team, she’d be facing a failure of authority of epic proportions.

Still, she couldn’t resist him completely. She licked her lips and leaned forward to whisper in his ear, “You won’t tell on me, will you?”

This time Ryan shivered, and the thrill of success heated her blood all over again. His lips parted and she was anxious for his answer, but he was distracted by the gasp of the crowd around them. Down on the field…something happened. All Lindy knew was that there was no touchdown, the Lions were still down by ten points, and Blake Stewart had both hands on his helmet like he couldn’t believe his own mistake. Whatever it was.

“What happened?” She leaned around Maddie to ask Eric. “What did I miss?”

“Sacked the quarterback. Epic failure, Principal Mason.” He shook his head sadly.

She glanced at Maddie who shrugged her shoulders and then looked back down at the field.

“Shit. This is not the place for that.” Ryan’s disgust was clear. “Stewart’s down there yelling at his son. On the field. During the game.”

After he told her what she was looking for, she could see Blake with his helmet in his hands, head bent, while his father poked him in the chest. She couldn’t make out the words, but when he shoved Blake’s shoulder, she gasped and started to stand up. What she could accomplish was difficult to figure out, but Ryan was right. This was absolutely the wrong time and place, and it made her wonder what Blake’s life was like at home, in private.

Coach Ford saved her the trouble of marching down on the field to shove Blake’s father right back. She couldn’t tell what Coach was saying, but he sent Blake back to the sidelines and faced off with his father calmly. No matter how wild the gestures got, Coach Ford was implacable. Lindy admired his control. Faced with the same situation, she was pretty sure things would have escalated until she was wiping angry tears off her face and Blake’s father stormed off in disgust.

She had never handled confrontation well, but when she got mad, her angry sniffs to stop her nose from running had a way of ending arguments. Coach Ford was bored. Being a football coach probably gave him lots of practice with parental meltdowns.

When Blake’s father wound down, Coach Ford motioned to the stands and then returned back to the game. Everyone in the stands watched Blake’s father stomp back to his place two rows in front of Ryan and Lindy. He met every stare with a glare until he spotted Lindy.

“Nose out of my business, Mason. My kid can take it.” Then he recognized Ryan and Maddie, and a smug smile turned his lips like something had just become very clear. “Oh, I get it now. I guess that’s one way to get his attention, coddle his special kid. Work what you got.” He snorted and sat down.

The crowd was eyeing them curiously, but when Ryan started to stand up, she gripped his hand hard enough to get his attention. “Not here. Not now. I mean it.”

His lips tightened, but he gave a small nod and eased back on the bleacher. For the rest of the game, Lindy did her best to pretend everything was hunky-dory. Maddie helped by asking her father crazy football questions, things even Lindy knew the answers to. At first Ryan grunted through every question, but when he caught on to her game, he shook his head at her and started inventing creative answers. By the time the game was over and the Lions had come from behind to squeak out a victory, Lindy thought they’d transitioned from football to some combination of water polo and hockey. Since all sports were a foreign language to her, she couldn’t be sure, but the whole group was laughing by the time the clock ran out.

Ryan got up to go talk to a client while they waited for the stands to empty. Maddie and Eric joined a group of kids milling around on the field. And Lindy met Matt Stewart’s angry frown head on. “Got something to say to me?”

Lindy shook her head. “It’s harder to intimidate me, Mr. Stewart. I’m not a child.”

He rolled his eyes. “Right. Got it. You can have your boyfriend beat me up.”

Before she could answer, Ryan was back. He wrapped his arm over her shoulder and said, “Everything okay here?”

Blake’s father rolled his eyes. “First, it’s your daughter. Now, it’s your date. Got a real thing for the chicks who need rescuing, don’t you, Myers? No wonder you had to defend her honor the other day. Might make it hard to get lucky otherwise.”

Lindy raised an eyebrow at Ryan, but he ignored her and stepped down the bleachers until he was in Matt Stewart’s face. “Like to pick on people you can push around, don’t you? Cowards always do.”

Shaking her head, Lindy clambered down behind Ryan and then elbowed her way between them. Ryan’s grunt as she pushed through would have made her laugh, but she was focusing on not getting mad.

“Mr. Stewart, I don’t need anyone to fight my battles for me.” She was resisting the urge to give him a sharp jab to the nose as it was. More than a year with her sadistic personal trainer, who preferred self-defense to treadmills, made her confident that she could break his nose. She didn’t have to prove it. Plus, the school board would frown on that. “My job is to protect students. I’ll do what it takes to make sure Blake gets a good education, whether you like my methods or not.”

He rolled his eyes. “Is that some kind of threat?”

Lindy forced her shoulders to relax and shook out the tight fists she hadn’t even been aware of making. “Nope. A promise. Be sure to pass my congratulations on to Blake. He played well tonight.”

Blake’s father waved his hand like she was too stupid to be believed, but he satisfied himself with one tight-lipped glare at Ryan and left.

“Why didn’t you let me loosen his teeth?” Ryan said it with a growl that sounded like he’d practiced the act in his head more than once.

“Loosen his teeth?” Lindy’s lips twitched as she waited for him to look at her. His frown was intense. “Thanks, Rocky, but I’d rather not cause a spectacle here.” She held up a fist. “Besides, what makes you think I’d let you have the pleasure? I’m totally capable of making him bleed, but I prefer to give peace a chance.” And she’d like to keep her job.

Ryan grimaced. “Okay, Gandhi. We’ll just agree to disagree.”

“I worry about his son. I mean, can you imagine living with something like that all the time? And what if that’s not it? What if that’s his dad on
good
behavior?” She made a mental note to ask Bob Thompson to talk with Blake. If it somehow got back to his father that she’d asked for a meeting, he might go nuclear, and the high school guidance counselor would stand a better chance of helping if there was something going on that they needed to know about.

“Yeah, I can imagine.” He tried a smile but it never reached his eyes. “Better not to rock the boat tonight, and it’s a good thing the team pulled out the win.”

Lindy wanted to ask him if things had gotten worse when he got home, if he knew just how bad they could get, but Maddie bounced up with Sarah in tow. “Dad, Sarah’s got a car and a license.”

Ryan crossed his arms over his chest and drawled, “Congratulations.”

Sarah nodded. “Thanks, Mr. M. Some kids are getting together for a victory party. We’re going to go.” She started to lead Maddie away, but Ryan’s shaking head stopped Maddie in her tracks.

“Please, Dad? We won’t stay long.” She bent closer to Ryan to mutter, “Eric’s going to be there.” Then she raised her eyebrows to make sure he got the message.

One glance at his face made it clear that he was getting the whole message, but that didn’t make him any more inclined to change his answer. Maddie folded her hands under her chin and blinked her lids slowly. “Please? We’ll only stay for…an hour. Yeah, we’ll only stay for an hour.” She looked over her shoulder at Sarah who nodded wildly in agreement.

Ryan leaned his head back to stare up at the sky. “Okay. Text me the address before you step out of this stadium. And be home by midnight. No later. And if I text you, you answer immediately, or I’m calling the police and then coming to get you, in that order.”

Maddie jumped up and down. “Thanks, Dad!” They both watched her trot down the steps while she texted. Ryan grabbed her hand so tightly that Lindy thought about protesting, but when Maddie reached the bottom of the stairs without breaking her neck he sighed and whispered, “Sorry.” His grip on her hand loosened, and then he let go to pull his phone out of his pocket.

Lindy flexed her fingers. “I understand.”

“She doesn’t go to parties.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “What is happening?”

“Just part of the process. Maddie’s growing up.” She patted his thigh and felt the shift of the muscles under denim as he turned toward her. Yanking her hand back, she suddenly remembered that she was hot. Too hot.

“I was going to insist we go for a margarita and at least one song at La Tia’s,” he said as he stared intently at his phone. When it finally dinged to say he had a text message, he stopped to read it and then shoved it in his front pocket. “But…now that might not be such a good idea. If I have to ride to the rescue, I’ll need all my faculties.”

Lindy was caught off guard again by the caring, responsible dad Ryan Myers had grown into. Before they’d met again, if she’d given it any thought, she would have pictured him at best like her father, a man who might love his daughter but be incapable of understanding her. Every time Ryan exceeded her expectations.

At some point, she was going to have to come to terms with the fact that what she expected of Ryan might have more to do with her own history rather than anything she ever knew about him as a person.

She didn’t laugh as he reached back into his pocket to check his cell phone again, but he looked up and shrugged. “I just wanted to make sure I had the ringer turned up.”

“Why do I have this picture of you sitting outside the party house in your truck, finger poised to dial 911?” Lindy shook her head. “You’ll either get arrested for loitering or give yourself finger cramps from clutching the phone.”

Ryan pretended to think about that. “You know, without the aid of medicinal tequila, you might be right. I should call Maddie to ask her what I should do instead.” He pretended to dial his phone.

“Or you could follow me to my house.” His eyebrows shot up and Lindy knew the feeling. She could hardly believe she was making the offer herself. “We’ll have coffee. You’ll stare at your phone. I’ll try to make sparkling conversation all by myself. It’ll be like just about every first date I’ve ever had.”

Ryan stood up and held out his hand. “That’s a fine offer, Principal Mason. When my fingers cramp from clutching the phone, will you massage the pain away?”

She slipped her hand in his and they walked down the steps while her mind raced for a suitable answer. When they reached the dark parking lot, she said, “No massages, but I can come up with something else to take your mind off of things.”

The thrill of satisfaction that spread through her at his surprised laugh lasted all the way home. His truck’s headlights in her rearview mirror were a reminder that she needed to figure out quickly just what she wanted from Ryan.

Other than a kiss. That was at the top of the list.