Least Likely to Fall in Love (12 page)

“What? No coffee service to go along with your”—Ryan turned his mug to read—“‘World’s Best Teacher’ mug?” He shook his head sadly. “I expected more of you, Principal Mason.”

Lindy settled next to him on the sofa and folded her legs under her. “Somehow I’ve never accumulated one of those. I blame a lack of wedding showers.”

He thought about that as he studied her tiny living room. It was furnished exactly like he would’ve imagined if he’d ever spared a second to think about what Lindy’s interior decorating style might be. Everything was comfortable, plush, but not fancy. Black and white photos clustered here and there showed world landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, and most of the flat surfaces were as free of dust as they were of clutter. Her tennis shoes were perfectly aligned at the end of the couch, and the only items on the coffee table were two coasters. He put his mug down on the coaster with a Thoreau quote and eased back.

“You have a real dearth of knickknacks. Did you just move in?” Ryan watched her doctor her own coffee with three packets of sweetener and curled his lip in distaste. “Wow. That’s some sweet coffee.”

“Well, it’s not the three mint chocolate cookies that I really want but it’ll do. I make these little concessions, hoping for some leniency from my trainer, but it hasn’t worked yet.” She sipped and then smacked her lips. “Good. And no, I’ve lived here for almost ten years now. I’m not a big knickknack kind of person. I have no collections.”

Since half of what was in those boxes on his second floor was Anna’s collection of angels that Maddie refused to part with, he appreciated her no-collection stance even as he wondered about it. “If you had a collection, what would it be?”

Lindy pursed her lips as she considered the answer. “Books? I don’t have any rare volumes, but there’s something interesting about owning signed copies, especially of my favorites.”

“Books would be hard to move,” Ryan said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. No messages. He knew it was rude to fixate on his phone, but a man could only do so much while his only daughter was out partying. Everyone knew that. Allowances should be made.

When he saw Lindy’s smile, he put the phone down on the table and turned to face her directly. “And I’m guessing you’re right about the wedding showers. God knows Anna and I had no money for coffee, much less a nice service for company when we started out. But she always had an eye for better living.”

“She was beautiful. It doesn’t surprise me that she liked nice things, too.” Lindy glanced away and then smiled at him, but it looked more like the one she’d used to tell him just how little what he thought of her mattered. So it was fake.

Even though it made it easier for them to get along, he hated fake on Lindy’s face.

Ryan nodded. “Beautiful. Right. High school again. Could we have been any more of a cliché? She was a cheerleader. I was a football player. Boring, right? Then we were pregnant college freshmen, and things got interesting. There were times I was afraid we wouldn’t make it to Maddie’s fifth birthday.” They had but barely. Only more money, more help from her parents, and more time apart had gotten them that far.

“What happened?” Lindy reached over to pick up his phone to check for text messages. When she set the phone down, he raised his eyebrow and she shook her head. He was glad not to be waiting and watching alone.

“Car crash. Anna and her parents were together, headed for their lake house. I had to work, so I picked up Maddie from school and…anyway, they were all just gone. Anna and I were trying to make things work, and then…” He rubbed his forehead. “Everything changed in a heartbeat, you know? So I was just holding everything together for the two of us, and I was scared to death.” He picked up his phone and knew it was crazy to clutch it like it might save his life, but Lindy would understand. For a long time, he’d been the only one on duty. That phone had been a lifeline.

Lindy wrapped her hand around his. “Maddie’s great. You’ve done a good job.”

He wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Thank you” made it sound like he’d had something to do with it and even he wasn’t egotistical enough to think he was really good at parenting. He was lucky. Maddie and her maturity had saved them both. But disagreeing seemed ridiculous, so he kept his mouth shut. They sat there for a minute in silence, and all over again he was amazed at the opportunity.

Lindy Mason was more forgiving than he might have been in the same spot.

Tonight she was the only thing standing between him and losing his mind. Obviously, he was never meant to raise a teenager. If Maddie had stayed ten years old forever, he would have been content. Legos, a stuffed dog that he’d won at the fair that she’d named Dave, and weekly trips to the library had been enough for her then.

“Talk to me. Tell me something I don’t know.” Ryan didn’t want to lose a golden opportunity. Lindy was sympathetic, so she was spending time with him that he would have had to wrangle out of her otherwise. He couldn’t waste it, no matter how hard it might be to concentrate.

“A few years ago, I went on this me kick. I was going to make changes to feel more confident.” Her chin tilted up. “I went to a stylist for fashion help. I took cooking classes. I went to a therapist. And everything made a difference, but for sheer confidence, none of it had anything on the boxing class my trainer insisted on. Allison takes no prisoners, and she’s committed to making sure I don’t either.”

Ryan whistled. “No prisoners? So you could take Stewart down if you had to.”
Or me. Good to know.

Lindy held up one arm and flexed. Then she threw a quick jab that he’d have had a hard time deflecting if she’d aimed at him. She was fast. And possibly sneaky. He wrapped his hand around her bicep and squeezed.

She tugged the hem of her shirt. “Anyway, it’s good not to be afraid.”

If she’d thrown the punch, he would understand the ache in his chest, but as it was, he just had to sit there and feel how awful it was to hear her say she’d ever been afraid. “Did I make you scared to come to school?” He turned to face her, ready to ask her to beat the snot out of him if she said yes. When she shook her head, he started breathing again.

“No, not so much school. I mean, it was different then, right? It was embarrassing, not dangerous. Now kids have to be pretty brave sometimes to walk into a school.” She pinched a pleat in her jeans, and he hated that she didn’t meet his eyes. “But I was afraid of every new situation. And afraid to complain. Then I’d have to defend myself.” Her fake smile was back. “Probably saved me a lot of awkward parties.”

He wanted her to punch him in the nose right now, but more than that, he wanted to travel in time so that she could punch him in the nose in the crowded halls of Lincoln High School. He put his hand over his face and tried to figure out what the hell he was doing there, being comforted by her, when she should have run him over in her car.

Then she leaned over and checked his phone for him again. “No message. Things are still going well, then.” She pulled his hand down. “Just be happy Maddie’s having a good time, Ryan. Take a deep breath. She’s fine, no fears, just fun.”

She wasn’t asking for another apology. He would have given her as many as it took, but it was clear that she’d done what she needed to take care of herself. And he deserved to sit in his own guilt for a while. Damn it.

“I guess so. She’s always loved parties, especially if there was loud music. She’s murder on the karaoke machine.” Every party she’d attended, he had, too. And only birthday cake was enough to make it bearable with the crying kids and the sometimes overly friendly mothers.

Sitting there on Lindy’s couch, memories of a few of the parties he’d attended in high school flashed through his mind. And Maddie hadn’t learned to throw a punch. Suddenly he was afraid. “Lindy, please distract me. Or get in the truck and ride over for a drive-by with me. One or the other. You can be my backup. Punch anybody who needs punching.” He squeezed the phone and hoped she’d pick the reconnaissance mission.

He shouldn’t have given her a choice. She pried open his fingers and plucked his phone out before sitting it on the table in front of them. Then she said, “Turn around.”

Ready to take his building nervous breakdown away where he could enjoy it in private, Ryan opened his mouth to thank her for the coffee and wish her a good evening, but she held up both hands and flexed them like she was warming up to… He didn’t know what she was warming up to do with the nimble fingers, but he was intrigued. He shifted around on the sofa and hoped she didn’t hear the little groan that escaped at the first squeeze of her fingers along the tight muscles in his shoulders and neck.

It had been so long since he’d sat next to a woman whose only intent was to comfort him. He was certain Lindy had no idea how damn seductive it was to do nothing more than sit next to him, silently easing the tension of stress and worry.

“You should stop. I’ll be asleep in another minute.”

He could feel the loss of her heat when she eased back, and he wished he’d kept his mouth shut. She handed him his coffee cup. “More caffeine. That’s the answer.”

He sipped it and checked his phone again. No messages. Then he set them both back on the table. “
You
might be the answer, Lindy. Thanks for keeping me company.”

She didn’t answer but stared hard into the cooling coffee in her mug like she had something important to say.

“You didn’t have to, you know. I don’t know many people who’d be as kind to someone who’d hurt them. You’re awesome.”

Lindy put her cup down and stood to pace in front of the sofa, her arms wrapped tightly over her chest. Since she’d taken off her shoes to get comfortable on the couch, each step was a muffled thump of socks and too long jeans against the gleaming hardwoods. He didn’t know what she was building up to, but watching her move was no hardship so he was content to wait.

“Here’s the thing. If you’re going to be all…” She motioned wildly with one hand like she was grasping for the words as they floated by. “It’s nearly impossible to hold a grudge against a man who loves his daughter the way you do. And I really want to. Because principals should not date parents. But you… It’s like you’re this dreamy guy and all I want to do is just…”

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t keep the grin contained. “Dreamy? Is this the fifties?” When she paused in front of him to glare, he captured one hand and towed her close enough to yank her down across his lap. When she stopped struggling, he caught her stare and waited for her to focus on him. “Because you’re pretty dreamy, too, doll.”

The slight pink tinge to her face was so damn attractive. Desperate to get her closer, he ran one hand up and down the firm muscles of her thigh. “Doll. Did I get that right for the period? Kitten seemed too weird.”

Lindy rolled her eyes. “This is serious, Ryan. There’s my job and your daughter and that’s if we can get over all the rest. What are we doing? I mean, when I’m not with you, everything is so logical, but when I’m with you and you’re being all…great with Maddie, all I want is to…”

Say “kiss you”.
He willed her to say something about kissing.

Instead she inched forward and pressed her lips to his. Afraid to startle her, he eased Lindy closer. Her arms inched up around his neck as her soft lips opened, and the heat of her mouth shocked a gasp from him. The flash of warmth that spread down to gather in his abdomen was instant. He had to remind himself not to frighten her away by pushing too hard.

The first tentative touch of her tongue against his weakened his resolve. He eased her back on the cushions and leaned back to memorize her face. Her eyes were hazy, but the small line on her forehead showed she was busy thinking.

He’d have to change that.

He kissed her again and slid his hand under the waistband of her Lincoln Lions sweatshirt. Every shift of her body under him sent a sharp snap of desire through his muscles and the satin warmth of her skin under his hand tempted him to move faster. Higher. Lower. More. The scrape of her fingernails through the hair at his nape caused his hips to jerk in reaction, pressing him harder, closer between her thighs.

When she wrapped those long legs around his, he groaned and shook with the effort to control himself. He wanted to thrust and take and satisfy.

But the truth was he was about two seconds from embarrassing himself on the couch like he was sixteen all over again.

Lindy saved them again. She put one hand in the center of his chest and shoved. “Not the time. Not the place.”

Being a grown-up was difficult. Not quite as difficult as pulling back, easing away from a flushed Lindy with kiss-swollen lips and wild curls. Something about the look on her face or the intense focus of her stare reminded him of teenage Lindy, the one who’d never worn her hair right but who’d always known every answer. The one who’d pretended to be tougher than she was.

The girl he’d hurt in order to just get along.

She slowly sat up and yanked down her sweatshirt while she awkwardly smoothed her hair away from her face. At least he knew she’d been as overcome as he was. She picked up his phone and handed it to him. “You better check. Make sure we didn’t miss a text.”

Ryan wanted to say exactly the right thing, but he couldn’t figure out what it would be. She was amazing. Having her here beside him to navigate the rocky waters of a social teenage daughter was a comfort. But more than anything he wanted her naked, spread out across his bed like neither one of them had any history or responsibility.