Least Likely to Fall in Love (3 page)

The tension in the room ratcheted up again, but apparently both boys’ parents had gotten the message and understood that this was a much better solution. Whining would not earn them any sympathy points.

“Mr. Thompson will call to let you know which day he’ll be meeting with Rob and Blake.” She pushed back from the desk and stood. “Now, if you have no questions, you’re free to go. Rob and Blake are excused from their last period and football practice today. Go ahead and take them home.”

Lindy wasn’t surprised that none of the parents leaving offered any thanks. Disappointed, but not surprised.

Ryan remained silent until they were alone.

Lindy collapsed in a boneless heap in her chair and stared up at the ceiling for a long minute. “And do you have any comments”—she paused and then tacked on—“Ryan?”

“Seems fair.” He shook his head with a small smile on his face. “Involving the parents was a stroke of genius.”

She ruffled her droopy bangs. “It was, wasn’t it? They’ll take it more seriously if they have to participate.” She rolled a pen across the desk. “Maybe they’ll even try to convince their sons not to act that way again.”

“So you have to educate the parents as well as the kids, huh, Principal Mason?” He had the old familiar Ryan smirk on his face, but it didn’t set her teeth on edge this time.

She drawled, “Oh, you have no idea.”

They both laughed. Lindy glanced at her desk clock again. “Maddie should be getting out of class soon. It’s important that we do something for her, too. She needs to talk to somebody about this.”

Ryan nodded. “Sure. I guess the first time you’re the target of a bully will stick with you.”

Lindy shifted in her seat, uneasy with a wave of sympathy. “Honestly, Ryan. I don’t know this for sure, but I can’t believe that this is the first time that Maddie’s been the target of bullies. It just doesn’t happen that way.”

He straightened in his chair. “What do you mean? She’s never said she’s having trouble with kids at school.”

“And if she’d had the choice, she wouldn’t have told you today. Or me or anyone else. I think there have been lots of other smaller things that she just tried to brush off.”

Hello, voice of experience.

Ryan stood up to pace. “Why? What makes you think that? Is it some kind of pattern or something? Do they teach you this in principal school?”

Lindy ran her hands through her hair. “I have plenty of experience with bullies, both as the person being bullied and the one responsible for stopping it.”

Ryan stopped in front of her desk with his hands propped on his hips. No matter how long ago their senior year was, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped Ryan Myers could grab a helmet and run out on the field. “Then what are you saying?”

“Well, it’s harder to catch and put a stop to small things like name calling or even dumping a backpack. And I just don’t think bullies target somebody and do something as elaborate as what’s happened here without any ramp up. They’ve probably been picking on her and escalating when she didn’t respond. That’s how it works.” Lindy wanted to add on a catty “If you remember” but managed to bite her tongue. More than anything she wanted to appear to be a well-adjusted adult in charge of her own life and in no way still affected by things that happened in high school, especially to him.

Ryan hung his head for a second. “Clearly, she won’t talk to me. What would you suggest?”

“Well, if Mrs. Adams were back from maternity leave, I’d set up weekly meetings for Maddie. I’m not sure she’s going to be comfortable talking with Mr. Thompson about this, so we can either wait for Mrs. Adams to return or she can meet with me if she’d rather.” As much as she wanted to avoid spending any more time near Ryan Myers or his daughter, Lindy knew she could help. “Let’s give Maddie the option of choosing who to talk to.”

Ryan scrubbed his hands over his face. “Do I need to send her to a therapist or something?”

What he thought of that option was evident. He was scared to death of that choice but would do whatever it took to help Maddie.

Unwillingly, Lindy liked him a bit more. “Let’s set these meetings up. Then you can talk to whomever Maddie chooses and get a recommendation.”

“Thanks. That’s so very rational.” He shook his head. “I swear, I hoped by now I’d be over the panic that I’m going to ruin her life, but I keep getting curveballs like this. It’s nice to talk to someone who’s not thrown by it.”

One corner of her mouth quirked up as her eyes met his. “I do try.”

The buzz of the intercom jerked her out of their staring match. “Boss, Maddie Myers is out in the office asking if her dad’s still meeting.”

Lindy punched the button. “Send her on in, Sue.”

As the door swung open, Lindy was relieved that Maddie’s face had regained some of its color. “Well, Maddie, are you prepared for the Spanish test?”

She tugged the strap of her backpack. “Not yet, but I will be.”

Lindy answered, “I don’t have any doubt of that.”

“Are you ready to go, Dad?”

Lindy said, “We’re just about done, Maddie, but I wanted to ask you something before you leave. You should talk to someone about what happened today. I’d like you to meet one day for the next six weeks with either Mr. Thompson or me. If you’d rather wait for Mrs. Adams to get back, we can postpone.”

Maddie raised one shoulder awkwardly. “It isn’t really necessary, Principal Mason. I’ll be fine.”

Lindy nodded. “I had my own share of high school bullies, and as I am
much
older and wiser, I think it will help you to talk with someone now.”

Maddie fiddled with the end of one of her backpack straps. “People made fun of you, Principal Mason?”

Lindy held both hands up. “I know. It’s difficult to believe as I am so very cool today.”

Maddie smiled shyly. “Well, okay, as long as it doesn’t turn into a big deal, I guess I could meet with you.”

Relieved to have a plan, Lindy said, “Good. I’ll let you know what day tomorrow, okay?”

Maddie nodded.

Ryan reached into his pocket and pulled out his key ring. “Here. I’ll meet you at the car in front of the school.” He tossed it to Maddie, and she caught it with one hand before spinning on her heel to head back out the door. “And don’t touch my radio!”

With a snort and universal teenage eye roll, Maddie waved one hand and left.

When the door closed quietly after Maddie retreated, Ryan turned back around to meet Lindy Mason’s stare across the desk. He loosened his tie in order to get more oxygen to his brain. Ever since he’d gotten the call that he needed to come because Maddie had been involved in some kind of altercation, he’d been gasping for air and whispering prayers to beg for her safety and his own sanity.

Then he’d realized that Principal Mason was Lindy Mason, a girl he’d never forgotten but still hoped to never see again for years, and breathing in and out regularly had become a serious question mark.

Now was not a good time to lose oxygen to his brain. Lindy Mason had always been sharp. He needed all his wits.

She was sitting in a shaft of sunlight that gave her hair a golden glow and he wondered if she always took men’s breath away. The years had been kind to Lindy, better than anyone else he could remember running into since he’d come back to Lincoln. She’d given up bad highlights and straightening her curls into frizzy clumps. Now her hair was a healthy, gleaming brown and curls danced when she shook her head. Her eyes were as clear and surprising as they had been in high school, but now, maybe it was her makeup or the lighting or something, the deep brown was more mysterious. She wore the proper principal’s uniform, a dark suit and sensible heels, but it was tailored to perfection. The curves she’d done her best to camouflage with ugly sweaters were contained but not hidden. Given his choice, he’d have spent a little time figuring out those curves at seventeen. Instead, he’d dated the right girl. And look where that got him—raising a kid who could talk circles around him all by himself.

Sitting across from the principal. All alone.

This suit, that hair, some maturity—it was a damn good look for her.

Too bad he’d been such a bastard to her in high school.

Picking on Lindy Mason was just one of the things he’d done to make it out of there in one piece. If he thought too long about any of them, he wanted to kick his own ass and then punch his father square in the nose. At eighteen, he’d been certain he was never coming back to Lincoln.

Then his father died. His mother needed help and getting Maddie to fifteen without breaking her already seemed like a miracle. Now that Maddie was closer to a woman than a little girl, he’d hoped his mother might help them both. Feeding and clothing her had been pretty simple. Answering her questions about friends and boys and whatever else might be coming was going to be hell on his nerves. Having some support was incentive to move back to Lincoln. And less than two months into the school year, he’d been called into the principal’s office for the first time in Maddie’s school career.

Facing the girl who’d been such an easy target for him.

The inadequate apology he’d wanted to blurt out the second he’d recognized her still burned the end of his tongue, but he had the feeling she would tell him what to do with it if he tried. As she should.

It was worth a shot, though.

His second shock, the one that hit him after she’d collapsed when the other parents left, was how much he’d like to get to know the new, confident, funny Lindy. She was still as annoyingly smart as she’d ever been. Her creative and educational punishment as well as the gleam in her eyes proved that. Now he was man enough to appreciate it.

But he didn’t date, even if he had been thinking of testing the waters again. Moving back to Lincoln had seriously limited those waters. Raising a brilliant teenage girl all by himself required so much energy that he’d only been dreaming of dating like he dreamed of hot beaches and cold drinks.

The first woman to interest him enough to reconsider the risk and energy required in years, hated him worse than taxes and cavities combined. As she should.

He wished he had help coming up with the right words for an awkward situation like this one. Too bad the brains in the family was fiddling with his radio presets right now.

“So.” He creased a fold over the knees of his pants and tried to figure out where he was going.

She raised both eyebrows and waited. There would be no help coming from her direction.

“Is this like the definition of irony? The high school bully gets called before the girl he teased and has to make amends…”

“No, that’s not irony.” She pursed her full lips and he thought again how good the years had been to her. “That’s what I’d call karma, Ryan.” Her lips twitched as she waited for his reaction.

He couldn’t argue with that. “I can’t apologize enough for being a rotten shit in high school, Lindy. All I can do is offer you my deepest thanks for not taking it out on Maddie. She’s had a rough time lately and…she could use some help.” He heaved out a sigh. “So could I. Being a teenage girl is a lot harder than I ever thought.”

He wanted her to tell him everything was all right, that of course she accepted his apology, or even that she appreciated how much he’d grown in the years in between then and now to offer it and also compliment him on how fabulous his daughter was.

Instead she nodded. And that was it.

He inched forward in his chair and smiled. Whether it was a traffic ticket or arriving half an hour late for an appointment, the smile worked. He counted on it. She raised an eyebrow and said nothing.

“Aren’t you going to accept my apology?” The confusion he could hear in his own voice wasn’t helping his case.

She shrugged. He figured that would do nice things for her breasts, but the suit jacket was impenetrable. And he already had one foot in creeper territory and the other was on a banana peel.

Focus on what’s really important, idiot.

“What am I supposed to say to that, Ryan?” She ran a hand through her silky hair. “The grown-up, full-on adult thing to say is ‘Of course.’ We all did things in high school that we aren’t proud of, right? And I’m pretty happy with where I am now.”

She ran a hand over the clean top of her desk.

“So, yes, I accept your apology.” She shook her head. “But that doesn’t mean I can forget who you were. That doesn’t mean that I can forget how you made me feel. I have to live with those memories. They don’t just disappear because you say you’re sorry, even if you really mean it and wish you’d never done it now that you have a vulnerable daughter. You should understand that.” She bit her lip like she was sorry she’d let all those words go. Not much had changed, then. When he’d picked on her in high school, she’d done her best not to respond but had never been able to control her mouth completely.

She pulled out her bottom drawer and yanked out a purse big enough for a three-day trip. “But you should also know that I would never take that out on Maddie. Being a target hurts. It’s been a long time, but I remember. I have this job because I care about students. All of them, no matter who their parents are.”

The sting might be deserved but he hated it. Accepting his apology was one thing. Moving past his dumb mistakes was another. He wanted to stop her. She was getting ready to stand up and usher him out the door, but he hadn’t come up with the magic words yet. He was used to women loving him. The idea that she didn’t and never would was a hard one to come to terms with.

Frustrated, he slapped his hands on the arms of the chair and stood. “Thanks for your help, Lindy. Please let me know if Maddie needs more counseling. And I’d like to come up and help with the repairs on the football field.”

When she opened her mouth to protest, he held up a hand. “And Maddie can, too. Maybe. I just…” There was no way this would ever make amends for teasing her, but it felt right. “Working together could help.”

Lindy hooked one loose curl behind her ear. “Fine. If you want to join on Saturday, please do. I’m sure Coach will be happy to have another set of hands or two.”

Ryan turned to open her office door. “Are you on your way out? I’ll walk with you.”

Her polite yet disgruntled face was priceless. She wanted to tell him no, she wasn’t leaving, or to go to hell, or in some way separate herself from his clutches. But she
was
leaving. And she couldn’t lie any more than she could tell him to go to hell. So she pasted on a smile and preceded him through the door.

He’d seen that expression before. It was the one that said nothing affected her. It had made him nuts after she transferred into Lincoln High School. No matter how witty he was, she was unmoved and he had to try harder. That had always been his father’s position, too. Try harder.

Everyone knew teasing didn’t count without a reaction. And that was the only way his father believed he was as tough as he needed to be: by how many people he had made cry that week.

Real leaders don’t worry about hurt feelings, Ryan. Toughen up.

As always, remembering his father’s words of “wisdom” made him angry. They also made him determined to do things differently with Maddie.

And now Lindy Mason was rubber, he was glue, and absolutely nothing was going to stick to her. Not anymore.

“Sue, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Lindy slid her purse strap over her shoulder and walked sedately in front of him.

“Sure thing, boss.” Sue waggled her eyebrows at him, and he bit back a chuckle. If she only knew how unlikely any funny business was, she’d be chasing him with a freshly sharpened number two pencil.

As Lindy stepped outside, the wind whipped her hair out, and he could smell something fresh and sweet. She quickly tucked the misbehaving hair behind her ear and motioned toward a MINI Cooper parked in the first faculty spot. “I’m just there.”

They could both see Maddie in the front seat of his truck. From the way her head was bobbing to music they couldn’t hear, he could tell she hadn’t followed his last order. His radio pre-sets were all country. His girl was one-hundred percent pop. Always had been.

He sighed. “I’ve lost control of the radio.”

Lindy laughed. “She’s feeling better. Maybe you can stand a little boy band?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and jingled the change there. “Guess I can, although it’s not going to be easy.”

“Good luck with that.” She turned to go, but he stopped her with one hand at her elbow.

“Hey, Lindy…” Brilliant. He was making a habit of starting things he had couldn’t finish. She shifted away from him and he quickly offered her his hand. “Thank you for everything.” He waited until she slipped her hand in his and managed to pretend the satisfying warmth of her skin had no effect on him. He squeezed her hand and then allowed her to pull away.

She clenched her hand in a fist and said, “Just doing my job, Ryan.” Lindy turned away, unlocked her car, slid in behind the wheel, and slammed the door. After she started it up, she waved once at Maddie and drove off. Ryan stood on the sidewalk and watched her bright red, tiny car disappear in the distance while he tried to decide what to do.

“C’mon, Dad. You said yogurt.” Maddie rolled the window up and made the “what’s taking so long?” gesture in the window.

He slid behind the wheel and started the truck before sending a speaking glance from her face to the radio. He was happy to see the hint of her normal sparkle in her eyes when she said, “You took too long.”

He grunted and then pulled out of the parking spot. As he made the short drive to the yogurt shop, he tried to figure out just what the hell he’d say to his daughter. This was important. If she’d been bullied before, there was no telling how hurt she might be or what he could do to fix it. But he desperately wanted to fix it. She was all he had in the world. He couldn’t stand to see her unhappy. Although, it was nice to see her eyes without all the makeup. He’d never figured out a good way to tell her to drop it.

After she sampled all the flavors and loaded up plain chocolate with every topping known to man, Maddie slid into a booth. He grabbed a handful of napkins and joined her.

He was happy enough to enjoy his raspberry-vanilla swirl in silence, but that would never do.

“Got a lot of homework tonight?” He liked to beat around the bush apparently.

She slid down farther in the booth. “Not too bad. Need to start on the Spanish chapter.”

He shoved another spoonful of yogurt in his mouth for more time to think.

When her next stab sent chocolate sprinkles across the table, he looked up. She squeezed her eyes shut and blurted, “It’s not true. I’m not a …” She broke off and surveyed the nearly empty store.

Ryan nodded. “Okay.”

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” She punched her spoon into the mess of toppings in her cup, and he took another leisurely bite. Maybe he’d get lucky and she’d work through this all on her own right here and now. She always had been smarter than he was.

“I mean, that was just a stupid thing to say. Just because boys aren’t interested in me doesn’t mean I don’t have any interest in them, you know?” Her eyes were serious as she glared at him. As much as he wanted to do a victory dance that he had time to figure out the boys issue, now was not the time to celebrate.

The leather of the booth made an obnoxious noise as he leaned back. They both heh-hehed at the noise as Maddie shoveled in a disgusting mixture of sprinkles, yogurt, nuts, and gummy worms.

“Maddie, listen.” He needed some words of wisdom here, something she could remember and draw on in later years when he wasn’t around to protect her. “Boys are idiots. They always have been and they always will be.”