Some instinct told me to go for it.
“Well,” I said slowly, “McKenna’s already spending the night. The girls could have a slumber party in the living room. Or the pool house.”
“And where would I sleep?”
“The guest bedroom.” She furrowed her brow, so I explained, “Not the one over the garage. That’s for the girls and their friends. I mean the bedroom downstairs.” The one down the hall from the master bedroom.
Allie grew very still. Our arms and hips were almost touching, and I watched her out of the corner of my eye.
“I guess it depends,” I added.
“On what?”
“Whether you’re serious or not.”
“Serious? About what?”
“Spending the night.” I turned to look at her.
“I—” She cleared her throat again. “Sorry. I don’t know what you mean.”
I felt the moment slipping away, but I knew better than to try to force it. She wasn’t ready.
“That’s okay,” I said. “It was just a suggestion.”
We fell silent, and I could feel her wrestling with her conscience.
“I’ve made you angry again,” she said, very softly.
“No, not at all. Besides, this was my mistake.”
“What? How?”
I looked at her again. She met my eyes and moistened her lips, a nervous gesture instead of a come-on.
“I misread the signals,” I said after a pause. “Sorry. I thought we were flirting for real.”
“Oh. No. I—”
“That’s cool,” I said. “It was just friendly flirting. Like I said, I misread it. I apologize.”
“No, I—” She swallowed hard but then nodded. “You’re right. It was just friendly. Sorry. I shouldn’t’ve done it.”
“No! I like flirting with you. It’s fun. I just need to remember that it’s only banter, nothing more.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize. And don’t worry, it won’t happen again.” I gave her a moment to collect herself before I glanced at her. “I hope this doesn’t change our friendship. I’d hate to lose that.”
“Yes, absolutely! I thought I’d messed that up too.”
“No. It’s all good.”
“Oh, thank God.”
I gazed across the pool and into the lighted living room. I watched the girls’ rapt expressions and guessed that the movie was almost over.
“You’re still welcome to spend the night,” I said. “No strings attached. The girls can have their slumber party in the living room, and you can sleep in the pool house.” Alone.
“That’s tempting,” she said after a moment, “but we really shouldn’t.”
I knew better than to press her.
“Thank you,” she said, so quietly that I almost didn’t hear it.
“Well, let me at least offer you some ice cream before you go.”
“What? Ice cream?”
“Yeah. So you can cool off before you have to go home to a house without air conditioning. I’m sure the girls would like it too.”
She followed my gaze across the pool and realized I was trying to make things normal again.
“Sure, let’s— I mean… that’d be nice.” She forced a smile. “Thank you.”
“That’s what friends are for.”
Stupid friends, the little head grumped.
Chapter 3
Allie told her daughters to get ready to leave after they finished their ice cream. Unfortunately, my own daughters had been drilled since birth to be polite, so I probably shouldn’t have been surprised when Susie spoke up.
“But… it’s so hot at their house. Why can’t they spend the night here?”
For a moment Allie thought I’d put her up to it, although she calmed down when she saw that I was just as surprised (and annoyed) as she was. She thanked us for the offer but said they couldn’t stay, and I immediately backed her up. Madison and Carly weren’t having it. They complained until Allie lost her temper.
“Get in the car,” she snapped. “Now! Go.”
They gathered their things and left in a cloud of childish resentment. I followed them out to the car and waited until the girls had closed their doors. Allie turned to face me, keys in hand.
“Sorry about that,” I said lamely. “I should’ve said something sooner. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She gave me a smile that was only a shade warmer than her eyes. Then she climbed into the SUV, and I closed the door behind her. At least she waved goodbye before she pulled away. I returned it with a smile that I didn’t feel either. In reality, I was pretty sure I’d screwed up, big time.
Back inside, Susie, Emily, and McKenna were still scratching their heads over what had just happened, although they shrugged it off with the speed of innocents. Then they decided to move their slumber party to the pool house. They’d done it before, so I wasn’t worried. Besides, they’d have the dogs with them.
Spike and Buck weren’t the best guard dogs in the world, but they’d investigate anything unusual and make a racket in the process. Molly, on the other hand, would literally die before she’d let anything happen to Emily.
The girls gathered blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, DVDs, and snacks. The dogs followed eagerly from room to room. Then, with arms full and tails a-wagging, they noisily decamped to the pool house for the night.
* * *
I returned to the main house through the kitchen and turned off lights on my way to the bedroom, where I stripped off my shirt and shorts. I was just about to turn on the shower when my cell phone buzzed. I’d forgotten about it completely in the excitement of the past hour.
It buzzed again, and the little screen showed the voicemail icon next to the caller ID. I flipped it open before the current call went to voicemail too.
“Hey, Little Bit,” I said. “How’re you?”
“Grumpy. Tired. Hungry. Again. Ugh!”
I sat on the bench at the end of the bed. “You wanna talk about it?”
“Not really.” Then she did anyway. “Why do we let Lauren live?”
Lauren, not Laurie. So it had been one of those days.
“Because she’s our daughter,” I said, “and we love her?”
“I’m not so sure. I don’t like her very much right now.”
“The usual?”
“Hold on,” she said with one of her leaps, “who were you talking to earlier?”
“Ah, so you’re the voicemail?”
“I called, like, a dozen times—”
I mentally adjusted for Christy-math and revised the calls down to, like, three or four.
“—but it went to voicemail every time.”
“Sorry about that,” I said. “I left my phone on the patio when the pizza got here. And then McKenna was talking to Leah after that.”
“Oh,” Christy said, pacified if not exactly satisfied. “Okay. Well, you can ignore them. The voicemails, I mean. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right. Your daughter.”
“So… she’s my daughter now?” I suppressed a grin, but she heard it anyway.
“Funny, ha ha, Mr. Daddy’s Girl. That’s all I heard tonight. ‘Dad does this…’ and ‘Dad does that…’ According to her, I can’t do anything right. I swear, Paul… One of these days she’s going to have a daughter of her own, and then she’ll see!”
“Probably,” I agreed. “Was it just the usual huffs and eye-rolls?”
“Of course. Only, now she’s started to ignore me when I tell her something she doesn’t like.”
I didn’t point out where she’d learned that annoying little habit. Christy’s headstrong chickens were definitely coming home to roost.
“Mmm,” I said instead. “You want me to talk to her?”
“No. She’s asleep, thank goodness. Missy too. Almost as soon as we came home after dinner.”
“Worn out?”
“Of course. I told her she could call you in the morning, before we head to the pool.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said. “Is that the only reason you’re grumpy?”