Oh, Baby!

by Patricia Kay

  By the time she entered the school, he was long gone, and she headed for her office. This was one of the days she was very grateful to be the guidance counselor and entitled to a private office—minuscule as it was—rather than a teacher who could only escape into the teachers’ lounge, where there was never any privacy.

  The moment she entered her office, she saw the note. It was propped against her keyboard, and the handwriting on the envelope was unmistakably Principal Gordon Pearson’s.

  “Oh, great,” she mumbled. “What now?”

  A quick scan of the note simply told her he wanted to see her, immediately if not sooner. She sighed.

  Dumping her tote containing the files she’d taken home, she straightened her layered tees, checked her hair to make sure it was as neat as she could make it and headed for Pearson’s office.

  “What’s up?” she said to Janie, the principal’s secretary.

  “Oh, just a homecoming emergency,” Janie said. “He’ll tell you all about it.”

  Sophie frowned. Homecoming emergency? She couldn’t imagine what that might be.

  She didn’t have to wonder long. She’d no sooner entered Principal Pearson’s office than he said, “I hope you don’t have plans for tomorrow night, Sophie. I need you to chaperone the homecoming dance. Jackie Farrow’s mother took a turn for the worse, and she’s flying to Denver this afternoon.”

  Jackie, a freshman math teacher, was one of the four teachers who’d drawn chaperone duty this time. And if Sophie wasn’t mistaken, Dillon Burke was also a chaperone. Oh Lord. The last place Sophie wanted to be was a dance—with him. And from her experiences chaperoning school functions, she knew all the teachers would be seated together. There would be no way to avoid him.

  For one second, she thought about fudging, saying she did have plans, important plans she couldn’t change, but she knew that wasn’t a good idea. The principal would expect her to elaborate, and she wasn’t a good liar. She always stammered...or blushed...or both. She’d give herself away in an instant.

  So she smothered a sigh, said, “No, I don’t have plans” and agreed that she would fill in for Jackie.

  Well, she thought philosophically as she walked back to her own office, at least now she could keep tabs on Joy. Heck, she might even take advantage of having to be in Dillon’s company by quizzing him about his nephew. See what she could find out about the boy.

  That decided, she only had one other serious problem.

  What in the world would she wear tomorrow night?

  * * *

  Dillon took a quick shower after the game—which Crandall Lake had won by ten points—and changed into the clothes he’d brought to wear to the homecoming dance. He wasn’t thrilled about chaperoning, but when he’d tried to get out of it, Principal Pearson had been quick to let him know he had to take a turn just like everyone else on the faculty.

  “It wouldn’t be fair for me to let you off the hook,” Pearson had said. “Would look like I think you’re better than the others, and that isn’t the way things work around here.”

  Dillon knew the man was right. He tried to operate the same way with his team. Yes, some of the players were much more talented and vital to the team, but there was no way he was going to act as if that were the case. The worst possible thing a coach could do for the morale of his team was play favorites.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to chaperone tonight’s dance, he told himself as he headed for the ballroom where the dance would take place. It might even be fun, like reliving his own high school days.

  When he arrived—later than the other chaperones since he’d had to shower and change clothes after the game—he saw the other three were already seated at their assigned table.

  Oh, hell. He hadn’t known Nicole Blanchard was also chaperoning tonight. The woman had been driving him crazy ever since the beginning of the school year. She followed him around, flirted shamelessly and seemed to think he welcomed it. No matter what he said or did, she didn’t take the hint that he wasn’t interested. She was pretty enough, but he’d only had to be in her company for one day before he knew she was bad news. If he paid her the least bit of attention, she would have them engaged and married. He’d been avoiding her as much as possible, but that would be tough to do tonight.

  Then he noticed who was sitting across the table from Nicole.

  Sophie.

  Their eyes met and held for a brief moment; then she abruptly stood, said something to the others and walked away. He stood there, watching her. She looked amazing. Her black dress was short and formfitting, hugging that shapely bottom of hers in a way that left nothing to the imagination. And those legs! There ought to be a law against spike heels for someone who had legs like hers.

  Maybe he wasn’t sorry, after all, that he was one of the four teachers working tonight.

  * * *

  Sophie knew it was cowardly of her, but the moment she spied Dillon walking toward their table, she’d had to get out of there, at least long enough to get her emotions—not to mention her hormones!—under some kind of control. So she’d quickly excused herself and headed for the ladies’ room. While there she ran a comb through her hair—which she wore loose tonight—freshened her lipstick and given herself a fast pep talk.

  You’re a grown-up, not to mention a high school counselor. If you can handle hundreds of teenagers, you can certainly handle one Dillon Burke. He’s not that irresistible.

  Despite the lecture, she was still not quite prepared to face him, so she decided that while there, she might as well take care of business. She had no sooner locked herself into the end stall than several giggling girls entered the room.

  “God, he’s hot, isn’t he?” one of them said.

  “Yeah, but lot of good it does us,” another commented.

  “I don’t know what Joy Ferrelli has that we don’t,” the first one said, “but Aidan hasn’t even looked at another girl since he got to town!”

  Sophie froze. She couldn’t identify any of the voices.

  “I know. From the moment he met her that day at the pool. She’s putting out. She has to be.”

  “Well, if she is, Marlowe’s gonna find out sooner or later, and then watch out.”

  Putting out? Were they serious? Had the relationship between Joy and Dillon’s nephew gone that far? Surely it couldn’t have. Why, Sophie hadn’t even known about it until the other day. How could those kids possibly have become so involved without Sophie knowing? Crandall Lake was a small town. Sophie had thought she would immediately know if Joy was doing anything she shouldn’t be doing. She’d certainly never thought allowing Joy to lifeguard at the city pool would cause problems. Why hadn’t Joy mentioned meeting Aidan before now?

  You know why. She knew how you’d react. If not for the fact that she wanted to come to the dance with him tonight, she probably still wouldn’t have mentioned him.

  It seemed to take forever for the girls to finish their business in the ladies’ room and leave. When the door finally closed after them, Sophie escaped the confines of her stall, washed her hands and tried to calm herself before going out to face the others. It wasn’t bad enough she had to contend with Dillon tonight. Now she had more to worry about with Joy. Please, God. Those girls are just jealous. Don’t let it be true. She’s only sixteen!

  As she walked back to the teachers’ table, she scanned the large ballroom, looking for her sister. It wasn’t easy to spot Joy, because the DJ had put on a thumping dance anthem, and hundreds of kids were on the dance floor. But Sophie finally spied her sister, in the corner farthest from the teachers’ table. And sure enough, she was with Aidan Burke. They weren’t doing anything, just standing side by side, but something about the way Joy leaned into him, and the way his head tilted down so he could look into her eyes, made Sophie’s heart sink.

  She recogni
zed the way they were together, because it was so similar to the way she, Sophie, had been with Dillon. Those girls were probably right. Joy and Aidan were intimate.

  Oh God, Sophie thought. I need help dealing with this.

  One thing she knew for sure. She should never have given in to Joy about tonight. She should have put her foot down and made her sister stay home. But would that have done any good? For all Sophie knew, Aidan Burke would have stayed away from the dance, too. In fact, he could have gone over to Sophie’s house and spent the entire evening there, alone with Joy, and Sophie wouldn’t have been the wiser.

  No, it was better to have the two of them here, where Sophie could at least see them. And as she’d planned earlier, she would find out as much as she could from Dillon about his nephew.

  Then tomorrow, she would corner Joy and they would have it out. What Sophie would do from that point on, she hadn’t a clue.

  Chapter Three

  “We thought you fell in,” Nicole Blanchard said as Sophie returned to their table.

  The fourth chaperone, Kevin Rafferty, who taught trig and calculus to juniors and seniors, grinned at Sophie.

  Sophie smiled, determined not to let Nicole get under her skin tonight, even though the woman was hard to take, even on a good day. The trouble was, she was clueless. Her attempts at humor always fell short, and she never seemed to take a hint. Sophie noticed how now that Dillon was there and seated between Nicole and Sophie’s empty seat, Nicole had scooted her chair closer to him. She wasn’t even subtle.

  “Did you miss me?” Sophie said mildly, taking her own seat. She noticed someone had put a drink in front of her. “What’s this?” She raised the plastic glass and sniffed.

  “Lemonade,” Dillon said. “Other than canned drinks, that’s all there is.”

  “Yeah,” Kevin said, sighing. “Sure could use a beer.”

  Sophie was thinking she sure could use a margarita, but there was zero tolerance for any kind of drug, including alcohol, anywhere near a school function. Once, one of the teachers had smuggled a flask to a dance he was chaperoning and spiked his soft drink with it. Someone had seen him do it and reported him. The guy was nearly fired on the spot. Since then, there’d never been another incident.

  “Thanks,” Sophie said, finally looking at Dillon. Her stupid heart skittered as their eyes met once again. What was it about this man that just a glance could reduce her to jelly? Okay, so he was gorgeous and sexy. He looked especially good tonight in a white, open-necked shirt, a dark sport coat and khaki pants. And he wore some kind of woodsy cologne that Sophie loved. But still...lots of guys were hot-looking and dressed well. Normally Sophie had no problem resisting their charms. Dillon, though, was another story. Always had been another story. But she was determined he would never know the effect he still had on her. Nor would anyone else in her world.

  Turning to Nicole, Sophie said, “I love your dress, Nicole. You look great.”

  “Thanks.” Nicole smiled archly, all but batting her eyelashes at Dillon. Any other woman would have reciprocated the compliment, but not Nicole.

  To his credit, Dillon ignored her. Instead he gave Sophie a once-over and said, “Someone else at this table looks great, too.”

  Sophie knew she was blushing, but thank goodness it was too dark in the ballroom for anyone else to see the telltale stain. “Thank you,” she managed. “I’d say we all clean up well.”

  Just then, the DJ switched to a slow, romantic ballad. Not losing any time, Kevin turned toward Nicole to ask if she’d like to dance. Sophie looked at Nicole and could see by her expression that she was uncertain about whether to say yes or no, but vanity won out and she smiled, saying, “I’d love to.”

  Once the two of them went to the dance floor, Dillon said, “I guess that’s our cue.” He scooted his chair back and reached for her hand.

  “I don’t think—”

  “You can’t say no. That would be rude.” That sexy smile of his hovered around his mouth. “Didn’t your mother teach you that?”

  Sophie sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was dance with Dillon. It was hard enough pretending she wasn’t interested in him. Dancing to a slow song, feeling his body up against hers, would make it nearly impossible. Even now, just allowing him to help her up, she felt her heart beating too fast and too hard.

  Sophie held herself as rigidly as she could manage, trying to put some distance between them as he drew her into his arms.

  “Relax,” he murmured, pulling her closer. “I don’t bite.”

  “I know that. It’s just that I—I wanted to talk.”

  “What about?”

  “Your nephew.”

  “Aidan?” He frowned, moving back a little. “What about him?”

  “It appears he and my sister, Joy, have been seeing each other.”

  “Is that a problem?”

  “Actually, it is.”

  “Why?” Another frown and he seemed to hesitate before speaking. “He’s not a bad kid.”

  Something about his lukewarm response told Sophie that Dillon had his own reservations. “That may be,” she said carefully, “but he’s a senior and Joy is only a sophomore. He’s too old for her.”

  Dillon drew her imperceptibly closer. “Like I was too old for you?” he whispered in her ear.

  Sophie’s entire body reacted. To disguise what she was feeling, she immediately pulled away from him. If it wouldn’t have called unwanted attention to them, she would have marched straight off the floor, forcing him to follow her if he wanted to continue the conversation. “You were too old for me. But that’s not the point. Joy is very vulnerable. She’s lost her parents, Dillon. She doesn’t need any more loss in her life.”

  “Aidan’s just as vulnerable,” he said. “He’s also lost his parents. And he’s having a hard time adjusting to life here in Crandall Lake. At least Joy is still living in her hometown. Aidan had to give up everything. Can’t you cut him a break?”

  Sophie’s tender heart wanted to relent, because she did feel bad for the boy. “I wish I could, but Joy’s welfare is my top priority, and I think she’d be much better off if she and Aidan are not permitted to date.”

  “You sure you’re not projecting what happened with us onto your sister?”

  Sophie stiffened. Of course she was. How could she not be affected by her own mistakes? “Our situation has nothing to do with my decision regarding Joy. She and I had an agreement about her not dating older boys since she reached dating age.”

  “Okay, okay. I get it. And I don’t want to argue with you.” Now he pulled her closer still, murmuring into her ear, “I always did like dancing with you.”

  Thankfully, at that moment, the music stopped, and Sophie could pull away and leave the dance floor without making a scene. But as she and Dillon approached their table, she saw that Joy and Aidan were also heading in their direction.

  “Sophie!” Joy called. “Wait up.”

  Sophie stopped, and so did Dillon. Although Sophie’s mind was churning, she couldn’t help feeling a surge of pride over how pretty Joy looked in her blue dress that matched the school colors of blue and gold in her corsage. And even though Sophie was totally against Joy having any ongoing relationship with Dillon’s nephew, she had to admit, if only to herself, that Joy and Aidan made a really cute couple. Aidan was tall like his uncle and had the same striking blue eyes. His hair was lighter, though, and Sophie figured the brown/gold color came from his mother. As the two kids came closer, Sophie saw the look of uncertainty on Aidan’s face, and once again, she felt an unwanted sympathy for the young man.

  “Sophie, I wanted you to meet Aidan,” Joy said, giving Dillon a shy smile before pulling Aidan forward.

  As Sophie shook the boy’s hand, she was acutely aware of Dillon beside her, of Nicole Blanchard staring at them, a
nd probably giving her the evil eye, and most of all, of the naked longing in Joy’s eyes and the tense set of Aidan’s shoulders.

  In that moment, Sophie knew, without a doubt, that her worst fears were true. Joy and Aidan’s relationship had gone a lot further than Joy had let on. The question was, how far, and was it too late for Sophie to do anything about it?

  * * *

  Aidan hadn’t wanted to come over to meet Sophie. But Joy had talked him into it, saying she was sure once Sophie knew him, her objections to their dating would vanish.

  “I don’t want to keep sneaking around,” Joy told him. “I hate lying to her.”

  “Then don’t,” Aidan had answered.

  “Maybe you can get away with that with your uncle, but I can’t. Anyway, it makes me feel awful to lie to her. She’s my sister, Aidan. She’s all I’ve got. And...she’s been good to me.” She’d swallowed. “Please? For me?”

  So here they stood, and Joy tried to telegraph, with her eyes, how much she wanted Sophie to like Aidan. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if Sophie continued to forbid her to see him. She couldn’t give Aidan up. She loved him. It was as simple as that. Sophie might think someone Joy’s age couldn’t possibly know what love was, but she was wrong. Maybe she’d never been in love when she was in high school, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible.

  I’m going to marry Aidan someday.

  “I haven’t seen you dancing tonight,” Dillon said.

  Aidan shrugged. “I’m not very good at it.”

  “I’m not, either. Doesn’t stop me,” Dillon persisted. “You need to try new things.”

  Joy wished Aidan’s uncle would stop criticizing Aidan. She knew he hated it. He’d told her Dillon thought he knew everything because he’d been a “hotshot” quarterback. Aidan shrugged again, then turned to Sophie. “Nice meeting you, Ms. Marlowe.” Ignoring his uncle, he said, “Let’s go get something to drink, Joy.”

  Joy looked at Sophie. On her sister’s face she saw empathy, but she also saw something else. Concern. Joy knew immediately that Sophie’s mind hadn’t changed. Joy’s heart sank, and it was all she could do to keep a smile on her face and say a nonchalant “See you later” as she and Aidan walked away.