Oh, Baby!

“I do! I promise! I’ll pay so much attention in all my classes, I’ll bring home straight A’s this semester.”

Sophie chuckled. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, sweetie.”

Joy gave her a sheepish grin. “I’ll make you proud, Sophie.”

Sophie sighed. “Oh, all right. I won’t ground you...this time. But see this doesn’t happen again.”

“It won’t.”

“So you have a date for homecoming? Is that why you’re so eager to go?” Sophie picked up the mail, which Joy had placed on the gate-legged table in the entryway of the home that had belonged to Joy’s parents.

“Um, sort of...”

Sophie idly leafed through the advertisements and credit card offers. When would these banks quit sending her this stuff? She never responded. Suddenly realizing that Joy was standing there quietly, Sophie looked up. “Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. What did you say?”

“Um, I said I did kind of have a date.”

“Oh? Who with?”

“Um, Aidan Burke?”

Sophie blinked. Aidan Burke? Dillon Burke’s nephew? Alarm bells began ringing in her brain. She opened her mouth, then closed it, not sure what to say. Her first instinct had been to say over my dead body, but she knew she would have to justify an answer like that, and what could she say? I don’t want you seeing anyone even remotely connected to Dillon Burke. The Burke men are bad news. Really bad news. Sighing again, she met Joy’s hopeful gaze. “How old is this Aidan Burke?”

Joy’s expression became hesitant. “He’s a senior,” she said softly.

“Yes, that’s what I thought.” Oh God. Is history repeating itself? “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to date a senior, Joy.”

“Why? He’s really nice, Sophie. You’d like him.”

Sophie could just imagine. She’d seen Dillon’s nephew from a distance. He was a good-looking kid. In fact, he reminded her of Dillon when he was a kid. No. This would never do. “You are too young to date a senior. And when did you meet him, anyway?”

“At the pool. This summer.”

“I see.” She studied Joy for a moment, but Joy evaded her gaze. “Have you already gone out with him?” At first, Sophie wasn’t sure Joy was going to answer her. But then she looked up.

“We’ve never had a date.”

There was something about Joy’s answer that bothered Sophie, but she certainly wasn’t going to accuse her sister of lying to her. Was she lying?

“Sophie, I just wish you’d meet him...”

“I’m sorry, Joy, but I’ve made up my mind. You cannot go to homecoming with him. You can dance with him if he asks you, but you cannot go with him or allow him to bring you home.”

Joy’s face crumpled. “This is so unfair. You...you don’t even know him!”

“Joy,” Sophie said quietly, “you knew what my reaction was going to be before you even told me about him.” When Joy just stared at her, Sophie added, “We agreed last year, when you first began dating, that you would stick to boys in your age bracket.”

“But that was before I’d met Aidan. Please, Sophie, just give him a chance. Let him come over and talk to you. I know you’ll change your mind if you meet him.”

Sophie shook her head. If Aidan had even one quarter of the charm his uncle had, she would be putty in his hands. “No, honey. It’s out of the question. When you’re older and in college, you can make your own choices about who you date. While you’re here, and I’m in charge, the rules will stand.”

Joy gave her one last beseeching look, then walked away dejectedly. Sophie sighed. Please, God, give me the strength to get her safely through high school.

An hour later, dinner on the table, Sophie called upstairs to tell Joy it was time to eat. Hearing nothing in return, she called louder. When there was still no response, she climbed the stairs and knocked on Joy’s bedroom door before opening it, all ready to deliver a reprimand. Her mouth instead fell open. The room was empty.

“Joy?” Sophie walked in, then checked the adjoining bathroom. Joy wasn’t there. Where was she? Sophie looked at Joy’s nightstand where her charger lay. Joy’s cell phone, which was always connected to the charger when Joy was in the room, wasn’t there, either.

Her niece had sneaked out.

Somehow Joy had come down the stairs noiselessly, opened the front door and left without making any noise or saying a word to Sophie.

Sophie’s heart sped up. She was furious. In fact, she couldn’t believe Joy had defied her like this. Worse, she couldn’t think what she was going to do about it. Trouble was, she herself was only twenty-nine. She was too close to being a kid herself not to remember what it felt like to have a crush on an older, drop-dead-handsome boy. To think you’d die if he didn’t ask you out. Maybe she’d made a terrible mistake. By telling Joy she couldn’t go to homecoming with Aidan Burke, had she inadvertently pushed the girl right into his arms?

Sighing, Sophie moped downstairs. Picking up her own cell phone, she texted Joy.

Where R U? Pls come hm. Lets talk.

When ten minutes had gone by with no answer, she realized Joy either had her phone shut off or was simply going to ignore her. She probably figured Sophie wasn’t going to relent on homecoming anyway, so what difference did it make? All Sophie could do was wait, and try to figure out what she was going to do now.

* * *

The house was dark when Aidan dropped Joy off. But Sophie’s bedroom faced the backyard, so even if her light was still on, Joy wouldn’t have been able to see it.

Joy silently let herself in, glad there was no dog to make noise, even though she’d been begging Sophie for months to let her get a Lab. Sophie had finally relented, saying they could pick out a Lab puppy for Christmas. Joy made a face. She guessed she’d probably blown that, too, with her disappearing act tonight.

Why had she sneaked out? She still wasn’t sure. All she knew was that when Sophie had so stubbornly refused to allow her to go to homecoming with Aidan, she was so angry she just wanted to show Sophie she couldn’t control everything in Joy’s life.

You’ve blown it. Totally blown it. Now she probably won’t let you go to homecoming at all.

Joy was still thinking dark thoughts when she reached the top of the stairs—thankfully, not making any noise while doing it—so she wasn’t fully prepared for Sophie’s sudden appearance in the hallway.

“Where have you been?” Sophie demanded.

Joy swallowed. “I was upset. I—I had to get away...to think.”

“To think.”

“Yes.” Joy straightened, abruptly deciding she would brazen this out. She was in the doghouse anyway. Might as well show some backbone.

Sophie sighed heavily. “Joy,” she began.

“I know, I know. You’re mad at me. I don’t blame you.”

“I’m more than mad, Joy. I’m disappointed. I didn’t know where you were or what you were doing. I even bailed out on my book club tonight because I was so worried about you. I’ve been sitting and waiting all night. I know you were out with that boy, otherwise I might have been tempted to call the police and have them look for you. The least you could have done was answer my text, let me know you were safe. I don’t think I deserve this kind of treatment from you. Do you?”

All Joy’s defiance disappeared. Instead she just felt miserable. Because her sister was right. Sophie didn’t deserve this kind of treatment. She was a wonderful person. A wonderful sister. And she’d never been anything but fair and kind and loving to Joy. In fact, Joy wasn’t sure she would have survived losing her parents if not for Sophie. Tears stinging her eyes, Joy shook her head. “No,” she whispered.

“Then why did you do it?”

Joy shrugged. A tear rolled down her cheek. “I—I don’t know. I’m sorry, Sophie. I really am. I—deserve whatever punishment you want to give me.”

Sophie nodded. She reached out and squeezed Joy’s shoulder. “Look, we’re both tired and upset. We won’t make any decisions tonight. And we both have to be up early tomorrow. So we’ll talk tomorrow night, okay?”

“Okay.” Joy was grateful for the reprieve, but she was savvy enough to know that just because she’d been given some time before she had to face the music didn’t mean Sophie was going to go easy on her.

* * *

Thank God it was Friday, Sophie thought as she drove to work. The week had been brutal, especially Wednesday night and last night. Thinking about last night, she hoped she’d done some good, at least for Kaitlyn, the senior who was pregnant. The meeting with Kaitlyn and her parents hadn’t been easy, but at least their beautiful, college-bound daughter was in one piece. By the time Sophie had left for home, the family was in the midst of trying to make the best decision about how to go forward. The one thing all three had agreed upon was that Kaitlyn would still head off to UT next fall. Whether she would give her child up for adoption or go another direction was still up in the air.

Sophie was grateful it wasn’t her decision to make. The decision she had made earlier, before going over to the Macpherson home, was still bothering her. She’d taken pity on Joy and hadn’t forbidden her to go to homecoming, especially when Joy had meekly agreed she would attend with Megan, Jenna and Bethany, her three best friends—all of whom were going stag. Sophie had almost insisted upon picking Joy up when the evening was over, but she’d instead decided to give Joy another chance at trust.

“You’re absolutely not to go home with Aidan Burke. You will stay with your friends and leave with your friends. Understood?”

She hoped she hadn’t made a mistake, but the die was cast. And if she had made a mistake, and Joy disobeyed her, then that would be it. She wouldn’t trust Joy again.

Driving into the teachers’ parking lot, Sophie saw a tall, dark-haired figure getting out of a black Toyota Tundra truck. Her heart skipped as she realized it was Dillon. Parking as far from his truck as it was possible, she waited until he was halfway to the entrance of the school before exiting her little Prius. She felt unsettled enough today without having to contend with another meeting with Dillon.

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 recognized 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.”