Chapter Six
Graham
Ella stared at us from across the table, using her spoon to fiddle with her hot fudge sundae. “OK, what gives? Am I in trouble or something? Is that why you both came to practice and were acting weird in the car?”
I leaned back in the booth and decided to let Lee take this one. It was his latest episode of emotional ping-pong before leaving practice that had resulted in the tension on our drive to the ice cream shop.
“I’ve been to a practice before. Don’t make it sound like I haven’t,” he announced spiritedly.
“No, you haven’t,” Ella shot back, crossing her arms.
“What is this, pick on Dad day?” He smiled affectionately, widening his eyes and shaking his head at our daughter. “So suspicious. You get more like your poppy every day.”
She searched the table for a fresh napkin to wipe her mouth, and when she didn’t find any, rose from her seat. “Work it out while I’m gone. Which one of you is going to tell me what I’m in trouble for. You’re always quiet in the car when you’re fighting about who has to have the talk with me.”
“The talk?” Lee sounded befuddled and amused.
She quirked a golden brow. “The talk about whatever you two think I’ve done wrong. It’s always the same. Silence in the car. Take me to McConnell’s for sundaes, then bam, talk to Ella.”
I bit back a smirk when Lee’s stunned gaze moved with her as she marched toward the counter. “When did she get to be so mouthy?”
“Our girl’s growing up, Lee.”
“She’s twelve,” he protested heatedly.
My glance shifted to Ella as she yanked out napkins from a holder and talked with the boy at the counter. Another ever-present fun tween ploy—God help us—and an obvious one at that: pick a fight with us to go flirt with the local hot guy too old for her. She got more like Leland every day, not that he could see it.
But our daughter was lovely. The spit of Leland. Tall. Long limbed. An athletic though shapely build. Mid-length golden blond hair with both his amber eyes and smile. She was intelligent, sneaky—and crafty thanks to hormones.
As her foot, toe pointed at floor, did little twirls, she leaned into the counter, laughing. Damn, she was growing up fast and determined to grow up even faster.
Not happening.
I tossed down my napkin. “Are you just going to sit there while she flirts with that jerk? He’s got to be five years older than her. Minimum. She may look sixteen but she’s not and any guy chatting up a girl her age—”
Lee busted into laughter. “There. That’s the Graham I know. I was wondering where the hell you were.”
“Sitting here waiting for you to do something.”
He grinned. “You’re the muscle in the family. Go muscle.”
I stood up. “Gladly.”
“Don’t embarrass her.”
I shot him a hard stare for that piece of backseat parenting. I wouldn’t take embarrassing her off the options list if it got the ice cream hunk to back off and stay off. Though putting the fear of me into him would work just as well, and that one was more enjoyable.
Decision made. I locked the kid in my steely gray stare as I maneuvered through tables to Ella. I stopped beside her at the counter and encircled her with an arm. “Did you get our check, sweetheart?”
Flustered and red cheeked, her face shot toward mine. “What?”
I smiled, no teeth, at the neighborhood Lothario. “That piece of paper you shoved into your pocket, that’s our check, right? Let me see it so I can pay.”
“You didn’t ask me to get the check.” The expression in her eyes was easy to read: How did Poppy see that the guy slipped me his number?
I shifted my gaze to the boy. “My mistake. Can we have our check?”
As Ella fidgeted beside me, only too gladly her terminated first dating mistake moved to the back counter, grabbed a sheet of paper, and started to tally.
“Any thoughts on what you’re going to do after high school?” I asked conversationally.
The kid looked over his shoulder at me. “No, sir. I don’t graduate for another year.”
Sir.
Nice move.
Now we were on the same page.
“You should consider the military. I’m retired Special Forces. Nothing like the military to get a guy strong, mentally fit, and with his priorities straight. Really brings home how important family is and clarifies what you’re willing to do for them. It’s put me in situations in my life I never thought I’d be in, but looking at my daughter is all the confirmation I need that every mission I did the right thing.”
The check was shoved across the counter at me from a distance. “I’ll remember that, sir. That is if I don’t get into college.”
I tossed a twenty on the counter. “Glad to hear it, son. You have a good afternoon.”
With an expression that looked like inward groaning, Ella pushed away from the counter and stomped out the door instead of going back to our table.
When I looked at Lee he was open mouthed.
“We’re leaving,” I called out to him.
Raking a hand through his waves, he took one more bite of his sundae then hurried across the restaurant to where I waited with Mr. Tall, Young, and Outta Luck.
Lee frowned. “I hope you didn’t humiliate her. Ella looked upset when she left.”
I held the door open for him. “She’ll get over it. A lot faster—I should point out—than whatever that jerk had in mind. And I was pleasant. Only chatted with the kid about the military and gave him some life advice. I know how to handle situations without creating a scene, unlike some people I know.”
“You better hope Ella sees it that way.”
I shrugged. “She will—” When we rounded the car, I spotted Ella leaning against her door, curled over, head in hands, and looking miserable. “Eventually.”
I clicked open the locks.
Her head shot up. “That has got to be the most humiliating thing you’ve ever done to me. How could you do that, Poppy?”
Lee’s expression screamed I told you so.
“Don’t you dare try to look innocent, Dad. You were in on it, too, I know it,” she blustered on.
“Me? What did I do?” Lee asked bewildered.
Way to go having my back, babe. Leave me in the hot zone alone.
She held us both in her furious gaze. “Isn’t my life hard enough without you treating me like a little girl when we’re out?”
Calmly I held out my hand to her. “Go in your pocket. Paper in fingers. Phone number to Poppy. Now.”
Petulant, she jerked it out of her shorts and dropped it into my waiting palm.
“You can have this back in six years, Ella. Get in the car. We’re going home.”
She jerked open the door, plopped on the back seat, and slammed the door behind her.
“Our daughter has entered the boy-crazy zone, if you haven’t noticed. Neither of us is her favorite guy anymore. Try to remember that the next time she wants to divide and conquer us.”
Lee searched my face. “When did that start? I can’t believe our daughter’s turning into a woman. I noticed the makeup and figured that was Patty’s doing, but oh no, it’s all Ella, isn’t it?”
“Our daughter turned into a woman two months ago.”
Lee looked confused. “What?”
“She got her period. It’s been like hormone roller derby in the house ever since. You’re going to have your hands full when I’m gone. You better brace for it. It’s an all-out battle. She’s a looker. And the boys look. Only now she looks back. When I’m gone, you have got to pay better attention to what she does than you usually do. Ask where she’s going. Double check that she’s there. Meet the parents. Enforce the rules for a change, Lee.”
“Why didn’t you tell me our daughter got her period?” Now he was angry.
“I sort of thought she would have.”
“No. She didn’t.” He sounded disappointed. His eyes widened. “What did you do?”
“I took her to the drug store. What else was there to do? It wasn’t like we had what she needed on hand.”
Lee moaned. “This isn’t a going-for-household-supplies kind of event. Did you talk to her? It’s an emotional time for a girl. Did you have the talk with her?”
“That I left for you. I did the heavy lifting. I took her to the feminine product aisle for the first time.”
Lee threw back his golden head, laughing. “Oh fuck, I wish I could have seen that.” He cackled harder. “How did you know what to tell her to buy?”
A smile broke through on my face. “I didn’t. I texted Patty. But apparently her suggestions were all wrong so I texted someone younger instead. Those suggestions seemed more agreeable to Ella.”
“Oh, baby, I’m sorry I wasn’t here and left you alone for this life event. Some issues I’m better at handling. This one falls in my wheelhouse.” His expression waned into an egads kind of stare. “Who did you text?”
It was damn near impossible to recall that phone-a-friend moment without cringing. “Skyler. His stepdaughter Emmy is two years older than Ella. I figured he’d already been through it.”
“Christ, how you must have gritted your teeth doing that.”
“No, actually, it wasn’t that bad. Sky knew exactly what to buy. Knew that Ella shouldn’t start with tampons and which type of product was the right one for a young girl. Which isn’t easy to know because there’s dozens of them and they all look the same. Sent me a picture as a guide. Plus, he put chocolate for Ella and Jameson for me on the list he texted back. Sometimes in a crisis, Skyler is the go-to guy. The scotch was gone before the chocolate.”
The corners of Lee’s mouth curled downward. “You’re a very good parent, Graham.”
“We’ll survive the next six years until we send her off to college if we work together as a team.” He opened his mouth and I cut him off. “No. Don’t say it. We agreed not to discuss your let’s have more kids obsession again until after the party.”
His eyes flashed, but he remained silent.
Ella’s door opened. “Are you two going to stand outside the car talking about me all day or can we go home? And before you ground me, you should know I didn’t know what to do. He gave me the number but I only took it not to hurt his feelings. It wasn’t like I was going to call him or anything.”
Nice performance.
She was Leland’s daughter, no doubt about that. And damned if the way she stared didn’t pierce my heart—a little—though not enough for me to break. “Close your door. Wait. Don’t interrupt us again. Your dad’s talking to you when we get home, Ella. You can count on it.”
Slam.