CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Three weeks later, against all the odds, Lila still hadn’t found Burke his home.
It was David’s fault.
Picky little bastard.
Lila had been sure that this property was the one. It was a pretty house on the same street as the Martinezes’ new house, and it was perfect.
Perfect.
It was close enough to the high school that David could walk there—a big selling point, in case he didn’t improve his driving skills enough before graduation for Burke to let him drive alone. Which also hadn’t happened yet. It was the other side of town from Derek’s garage, but anywhere would be a longer commute for Burke after living in the back lot.
The street was filled with young families, nice yards, warm smiles. Dogs, kids on bikes. Dogs prancing alongside kids on bikes. Big old trees. Treehouses.
It was freaking perfect!
Burke had liked it, she knew he had. And yet, David was unenthusiastic.
“What do you think?” Lila had asked him.
The brat had shrugged and said, “I guess. Sure. It’ll do, right?”
It’ll do.
Goddammit.
They’d finished inside the house and were in the driveway. Burke was watching a guy walk past pushing a stroller with a screeching toddler strapped in. An elderly Labrador wearing a bandana around his thick neck stumped behind them at his own sweet pace. David glanced between Burke and Lila, and the little bastard said it again.
“Yeah, it’ll do. Right, Dad?”
Here we go. Lila held up one finger, then two, then three, then she swept an open palm to Burke and mouthed along as he turned and said, “We’ll keep looking.”
Of course we will.
“Awesome,” Lila said. “Hey, Burke, I’ve got an idea. How about you head back to work, and I take David to Kurt’s? It’s on my way.”
“Oh!” David said. “Yes, great. Can I drive?”
“No,” Burke said.
Lila managed not to bare her teeth. “Come on,” she said. “Let me do this for you. Buddy.”
Burke shook his head. “I’ll not have him put you in danger, Lila.”
“He will not be driving.”
“I’m better,” David protested. “I’m improving, you said so yourself, Dad.”
“You’re improving. You’re still not any good.”
“Good enough to drive myself from Seattle,” he muttered.
“You let him drive in the city?” Lila gaped at Burke. “Are you crazy?”
Burke scowled. “No one let him. He stole the doorman’s car and drove himself.”
“It’s only parking that’s the problem. I’m fine so long as I’m moving. I didn’t get a scratch on the doorman’s car.” He shuffled his feet. “Okay, one scratch. It was hardly noticeable.”
Burke looked at Lila and held his hands as far apart as they would go. “One scratch.”
David smiled. “Fine, it was noticeable. Still only one, though. And I got it fixed.”
“Your mother got it fixed,” Burke told him.
Good grief. “Get in the car,” Lila said to David, beeping the locks.
“Cool.” David made a beeline for the driver’s side, and jumped when they both shouted, “No!”
Grumbling, he went around to the other side.
Lila clapped Burke on the shoulder. Upper arm. Couldn’t reach his shoulder. “I’ll drive him home. You get to work.” She made it three paces away before he hooked her elbow and spun her gently to face him. Lila swayed forward, her hands coming up to brace on his abs. He sucked in a sharp breath but didn’t move away.
“Why do you want to drive him home?” Burke asked.
“I’m being helpful. I’m saving you the trip. It’s on my way.”
“It is helpful and it is on your way.” Burke ran his gaze over her face. “But that’s not the reason.”
May as well confess. “I was going to shout at him.” She wrinkled her nose. “A bit. More like a loud conversation than shouting. When I say conversation, I of course mean me talking and him listening.”
Burke stared at her. “Okay, then.” He straightened, and headed for his truck, pausing by Lila’s car to give David, who’d buckled himself in and was busy going through Lila’s glove compartment, a big smile and a wave.
David stiffened with suspicion.
Lila laughed. “You don’t mind me shouting at your boy? Aren’t you even going to ask why?”
“You’re going to try and find out why he keeps turning down all these acceptable properties. Believe me, I’ve tried. I’m getting nothing. Be my guest.”
Lila hopped into her car. David stuffed the contents of her glove compartment back where they should be, and closed it with care. He aimed a carefree grin Lila’s way. “Are you the good cop or the bad cop?”
“I’m the realtor.” Lila backed out of the driveway. “You know. The woman who has shown you and your dad sixteen properties. In three weeks. Congratulations, little man. You have broken my all-time record.”
“Cool.”
“For assholes.”
“Bad cop. I suspected. Dad is never bad cop.”
“Is that why you’re messing him around, and taking me along for the ride?”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Hey. Weren’t you supposed to turn left?”
“Observant.”
“So where are we going?”
“This is the scenic route.”
“Okaaaay. Does the scenic route involve stranding me somewhere and making me walk home?”
“Ah, hell. You guessed. Ruined the surprise.”
David looked at her uncertainly.
“I’m not going to strand you, David. Word to the wise, though. Don’t give me ideas.” Lila drummed her fingers on the wheel. “What’s going on with you?”
“Um. School’s good. Made a couple of friends. Some big dude tried to shove me in a locker for transferring from private school, but he backed off.”
She’d been about to launch into her why are you house-blocking your father speech, but at this, Lila cut him a sharp look. “Did you fight?”
“Hah. No. He may have been bigger than me, but I’m still six feet tall. You can’t get me in a locker no matter how hard you shove. I explained this to him clearly and concisely. It’s called conflict de-escalation.”
“And he was happy to hang around, listening to you de-escalate the conflict?”
“I didn’t ask. He was in a headlock at the time. I didn’t hurt him. As for the rest? Um. Lessons are easy as shit. Teachers don’t like it when you tell them, though. Know that now. It’s cool living with Kurt. Mom’s loving it in London, and I miss her, but she made the right choice because she was unhappy at work. After the divorce. It sucks, when one of the bosses is your ex-husband. Yeah. I’m getting by. Thanks for asking, Lila. I like that you care. It’s really nice of you.”
Lila hummed. Now how was she supposed to get on his case about the house… Wait.
A glimmer of a smile curled David’s mouth as he leaned forward to fiddle with the stereo.
Lila’s blood pressure spiked. He’d played her. The little punk. “You little punk,” she said.
David fell back against his seat, all wounded eyes and surprised face.
“Knock it off,” she told him.
He laughed. “If you tell me why we’re on a diversion. Is it a road trip?”
“Yep. My first choice for a road-trip buddy is the barely-sixteen-year-old son of my client.”
“I’d watch that movie.”
“Ew. No, David. Come on. That isn’t a movie. That’s a crime special.”
He chuckled.
“We’re taking the long way home because I don’t think I’ll get all the yelling done in the fifteen minutes it would otherwise take me to drive you home. As long as this car is moving, you are a captive audience.”
“Yelling?” He slid down in his seat. “Must you yell?”
“Depends on whether or not I get answers that will help me help your dad.”
He blew out a breath and shoved his thick hair out of his eyes. “This is about us breaking your asshole record, right?”
“What’s going on, David? Why won’t you pick somewhere? Some of the properties I’ve shown you guys have been great. Spoiled brat though you are, one of them must meet your high standards.”
“Don’t get mad at me.”
“I can’t promise that.”
“Promise not to strand me, then.”
“That I will promise.”
“I liked at least five of them.”
“What?” Lila screeched.
“Actually, I really liked the first one.”
“So… Why…? Three weeks I’ve been… Three weeks, and your father…”
He tapped his finger to his nose and pointed at her.
“Words, David,” Lila snapped. “Use your words.”
“Dad hasn’t liked anywhere.”
“Are you kidding me? Burke is desperate to find somewhere to get you settled. It’s his number one objective. He’ll take anything.”
“I know.”
Lila growled.
“I don’t want him to take anything,” David said. “I want him to find somewhere he likes. I’ll take anything.”
“How about I pick somewhere, and you’ll both damn well like it?”
“That could work. Seriously, though, Lila. You know about my dad, right? You guys are close.”
“We’re friends.”
David considered her. “You do know what he’s given up for me, what having me has cost him, don’t you?”
“Uh…”
“Maybe you don’t.” David pushed his hair back again, and laced his hands on top of his head, pressing down. “Okay, we’ll stick with the house. He’s never had his own place, and it’s all my fault.”
“He had a very cool RV.”
David gave her an old-fashioned look. “Lila. He’s never had a home. He’s never had roots, or anything. His whole adult life. I guess because he never knew when mom was going to up and move across the country. Which she did, like, four times. He said once that he couldn’t afford to have a life if he had to pack it up at any moment on someone else’s whim.”
“He and your mom never thought about sharing custody? Or deciding on things like moving across the country together, stuff like that?”
“You have to know, Mom’s great, but she’s rich. Rich as in loaded. So are my grandparents.” He winked. “Me, too. When I turn twenty-one, anyway. Mom and Dad were never together. Mom wouldn’t even let him live with us in case he used it as leverage in a custody case, which was total bullshit because she can bury him with lawyers and he’s always known it.
“Anyway, he’s lived life kind of disconnected, and now, finally, he gets to have a home. He likes it here in Emerson. Kurt’s here, and Dad loves his job. He hasn’t always liked where he’s been. He hasn’t always liked his job. Everything he’s done, it’s been so he was close to me if I needed him. Including not having proper relationships because no woman would up and move because his baby mama’s moving. Again.”
David chewed his thumbnail. “I figured if I came to live here for my last two years of school, Dad would buy somewhere and put down roots. And I’d get to live with him for the first time ever, and, I don’t know. It’d be cool. It’d be cool if he was happy for once.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Lila remarked. “Although, I do think that you are freaking adorable.”
David pulled a revolted face.
“And a freaking idiot. How are you even going to know he’s found the house he wants?”
“I guess I’ll know when he looks at it the way he looks at you.”
“What?” It came out high-pitched.
“Like it’s something he wants to keep forever. You haven’t noticed?”
“Shut up.”
“Nope. It’s a side benefit of making you dance to my tune. Each time I turn somewhere down, you two have to spend more time together. I was hoping you’d see he’s a great guy, but it’s taking too long. Imma gonna say it straight. Want to date my dad?”
“No.”
“He’s a catch.”
“I know he’s a catch, but you can’t… You can’t get him the house and the woman in one fell swoop as some sort of misguided effort to make up for being the reason he hasn’t settled down before.”
“Betcha I can.”
“David.” Lila turned down a side street, taking a shortcut. The whole captive audience thing went both ways, and she wasn’t much enjoying being on this end of it. “Don’t meddle with his life. Burke is the grown-up here. It’s his job to provide for you, to make you happy. Not the other way around. And I assure you, what would make him happy is to get you guys moved into a nice, permanent home. What would make him very unhappy is for you to interfere in his love life.”
“Love life? You love him? Because I think he might—”
“Sex life,” she corrected.
“Sex life? You guys are doing it, then?”
“Oh, look. Here we are. Home sweet home. Out you get.”
“This was a good talk.”
“Stop being difficult about the house. You like somewhere, tell him. I don’t want to hear ‘it’ll do’ one more time.”
“Fine. You’ll think about the dating thing, though, right?”
“No.”
“Lila. C’mon.”
“Lila c’mon, what?”
“You know.”
“I know I have somewhere else to be. That’s what I know.”
“Dad isn’t the only one doing the looking.”
She glared at him.
“You like my dad.”
“Yes. I like your dad. I happen to think he’s adorable, too. But I’m not going to date him. There’s no point.”
“Uh, yes there’s a point. It’s called happily-ever-after.”
Was this kid for real? “There’s no point because I’m moving to Seattle as soon as I get a job.”
“You’ve got a job here already.”
“I quit it.”
“You could un-quit, and stay.”
“Not how I roll, kid. I make a plan, and I execute.”