Her father didn’t miss that either.

“You lied to me,” Neal stated, still in a whisper.

She rubbed her lips together as she rubbed her palms on her jeans.

“You’re not pregnant?” her father asked, his voice now sounding choked.

She stared into his eyes for some time before she finally jerked her head in a negative.

“What were you gonna do when that shit was found out?” her father asked incredulously, a question he probably didn’t want the answer to, but asked it anyway.

She shifted on her feet.

“Mia,” he started, his voice awful and I didn’t know him, but I felt for him. “What were you gonna do?”

“Get pregnant in the meantime, but pin it on Conner,” she whispered, voice trembling, eyes glued to her dad.

“Jesus,” Neal bit out, staring at her like he’d never seen before.

Her face screwed up and she threw out a hand Conner’s way. “We dated for three months and he just blew me off.”

Good goodness.

All of this for three months?

I was aghast.

“Go to the car.” Neal was again whispering.

She looked to Conner. “You can’t be with a girl and just blow her off.”

“Mia, go to the car,” Neal demanded, a lot louder this time.

She looked to her father. “He humiliated me. I was the second one cut!”

“Swear to Christ, Mia, you don’t go to the car right now…” Neal trailed off.

She looked to Conner and hissed, “You’re still a dick and you’ll always be a dick.”

That was when Jake was done.

“Not sure your girl is welcome in my home, Neal,” Jake said low.

“Mia—” Neal started but her bravado disintegrated as her face crumbled.

I felt no pity for her.

Lying about a pregnancy and conniving to become that way?

Unacceptable.

“You hurt me,” she whispered to Conner.

Conner said nothing.

“Car, Mia,” her father ordered but his voice was gentler, thus giving some understanding of why Mia was as Mia was. What she’d done was not suitable by any stretch of the imagination, but she showed some emotion, and her father gentled to it.

She stared at Conner with wet eyes then looked to her father and without a word or another look at anyone, she rushed by Jake, by me, by Conner and out the door.

Neal lifted a hand and ran it through his hair before he looked to Jake.

“Jake, don’t know what to say,” he murmured.

“Nothin’ to say,” Jake replied. “Kids do crazy shit. It’s done.” Jake paused as he held the man’s eyes before he finished, “Though, would appreciate it you have a word with your girl about shit she’s pullin’ with Conner’s girl, Ellie. She’s pissed at Conner, I get. Her doin’ this, I don’t get, but we’re past that. Her messin’ with Ellie, that shit isn’t right.”

Neal stared at him a moment before doing the only thing he could do at that juncture, nodding and moving. He gave a curt jerk of the chin to me and looked to Conner.

“Conner, son. Sorry.”

Conner said nothing.

Even without a response, Neal nodded to him too and walked out the door.

Conner delayed not a moment before shutting it behind him and cutting his eyes to his father.

“She told Ellie that shit. Or got someone to do it.”

She did indeed, I thought.

“Yep,” Jake said.

“That’s why Ellie’s not calling me,” Conner went on.

It certainly was, I thought.

“Yep,” Jake said.

“I gotta go to her,” Conner announced.

He absolutely did, I thought.

“Yep,” Jake said.

Conner put a hand to the door.

“Son,” Jake called.

Conner looked to his father.

“Lesson,” Jake said gently. “Man’s got the power to break a woman’s heart. Women have their own power. Learn this and in future, choose better.”

Conner’s jaw got hard then he jerked up his own chin, threw open the door and exited the room.

Jake walked to the door, closed it again and turned to me.

“How’d you know?”

“She’s an immensely unpleasant young woman and a terrible actress.”

He tipped his head to the side. “She gonna cause more problems for my boy?”

I drew in a deep breath and lowered my voice when I replied, “Unless her father successfully imparts wisdom through appropriate punishment, it’s highly likely she’ll do that every chance she gets.”

“Conner shares, not everything but we’re tight and he gives a lot to his old man,” Jake told me. “He made no promises of exclusivity to any of them, not until he told Ellie she’s the one. I’m a man so I’m gonna think this kinda punishment doesn’t fit the crime ‘cause I’m not sure he committed one.”

I said nothing.

“You got a take on that?” he prompted.

“It wasn’t like he was dating five women in a large cosmopolitan city, Jake. He was dating five girls in a small high school. This was a recipe for disaster. But, in essence, you’re correct. If he made no promises, the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. He simply chose poorly.” I paused and finished. “Very poorly.”

“And how does he deal with this girl, she keeps fuckin’ with him?”

“He gives her what she deserves,” I told him.

His brows went up as he asked, “And what’s that?”

“He ruins her.”

“Come again?” he asked, brows still high.

“I am not a man, or a teenaged boy becoming a man, and I’ve never been either. But I would guess if I was, if it was known a girl would go to these extremes simply because her non-exclusive boyfriend of three months broke up with her, she would not be high on my list of girls I’d wish to spend time with.”

“So he spreads this,” Jake said.

“No. That would make him look tactless and it would be obvious. But the Taylors could do it. However, in all honesty, in high school with his station in it, I don’t believe it would be untoward for him to do it himself. That was an extreme, completely uncalled for and utterly overdramatized reaction to a breakup. Young Mia has a lesson to learn too.”

Jake shook his head. “Unless he asks, I think I’ll let him come up with that. Even if he asks, not sure I’ll give him that option.”

“Pity,” I replied. “Although he was quite angry and it’s unlikely he’ll keep this to himself, she came to his home with her father demanding to see his father, dragging you both into something exceptionally unpleasant and she did something that is utterly inexcusable. I, for one, hope she gets what she deserves.”

At that, Jake grinned and moved to me.

He had his arms around me and had drawn me close to his front before he muttered, “Momma bear.”

“I do not like that young woman,” I declared, my body stiff even being held in his arms.

He kept muttering and grinning. “Total momma bear.”

I stared up at him and noted, “This must be excruciatingly difficult for you, to be close, for matters to mean so much, but to be mostly powerless as your son and daughter learn how to make decisions in their lives and sometimes are forced to face the consequences.”

“It ain’t a walk in the park,” he agreed.

“Hmm,” I mumbled, looking at his shoulder just above where I’d placed my hands on his biceps.

“Babe.”

I looked up at him.

“You’re the shit.”

I stopped thinking about Conner and Ellie and Mia and Amber and boys with motorcycles and smiled.

“Wish like fuck I could strip you bare and fuck you on my couch right about now.”

I stopped smiling and experienced a rather intense and exceptionally pleasant tingle.

His mouth dropped to mine and I felt as well as heard his next words. “Sucks the kids are in the next room.”

It most certainly did.

“Yes,” I breathed.

His lips brushed mine and then slid along my cheek to my ear where he whispered, “Take you again in your bed when I take you home tonight.”

My fingers clenched into his biceps when I whispered back, “Yes.”

“Really lookin’ forward to that, Slick.” He kept whispering.

“Me as well, Jake.”

“You gonna give me somethin’ to go on until then?” he asked.

I absolutely was.

I didn’t tell him that.

I gave it to him. Turning my head, he felt it, turned his, and our mouths collided.

In the end, it wasn’t entirely correct that I gave it to him. It was more that he took it from me.

But pressed tight to Jake Spear in his living room with his kids’ laptops and tablets and backpacks all around, being kissed dizzy, I didn’t mind him taking anything he wanted.

No.

I didn’t mind at all.

Because I’d give him anything.

I’d give him everything.

If I had the power, I’d give him the world.

* * * * *

“Um…that sweater…no,” boy Taylor decreed.

It was over an hour after the day’s latest debacle had finished and we were watching an interview with a quarterback who was wearing a cream lapelled cardigan that did him no favors.

Conner had not yet returned.

Jake nor I had shared what had occurred in the living room with the kids in the family room, although we did receive speculative glances.

I’d turned attention away from this curiosity by asking to see the photos of the Spear house prior to renovation and Ethan had run to get the envelopes of pictures. I’d then seen that Ethan was indeed correct. The house had been a “dump,” completely ramshackle. I shouldn’t have been surprised, yet I still was, that Jake had wrought miracles.

Now we were carrying on with football Sunday but without the food fest. Though Jake did say he was going to order pizza in about an hour.

“Indeed,” I agreed with boy Taylor. “He’s very pretty. Too pretty and he knows it. An African-American football player could pull off that sweater by sheer force of will. A rougher man, with, say, no neck and a crew cut, absolutely. A pretty man who knows he’s pretty, he simply looks ridiculous.”

“Totally,” girl Taylor agreed.

“I’m psyched Josie thinks he’s a pretty-boy. Everyone thinks he’s so hot. He does nothing for me and never has,” Amber put in just as I felt Jake move and then felt his lips at my ear.

“Uh…babe, just sayin’, that’s my team’s quarterback.”

I turned my head to look at him, uncertain why my assessment of the man’s looks and attire would mean anything regardless if he played for Jake’s team.

“And Ethan’s,” he finished when I caught his eyes.

It was then I looked to Ethan who was sitting on the couch, legs out, arms crossed, lips pressed tight, eyes glued to the television, looking fit to be tied.

I found this interesting.

Apparently my assessment of a man’s looks and attire did mean something if that man played for a beloved team.

“Taylors and Amber,” I called out. “We should cease insulting this man’s sweater. It’s upsetting Ethan.”

They all looked to Ethan.

“Sorry, Ethan,” girl Taylor said.

“Sorry, Eath,” boy Taylor said.

“Sorry, runt,” Amber said.

Ethan screwed up his face and glared at Amber.

“Don’t call me runt!” he snapped at his sister, uncharacteristically indignantly.

“Eath—” she started but Ethan looked to his father.

“Is Conner okay?” he demanded to know.

My insides melted.

He was possibly upset about our insulting his quarterback’s knitwear but he was more worried about his brother.

He was such a good child.

“He’ll be okay, bud,” Jake replied.

“That’s not okay now,” Ethan pointed out rather astutely.

And he was so very bright.

“You’re right, Eath,” Jake said gently. “But he will be.”

Ethan glared at his father for a long moment then demanded, “Promise?”

“Promise, son,” Jake promised.

Ethan kept glaring at his father before he turned his glare to the television and declared, “I’m never dating ever.”

Jake made a grunt that sounded like a swallowed chuckle and the Taylors and Amber grinned at each other.

“I’d like to rewind our afternoon and go over that safety business again,” I announced to change the subject and perhaps lighten the mood. “I know your father explained it to me when it happened but I fear it still makes little sense. Ethan, please expound on that explanation.”

“It’s super easy, Josie,” Ethan told me. “It’s when the offense gets downed in their own end zone.”

“And what’s an end zone?” I inquired.