Page 58 of Shortcake
We hit, or rather I hithim, smashing right into his chest. Lucky for me, for whatever coordination I lacked, Conrad seemed to make up for in spades.
Even though he hadn't seen me coming, and the expression on his face was a mixture of pure shock and terror as I collided into his chest, he still managed to catch me around the waist, stopping me from barreling us both directly into a display of fancy herbal tea.
"What the actual hell?” he grunted.
I wasn't sure if he was referencing his grounded daughter socializing and making friends or the fact that I attempted to tackle him like a linebacker.
But I knew I wasn't going to wait around to find out which reason he was so pissed at here in the middle of the store. I linked my fingers into his, ignoring the tornado spiraling in my stomach as our palms connected. Then with a tug, I yanked him all the way to the back of the corner of the store.
Surprisingly, he didn't fight me at first as I pulled him away from his daughter. Maybe he was in a state of shock. Maybe I had literally knocked the fight out of him.
It wasn't until we got halfway through the aisles that he dug his heels in and skidded us both to a stop.
“What are you doing?” he snarled.
“I’m stopping you from making a big mistake.”
If I thought I had seen fury in his eyes before, it was nothing compared to the expression now glaring back at me. “Mistake? Are you seriously going to stand there and try to tellmeabout making mistakes?”
I studied him for a long moment, trying to figure out exactly what he was so upset about. Obviously, it was about Harper, but he knew we were coming to the store today. He knew we were going to buy books. Was all this really because she was making friends while grounded? That seemed like an overreaction if I’d ever seen one. “Areyouseriously mad because she's hanging out with a few kids?”
“She was supposed to begrounded, Addy! You were supposed to take her to the store, buy the books she needed for school, then go directly home.”
“They go to her school!” I hissed back. “It was the perfect opportunity to meet people her own age! And the one kid is Elijah's son. He runs a book club specifically for the summer reading.”
“This wasn't your call,” he said.
"Fine. Then blame me, not her.”
“Trust me, I do.” He gave a bitter laugh and shook his head. “Seriously, Addy. What am I supposed to do here? Justnotground her for getting drunk and sneaking out the other night? Ignore it. Let her go around, hang out, make friends.”
“Yes!” I rubbed at my eyes because truly, I didn’t know. I wasn’t a parent. I wasn’t even a cool aunt yet. “I mean,maybe. I don’t know,” I admitted. “But keeping her locked in a tower all summer, even if she doesdeserveto be grounded, isn't going to help either of your situations. She’s sad. And lonely. She misses New York and her grandmother. Andmaybe, just maybe, making the right kind of friends, the kinds of friends who join a freaking book club in the summer, and take AP classes is just what she needs for this transition to go smoother.”
“They’re all in AP classes?”
“Some of them.” Well, I knew Adam at least was.
There was a silent pause as he seemed to think that over, but his eyes, those fucking eyes stayed locked onto me. It was only then that I realized how closely we were standing, our hands still entwined. But I couldn’t bring myself to release him just yet.
Not with the way he was towering over me. Each heavy breath of his cascaded down my neck. The way he angled his chin to look at me, casting shadows all down his sharp, angled face.
I stared at his mouth, his full bottom lip wet and parted.
Looking at his mouth like that was doing things to my body. I cleared my throat, forcing my gaze back to his eyes. “What are you doing here anyway?” I asked. “Spying on us?”
We were far enough away from the kids now that they couldn't hear us. I don't even think Harper saw her dad come into the store. She’d been completely oblivious to the fact that her entire world almost came crashing down today. Again. She didn’t realize I had saved her ass and if I could help it, she never would.
“I was going to surprise you both,” he said. “Take you to lunch. I didn’t realize you hadotherreasons for wanting to come here.”
Other reasons? What was he talking about?
However, we had not traveled far enough into the store to be free fromallears. Elijah seemed particularly concerned as he edged his way toward us.
"Addy? Everything okay over here?” Elijah’s gaze flicked over my face, landing at the bruise that was on my jaw.
Dammit. Now with mine and Conrad’s weird behavior and public fight, there was no way Elijah was believing the bar fight story. It was akin to “I fell down the stairs.” Except I did have witnesses to that bar fight… but none here and now who would vouch for my story.
Hell, maybe I could put my mom on the case. Get her to start spreading the word to her old biddy friends. If she started now, the whole town would know the story by the end of the day. I was surprised they didn’t already if I was being honest.
