Her gaze finally left Buck and came back to meet his. She had been sitting far back against the couch while he knelt in front of her, but she suddenly leaned forward and placed her hand on his cheek. Her face was only a few inches from his. The urge to kiss her took over. He moved closer slowly, giving her a chance to back away.
She surprised him when she closed the distance between them and pressed her mouth against his. She tasted like summer rain, refreshing and warm. He wanted more of her. Definitely more…a lot more. Slanting his mouth, he captured her lips again for a better taste, but it only made him hungry for something else. Buck whined and Kayla pulled back.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that,” she said, looking away from him.
“I agree. I’d much rather you faint at my feet than his. I outrank him in more ways than one.” He grinned.
He wanted to push Kayla down on the couch and do more than just kiss her, but there were eight teenage girls in the house. He would wait.
The past couple of weeks he’d found himself flirting with Kayla, unable to stop himself. Along with being the best-looking woman he’d seen since getting out of the service, she also solicited his respect with how hard she worked on top of taking care of her sick mother and Addie, too.
The next thing he knew she’d scooted forward on the couch and wrapped her arms around his neck. She was kissing him with enough passion he felt it clear down to the soles of his feet. Damn! She was on fire and burning him alive right along with her.
She finally pulled back only to bury her face in his neck and make a noise that sounded like a whimper. He ran his fingers through the wet strands of her hair, but before he could pull her face up to look into her eyes, he felt it…dampness on her cheeks.
She clutched him tighter and sniffed.
Well, this wasn’t exactly going as he’d hoped.
“Hold me, Ronnie,” she whispered against his neck. “Just for a minute. I’m so sorry for this.”
“Shh,” he whispered into her hair. “It’s okay. I’m sorry about bringing Buck.”
“No. It’s okay. You’re just warm and wonderful. It’s been so long since I’ve had someone to share with. I can’t thank you enough for everything these past couple of weeks,” she sniffed.
Unsure of what to say for a few long seconds, he finally joked, “That’s why you pay me the big bucks.”
She giggled and pulled back from him, quickly brushing her tears away. “I’m sorry for crying all over you like a baby.” She laughed through the remaining tears. “I’m so embarrassed.”
“Trust me, I have more reason to be embarrassed than you.” He smiled.
She gave him a look of confusion, so he looked down at his obvious reaction to the passion in her kiss and then looked back at her with a grin.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered with a small laugh and then covered her beautiful smile with her hand.
“You did it! Your lips are as talented as they are sexy. What did you expect?” He laughed.
She gave him a funny look. “I have to get moving or I’m going to be late and my boss will have a fit.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay to drive?” he asked. He didn’t know how passing out affected a person’s abilities.
She moved close enough to kiss him again but only said, “My legs are a little shaky, but I will be okay once I cool down some.”
Leaning his forehead against hers he smiled. “Mean…you’re just plain mean.”
Laughing, she pulled away from him, stood up slowly and made her way to the stairs. She watched Buck the whole way, until she disappeared up the steps. She really was terrified of dogs.
“I’ve gotta hand it to you. I’ve never received that kind of a reaction from a woman before. You are the man, Buck,” he said to the dog.
Buck cocked his head as though curious about what he’d done. Ronnie pulled himself up on the sofa and sat back. Buck got up from the rug and familiarized himself with this new environment by sniffing everything, then lay back down on the rug.
Kayla was a woman in need of a few days of uninterrupted loving. Ronnie burned for her beyond being turned on. He was an inch away from following her up those stairs.
She had been naked under that robe. In his arms and one article of clothing away from being completely naked. Damn it!
How long he sat there attempting to get himself under control he wasn’t sure, but soon enough she came back down the stairs again looking at Buck the entire time. She was obviously back to normal Kayla mode, rushed and frantic. She grabbed her purse off the table near the front door and began digging around in the bottom of it.
“Dang it.” She sighed, glancing nervously at Buck.
“Problems?” Ronnie asked.
“I can’t find my keys again,” she said in frustration.
“Promise not to freak out when Buck moves?” Ronnie asked her. At her silent agreement he said, “Buck, find keys.”
Buck raised his head up off of his paws and then got up, lumbering down the hallway into the kitchen. Less than a minute later he came trotting back in the room with Kayla’s keys dangling from his mouth. Buck stopped right next to where Ronnie sat.
“Give,” he said.
Buck dropped the keys by Ronnie’s feet and sat down on his haunches. Reaching down, Ronnie scooped the keys up and then gave the dog a rub on his head. “Down.” Buck again stretched out on the expensive-looking rug and watched as Ronnie stood up and headed to where Kayla stood staring in disbelief.
Stopping in front of her, he held her keys out and said, “See it’s not him you should be worried about.”
She took her keys and gave Ronnie a sheepish smile before heading toward the door.
“Bye, Kayla,” he said.
She stopped in her tracks and looked back over her shoulder at him. Her gaze slowly left his eyes and landed on his mouth.
He knew they were walking a dangerous line. She was a mom, with responsibilities. He typically didn’t go after moms, but he was ready to make an exception for Kayla.
The brutal verbal punishment he would receive from his sisters for messing with a single mother would be worth it! Besides, he wasn’t simply playing with Kayla, he really liked her—and Addie, too, for that matter. So maybe his sisters wouldn’t give him a speech about not getting involved with a single mother unless he was serious. Maybe he was serious about Kayla. Maybe he did want more from her than just the fling his siblings were always warning him against.
Then she was out the door and gone and he was left with Buck…and a houseful of teenage girls who would be wanting breakfast soon. Sighing, he headed into the kitchen with Buck right beside him.
The past couple of weeks had been kind of nice. Addie reminded him of his younger sisters when he’d lived at home. Teasing Addie was fun because she would squeal and laugh all at the same time. It made him a little homesick, though, and he’d called his oldest sister last weekend just to check in.
The kids at Addie’s high school were good stuff. He had started taking Buck with him every day to pick her up, and the kids enjoyed the old dog almost as much as Buck enjoyed them. Every time a kid saluted the dog Ronnie could barely keep from laughing. By the second week he had begun to wonder if they were doing it out of respect. It was almost like the kids hung around waiting for him and Buck each day. Even the principal would at least nod his head in acknowledgment.
Addie must have mentioned to the rest of the girls that they were seriously out of sync with each other, after his original assessment of them, because they had steadily improved over the past couple of weeks despite their coach, almost as if they were seeking his approval.
It was too bad they hadn’t mentioned being clueless about the very sport they were cheering for prior to the game. At least the crowd had approved during the second half of last night’s game. They were good kids and deserved the crowd’s positive vibes. They didn’t deserve to be frowned upon or, even worse, ignored.
He cut up some potatoes to
fry and then mixed up a batch of pancakes and found some sausage patties, as well. Then, opening the door to the basement, he looked at Buck. “Go rouse the troops,” he said.
The dog slowly headed down the steps to the basement and Ronnie left the door cracked open while he went back to finish breakfast preparations. Soon enough, Buck entered the kitchen followed by three girls. More of them could be heard giggling down the hallway. The teens gathered around the table, a few of them pulling over barstools as they all tried to squeeze in.
“That smells amazing,” one said.
After he set out everything they would need, he made himself a plate and leaned against the counter to eat while they started in on the food. The girls were apparently trying to pick a song for some dance or cheer competition that was coming up and talked excitedly among themselves. After finishing his plate and dishing out a little bit of food for Buck along with filling another china dish with water, Ronnie began cleaning up.
“We need something different. Every other team there will be using that song. It’s been on the charts for weeks!” Addie’s friend Kaitlyn exclaimed.
They argued for a little longer until Addie asked, “What kind of music do you like, Ronnie?”
“Stuff you’ve never heard of and probably wouldn’t appreciate anyway,” he replied as he rinsed dishes and lined them up in the dishwasher.
“Come on. Who’s your favorite singer?” Addie asked with a laugh.
The other girls gathered around the counter and proceeded to give him imploring looks. Ignoring them, he dished up what was left of the breakfast into a container for Kayla and popped it in the fridge.
“Okay, how about a favorite song then, Sergeant Brown,” Kaitlyn said.
Didn’t they have something better to do than annoy him?
They should be gossiping, talking about the football player at school they all thought was so cute. That was a conversation he wished he hadn’t overheard. It kind of gave him the same feeling he’d had when he’d realized his parents did in fact have sex. He was planning on doing a little work in the garage in an effort to steer clear of the group of giggling girls.
Closing the refrigerator door, he turned to the group, who continued to stare at him. Sighing, he said, “Ever heard Tina Turner’s version of “Proud Mary”? Look it up on the internet. That is a classic.”
They looked at each other and then back at him. “Never heard of it,” Addie supplied.
“Let’s go look it up on your laptop, Addie,” Kaitlyn said with a giggle.
After the girls piled out of the kitchen, with Buck following close behind them, Ronnie finished straightening up. Heading out to the garage, he couldn’t help but chuckle when he heard the song blasting from the living room.
That should keep them entertained for a while.
He had not yet tackled the garage in all the chores he’d done for Kayla. It appeared to be some form of storage shed for them rather than a place to park vehicles. This was one of the last areas he needed to organize and clean.
He started with locating the few tools she had and grouping them with some other home improvement items like paint. He put them on top of a shelf that ran the length of the far wall. Then, eyeing a dust-covered table in the corner that looked like it was missing one of the extender boards in the middle, he went over to inspect it. He could clean it up, sand it down and then refinish it. They could use a real table at the apartment, too, rather than the fold-up card table they were using now. He began to rummage around looking for the chairs and was thrilled to find four matching ones, though a couple had loose spindles on the back.
After he’d dug a couple of them out from one end of the garage, the door opened and Buck came to check on his progress. Addie was right behind him.
“Hey, Ronnie, can you come in here for a minute? We need your opinion,” Addie said.
She stood looking at him and after a moment he realized she was waiting for him to come inside right then. Couldn’t they just wait for Kayla? He was not a teenager, not a cheerleader and certainly not a girl. What could they possibly need with his opinion? Addie truly was like a repeat of his younger sisters. Sighing, he set the chair aside and followed her and Buck into the house and into the living room, which the girls had rearranged to clear out space in the middle.
Great.
One of the girls pushed a button on the laptop and then forwarded to the middle of the song. She quickly got in line with the other girls and they began doing what he could only guess was supposed to be synchronized dance moves.
What felt like a year and a half later, the song finally ended and he turned to head back out to the garage.
“Ronnie! Wait!” Addie said. “It wasn’t that bad, was it?”
The kid was like a lawyer asking him questions he really didn’t want to answer, especially with a jury of her peers standing around looking at him.
“Did you watch a video of Tina Turner performing the song?” he asked.
“No, we looked for videos of other cheer routines that have been done to the song,” she replied.
“If you are going to copy someone, at least copy the master,” he said.
After seeing the look on her face, he moved to the laptop, did a search and played a video for her. He stepped back as the girls crowded around to watch. He tried to slowly back away from the group, hoping they wouldn’t notice. Just as he’d almost made it clear of the girls, Addie grabbed his arm, effectively killing his attempts at escape.
“Don’t go. We need your help,” she said to him.
“Oh, no,” he said adamantly.
“What do you mean, no?” Addie asked him with a laugh.
“I mean hell no,” he replied.
“You don’t have to dance with us—just tell us what we are doing wrong,” she coaxed.
“Watch the video three times, then try to copy the dancers three times and then come and get me and I’ll tell you what you are doing wrong. Oh, and learn how to get into formation. Standing in a straight line with an equal distance between you is a great place to start,” he said, attempting to pry her fingers off his arm.
“Come on, Ronnie. Our coach sucks. You saw her,” Addie whined.
“What makes you think I’d be any better than her? I’m a dude, the last I checked,” he said.
Smiling up at him, she said matter-of-factly, “One for offense, two for defense.”
Looking into her freckled face, he couldn’t say no. At least no one was around to see him being goaded into participating in this charade. Sighing, he said, “Put the furniture back where it belongs, download the song and meet me outside in twenty minutes after you’ve watched the video at least three times.”
He headed back out to the garage to dig out the other two chairs. Being ready in twenty minutes was a way to see if they were serious or not. What the hell did he know about cheerleading, let alone coaching cheerleading? Next to nothing, that was what. He would humor them, though, until they figured that out for themselves. Then maybe they would find something else to do.
Damn, it wasn’t even lunchtime. Come on, Kayla, get home.
After pulling the other two chairs out from under a stack of boxes, he checked over the table and found it wasn’t missing a board after all—the two ends were just stuck open. Glancing at his watch to check the girls’ time, he went to work fixing the sliding bar in the middle of the table that allowed the two ends to slide together. He was able to push it tight. It was a sweet table and would fit their little kitchen at the apartment perfectly.
Looking at his watch again, he realized twenty minutes had passed, so he opened up the overhead garage door and was shocked to see the girls lined up in two rows of four girls each. Buck sat facing the group.
Damn it. He had hoped they wouldn’t be ready so he could bow out of this stupidity.
Eyeing Addie, who had a self-satisfied grin on her face, he said, “Two laps around the block.”
They looked at him for a minute before one of the girls sai
d, “Come on, let’s go.”
When they started to run, he yelled, “No, no, no. In formation.”
He watched them try to line back up and after he let them struggle for a minute he went over and showed them how to line up correctly. Once they were back in line he said, “Okay, go, but together.”
They took off down the sidewalk at a slow jog, with Buck bringing up the rear. Ronnie walked to the end of the driveway and watched them attempt to stay in the perfect lines he’d helped them form. By the time they hit the end of the block they had figured out how to run in sync.
It was a start.
He was rather impressed that they had figured it out so quickly. Once they were out of sight, he headed back into the garage and looked for anything he could use to fix the chairs. Finding nothing, he called Rusty.
By the time he explained his find and what tools he would need to borrow, the girls and Buck had made it back and were starting their second lap. They were still jogging in sync and smiling like they were proud of themselves.
The chances of them being satisfied by learning to line up and run in sync were slim. So after hanging up with Rusty, Ronnie headed back inside to play the video so he could at least pretend he knew what he was talking about.
When they made it back from their second lap he was waiting for them with his arms across his chest. They reformed their lines facing him. Having brought the laptop back out with him, he played the beginning of the video and pointed at the screen.
“Learn to do this together, just like the jogging,” he said.
He sat in the other chair near the laptop and Buck lay down next to him. He watched the girls attempt to synchronize their movements. After the third time he got up and said, “You girls need a big mirror so you can see yourselves.”
“My parents have a big mirror in their bathroom, maybe we could practice at my house tomorrow, after regular practice,” Kaitlyn said to the group.
The girls all agreed to go to Kaitlyn’s the following day. He shut off the laptop and was about to take it inside when they started running and doing flips. He stopped. “If you can’t do those flips together, at the same time and land in formation, then don’t do them.”
Maid to Fit Page 6