16. Wyatt
WYATT
I checked my hair for the seventeenth time and cursed myself for feeling nervous.
It’s just dinner.
“I’m ready!” Penny shouted from her room, so I exhaled and headed her way.
She met me in the hallway and my smile widened. She wore high-top sneakers, a silver tutu, and a T-shirt from Halloween with Frankenstein’s monster below the words Let Me Be Frank .
“Bloomers?”
Penny inelegantly lifted her skirt to reveal the bike shorts she wore under dresses and skirts. “Yup.”
I laughed and ruffled her hair before calling up the stairs. “We’re out of here. Stay out of trouble!”
Footsteps pounded down the stairs as three of my top athletes practically fell over themselves to get to us.
Kevin made it down first. “We’re coming with.”
I looked at their eager faces.
Joey shrugged. “Free food.”
I shook my head at them. “You always have free food. I feed you.”
“Will Lee be there? I was going to talk to him about the service.” Michael had lowered his voice, and I clamped a hand on his shoulder and nodded.
Michael was smart. He was a great athlete, but he also knew pro football wasn’t always something that panned out—even for the best players.
He was hedging his bets. My chest pinched for him.
Of all my players, he had the most raw talent, and I wanted his football dreams to come true as badly as he did.
“Yeah, he’ll be there. Load up, guys.”
I watched as they razzed each other and messed around, Penny tucked between them and looking up as if they’d collectively hung the moon and stars. I didn’t know how it happened, but somehow our quirky little family was growing.
After closing the front door, I looked up the barn steps to watch Lark’s hand glide down the banister to join us. On the last step, she made a little bounce and looked up. “They’re fixed.”
The muscles in my cheek flickered, happy she had noticed. “Yep.”
A part of me wanted to point out that the light was also working now, but I kept my mouth shut and opened the back car door for Penny.
“Can I ride with them? Please, Daddy?”
Penny’s hands were folded under her chin, her big brown eyes full of hope.
“Fine with me.” Michael shrugged.
I reached into my car and grabbed the small booster seat she still needed. When Michael reached for it, I paused. “No hotdogging. Under the speed limit.”
He smiled. “You bet.”
I sighed. “You know what? Just follow me.”
They piled into the car, Penny nestled safely in the back, her little sneakers kicking with excitement. I rounded my car and opened the passenger door for Lark.
“Thank you.” Her voice was soft, and her perfume’s notes of cinnamon and citrus floated over me.
My entire body ached. I still wasn’t used to how good she always smelled.
Suddenly the thought of being alone in the car with her on the drive to Tootie’s house, even though it was short, was unbearable.
Lark smiled as I got behind the wheel. Her fingertips toyed with the hem of her dress. It was a soft, fluttery thing. Deep, navy blue with large wooden buttons that went from the hem all the way up to the scooping neckline. Her arms were bare, and a bright-green belt was tied at her waist.
Lark was gorgeous, and I knew the short drive was about to kill me.
I focused on the road, my eyes constantly flicking from the smooth skin of her thighs to the rearview mirror, ensuring Penny and the boys were safe. Lark was unfazed, and she made the conversation easy and light as we drove the few miles to where Aunt Tootie lived.
As we pulled in, both Lee and Duke were already there, which likely meant my dad would be joining us too. It would be a full house, which normally would make me itchy, but it also meant lots of opportunities to avoid looking at Lark.
Since the moment I hired her, she had ingrained herself more and more into our everyday lives.
It felt effortless. I started looking forward to her smiles, the tiny adjustments to my calendar, notes she’d leave on the counter about Penny’s day.
I craved even the smallest moments where our shoulders would brush or I was close enough to see the golden light dance in her hazel eyes.
I had never wanted anyone as bone deep as I wanted Lark.
And it was a real problem.
* * *
Rolling to a stop in front of my aunt’s house brought with it a flood of memories. Happy ones. The house was down a quiet country road, hidden by a long driveway and careful landscape that provided cozy privacy.
When we turned down the drive and bumped over the railroad tracks that ran alongside the property, my grip tightened, and I tried to ignore the way Lark’s mouthwatering curves bounced along with it.
A bark caught my attention as Duke’s three-legged dog ran alongside the vehicles. Lark looked on with concern.
“That’s just Ed.”
She looked at me. “Ed?”
“Duke’s dog.”
“In a town with grown men named Itchy and Bumper and Bowlegs, the dog’s name is Ed?”
I shrugged and offered a small smile. “Technically, he became Three-Legged Ed.”
“What happened to him?” she asked as I pulled the car to a stop alongside Lee’s truck.
“He stopped, but the car didn’t.”
Horrified, Lark got out of the car and bent to pet the shaggy, overly friendly dog. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Ed.”
I walked up beside her as the boys and Pickle hopped out of Michael’s car, and the dog took off to sniff the Goldfish crumbs off Penny’s skirt.
We walked up the steps to Tootie’s home, and I frowned, remembering the rotting wood. I noted that one of the shutters on the top floor was missing. Lark looked out across the yard toward the acres and acres of blueberry bushes.
“It’s beautiful.”
I nodded. “It’s really pretty in the spring when they’re flowering. Do you see that opening there?” I leaned in dangerously close, motioning over her shoulder to point at a small break in the tree line. “If you follow it long enough, it winds around and you run right into Highfield House.”
Lark turned her head, and our faces were inches apart, eyes locked on each other. “Like a secret passageway. That’s very cool.”
I could lean in. Indulge myself and brush a kiss against her lips. Feel her moan as I kiss her.
I cleared my throat and stepped away. At the front door, I knocked once and walked right in.
My aunt was bustling in the kitchen, stirring something with one hand and bending to check something else in the oven.
Lee and Duke were out in the back, so we said hi to Tootie, but when she shooed us out of the kitchen, we joined my dad where he sat on a recliner in the living room.
The boys opted to walk around the expansive property before dinner.
I suspected Michael went in search of Lee.
“Papa!” Penny pulled him into a hug, and Dad smiled widely. He stood to shake hands with me.
A pretty good day, then.
“Dad, this is Lark.”
Dad held out his hand. “Red. Pleased to meet you.”
Lark smiled brightly and didn’t remind him that they’d already met at Bowlegs’s funeral. Instead, she took a seat on the couch closest to Dad as we all settled in.
“He dropped back but couldn’t find anyone downfield.” Dad leaned forward across the arm of his recliner, lost in the memory of one of my games.
Lark leaned in, unfazed by the abrupt drop into the middle of a conversation. She listened intently to a story I’d heard him tell a thousand times.
“He dropped back but saw an opening—pew!” Dad clapped his hands and made a whistle with his mouth. “Straight up the middle for thirty-seven yards. No one was even close to touching him.”
Dad smiled at me, pride evident on his weathered face. Times like that, it seemed like he was back, untouched by the disease robbing him of his memory.
He slapped a hand on my knee. “Hell of a game last week, Son.”
Aaaand there it was.
I stayed silent. I knew it didn’t do any good correcting the timelines in his fractured memory.
“How exciting!” Lark skated over the lapse in his memory. “You must be very proud.”
“Damn right.” Dad smiled at me again. “Now where’s that cute girl of yours?”
Funny.
He seemed to always remember Penny was my daughter, but it never occurred to him that the overlap of her and his mind perpetually believing I was still in college didn’t quite add up.
“She’s out back, Dad. Probably finding some trouble.”
“That’s good. That’s good. A little dirt’s good for kids.”
* * *
Dinner had been exactly like I’d remembered it as a kid.
Tootie loved to feed people, and it wasn’t uncommon to have a table full of friends and family.
It also helped that she was an excellent cook.
Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and vegetables straight from her garden.
It was hearty and so much better than anything I could whip up.
I was full and satisfied, and as the conversation flowed, I had been able to sneak a few glances at Lark without worry someone would notice. I patted my stomach. “Aunt Tootie, you outdid yourself. Dinner was amazing.”
“Yeah, thanks, Ms. Tootie. The chicken was delicious.” Joey smiled at her, and I was proud that my team was made up of decent, respectful kids. The boys plopped themselves onto the couch and started flipping through channels, while my brothers and I began clearing the table.
Tootie beamed with pride as we all stood to clear our plates. “Just you wait for dessert. I made my specialty—blueberry pie.”
I turned to Duke, who was responsible for the family farm. “Good season?”
He nodded and flipped a rogue piece of chicken to the shaggy dog at his feet. “Getting there. Could use a rain or two.”
Duke was never a man of many words, and if I was considered grumpy, he could be downright unpleasant. Not that I didn’t understand. When Dad had gotten sick, he’d shouldered much of the burden, taking over operations at the blueberry farm as well as making sure Dad was taken care of.
Duke turned to Tootie. “I saw tire tracks on the west field. Were you out there?”
Tootie frowned. “Wasn’t me.”
Duke’s jaw clenched and Lee jumped in. “Kings?”