Chapter 37 Boyfriend Trouble
Boyfriend Trouble
Fiona
“I thought he’d never leave.” Hope watches as her father walks across the street with Dash in his arms. “Dad is so overprotective.”
What I wouldn’t give to have a father who cared enough to protect me. “He loves you.”
Hope sighs. “I know. It’s just exhausting. Especially when I want to have a private conversation.” She puts down the rag that she was using to wipe off the tables and stares at me.
Ruh roh. I pull out a chair and nod for her to join me. “What’s on your mind?”
“Canyon.”
Huh? “My boyfriend?” I almost slipped up and said fake boyfriend. That wouldn’t have been good.
“Yeah. How long have you known him?” Hope is as blunt as her father.
This conversation is going to get me in trouble. “Since we were teenagers. Canyon grew up on Willow Street.”
“You two only started dating recently, though?”
Why is she being this nosy? “Yes?”
“How did you know?”
Huh? “Know what?”
“That you love Canyon?”
Did she guess that we aren’t a real couple? She can’t know. Canyon wouldn’t tell. “That’s a very personal question.”
Hope tips her head and stares at me for a very long time.
She reminds me so much of her father right now.
“I didn’t mean it that way. People in love usually brag about being in love. But also, I asked because…” She stares down at the table. “…I’m in love.”
Um what? That took an unexpected turn. Though I really should have expected it. All teenage girls think about is falling in love. Well, not all of them, but most of them at least.
Max is going to hate this. No…he’s going to get positively homicidal. “Are you sure about this?”
“I’ve been sure since I knew the difference between boys and girls. We are meant to be together.”
The certainty in her voice makes me want to believe it too. But very, very rarely does a teenage romance really work. “Then why did you ask me how I knew?”
“Because I need to know if he loves me.”
Oh. Oh, this isn’t good. Generally, boys aren’t good at hiding their emotions.
“It’s really easy to tell if they like you.
They spend time with you. They get to know about you.
” How many times have I had this conversation over the years?
And how many more times will I have it? Love is always on kids’ minds. “What’s important—”
“I’ve heard all this. Just like I’ve had the birds and the bees talk over and over again since I was like eight.
Everyone seems to think I’m a child. How do you know if a man loves you?
The enduring way. The passionate way that lasts forever when you’ve been friends for your entire life?
Where they’ll die for each other? Like in the books. ”
That’s an impossible question to answer when you’ve never been in love.
“You know when you look at him and lose the ability to breathe…to think. When your world shrinks down to the two of you, even if you’re in a room full of people.
If, when he touches your hand, you never want it to stop.
But you can’t know if he feels all those things unless you ask him.
So, what you need to do is talk to him. Don’t play games. Just be frank with him.”
“And you think of Canyon like that?”
“Hope, that’s an extremely personal question. It’s intrusive and rude.”
She grins. “And you aren’t in love.”
“Hope Vincenti, that’s none of your business.”
“What if he says no? How do I change his mind?”
“You don’t. You accept his choices.”
“That’s stupid.”
It kind of is. “It’s respectful.”
“I should have asked Bisnonna.”
Probably. If it’s possible, Emilia would know how to do it. “Are you sure he doesn’t love you? You might be worrying about a nonissue.”
Hope looks around and then leans forward, whispering. “He won’t touch me. Not even on the hand. He won’t flirt with me or let me flirt with him.”
This is the kind of boyfriend Max would love. I work hard to hold back a smile. “Did he give you a reason for that?”
Her nose wrinkles. “He says that we aren’t old enough. But tons of people our age are dating. I want to hold his hand. It isn’t fair.”
Max will definitely love this kid.
And hate him more than anything else on earth. This boy isn’t playing games. He doesn’t want to date her. If I were a gambling woman, I’d say that he’s all in. He wants her forever.
More than forever if such a thing existed.
“Hope, you should respect his feelings.”
She kind of sniffs and snorts at the same time. “No. What I need is a plan.”
That little girl is relentless. I feel for the boy who needs to stand up to her. He’d need a will of iron and more patience than a teacher, because that's about the only thing that’s going to keep that kind of determination from getting her own way.
Should I warn her father?
That would be a battle royale…one that I probably wouldn’t even want to be on the same planet as when it happens, let alone be the cause of it.
I probably should still warn him…
***
And it turns out that I’m more of a coward than I thought. Throughout the day, I tried ten times to tell Max about Hope, but the coward in me just asked about his hands or how Dash was doing.
Tomorrow I’ll be brave and ride out the storm. Max is a smart man. He has to expect that his smart, kind, and beautiful daughter is going to fall in love sometime.
A reasonable man like him will be able to logically discuss the topic of boys with his daughter.
Too bad Hope isn’t at all reasonable.
“Dash, you won’t give your parents any trouble, will you?”
“Are you kidding? That boy has trouble written all over his sweet face.”
Emilia’s voice makes me jump a little bit.
I turn around to find her on a bench. “Hello.”
“Don’t hello me. Hand me that cute little bundle and sit down. We need to have a conversation.”
My first impulse is to run. It feels like I’m about to get in trouble. I lift Dash out of the carrier and hand her to him.
She cuddles and coos at him for a few minutes and then turns to me. “I heard you have some boyfriend trouble.”
Um… “Canyon isn’t trouble—”
Emilia lifts a brow and interrupts, “You’ve known that boy for years. He’s a wonderful man, but not your man.”
What? “Why would you say that?”
“First, because you didn’t deny it. Second, you didn’t tell me you love him. Third, you didn’t smile when you said his name. So, what’s with this silly charade?”
How does she know? She can’t—
“Have you even thought about who this might hurt?”
Her sharp gaze pins me to the bench. “Canyon—”
“Don’t even.” She lifts her hand, and Dash grabs a finger with his little fist. “You need to think about the people who are being hurt by whatever—” She waves that hand around, and Dash lets out a giggle.
“I’m not a patient woman. You have a very short time to figure this out.
I want my great-grandson home where he belongs. ”
Great-grandson? Maybe Emilia has lost her mind. “I would never hurt anyone.”
She lifts Dash’s little fist up for a kiss, separates their hands, and reaches to take mine in hers.
“I know that. If I believed any of this was malicious, this discussion would be going a whole different way. But I know who you are, so I’m just giving you this warning to fix your life.
Now, if I see Max’s fists like that again, you and I will have words.
” She hands the baby to me and walks away.
What do Max’s fists have to do with me?
“Did any of that make sense to you, Dash?”
He reaches out and pats my face.
“Me neither.”