Flynn's In (Lexi Frost Series) (20 page)

Teri appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “How long have you been leading up to asking me out? Is Nicholas in on this
?” she demanded.

“Not my first choice of dinner conversation
, nor my second, but at least you don’t appear nervous so we’ll go with it,” Flynn said.

Nicholas had to give him credit for his ability to handle Teri. Her anger visibly deflated.

“Shall we?” Flynn offered Teri his arm. She gave him a curt nod and grabbed her purse. She didn’t take his arm though, instead she walked out the door, not acknowledging Nicholas as she passed.

Flynn raised an eyebrow at Nicholas.

“Yeah, I’m in hot water.”

“I
’ll see what I can do.” Flynn nodded and followed Teri, quickly catching up to open the car door for her.

Nicholas closed the front door and eyed the suspiciously quiet basement stairs before sitting down to watch TV.

• • •

Teri sat quietly as Flynn drove them downtown
, a mixture of apprehension and something she couldn’t identify churning inside her. She knew Flynn was interested once upon a time, but she’d shrugged it off as a passing fancy since then. They spent so much time together and he never even hinted he saw her as anything but a friend. All right, he flirted, she admitted, but he was always laughing about something that it wasn’t really flirting. Except maybe it was. Had he been subtly trying to pick her up all along? Paul put him here. How could he come here and hit on her when it was Paul that gave him the chance?

“Did I jump the gun?
”

Teri turned in surprise at Flynn
’s question. He glanced over at her briefly, before returning his attention to the freeway.

“What do you mean?
”

“I didn
’t want to push you. We’ve spent enough time together that I thought I had a pretty good read on how you were feeling. I thought you were ready. You look torn though, so maybe I was wrong.”

“You were leading up to this? The whole time? From the very beginning? Paul didn
’t put you here to hit on me!”

It was a relief to say it
, but Teri was terrified there was a simple, reasonable explanation. She was furious with Flynn. She trusted him with the boys. Trusted him as a friend.

Flynn paused as Teri seethed
, paying more attention to the traffic than strictly necessary.

“Am I wrong?
” Teri finally asked, wincing at the biting tone in her own voice.

“You
’re not wrong, but you’re not right either,” Flynn finally answered. “I only partially answered you before. Paul knew I wasn’t chasing you anymore because you were happy. I lost, life goes on. He asked if I was still interested. If I would be if he were gone.”

“What?
” Teri whispered.

“Paul was worried about you. Not just losing him
, it was that you’d lost Allen first. It took you a long time to find a life again with him, and then you were going to lose him too. He felt you’d be devastated, almost to the point of regretting he’d won you in the first place.”

Teri didn
’t realize she was crying until Flynn pulled a linen hanky out of his pocket and handed it to her.

“I was hoping to avoid this
, obviously.”

“What else?
” Teri prompted.

“Well
,” Flynn turned off toward the wharf, still a fair distance from most of the trendy shops and restaurants, and parked in the lot of a closed shipping yard. He turned off the Jaguar and faced Teri. “He was trying to make things easy for you, I already told you that.”

“Inc
luding finding his own replacement? That’s a little extreme.”

Flynn gave her a sad smile and shook his head. “It wasn
’t really like that. Paul knew I was single again, that you would be too, and made a decision. He gave me a reason to be here, in your day to day life, that I wouldn’t have had otherwise; but I would have shown up again. You were happy with Paul, so I left you alone, but that doesn’t mean I lost interest.

“Given that I was going to eventually be here anyway
, Paul took advantage of the situation. He brought me in early to help with the boys.”

She turned and looked out the window.

“Don’t shrug it off, it was a real job that needed to be done and I’m qualified to do it. I’m also more motivated than anyone else he could have found.”

“Because of me
,” Teri whispered.

“Because of you. At first anyway
, I genuinely am interested in the boys’ welfare. Whatever happens between us is simply that — between us. I made Paul a promise that I’d get you back on your feet and I’d look out for you, even if things didn’t work out.”

“So you
’ve been waiting to ask me out since the first time you walked through the door?”

Flynn hesitated. “Yes and no. I
’ve always operated on the assumption that someday I would, but I refused to think about it. It was an intangible thing, nothing I could count on. I was more concerned with the immediate goals of getting you up and dressed daily, getting you out of the house, helping you talk through your mixed feelings about Paul planning his own death, getting you to smile and laugh. Then I noticed you never picked up your camera and recognized what I was missing and that became a goal too.

“Of course I had things to accomplish with the boys
, and even set some small goals with the girls. They can cook now, that’s a small win.”

“It
’s bigger than you think.”

“I have a knack
, it wasn’t so hard. Most of what I’ve done was more about you than the boys though. Taking Dev to New York for example, my reason was valid, but Tim could have done it. The real reason was I didn’t think you should be there yet. Field trips were all about you taking pictures again, getting your life back on track.”

“That
’s why you let me take your picture to show your serious side, it was like pre-dating. You tricked me.” Teri couldn’t believe she didn’t see it before. They laughed and joked and talked like old friends, she never suspected Flynn was leading the conversations. Looking back now, it was obvious.

“You proposed it and wanted to do it. I wasn
’t sure you were ready for me to be anything more than a friend, so I went along with it. For the record, sometimes being as honest with you as I have has been hard. It’s not that I try to keep secrets, it’s a disaster waiting to happen, but letting the conversations go uncomfortable directions instead of changing the subject hasn’t been easy.”

“You
do
change the subject.”

“Only when you were hinting at th
e arrangement between me and Paul. For the record, I considered it a few times and I decided telling you too soon would do more harm than good in the long run.”

“Meaning before I agreed to go out with you.
”

“Yes.
”

“Afraid I wouldn
’t then?”

“More afraid that you
’d stop letting me be a friend and be nervous instead or suspicious of my motives. I wouldn’t have been able to help you if that happened.”

Flynn reached out and stroked Teri
’s cheek and a jolt ran through her. He’d held her while she cried, but his caress now was something different. It reminded her how much she missed being touched. She watched Flynn’s fingers retreat to his knee.

“Now that we
’ve passed that milestone and I’ve asked you out. I told you the arrangement between Paul and I. If you’d rather I took you home, I understand.”

“And you
’ll go your merry way?”

“No. I have a job to do
, and I’m not ready to give up on you. You might be upset with me, angry maybe, but you’re still worth waiting for.”

“So you
’re not going away.”

“No.
”

Teri considered Flynn. She didn
’t care for a lot of what he told her, and didn’t appreciate the agreement between him and Paul no matter what their intentions. He made her laugh though, smile, and . . . he made her feel again.

“You
’re not sick or anything, right?” she asked, biting her bottom lip.

Flynn laughed. “No. I can say that with confidence because talking to Paul gave me an unhealthy dose of paranoia. I had a full physical and an obscene number of unnecessary tests run between the time I first spoke to him and the time I knocked on your door.
”

Teri nodded. “All right
, dinner then. But you’re on probation.”

• • •

“So how long am I on probation for?” Flynn asked as he walked Teri to her door. Dinner went well, it didn’t take long until they were talking like friends again. Of course that wasn’t quite what Flynn was looking for, but the occasional awkwardness between them was a welcome indicator that Teri wasn’t precisely thinking of him as a friend anymore. He didn’t want to push, but when he held out his hand when they went for a stroll along the pier, Teri barely hesitated before taking his hand in hers.

Teri turned at the door. “I
’m not sure. We’ll just have to see.”

“That
’s fair. I’ll bid you goodnight then.” Flynn raised her hand to his lips, turned it over, and kissed the palm gently.

“Determined to get in a goodnight kiss are you?
”

Flynn tried to look affronted
, but Teri’s laugh told him he wasn’t pulling it off.

“I hardly think that counts and
, I’ll have you know, I had no intention of kissing you tonight.”

“Really?
” Teri looked genuinely surprised.

“Well
,” he leaned forward and whispered, “I led you into this, almost tricked you some might argue. I figured I better take it slow.”

“Hmmm. Let me know how that works out for you.
” Teri laughed as she opened the door and slipped inside. She closed it behind her, leaving Flynn on the doorstep chuckling lightly.

Yes
, he decided, the night didn’t go too bad at all.

Jess pulled up in front of the house as Flynn got to his car
, he looked up at the screech of brakes. Well, the night wasn’t over so maybe he passed judgment early. Jess slammed his car door, so Flynn leaned against the Jag and waited.

“Hope
you
had a good night,” Jess growled.

“I
’m on probation, but otherwise it went well. I take it you didn’t.”

“Tell me again why I
’m dating Holly?”

“I have no idea. She
’s not your type, you have nothing in common, and she leaves you in a bad mood. If you’re not careful, Kenny will write a song about you.”

“She
’s one of Cassie’s friends.”

“Which means you have to be a gentleman or it
’ll get back to her. It doesn’t mean you have to torture yourself to begin with. Other than Cassie, do you two have anything in common?”

“She likes to watch us play.
”

“Does she?
” Flynn tried not to smirk. As far as he knew, Holly had watched them exactly once. Flynn knew exactly what Holly was up to, Jess was simply a trophy and desperate enough to let her control him.

“Well
, she says she does.”

“She knows you go through girls like water
, right?”

“Yeah
, I guess.”

“And I
’m guessing a fair number of her friends have their eye on you.”

“Yeah
, so?”

“So that you
’re staying with Holly, and doing what she wants, is a little out of character in their eyes.”

“B
ut that’s the point, isn’t it?”

“Not entirely. Jess
, aside from Cassie, what do you think the other girls think when they see you with Holly? You wouldn’t be tied down to one girl before, now she’s dictating the terms of your relationship and you’re letting her.”

Jess slumped against Flynn
’s Jag. “They probably think I’m totally pussy-whipped.”

“Actually
, from what I understand, it’s fairly common knowledge that Holly is like Cassie in choosing abstinence. Try again.”

Jess thought for a moment before a light seemed to go on. “They think I
love
her? Shit.”

“They might think that
, yes. How do you think that makes Holly look?”

The light of understanding went out. Flynn sighed.

“Holly caught you when no one else could. That’s quite the feather in her cap.”

“She didn
’t, but Cassie could.”

“That
’s reality, Jess, it doesn’t count. It’s perception that matters.”

“Well
, they’re having a graduation party and I’ve already committed to go with her. I guess I’ll go and kiss her goodbye after. I mean it’d be rude to back out now. Plus Cassie’s going to be there with what’s-his-name.”