Leave it to Max (Lori's Classic Love Stories Volume 1) (29 page)

Evie Vaughn chewed on the cap of her pen and
surveyed the paper in front of her. Had she forgotten anything?

She chewed harder and shook her head. No, the
list looked good. Not too many items, but enough for the summer
season.

Evie smiled to herself, doubting that other
mothers divided their years into seasons—but the process worked for
her. Her job as a high school physical education teacher and
extracurricular coach made her think in terms of seasons. It was a
division she understood, as did her three sons.

Evie stood and anchored the paper to the
refrigerator with a magnet. Sounds of a war in the making drifted
from the twins’ bedroom. She glanced at her watch—6:55 a.m. Rule
number three definitely needed enforcement.

“Mom! He started it.” The shout greeted her
as she entered the first bedroom off the hallway. Danny, her
youngest son by four minutes, his carrot-colored hair sticking up
in numerous cowlicks, made a beeline for her leg. Yanking on her
sweat suit, he turned an entreating gaze upward. “You don’t like it
when we make war, and I told him.” He pointed a semi-grimy finger
at his identical twin, Benji, who ignored them both as he blasted
all the bad guys into another dimension with his own slightly
cleaner finger.

“Boys.” Evie disengaged Danny’s fingers from
her leg one by one. “The new list of rules is on the fridge.”
Groans replaced the machine-gun sounds as the twins clutched their
middles and fell to the ground. “Adam!” she called. “Take your
brothers into the kitchen and read them the new rules.”

“I’m not dressed,” her seventeen-year-old
shouted from his room.

“Then get dressed. In ten minutes my car
leaves for school.”

She looked down at her sons, who were still
playing dead on the floor. One still had on his Batman pajama
bottoms; the other wore only Ninja Turtle underwear. With one week
left before summer vacation, you would think they’d be used to
getting dressed in time for school. She’d heard them arguing over
cereal choices before the sun shone. What had they been doing
since?

Evie shrugged. She’d been too busy getting
ready for work to notice. As long as no one was crying or bleeding,
she counted herself lucky.

“Ten minutes, boys,” she repeated. “And you’d
better wash those hands, too.” She turned away, mumbling, “I know I
gave them a bath last night. How did they get dirty between then
and now?” As she returned to the kitchen, the frantic scrambling
sounds that followed assured her all three boys were racing to get
ready.

Picking up her coffee cup, Evie leaned
against the counter and took a moment to calm down. Every morning
was the same—a flurry of activity to get out of the house and to
the school on time. Raising three boys alone wasn’t easy, but she
did her best.

The death of her husband six years ago had
made Evie’s dream of a teaching degree a necessity. With the help
of her parents, and the money from a small insurance policy, she’d
earned her degree at a college near her home of Newsome, Iowa.

When she was offered the position of high
school physical education teacher in Oak Grove, a few hours east of
Newsome, she’d jumped at the chance. Her boys would at last have a
stable home in a good community, free of the memories of their
father—his life and his death.

With one dream realized, Evie found a new
one. She wanted her children to have college diplomas. If she could
land a varsity coaching position, she could put away enough money
to send the boys to college. The events of the coming summer would
make or break her dream.

The sound of stampeding elephants in the
hallway interrupted her thoughts. The elephants materialized into
boys as the twins skidded into the kitchen, followed closely by
Adam—tall, wiry and as dark haired as Evie herself.

She smiled over her coffee cup as the two
youngest stood in front of the refrigerator, their faces scrunching
up in concentration as they tried to read her note.

“The,” Benji said.

“All,” Danny added.

Adam ignored them both and read the rules,
putting a hand on the shoulder of each brother as they started to
argue.

“But Mom, we
have
to put the Hot
Wheels in the sink after we play with them in the tub, so they can
drool off,” Danny stated, somewhat cleaner hands planted on his
hips.

“What does
em-eny
mean?” Benji asked,
snatching his backpack from a chair.

“
Enemy
,” Evie corrected automatically.
“It means I’m sick of the fighting. You’re seven years old and in
the first grade. I think you can try to get along with your
brother.”

Adam snorted. “Right, Mom. That’ll never
happen. They were born to beat on each other.”

Evie grabbed her duffel bag and handed Danny
his backpack as she herded her three sons out the door. “I just
don’t understand why you all can’t be nice to one another. I never
had a brother or sister. I would have loved one.”

“That’s the problem, Mom. You don’t
understand. They
like
to fight.”

Evie sighed. Adam was right. Benji and Danny
lived and breathed conflict. But if anyone outside the family so
much as glanced at one of them cross-eyed, they defended each other
zealously.

“Can I drive?”

“Huh?” Evie gaped at Adam. He smiled, and her
heart skipped a half beat. When he turned on the charm, Adam was
the spitting image of his father, a fact that caused her no small
alarm. While alive, Ray Vaughn had made countless lives miserable,
her own and her sons’ at the top of the list. He had used his good
looks and charm to get his way, regardless of the consequences.

“Mom?” Adam asked. “Are you all right?”

His eyes, warm, brown, concerned, peered into
hers, and Evie relaxed. Adam resembled his father only
superficially. Ray had died before he could totally ruin his sons,
and Evie had spent the past six years fixing the damage he had
managed to accomplish.

“Sure,” she said, and tossed Adam the keys.
Because of the size of Oak Grove, driver’s education was just
offered once a year. Therefore Adam, despite being seventeen, had
gotten his driver’s license only a week earlier. Evie still wasn’t
used to the change. Her throat tightened as she watched him
shepherd the twins into the back seat, then climb behind the wheel.
Somewhere along the way he’d become a young man—and she’d been too
busy keeping the family afloat to notice.

Blinking back the unaccustomed wetness from
her eyes, Evie got into the battered Ford station wagon. The twins
were already arguing about who had fastened his seat belt first.
Evie tuned them out and concentrated on the road.

The high school stood on a flat stretch of
land just a few miles from their house, with the grade school and
the middle school on either side. Adam dropped the twins off at the
front door of Oak Grove Elementary, and the two raced inside
without a backward glance. Then he made the short trip to the high
school teachers’ parking lot and pulled into Evie’s assigned space.
He handed her the keys with a grin.

She smiled back and was about to compliment
him on his driving, when a flash of red at the corner of her vision
made her turn her head. A car skidded into the lot. Before she
could warn Adam, he opened his door to get out, and the vehicle—an
expensive, foreign sports car—scooted into the parking space next
to them, slamming into the door.

Evie instinctively grabbed for her son, but
he shook off her protective hand and stepped from the car. She
jumped out her side and hurried around to survey the damage.

“Oh, no,” she breathed as she took in the
mangled driver’s door, which tilted crazily, held only by one bent
hinge. She winced when she considered the price of a replacement
compared with her insurance deductible.

Then the door to the offending sports car
opened with a
whoosh
of expertly oiled hinges, and Evie’s
head snapped in that direction. “I’ll handle this,” she said to
Adam, shushing him when he would have argued.

She stomped around the back of the red car
and stood there, foot tapping in impatience, while she waited for
the owner to make an appearance.

Tennis shoes the size of small boats hit the
ground. Evie stared at them in amazement as the rest of the body
followed. Her gaze traveled up, up, up along the black jeans and
body-hugging black T-shirt, until she met the eyes of the giant in
front of her—ice blue framed by bronzed skin, short, silver-blond
hair belying the youth of the face.

Evie couldn’t stop staring. She’d never seen
such a large man in her life—or one so striking. Even though she
was petite and used to looking up to most people, this man made her
neck ache.

He stalked to the front of his car. Evie
followed and watched as he bent over and squinted at the damage,
which appeared minor from her point of view, then slowly
straightened and returned to stand in front of her.

“What are you kids doing in this lot?”

Evie frowned. “Excuse me?”

The man sighed irritably and slammed his car
door. Evie jumped at the sound. “
This
lot.” He pointed at
the sign directly in front of her car. “The
teachers’
and
visitors’
lot. Shouldn’t you kids park somewhere else?”

Evie stifled a laugh, certain this giant
would not be likewise amused. This wasn’t the first time she’d been
mistaken for a student. When she wore her sunglasses, as she did
now, the telltale lines around her eyes were hidden, creating a
more youthful appearance.

“I think you’ve made a mistake—” she
began.

“No, you have, honey. And your boyfriend,
too.” He glared at Adam, who stared back without flinching. “Did
you just get your driver’s license, kid?”

Evie’s amusement died at the man’s
condescending tone—and she had never taken well to being called
“honey” by a stranger. She silenced Adam with a wave of her hand
and stepped in front of the mountainous man.

“Listen, mister, you’re the one who came
tearing in here about fifteen miles over the speed limit. This is a
school zone. And
you
hit
our
car. So if anyone should
be asking about a driver’s license, it’s us.”

The man looked down at her, and Evie could
have sworn she saw a flash of amusement in his cool blue eyes
before he frowned and stepped past her to assess the damage. The
sight of their demolished door deflated his anger, and his
shoulders moved on a silent sigh.

“Hell,” he muttered, and reached for his
wallet. Turning back to them, he ignored Evie as though she didn’t
exist and pulled out several bills, which he handed to Adam. “I’m
sorry about the car, son. She’s right. I should have been more
careful. But let me give you some advice. You’ve got to stand up
for yourself in this world. Don’t ever let a woman do it for you.
Once you lose control in a relationship, it’s tough to get it
back.” After a wink at Evie, who stood speechless, he walked into
the school.

“Of all the nerve,” Evie sputtered. “Who does
he think he is?”

Adam laughed. “I don’t know. But he thought
you were my girlfriend.”

Her son’s continued laughter drew Evie’s
attention away from the school. “Hey, it’s not
that
funny.
I’m only thirty-five.”

Adam eyed the money in his hand, and the
laughter stopped. “Mom? Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” He
held out the bills.

Evie took them and gasped. Five crisp, new,
one-hundred dollar bills lay in her palm.

She looked from her son’s wide eyes, to the
fire-engine-red car, to the front door of the school. Then she
crumpled the bills. “Who is that guy?”

* * * * * * * * *

Sisters of the Craft Trilogy

IN THE AIR TONIGHT

HEAT OF THE MOMENT

SMOKE ON THE WATER

The Phoenix Chronicles

ANY GIVEN DOOMSDAY

DOOMSDAY CAN WAIT

APOCALYPSE HAPPENS

CHAOS BITES

IN THE BEGINNING (e-short story)

DANCES WITH DEMONS (novella)

Short story set in the Phoenix Chronicle World

HEX APPEAL (anthology) – “There Will Be Demons”

Nightcreature Novels

BLUE MOON

HUNTER’S MOON

DARK MOON

CRESCENT MOON

MIDNIGHT MOON

RISING MOON

HIDDEN MOON

THUNDER MOON

MARKED BY THE MOON

MOON CURSED

CRAVE THE MOON

SHADOW OF THE MOON (e-short story)

FIFTY WAYS TO KILL YOUR LARRY (e-collection)
– “Blame It On the Moon”

Short stories and novellas set in the Nightcreature
World

STROKE OF MIDNIGHT (anthology) – “Red Moon
Rising”

MY BIG, FAT SUPERNATURAL WEDDING (anthology) –
“Charmed by the Moon”

NO REST FOR THE WITCHES (anthology) – “Voodoo
Moon”

Shakespeare Undead Series

SHAKESPEARE UNDEAD

ZOMBIE ISLAND: A SHAKESPEARE UNDEAD NOVEL

Paranormal novellas

WHEN MIDNIGHT COMES

DATES FROM HELL (anthology) – “Dead Man Dating”

MOON FEVER (anthology) – “Cobwebs over the Moon”

Contemporary
paranormal novel

D.J.
’S
ANGEL

Historical paranormal novels

FULL MOON DREAMS

DREAMS OF AN EAGLE

The Luchetti Brothers Series
Contemporary Romance

THE DADDY QUEST

THE BROTHER QUEST

THE HUSBAND QUEST

A SOLDIER’S QUEST

THE MOMMY QUEST

Contemporary Romance

OUT OF HER LEAGUE

FRIENDS TO LOVERS

LEAVE IT TO MAX