dangerously low on his hips, plowed into her, knocking her down.
“Daddy!” She gasped as her beet-faced admirer helped her up and eagerly assisted in brushing bits of grass off her shorts. “What are you doin’ here?”
Clenching his fists at his sides, Nick blinked several times. Every time he looked at the boy, all he could see was a six-foot penis standing beside his daughter. Now, he understood why Sam’s aunt had flipped out that day she’d found her niece dancing in the yard in a string-bikini.
So help him, if that lecher touched Dani’s ass once more, Nick would have to break the kid’s hands.
“Why are you here?” she asked again, wearing a guilty expression.
He shook his head to clear the phallic image that had short-circuited his ability to speak. “You refused to fly out to see me this summer, and you hardly speak to me on the phone anymore. I had no choice but to come to you.” Nick glared at the fine crop of hair sprouting on her companion’s chest. “And here I find you practicing on the front lawn with Hercules for some smutty rock video.”
Dani’s brow wrinkled. “What’re you talking about?”
He gestured toward her outfit. “That is why you’re wearing that bimbo-in-training get-up, isn’t it? Because I know my daughter wouldn’t dress in a way that would make a guy think she was easy.”
The six-foot penis had the good sense to look abashed. “Uhh, maybe I’d better go.”
“No!” Dani blurted. “You just got here. He can stay, can’t he, Dad?”
Nick turned toward the kid and narrowed his gaze. “For a while. But if you want to keep breathing, pal, I suggest you keep your paws off my daughter’s butt.”
“Yes, sir. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Riverá.” The boy extended his hand. “Ryan Flynn.”
Nick accepted the kid’s firm handshake, wishing he could say he was equally pleased. The boy was way too old for Dani. But at least Nick hadn’t found them inside the house alone.
“We were just goofin’ around while we wait for mom to come home,” Dani explained.
He glanced at the beat-up Toyota parked in the driveway. From the flash of guilt on Dani’s face, Nick would wager an entire paycheck she’d ignored the rules and had ridden home with her friend instead of on the school bus. Unfortunately, it wasn’t something he could prove.
He turned to Ryan and jerked his head toward the acoustic guitar lying on the black Toyota’s hood with the boy’s discarded T-shirt. “You play?”
“I’m still learning. Dani told me you taught her, and she promised to show me a few things this afternoon.”
As long as it was only his daughter’s proficiency on the instrument the kid hoped to see.
During the induction phase of her treatment, Nick had bought a second-hand Fender from e-Bay, hoping it would distract Dani from her illness. With so much idle time on her hands and a bit of inherited talent, in only a few months, she’d become fairly accomplished on the guitar.
“Ryan’s the vocalist in his band,” she told him.
“Is your voice good,” Nick asked, “or simply the best in your group?”
“It’s okay.” The kid shrugged. “Right now, I play keyboard, but I’d like be able to switch off to the guitar, too.”
Six-foot penis or not, he liked the kid’s modesty. The only disturbing thing was the boy reminded Nick of someone he wouldn’t trust around his daughter—a blond version of himself at eighteen.
“You seem nice enough, Ryan, but aren’t you a little old to be friends with Dani?”
“What?” She scowled. “He’s only sixteen. Ryan just got his license three months ago. Who do you want me to hang out with? Mom’s preschoolers?”
Oh, crap. The kid was evidently an early bloomer. By the time Nick had physically matured that far, he’d been a senior in high school and getting lucky with half the cheerleading squad. Not that any of those stuck up teases would’ve ever publically admitted knowing a bad seed like him.
He
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