Page 13 of Daddy's Treat
I love that he is so free with compliments… I’ve fallen for those before, though. I think back to my senior year of high school. Toby Allen, star quarterback for the football team, student council president, and virtual king of the school. He dated cheerleaders and the prettiest girls in school. I didn’t even exist to him until he needed a math tutor, and Mr. Wiseman assigned me to tutor him. Even then, he didn’t seem to remember my name after three months of working together two days a week.
Then one day, the gossip was that Toby dumped his girlfriend, who happened to be the captain of the cheer team, and the person who did her level best to make my life a living hell at school. They were high school royalty. Everyone thought they were the perfect couple. The gossip spread like wildfire that Toby dumped her because he had feelings for someone else.
Color me shocked when the very next day, Toby asked me to prom. Every single person in the hallway stopped to gawk at him. Well, more at me. I could tell they were all trying to see what was special enough about me to make him want to takemeto prom. They weren’t the only ones dumbfounded.
I’m not even sure what I said to him, but it went something like: I have to wash my hamster’s hair that day.
Ridiculous. I’ve never been good at making up excuses. Lying doesn’t come naturally to me. Toby asked me every day for a week. The next Tuesday at our tutoring session, he showed up with flowers, waxing poetic about how he’d be failing calculus without my help and how sweet and kind and beautiful I am. My sixteen-year-old heart was flattered. I ended up saying yes that day.
Prom was the following Saturday. He took me to a nice restaurant, even pulled out my chair for me. We danced, and he introduced me to the other football players who looked at me like I was some kind of science experiment. When Samantha and her fellow cheer-goons saw us together, they made sure I knew exactly what they thought of me. I was ready to run out of there and never come back.
Toby told me to ignore those girls that they are just jealous… I was a fool enough to believe him. Our school does a school spirit video where they show pictures and snippets of videos of everyone. In the halls at school, clubs, sports games, choir, band, the lunchroom… dozens and dozens of pictures of people. Except halfway through the video compilation cut out, and a new video started playing.
I instantly recognized the girl’s locker room on the screen. Then the camera cuts to a girl bending over in nothing but her underwear. Not just any girl. It’s me. I’d recognize those unicorn print undies anywhere. The film version of me stands up and turns slightly to grab something out of her locker. When I raise my arm, you can see the side of my breast… or lack thereof. Real me is hearing the snickers around me and comments about how I must stuff my bra because I’m flat as a board.
Video me is oblivious to the fact that she’s being videotaped. She continues getting dressed. Laughter rings out through the room when I turn around, and the camera zooms in on my bra… It matches the undies. People are whispering about how I wear a training bra. I don’t know if it’s more or less embarrassing because they are one-hundred percent right.
One of the chaperones managed to stop the video before any more played, but let’s be honest, the damage was done by that point. The people responsible got what they had been going for. The other shoe was about to drop, though. It wasn’t enough that the culprits embarrassed me in front of the whole school, it’s that they also got Toby to ask me to prom in the first place so that they would have the platform to inflict the most embarrassment possible.
It’s not fair for me to compare Kade to Toby. Toby was a dumb kid trying to impress a girl, and Kade is a grown man who seems to know his own mind.
The waitress interrupts my internal freak out by finally coming to take our orders. I get my usual. Pancakes with extra syrup, scrambled eggs, bacon, and a glass of chocolate milk. Kade tells the waitress he will take the same plus a cup of coffee. It’s his small way of showing me it’s okay to order whatever I want and that he thoroughly approves of my choices. I giggle at imagining a man like Kade drinking chocolate milk.
“What’s so funny?”
“I just didn’t take you for the chocolate milk kind of guy.”
His cocky smile is breathtaking. Wow, is he pretty. Better than Thor and Superman. “Sometimes a guy just has to have a taste of something… sweet.”
From the heated look he’s giving me from across the table, I’m nine-hundred percent sure he’s not talking about chocolate milk.
“Now, where were we?” he asks. I mentally pout at not giving the proper amount of time to thinking of all the things he wants to taste.
I should’ve taken the opportunity to change the subject, but my mouth totally got ahead of my filter. “I was telling you why people call me Penny-pie, and you were growling about knocking guys off their feet.”
Kade leans across the table and grabs my hands. He pulls my hands toward him until I’m leaning across the table too. We are practically nose to nose, barely a hairsbreadth between us.
“I want to make this clear,” he looks at me so intently that when I nod, our noses touch with the movement. “you will always be my shortcake for however long you want to be.”
“Always sounds pretty good to me.” It takes me a second to realize the breathy voice that answered actually came from me. Apparently, my voice box is on the same page as my kitty when it comes to showing Kade how much we like him.
“Me too.”
Once the waitress brings our food, our conversation turns to easier topics. He asks about my degree, and I tell him that I’m pre-med. That both of my parents are doctors. I’m not sure how he does it, but he picks up on something in my tone that tells him that’s not what I really want. He asks me what my dreamis, not what my parents want for me.
I confess that I’ve always wanted to be a vet. I avoid answering why I’m not going for my dreams by asking him about football. I’m pretty sure he knows I’m deflecting, but he allows it and starts talking about his football career, his injury, and his job as a coach.
“Did you really not recognize me when you met me last night?” he asks amusement dancing in his eyes.
“I’m not really the sports type.” I shrug an apology.
“It surprises me is all. I’ve been in so many TV and magazine ads that you would think you’d have seen me somewhere. It seems like everyone knows who I am.” It almost feels like he’s fishing for information. It makes me wonder how many people have tried to take advantage of his fame.
“I honestly had no idea who you were before I ran into you last—”
I’m interrupted when the triple-i’s walk up to our booth. Candi practically sits on the table and leans over until her boobs are directly in Kade’s face. “Coach Prescott, how are you this fine afternoon?” she purrs.
Sandi puts her hand on Kade’s shoulder. “You’re so strong. You should help load the truck with the boxes of food we collected for the Zeta Tau food drive. We could really use someone who isn’t afraid to get… dirty.” She whispers that last word like it’s a secret just between them.