Solid Soul

“Don’t you think you and Chance might be over-reacting just a little? It’s not like Tiffy and Marcus planned to cut the entire day of school. They were skipping the last two classes to go somewhere, probably to the mall,” Lena pointed out.

“And that’s supposed to be okay?” Kylie’s nerves were screaming in frustration and anger each and every time she thought about what her daughter had planned on doing. She remembered when she had cut school with Sam. Instead of going to the movies like the two of them planned, he had taken her to his house, where they had spent the entire day in his bedroom doing things they shouldn’t have been doing and things neither of them had been prepared for. But all she could think about was that Sam Miller, the star player on the Richardson High School football team, was in love with her. Or so she’d thought. Silly her.

“You need to calm down before you talk to Tiff, Kylie. I understand you’re upset, but your anger won’t help. You know how headstrong she is. She’s just like you when you were her age.”

Kylie sighed deeply. Again that was the last thing she wanted to hear. “She broke her promise to me, Lena. We’ve had a lot of talks. She had promised me that she would let me know when she was interested in boys.”

“And had she come and told you about Marcus, then what? Would you have given her your blessings or locked her up for the rest of her life? Girls like boys, Kylie. That’s natural. And you’ve had so many talks with Tiffy that she probably knows your speech by heart. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you’re laying things on a little too thick? Tiffy is a good kid, yet you’re judging her by the way you lived your life, by your own past mistakes. It’s important to you that she ‘be good’ because you don’t think that you were.”

Kylie’s eyes began filling with tears. “I only want what’s best for her, Lena. I made a foolish and stupid mistake once and I’ll do anything within my power to keep her from making the same one.”

Lena got up, came around the table and hugged her friend. “I know. Tiffy is going to be fine. I’ll be here to help you anyway that I can. You know that. I just don’t want you to build this brick wall between you and her. That same kind of wall your mother built with you.”

Kylie wiped away a tear from her cheek. Although she and her mother had a fairly decent relationship now, Kylie would never forget when Olivia Hagan had let down her only daughter by upholding her belief that by getting pregnant out of wedlock, Kylie had committed the worst possible sin.

“I’ll never let that happen,” Kylie vowed quietly.

Chapter 2

“That’s the crisis you called this meeting for?” Sebastian Steele asked, turning away from the window and looking across the office at his brother with both amazement and amusement on his face.

Chance glared first at Sebastian, and then at his other two brothers, Morgan and Donovan. They were sitting in front of his desk and looking at him with the same expressions. “Your nephew is putting a pretty face before his studies and that doesn’t add up to a crisis to any of you?”

When all three chimed the word “no” simultaneously, Chance knew talking to them had been a waste of his time.

At the age of thirty-six, Chance was the oldest of the group. Next was Sebastian, fondly called Bas, who was thirty-four. Morgan was thirty-two, and Donovan was thirty. Of the four, Chance was the only one who had ever been married. Bas was presently engaged, but the other two claimed they enjoyed their bachelor status too much to settle down anytime soon.

“Look, Chance,” Morgan said as he stood up. “It’s normal for boys Marcus’s age to like girls. So what’s the problem?”

Chance rolled his eyes heavenward. “The problem is that the girl is only fifteen and they were planning to cut school together and—”

“No,” Sebastian interrupted. “They planned to cut a couple of classes, not school. There is a difference.”

“And he of all people should know,” Donovan said, grinning. “Considering the number of times he used to play hooky. I understand they still have a desk in Mr. Potter’s math class that says, ‘Sebastian Steele never sat here.’”

“I don’t find any of this amusing,” Chance said.

Morgan wiped the grin off his face. “Then maybe you should, before you alienate your son.”

“How about chilling here, Chance,” Sebastian interjected. “You act as if Marcus committed some god-awful sin. We know the promise you made to Cyndi, but there is more to life for a teenager than hitting the books. He’s a good kid. He makes good grades. Marcus is going to go to college in a couple of years, we all know that. One girl isn’t going to stop him.”

“You haven’t seen this girl.”

Morgan raised a brow. “Have you?”

“No, but I’ve seen her mother, and if the daughter looks anything like the mother then I’m in trouble.”

“I still think you’re blowing things out of proportion,” Morgan countered. “If you make a big deal out of it, Marcus will rebel. You remember what happened last year when you didn’t want him to play football.”

Yes, Chance did remember, although he wished he could forget. He rubbed his hand down his face. Regardless of what his brothers said, he needed to talk to Marcus again. He didn’t have any problems with his son being interested in girls, he just didn’t want Marcus losing his head over one this soon.

Kylie was waiting in the living room the moment Tiffany walked through the door. She took one look at her daughter’s expression and realized Tiffany knew the conversation that was about to take place. Kylie tried not to show her anger, as well as a few other emotions, when she said, “We need to talk.”

Tiffany met her mother’s stare. “Look, Mom, I know what you’re going to say and I don’t think I did anything wrong.”

So much for not showing her anger, Kylie thought. “How can you say that? You planned to cut classes with a boy and you don’t consider that wrong?”

Tiffany rolled her eyes. “My last two classes of the day are boring anyway, so we—”

“Boring? I don’t care how boring they are, you’re supposed to be in them and you will be in them anytime that bell sounds. Understood?”

Tiffany glared at her. “Yes, I understand.”

Kylie nodded. “Now, about Marcus Steele.”

Tiffany straightened her spine and immediately went on the defensive. “What about Marcus?”

“Why didn’t you tell me about him?”

“Why? So you could find some reason for me not to like him, Mom? Well, it won’t work because I do like him. You’re the one who wanted to leave Buffalo and move here. And I’m the one who was forced to go to another school and make new friends. Not all of the kids at school like me. They say I talk funny. Marcus has been nice to me. Extremely nice. He asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes.”

“You’re not old enough to have a boyfriend, Tiffany.”

“That’s your rule, Mom.”

“And one you will abide by, young lady.”

“Why? Because you think I’ll get pregnant like you did? That’s not fair.”

“It’s not about that, Tiffany. It’s about such things as keeping your reputation intact and not getting involved in anything you aren’t ready for.”

“It is about what happened to you when you were sixteen, Mom. And how do you know what I am or am not ready for? You want to shelter me and you can’t. You’ve talked to me, but the choice of what I do is ultimately mine.”

“No, it’s not,” Kylie bit out. “As long as you’re living under my roof, I make the rules and you will abide by them.”

“I can’t, Mom. I care too much for Marcus and we have news for you and Mr. Steele. We are madly in love!” she almost shouted. “And nothing either of you say is going to make us not be together, whether it’s at school or someplace else.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” Tiffany said stalking off to her room, “that I don’t want to talk anymore.”

Chance leaped to his feet. The sound of his chair crashing to the floor echoed loudly in the kitchen. “What do you mean you might not go to college but stay in Charlotte to be closer to Tiffany Hagan?” he shouted. His anger had clearly reached the boiling point.

“There’s no reason to get upset, Dad. What’s the big deal if I decided to hang around here and go to college? One university is just as good as another.”

Chance rubbed his hand down his face, trying to fight for composure, and quickly decided to use another approach. “Marcus,” he said calmly, “I’m sure Tiffany Hagan is a nice girl, but you’re only sixteen. In another couple of years you’ll finish high school and go to college where you will meet plenty of other nice girls. You have such a bright future ahead of you. I’d hate to see you get too serious about any girl now.”

A stubborn expression settled on Marcus’s face. “She’s not just any girl, Dad. Tiffany is the girl I plan to marry one day.”

“Marry!” Chance nearly swallowed the word in shock. “How did marriage get into the picture? You’re only sixteen! I know you think you really care for this girl and—”

“It’s more than that, Dad, and the sooner you and Tiffany’s mother realize it, the better. Tiffany and I are madly in love and we want to be together forever. There’s nothing either of you can say or do to stop us, so you may as well accept it.”

“Like hell I will.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Marcus said as he walked out of the kitchen toward his bedroom.

Total shock kept Chance from going after his son and wringing his neck.

Kylie paced the floor. Her nerves were stretched to the breaking point. Tiffany hadn’t come out of her room yet, which was probably the best thing.

Love!

At fifteen her daughter thought she was in love. Madly in love at that! Kylie swallowed a thickness in her throat when she realized how her mother must have felt sixteen years ago, dealing with her when she’d been obsessed with Sam Miller.

She paused when she heard the phone ring and quickly crossed the room to pick it up, thinking it was probably Lena checking to see how things with Tiffany had gone. “Hello.”

“We need to talk, Ms. Hagan.”

Kylie blinked at the sound of the ultra sexy male voice. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who the caller was, or to know he’d evidently had had another talk with his son. She sighed. Yes, they did need to talk. “You name the place and I’ll be there.”

“All right.” After a quiet pause, he said. “They think they’re in love. Madly in love.”

Kylie shook her head. “So I heard. Louder than I really cared to, in fact.”

“Same here. Do you know where the Racetrack Café is?”

“Yes.”

“Can you meet me there around noon tomorrow?”

Considering what was going on with Tiffany and his son, she really didn’t have a choice. Hopefully, together they could devise a way to stop the young couple before they got into more trouble than they could handle. “Yes, I can meet you there.”

“Fine, I’ll see you then.”

Chance arrived at the restaurant early to make sure they got a table. Jointly owned by several race car drivers on the NASCAR circuit, the Racetrack Café was a popular eatery in town. He hadn’t been seated more than five minutes when he glanced over at the entrance to see Kylie Hagan walk in.

He had hoped his mental picture of her from yesterday had been wrong, but it hadn’t. Kylie Hagan was an attractive woman. Every man in the place apparently thought so, too, judging by the looks they gave her. Not for the first time he wondered about her age and how someone who looked so young could have a fifteen-year-old daughter.

He watched her glance around before she spotted him. There wasn’t even a hint of a smile on her face as she walked toward him. But, he quickly decided, it didn’t matter. Smiling or not, she looked gorgeous dressed in a pair of black slacks and a blue pullover sweater. And those same curves that he’d convinced himself had to be a figment of his imagination made her slacks a perfect fit for her body. Even her walk was mesmerizing and sexy.

When she got closer, he saw the wariness around her eyes, which led him to believe that she’d probably gone a round or two with her daughter sometime during that day, as he’d done with Marcus. He wondered if the discussion had been about the “his and hers” tattoos Marcus had indicated he and Tiffany were thinking about getting.

Chance stood when she reached the table. “Ms. Hagan.”

“Mr. Steele.”

He thought they were overdoing the formality, but felt it was best to keep things that way for now. After all, this was nothing more than a business meeting, and the only item on the agenda was a discussion about their children.

After they had taken their seats, he asked, “Would you like to order anything? They have the best hamburgers and French fries in town.”

A small smile touched Kylie’s lips. “So I’ve heard. But no, I’m fine, you go ahead and order something if you’d like. It’s just that my most recent conversation with Tiffany has killed my appetite.”

Chance heard the quiver in her voice and recalled his own conversation with Marcus that morning before he’d left for school. “I take it Tiffany told you about the tattoo.”

He watched her nostrils flare as she drew in a silent breath. “Yes, she told me. Matching lovebirds on their tummies right above their navels, I understand.”

“That’s my understanding as well.” A soft chuckle erupted from his throat. There was a cloud hanging over his head that refused to go away and he had to find amusement anywhere he could to keep his sanity. But he had to believe this was just one part of parenthood that he would get through, and for some reason it was important to him for Kylie Hagan to believe that as well.

“Things are going to be all right, Ms. Hagan,” he said soothingly. “That’s why we’re meeting today, to make sure of it.” He flashed her a smile.

She glanced up and met his gaze. “I want to believe that,” she said quietly. “Under the circumstances I think we should forgo formality. Please call me Kylie.”

“Okay, and I’m Chance.” After a pause he said, “Kylie, I want you to believe things will work out. We have to think positively that we’ll get through this particular episode in our children’s lives. We have good kids—they’re just a little headstrong and stubborn. But I believe with some parental guidance they’ll be fine.”

“I hope so. Otherwise if they continue with the route they’re going, they’re bound to make a mistake.”

Chance raised a brow. “By mistake you mean…?”

“Taking their relationship to a level they aren’t ready for, Chance.”

He liked the way his name easily flowed from her lips. “I take it you mean sex.”

“Yes, that’s precisely what I’m talking about. Over the years, I’ve had the mother-daughter talks with Tiffany, but when teenagers are in love, or think they’re in love, they believe that sex is just another way to show how much they care.”

They paused in their conversation when a waitress came to give Chance his beer, hand them menus and fill their water glasses.

“And you think that’s going to be on their minds?” he asked.

“Of course. Raging teenage hormones are the worst kind.”

He picked up his glass to take a sip of beer. “Are they?”

“Yes, trust me, I know. I had Tiffany when I was sixteen.”

Chance’s glass stopped midway to his lips. His mouth opened in surprise. “Sixteen?”

“Yes. So I hope you can understand why I’m upset with all of this. I don’t want Tiffany to make the same mistake I made as a teenager.”

Chance nodded. That explained the reason Kylie didn’t look old enough to have a fifteen-year-old daughter. That meant she was around thirty-one, but still she didn’t look a day over twenty-five. “Did you and Tiffany’s father get married?”

Her laugh was bitter. “Are you kidding? He had to make a choice between me and a football scholarship to Hampton University. He chose college.”

“I didn’t.”

Kylie glanced up from studying her water glass. “You didn’t what?”

“I was faced with the same decision as Tiffany’s father. My girlfriend, Marcus’s mother, got pregnant when we were seniors in high school. We were both eighteen and had plans for college. We acknowledged our mistake and felt that no matter what, we loved each other and loved the child we had made. Instead of going to college, we got married, remained here in Charlotte and made the best of things. I later went to college at night. My wife died of cancer when Marcus was nine.”

Chance finished his beer. A part of him regretted that the man who had gotten Kylie pregnant hadn’t done the responsible thing. “It must have been hard for you, pregnant at sixteen,” he said.

“It was.” He could tell by the way her lips were quivering their conversation was bringing back painful memories for her. “I disappointed my parents tremendously, embarrassed them. When it was determined that the father didn’t want me or his child as part of his future, my parents tried talking me into giving up my baby for adoption, but I refused. That caused friction between us the entire nine months. Things got so bad at home that I had to go live with my best friend and her mother the last couple months of my pregnancy.”

After taking a sip of water, she said, “The day the nurse brought Tiffany to me for the first time after I’d given birth to her, I gazed down at my beautiful daughter and knew I had made the right decision, no matter how my parents felt.”

“Did they eventually come around to your way of thinking?”

“Years later when they realized they were denying themselves the chance to get to know their granddaughter. But at first they wanted me to know what a mistake I’d made in keeping her. They’d intended to teach me a lesson. I couldn’t move back home so I continued to live with my friend’s family until I was able to get an apartment at seventeen. I finished high school at night while working at a grocery store as a cashier during the day. My best friend, who also became Tiffany’s godmother, kept her at night so I could finish school. It was hard but I was determined to make it work. After high school, I went to college and I struggled for years as a single parent before I finally earned a degree. I got a management position and later purchased a modest home for me and Tiffany.”

“What made you decide to move here?”

“The company where I worked as a supervisor decided to downsize. My position was no longer needed so they gave me a pretty nice severance package. Instead of seeing losing my job as the end of the world, I decided to turn it into an opportunity to do something I’d always wanted to do.”

“Open up a florist shop?”

“Yes. The reason I decided on Charlotte was that Lena had moved here after college and I liked the area the couple of times I’d come to visit her.”

“Lena?”

“Helena Spears, my best friend from high school.”

Chance smiled. “Helena Spears? I’ve met her on several occasions. She’s a Realtor in town and is very active with the Cancer Society. I think her father died of the disease some years ago.”

“He did, when Lena was fourteen. In recent years her mother has taken ill. I admire Lena for taking on the responsibility of her mother’s care the way she has.”

Kylie leaned back in her chair. “So knowing my history, Chance, I hope you can understand why I don’t want Tiffany to make the same mistakes I did. I don’t have anything against your son personally. I’m sure he’s a fine young man. I just don’t think he and Tiffany are ready for any sort of a relationship just yet.”

“And I totally agree. So what do you think we should do?”

“I think we should meet with them, tell them our feelings, let them know we understand how they feel, or how they think they feel, since we were young once. But we should try to do whatever we can to slow down things between them. They’re moving too fast. One day I didn’t even know Marcus existed and now my daughter is claiming to be madly in love with him.”

When the waitress came back to take their order, Chance glanced over at Kylie. “You’re still not hungry?”

Kylie smiled. “Yes, in fact I think I’m going to try a hamburger and fries.”

Chance returned her smile. “I think I will, too.”

“I’m glad we had our little talk,” Chance said as he walked Kylie to her car an hour or so later.

“So am I,” she said honestly, although the whole time she’d sat across from him she’d had to fight back her drool. She was amazed at the thoughts that had crept into her mind. Thoughts of how Chance Steele had to have one of the sexiest mouths she’d ever seen. And the type of physique that drew feminine attention. Watching him eat had been quite an ordeal. She’d had to fight the urge to squirm in her seat each time he bit into his hamburger. Her attraction to him was truly bizarre, considering the real problem was finding a way to keep their kids in line.

But she would be crazy not to acknowledge that she was drawn to him in a way she hadn’t been drawn to a man in years. Sexual longings were something she hadn’t had to deal with for quite some time. Being in Chance’s company she had been reminded of just how long it had been.

“So we’ve decided that I’m to bring Marcus over to your place for Sunday dinner so the four of us can sit down and talk,” he said when they reached her car.

“Yes, that’s the plan.”

“And I think it’s a good one. We need to talk to them, but even more importantly, we need to let them talk to us. And no matter what, we’re going to have to keep our cool, even when we’d like nothing better than to ring their little necks. The situation we’re dealing with calls for strategy and tact, not anger.”

She tilted her head up and looked at him. “Strategy and tact I can handle, but it’s going to be hard keeping my anger in check,” she said, thinking of the conversation she’d had with Tiffany that morning before the girl had left for school. Her daughter was intent on being stubborn, no matter what.

“We’ll not only get through it, we’ll succeed,” Chance said.

Kylie knew he was trying to alleviate some of her worries and she appreciated it. “Okay, then I’ll see you and Marcus on Sunday. I’m looking forward to meeting him.”

“And I’m looking forward to meeting Tiffany as well.” As he held the car door for her he shook his head and laughed. “Matching lovebird tattoos. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous?”

Chance drew Kylie into his amusement. “No, and what’s really crazy is that Tiffany is petrified of needles.”

“Well, it’s been said that love makes you do foolish things.”

Later that night Chance swore as he got out of bed. For the first time in eight years, a woman other than his wife had invaded his dreams. Every time he’d closed his eyes, he’d seen Kylie Hagan’s face.

It seemed as if he couldn’t keep his mind from dredging up memories of her. First there was her appearance yesterday when a T-shirt and a pair of shorts covered her shapely body. And today, at the café, the slacks and sweater she’d been wearing had made him appreciate the fact that he was a male.

And then there were the times she would do something as simple as drink water from her glass. He couldn’t help but watch the long, smooth column of her throat as water passed down it. He had wanted to kiss every inch of her neck and had wondered how it would feel for her to grip him the way she was gripping her glass.

Chance dragged a hand down his face thinking it had been a long time for him. Way too long. Sexual cravings were something he’d barely had to deal with, but now he was having several sharp attacks. In addition to the lust he was feeling for her, he also felt a deep sense of admiration.

She had given birth to a child at sixteen, hadn’t given in to her parents’ demand that she give the child up for adoption, and had struggled the past fifteen years as a single parent who’d gotten a college education and had provided for herself and her daughter. He considered what she’d done a success story. What he really appreciated was the fact that her past experiences enabled her to foresee what could be a potentially dangerous situation for Tiffany and Marcus. It was clear as glass that she didn’t want them to make the same mistake she’d made.