He sucked in a deep breath, letting the scent of her fill his nostrils. She was still asleep, but he could remember a time that weekend when he had patiently waited for her to wake up so that he could—
“Dad?”
“Mom?”
Chance swallowed as he slowly glanced across the room and his gaze lit on two pairs of curious eyes. He blinked. No, make that three.
He quickly sat up and the movement startled Kylie out of a sound sleep. “Chance, what’s wrong?” she asked sluggishly, slowly coming awake.
He shifted his gaze from the three sets of eyes to her still-drowsy ones. “Wake up, sweetheart, the kids are back,” he whispered.
She blinked. “What?”
“The kids are home.”
She was off the sofa in a flash. He had to catch her to keep her from stumbling. “Tiffany! Marcus! We’ve been so worried about you,” she said hugging them so tight Chance wondered how they were able to breathe.
Then as if it finally hit her what they had done, she stepped back, placed her hands on her hips and gave them one hell of a fierce frown. “The two of you have a lot of explaining to do.”
“Seems they aren’t the only ones,” Donovan Steele said in a low voice, after clearing his throat.
Kylie jumped and jerked her head around. She hadn’t seen Chance’s youngest brother standing at the edge of the foyer. “Where did you find them?” she asked, tossing her mussed-up braids over her shoulders.
Before Donovan could answer, Tiffany said, “He didn’t find us. We were with him the entire time. We spent the night over at his house.”
“What?” That loud exclamation came from both Kylie and Chance at the same time.
“And we had so much fun,” Marcus said, smiling. “The three of us played video games until—”
“What the hell do you mean you were with him the entire time?” Chance shouted, coming to his feet beside Kylie.
“Dad, don’t get mad at Uncle Donovan,” Marcus said, rushing in. “I can explain.”
Donovan smiled as he leaned against the wall. “Yes, Chance, let him explain. And trust me, it’s a doozy. And I think you and Kylie might want to be sitting down when you hear it.”
Chapter 16
“Let me make sure I have this right,” Chance said as he paced back and forth in front of the two teenagers, who were now the ones sitting on Kylie’s sofa. To say they were in the hot seat was an understatement. “Are the two of you saying you aren’t madly in love and that you never were?”
It had taken the kids twenty minutes to explain to their parents what it had only taken ten to confess to Donovan a few days ago. But Kylie and Chance had stopped them periodically to ask questions.
“Yes, Mr. Steele, that’s what we’re saying. Marcus and I are good friends and have been since the first day I started at Myers Park High. One day while talking we decided that neither you nor my mom had a life that didn’t center around us, so we decided to give you one,” Tiffany said, smiling.
Chance frowned. “You decided? Just like that?”
“Yes, sir, we decided just like that. Wasn’t that cool?”
Kylie came to stand next to Chance. “No, that wasn’t cool. Did it ever occur to either of you that we liked the life we had?”
“Yes, it did occur to me, but then I wondered what you would do when I left for college in a few years, Mom,” Tiffany said quietly. “Just the thought of you being here all alone almost made me give up the idea of leaving home and going off to school. But then I figured it wouldn’t be fair for me to give up my life just because you didn’t have one. So I decided to help you find one. And when Marcus mentioned how handsome his dad was, and I told him how beautiful you are, we decided the two of you would make the perfect solid soul.”
Chance lifted a confused brow. “Solid soul?”
“Yes, it’s where two souls combine into one. A very solid one that can withstand anything.”
Kylie crossed her arms over her chest and glared at them. “The two of you deceived us. You had us almost pulling our hair out by pretending you were so much in love.”
“We kept asking you to trust us, Ms. Hagan,” Marcus spoke up and said. “Even if we were in love, Tiffany and I had been raised right. You and Dad have done a good job. We know right from wrong and we know what to do and what not to do. We kept telling you and Dad that, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“That’s beside the point. What the two of you did last night was—”
“Necessary, Mom,” Tiffany cut in and said. “I’m not a child. I knew you were beginning to really like Mr. Steele. I could tell. And I could also tell that you wouldn’t let yourself like him fully because you probably thought I wouldn’t go along with it when all I ever wanted was someone to come into your life and treat you nice, take you places and make you smile. And Mr. Steele made you smile, Mom. I’ve never seen you smile so much as when you were around him or talked to him every night on the phone. And I knew our plan was working because Marcus said his dad was smiling, too.”