Hot Item (Hot Zone 3)

“Who else?” he asked.

“Mmmadjkr,” she mumbled.

He couldn’t help but grin. “Say it again clearly this time.”

“Mike and Joey and Rick and Frank,” she said on an indignant huff, clearly annoyed at being forced to reveal all.

“I’d say the boys are your mother’s problem. That and the hour.”

“But…but…you don’t trust me?”

He shook his head. “It’s not you we don’t trust.”

“It’s everyone else out there.” She parroted the words he and Lisa had used with her before. “Dad, this is so unfair! I just want to hang out with my friends at the Seaport. I don’t see what’s so bad about that. Everyone’s going to go and I’ll be left out, and then they’ll talk about it at school and I’ll be the only one who’s not part of things!” Her voice trembled, tugging at his heart.

“I’ll talk to your mother.”

“She’ll never agree. Can’t I just sleep at your house so I can go and we won’t tell her? Please, Daddy, please.”

He groaned, hating the pleading tone in her voice. “We’ll talk when I get home tomorrow.”

“You’re the best!” she squealed into the phone.

“Lizzie, I didn’t promise anything,” he reminded her.

She laughed. “But I know you and I love you.” She blew a kiss into the phone. “Gotta go now! Bye!”

The phone clicked on her end. Lizzie, he realized, had twisted his words into what she wanted to hear. If he didn’t agree, she’d blame him even more than she already blamed her mother.

“Teenagers should come with an instruction manual,” he muttered.

“Nobody ever said it would be easy.”

He turned, startled at the sound of Sophie’s voice. Wrapped up in Lizzie’s drama, he’d forgotten she sat patiently by his side. “It amazes me how easy it is for someone who’s never been a parent to offer platitudes.”

She inclined her head. “Good point.”

At least she didn’t seem insulted.

“I take it she wanted to go somewhere and her mother said no?” Sophie asked.

He nodded. “South Street Seaport during happy hour.”

“And you agreed with…” Sophie trailed off.

“Lisa,” he said, helping her out with his ex’s name. “I didn’t agree and you know it. You heard my side of the conversation. I said we’d talk about it when I got home.”

Sophie curled a leg beneath her and studied him. “Lisa,” she said. “The woman you married because you were young and in love? Or she was young and pregnant?” she asked.

He liked that she didn’t pull punches. “Too young to know what love was, too young to have kids, too stupid to know we didn’t know any better.” He shook his head and laughed. “But we did get Lizzie out of the deal. Lisa’s married to a stuffed-shirt accountant now and they tend to follow the rules.”

“Aha,” Sophie said, nodding. “You, the nonconformist, don’t want to follow those rules.” A gleam of certainty sparkled in her eyes.

He shifted uncomfortably. “It isn’t that simple.”

“So explain.” She leaned forward, waiting.

He felt certain, once he revealed his motives, she’d come down firmly on his side; after all, she’d already shown she understood him when it came to Spencer. Her insight had provided him with much-needed support this trip.