“Okay,” I replied. I mean, what else could I really say? I tried to buckle down and mentally prepare myself. I even attempted to avoid thinking about what I was going to do if he out-and-out forbade me from being in her room or something, but that was even more difficult to imagine.
“When Nicole first told me about you coming over last night and ending up in her bed, my first reaction was you belonged on the damn couch. If you need a place to stay…well, I wouldn’t ever turn you out, but that place doesn’t mean my daughter’s bed.”
My eyes dropped to my feet, and I took a deep breath as I tried to imagine sleeping on their couch downstairs while Nicole was up in her room. I didn’t like it much, but he didn’t leave me hanging for too long, either.
“But I got the idea from her that wouldn’t work so well,” he continued. “So, you can stay in there with her, but the door stays open.”
My eyes went wide as I realized what he was saying. He was giving me permission to sleep with his daughter. Well, not sleep with her…but…damn. Just…damn. Okay, so having the door open wasn’t all that great, and it might be kind of weird, knowing her dad could look in and see me in there with her, but it was better than the alternative.
I looked up at him and nodded.
“I’m pretty good with that,” I said honestly.
“And no throwing rocks at the window, for Christ’s sake,” he said. “I don’t need you breaking glass or sneaking around. If it’s too late to knock, there’s a key outside. Nicole can either show you where it is, or you can call her to come let you in—I’ll leave that up to her.”
“Okay,” I said with a bit of a grin.
“And don’t you dare eat all of her cooking and leave none for me,” he added.
I laughed.
“Deal,” I replied.
“There’s one more thing,” the sheriff said, his expression turning serious. “And as far as I’m concerned, it’s the most important one.”
“What’s that?” I asked. My palms started to sweat a little, and I wiped my hands down my pants.
His eyes darkened as he looked at me over the smoke trails.
“Don’t you hurt her, son,” he said, his voice approaching deadly. “She’s been hurt enough.”
I nodded solemnly.
“I’m not saying I expect you to make sure she lives happily ever after. From personal experience, I know how relationships at your age can come and go. If you two go your separate ways, I know she’ll be upset for a while even if she’s the one to break it off. I wouldn’t hold that against you, but don’t you hurt her like that other kid did. Don’t you betray her trust. Don’t you use her for your own self-gain. You do something like that, and I don’t care who your father is, I won’t stand by and take it.”
“I won’t,” I promised.
I meant it.
“And for God’s sake, Thomas,” he added, “if you guys become more than whatever the hell you are now, don’t have sex with her when I’m in the house. That would just be…really, really awkward.”
I’m sure my eyes about bulged out of my head, and I might have eventually come up with some kind of response, but the sound of wheels on the gravel driveway out front caught our attention first.
“Sounds like the pizza is here,” Sheriff Skye said. He stood up and took a last drag off his cigarette just as the front door opened up.
“Dad? Is Thomas here?”
“Aw, shit!” Sheriff Skye jumped high enough to tap a ball over the top of a goal, smashed out the cigarette butt, grabbed all of the butts together, and shoved them underneath an upside down flowerpot off the side of the porch. I had the idea if Nicole found those cigarette butts, I’d be seeing that side of her again.
Was she going to notice? I looked him over quickly.
“The pack’s sticking out of your pocket,” I told Sheriff Skye.
He reached up and placed his hand over the left pocket of his shirt and covered the pack and his heart at the same time. He grabbed the pack out of his pocket, looked around frantically, and then threw the pack into the shrubs at the side of the house.
“Here's goes nothin',” he said as he opened the door with a plastered smile on his face. “Hey, Nicole!”
He waved frantically while still standing in the middle of the doorway. I just kind of hid behind him, not really understanding the dynamic between the two of them and not entirely sure I wanted to be there right at that moment.