“As in almost never,” Bud informed her.
Riley tugged at the collar of the pale gray shirt he wore with a deep maroon tie and dark charcoal suit. He wasn’t fundamentally opposed to dressing up occasionally—he just didn’t like being told when to do so. “Now that we’ve admired each other, shall we go?”
“Yes, I’m ready. Mark and Maggie, I want you to be good for Bud, do you hear? No quarreling, no breaking the rules. Okay?”
“Yes, Mommy.”
“Okay, Mom.”
“We’re going to be just fine here,” Bud assured her. “Now you kids go on and have a good time—although I can’t imagine how you’re going to manage that at one of those boring Chamber things.”
“You’re right.” Riley glanced wistfully at the pizzas and videos. “Maybe we should skip the dinner and hang out here.”
“And waste those pretty clothes? Absolutely not.” Bud practically pushed them toward the door. “Go. Enjoy.”
“I think he wanted us to leave,” Teresa commented dryly when they were outside, her door closed behind them.
Riley chuckled. “He wanted those pizzas and movies—and your kids—to himself.”
“He’s certainly enthusiastic about baby-sitting.”
Riley’s smile faded. “Sitting with your kids gave him something to look forward to this evening. That’s something he hasn’t had much since R.L. left town.”
“I hope Mark and Maggie don’t give him any trouble.”
Riley smiled again as he opened the passenger door of his car for her. “Have him tell you someday about the time he was baby-sitting me while my parents went out for an evening and I got a marble stuck up my nose. He had to rush me to Dr. Frank to have it extracted.”
Teresa slid gracefully into the low seat of his two-passenger sports car. “Dr. Frank has been practicing for a while, I take it?”
“He delivered me.” Riley closed the passenger door and walked around the front of the car to the driver’s side.
Belted into his seat a few moments later, he started the engine. A blast of heavy metal music filled the small confines of the vehicle, making Teresa wince, and Riley reach hastily for the power button. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m usually alone in the car.”
“Don’t you worry about your hearing?”
“Enough that I make myself cut it down most of the time. Just every once in a while I have to blast it, you know?”
“I see.”
Turning the steering wheel in the direction of the country club where the evening’s event was being held, Riley asked lightly, “Don’t you ever have an urge to let it blast, Teresa?”
“I don’t have a lot of opportun
ity for blasting.”
“Too busy taking care of your kids, I guess.”
“That’s certainly a big part of my life.”
Riley shook his head. “I had a houseplant once, but it died from neglect. Someone offered me a puppy not long after that—but I was afraid to take it.”
Teresa laughed, as he’d hoped she would, but it was a very brief laugh. He doubted that she could identify with the way he chose to live his life, responsible for no one but himself. It wasn’t as if she’d had any illusions about him, anyway. She’d known even before he had what a mismatch they were.
There was a brief silence, which Teresa broke by asking, “Who is Edstown’s citizen of the year, anyway?”
“Didn’t I tell you? It’s Dr. Frank.”
“The doctor who delivered you and has been taking care of you ever since? No wonder you want to be there tonight.”