Teresa turned apologetically to Riley. “She was talking to a friend earlier. I guess she didn’t get the receiver back in the cradle completely. Were you trying to call?”
“No. Serena was. She said to tell you it wasn’t important, but she was starting to get worried that something was wrong, so she called me to come check on you.”
“And she woke you up,” Teresa guessed. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.” Riley shoved a hand through his hair. “Do you have any coffee?”
“I can make a fresh—” She suddenly stopped, staring at his left ear. “What is that?”
“What—oh.” He lifted a hand to the small gold hoop in his earlobe and grimaced sheepishly. “I guess I got my ear pierced. Damn, that’s sore.”
“You got your ear pierced,” she repeated slowly, staring at him. “After you left here yesterday?”
“Last night. There was this group of guys at Gaylord’s, and everybody decided to go to the twenty-four-hour tattoo and piercing parlor next door, and someone said I’d look like a younger version of Harrison Ford if I… Oh, hell, mark it up to temporary insanity. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
What he was drinking was probably more accurate, Teresa thought with a shake of her head. “Come in and have some coffee. You look like you could use some. Oh, and by the way, you don’t look at all like Harrison Ford—with or without the earring.”
“Just start a coffee IV line in my arm,” he muttered, following her into the kitchen. “You can mock me later.”
Maggie had returned from the other room, her expression guilty. “Sorry, Mommy. The phone wasn’t hung up right.”
“Whoa, Riley. You look hungover,” Mark observed with the typical tact of a ten-year-old boy. “Like Bruce Willis in that movie I saw at Jacob’s house last week.”
“Mark!” Teresa frowned at her son in disapproval. “You know better than to say things like that.”
She was definitely going to be more vigilant about monitoring what movies her son was watching with his friends.
Riley pulled out a chair and dropped into it. “I’m just sort of tired,” he said a bit awkwardly to the boy. “I guess I stayed up too late last night.”
Teresa started a pot of coffee, then opened the refrigerator. “We’re having tuna salad sandwiches and raw vegetables for lunch, Riley. Are you hungry?”
He swallowed. “I think I’ll just start with the coffee, thanks.”
Ignoring the remains of her lunch, Maggie had been staring at Riley with a frown. “Are you wearing an earring, Riley?”
“He’s not—hey. Yes, he is. Why did you do that, Riley?” Mark asked curiously.
Teresa thought Riley looked as though he’d rather like to disappear beneath the table. Served him right, she thought, taking a coffee mug out of the cabinet. She didn’t appreciate him showing up in front of her kids sporting the evidence of a night of carousing.
If he was trying to prove that she shouldn’t be thinking of him as a potential stepparent for her children, he could have spared himself a headache and a sore ear. How dense did he think she was?
She thought she saw an apology in his eyes when she set his coffee in front of him. He accepted it with a murmur of thanks, lifting it to his lips as if it were a lifesaving elixir.
“If you two are finished with your lunches, why don’t you go play upstairs for a little while,” she suggested, glancing at the children’s nearly empty plates. “Riley and I need to talk about something.”
As usual, Maggie jumped up to obey, while Mark looked as though he wanted to linger. The look Teresa gave him made him reluctantly leave the room, saying over his shoulder, “Don’t leave without saying goodbye, okay, Riley?”
“I won’t.” Riley waited until they were out of hear
ing before saying, “Sorry. I guess I shouldn’t have come in. I wanted to talk to you, but I should have waited until later.”
Cradling her coffee mug between her hands, she sat in a chair close to his and looked at him. “You’re always welcome here,” she said rather primly. “I’ll back up your story that you aren’t feeling well today.”
“You shouldn’t have to lie to your kids for my sake. Damn it, I am hungover—for the first time in at least a decade.”
“Maybe I’m a bad influence on you,” she murmured, studying the disgusted look on his face.
He sighed. “I was trying to prove something last night. To myself, not to you.”