Free Least Likely to Fall in Love by Cheryl Harper

her mouth and shook her head.
    Ryan reached out to soothe her. He wanted to touch her again. He hadn’t been concentrating well enough to commit everything to memory.
    She held out a hand and then pointed at him. “Fine. You want a good reason I won’t go to dinner with you.” Ryan heard the door slam on the field house and watched her struggle to keep her voice down. She didn’t exactly succeed but even in a lower tone he could pick up on the fury.
    “How about this then? I. Don’t. Like. You.” Each word was emphatically punctuated with a sharp poke. “You made my life miserable. There’s no change, no personal growth, no way in hell…” Her voice broke. “You don’t get to turn this into some stupid movie where the stud discovers the nerd’s beauty was there all along. Or whatever this is. This is my life. My job. I found my own beauty a while ago, and I didn’t need your help. I don’t want to see you, Ryan. Seeing you reminds me of the way you made me feel, and I don’t need that anymore. I’m past that. So…” She took two steps back. “Find your training wheels somewhere else.”
    He started to say something, he had no idea what, but she spun on one sneaker and then froze as she noticed Maddie, Eric, and Coach Ford. Ryan didn’t know how much they could hear, but judging from their faces, the visual was enough.
    Lindy yanked the bottom of her T-shirt down. “Hey, Coach, we finished up those trash barrels. Look great now!” She waved. “Maddie, Eric, I’ll see you next week.” Then she stomped at a high rate of speed to the world’s tiniest, cutest little red car, plopped behind the driver’s seat, and drove off with a spray of gravel.
    Ryan bent to pick up the box of paint and tools and handed them over to the coach.
    Ignoring Ford’s sympathy was easy enough.
    Ryan glanced over at Maddie. “Ready to go?” He held out his thoroughly red hand and knew it was a sign of overloaded mental capacity that she had nothing snarky to say about it.
    When she nodded, he wrapped his red hand around her nape and led her out to the truck. He had a few moments of blessed country music before Maddie figured out where she wanted to start.
    He had no crazy hopes that he’d escape an inquisition, but he just couldn’t confess his sins to his daughter. Ever since it had been just the two of them, they’d been so close. Learning he’d been an asshole in an earlier form would interfere with that, damage it beyond repair. He couldn’t risk that now. Maddie needed him. That Eric boy had been way too interested.
    He tried deflection. “Pretty dumb not to slap on a glove, right?” He waved his hand in front of her face. Sometimes annoying Maddie could derail her plots.
    But not this time. “Yeah. So, I could tell you guys had a history. It didn’t end well.” Her eyes were bright with curiosity.
    He flipped the air conditioner on. “It just sort of ended, not good or bad.”
    “Were you friends in high school?” Her eyes got huge as she considered the possibilities. “Boyfriend and girlfriend?” Her voice squeaked at the end, but he couldn’t tell if she was happy or unhappy, mad or sad or glad.
    “No.” And that was all he was going to say on the issue.
    When she started to speak, he talked over her. “Listen, it’s been just you and me for a long time now. What would you think if I started to date again? Not Principal Mason.” If that was her only objection, he could sort of understand it.
    Maddie’s eyes were huge at this point. He was doubly glad they weren’t surrounded by an inch of black. That might have been a spooky effect.
    When she didn’t answer, Ryan shrugged. Maybe this was a bad idea for another reason besides the fact that his current obsession hated his guts. Maddie was number one with him.
    No matter how tempting he found a certain principal or spending time with a woman who liked him.
    He glanced over at her and she was shaking her head as she stared out the window. She