“No drama.” Yet. “Mrs. Gray needed to leave early, so your dinner is warming in the oven. Evie is in her room.”
“Really?” One eyebrow raised with the question. “Then I can do this.” Without warning, Will leaned down and kissed her. A simple “Honey-I’m-home” kiss that seemed perfectly right at the moment and sent a happy little thrill through her. “How was your day?”
“Great. And yours?”
He grunted.
“That good, huh? Can I get you a drink?” He nodded, and Gwen went to the bar feeling oddly domestic at the Ozzie and Harriet scenario as Will loosened his tie and got comfortable on the couch.
Will rubbed his temples. “Is Evie sick?”
“No. I’m pretty sure she’s on the phone.” That was almost a given, considering. “Why?”
“Then I’m not sure I want to know why she’s in her room this early. Do I even want to ask?”
Perceptive man. She took a deep breath. “Evie wanted me to talk to you about something.”
“Uh-oh.” He took the glass she proffered and nodded his thanks. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because she’d be in here otherwise, pestering me to death if it was something simple like a new phone or clothes. Instead she’s put you up to it.” He cut his eyes sideways at her as she sat. “She’s smart, you know. You can talk me into almost anything. Plus, she figures if you’re on her side, I’m bound to give in to whatever it is.”
Gwen shrugged. Good Lord, she was picking up Evie’s bad habits.
“You might as well hit me with it. I promise not to shoot the messenger.”
Gwen mentally crossed her fingers. “Evie met a boy—a young man, I mean—at the pool today. He’s asked her to the movies tomorrow night.”
Will sat his glass down carefully and rubbed his eyes. “And?”
“And?” Gwen wanted to hit him with something. “There is no ‘and.’ Evie’s been asked on a date and she wants to know if you’ll let her go.”
“Who is this kid?”
“Peter Asbury. Evie says he’s sixteen and lives two floors down.”
He nodded, but his expressionless face kept Gwen from figuring out how he felt about this new turn of events. “I know his father. He’s the head of something at the university.”
“Dean of Students.” Gwen supplied automatically. “Well?”
Will swirled his drink in his glass. “She’s too young to be dating.”
“She’s fifteen. It’s not out of the ordinary or anything.” Will’s dry tone bothered her. Evie expected him to go through the roof at the thought of her dating, which was why she’d conned Gwen into being the one to broach the subject. Gwen hadn’t expected fireworks, but Will could be discussing the weather for all the lack of emotion in his voice. The idea of hitting him sounded better by the moment.
“What did you say when she asked you?”
“I didn’t say anything.” That wasn’t entirely true. She’d shared Evie’s teenage glee like Sarah had shared hers years ago. “You’re the one who has to okay it, not me.”
“I’m asking for your opinion, though. Do you think she should go? This is new territory for me.”
Get used to it. Evie’s going to have the boys eating out of her hand and you’ll be beating them off with a stick for the rest of your born days. “Do I think she’s old enough? Probably. Do I think she’s ready? It’s hard to say. Do I think she’s dying to go? Yes, definitely.”
Will sighed, the sound of a man who had resigned himself to the grim reality of a teenage sister teetering on the edge of boy-crazy. “I guess it was bound to happen eventually.”
Gwen hid her smile behind her wineglass.
“I want to meet him first, though,” he grumbled.
“Why don’t you invite him to dinner tomorrow night before the movie. You can grill him on his intentions and put the fear of God in him before they leave.”
Will perked up at her last statement. “Oh, I like that idea. Fear is a good thing. Anything else I need to know about before I talk to Evie?”
“Nope.” Gwen wanted to do a little happy dance for Evie. Finally Evie could make some friends her own age.
“Evie! Get in here!”
Shocked at the heat in his voice, Gwen stared at Will.
Will winked at her. “No sense letting her think this is going to be easy.”
She rolled her eyes. “Then I’ll leave you to it.”
Evie stuck her head around the door frame. “Yes, Will?”
“The Asbury kid?”
Gwen slipped past Evie and whispered “Good luck” as Evie fumbled for words. She repressed the urge to giggle as Evie straightened her shoulders but still seemed to slink in to the room to get Will’s permission for something she desperately wanted. In the privacy of her room, though, she succumbed to the urge to both giggle and do her happy dance.
Feeling like the champion of teenagers everywhere, she logged in to her Miss Behavior e-mail, ready to sort out all the angst-ridden adolescents of the world. It kept her busy for the next half hour until Evie knocked on her door.
“He said I could go!” Evie’s ear-to-ear grin was infectious.
“I’m so glad, sweetie.”
Evie wrapped her in a hug. “Thanks, Gwen. I’m going to go call Peter and figure out what I’m going to wear tomorrow. G’night.”
“’Night.”
Chuckling at Evie’s obvious glee, Gwen started work on her next column—about first dates in honor of Evie—and didn’t look up until she heard another knock on her door.
She half expected Evie to come in with an armload of clothes, but seeing Will there wasn’t exactly a surprise, either.
He closed the door and leaned against it. “You didn’t come back out.” She’d never heard him so disgruntled.
“Sorry. I didn’t know you needed company.”
“Evie disappeared to her room to call that boy back and you’ve been in here all night. I’ve been bored. And I had to eat dinner by myself.”
This time she did laugh at his grumbling, and he looked at her sharply. “You find that funny?”
“For someone who ate
