Page 131 of Score on You

I make a slicing motion to Gage. “We’ve talked about this.”

My son’s focus slides to the bristling body beside me. “Uh-oh. Are you gonna get me with a shotgun?”

“The fu—fudge?” Rhodes is glaring at me.

I hang my head with a groan. “It’s just something I told him once when he was caught flirting. The dad wasn’t impressed that his little girl was blowing kisses and looking lovesick. I was kidding. Obviously.”

“That was funny,” Gage laughs from his belly.

“Okay, whatever.” Rhodes slashes the air. “You aren’t getting married.”

Payton stomps her foot. “Are too. We’re in love.”

“You’re really not,” he retorts.

She rolls her eyes. “But that’s no fair. You’re gonna marry Rylee.”

“Oh, no. We aren’t getting married,” I insist.

Gage squishes his lips into a pout. “But you’re holding hands.”

I lower my gaze to confirm that we are, in fact, still holding hands. Rhodes drops me like a hot potato. The kids double over in a fit of laughter. Apparently, our spoof is more believable than I thought. Especially to a pair of second graders.

Rhodes grips the back of his neck. “We were, uh, practicing.”

Payton wrinkles her nose. “For what?”

His expression blanches in a panic I feel deep in my gut. It seems my partner in crime isn’t too stellar on the fly. He has to go and prove me wrong, of course. “Our staff meeting on Friday.”