Page 1 of Her Loving Hero

1

“I’m just goingto ask her out.” It was Delmar talking. Wyatt could clearly hear the teenage boy’s voice coming from the booth behind them.

“Man, that’s so not going to work. You need to be savage. You need to give her a reason to go out with you. Tell her that you’re hung like a farm animal. Joey gets all kind of action with that line.”

Wyatt glanced up at Emily to see if she could hear the boys. She gave him a solemn nod. But he saw her eyes twinkling.

Thank God. After all she’d been through, it was amazing she could laugh at young teenage male mating techniques.

“Brant, that’s so far from cool, it’s off the farm,” Petey Jenkins said, making the others laugh. “If Delmar says something like that, Farrah will throw so much shade his way that he’ll be in a forest, and her squad will end up sticking him.”

“You’re an asshole,” Brant said. “What’s your fucking suggestion?”

“He needs to say something slick. This is what I heard one of the seniors use, and the girl melted. Are your feet tired? Because you were running through my mind all night long.”

A loud chorus of laughter erupted from the booth.

“She’d get cavities if you said that,” Chris Robinson said.

“How about, If you were a transformer, you’d be Optimus Fine.”

Wyatt watched as Emily held in a giggle. It was Axle, the youngest of the boys who’d come up with that one.

“Well I’m here, what are your next two wishes?” Petey said.

Wyatt grinned at the kid’s suggestion. He’d never heard that one before.

“If you didn’t like that one, how about, You’re so beautiful you make time stop.”

“For real, where are you coming up with these, Petey? Do you read women’s magazines when they highlight your hair?” Brant asked scornfully. “Delmar, you’ll never get Farrah’s pink slip if you listen to him. All that syrup just makes girls yak. You’re going to come off too thirsty. A woman needs a man to be a man.”

“So, what are you suggesting, if you’re so smart?” Delmar asked.

“You can’t handle my suggestion,” Brant threw down.

Wyatt winced, this was not going to end well.

“Emily, shouldn’t we round up the kids now?” Wyatt suggested.

“Let’s wait,” she said. “I can’t wait to hear this.” Her eyes were dancing.

“Your breasts remind me of Mt. Rushmore, my face should be among them.”

There was dead silence in the booth behind them, and Emily looked like she had been hit by a stun gun. “Really?” she mouthed.

“Brant, you are crazy stupid. Farrah’s friends won’t stick Delmar, she will,” Petey said.

“Nope, he’ll be sticking it in her after he says that, know what I mean?”

Petey’s groan wafted over the high booth. “You’re ill, Brant.”

“No, he’s disgusting,” Delmar said.

Wyatt could hear Brant’s smarmy grin. He sighed as Emily lifted her eyes heavenwards.

“Emily, how about I go give the Wanna-Be-Romeo’s some pointers, while you go gather the girls?”

“Yeah, stop them before they’re let loose in the wild. Were you ever this bad?” she asked as they both slid out of their booth seats.