Nameless Series Boxed Set (74 page)

Erin was
feeling unusually pleased with Seth herself. She squeezed his knee, giving him
a particularly warm look.

Seth just
arched his eyebrows at her. Then his phone rang, and he pulled it out of his
jacket pocket. “Excuse me,” he murmured, standing up with his back to them.

Erin leaned
forward and gave Justin an understanding smile. “When did you decide you wanted
to go to medical school?”

“A year or two
ago. But I wasn’t really sure until…” His voice trailed off as Seth’s voice
grew more distinct on the phone.

“No,” Seth said
in a hard murmur. “That’s not acceptable. You know what happens to anyone who
defies me.” It didn’t take long for Erin to realize that, although it sounded
like Seth was trying to keep his voice low, he intended for it to be heard.

Justin tensed
and shifted uncomfortably.

“No exceptions.
You only get one chance. I don’t have a reputation for showing mercy to those
who abuse my trust. Especially with things that are important to me.”

Erin inwardly
rolled her eyes. Seth had done as well as could be expected. It wouldn’t be in his
nature to leave Justin without at least an indirect warning about his behavior.

For a moment,
Justin’s eyes reflected a glimmer of panic. To his credit, he responded with a
smile to Mackenzie’s light touch on his arm.

“That’s my last
word on the subject.” Seth clicked his phone off and turned back to Justin. “It
was nice to meet you. Enjoy your evening.” He held out his hand for Justin to
shake.

Justin and
Mackenzie didn’t linger long after that.

When the
teenagers had left, Erin gave Seth a speaking look, arching her eyebrows at
him.

“What?” he
asked, retaining a stoic expression although the corner of his mouth tilted up
slightly. “Did I break any of the rules?”

Erin couldn’t
help but laugh. “Next time, ‘no indirect threats’ is going to be one of the rules.”

Seth leaned
over and gave her a kiss on the side of her mouth. “I don’t know how I ever
allied myself with such a bossy female.”

Then he
straightened up. “Anna! Stop hiding in the hallway and get in here.”

A giggling Anna
appeared in the doorway. “That was the funniest thing ever. I can’t believe Dad
got out-talked by a teenaged boy.”

Seth frowned.
“That’s a clear distortion of the facts. No one out-talks me--except
occasionally your mother. But I’ll let it go this time. We need to get ready to
go.”

“Where are we
going?” Anna asked, shooting a questioning look over to Erin.

Erin was as
clueless as she was.

“We’re going
out to dinner.” Seth appeared blissful ignorant of his wife and daughter’s
confusion. “But you both need to change clothes. Wear something nice.”

“But, Seth, I
thought we were going to stay in,” Erin began. She was exhausted and certainly
had no desire to go out tonight.

“Who ever said
that?” Seth demanded. He looked back and forth between Anna and Erin as if they
were the ones who had lost their minds. “I’m hungry. Hurry up and go change.”

“But, Seth,”
Erin tried again, more gently this time, “Anna might have had plans with her
friends.”

“No,” Anna
interrupted, looking at Seth with almost cautious excitement. “Nothing big. We
can go out to eat, if Dad wants to. But I thought he would have wanted to camp
out here until Mac gets back.”

“We’ve all got
phones. She can call us if she needs us.” Seth was starting to look impatient.
“Of course, at this rate, it’s going to be midnight before I get my
dinner."

Anna giggled
and shot Erin another questioning look—as if to ask if Seth had gone crazy. But
she obediently headed off to her room to change clothes.

Erin went over
to Seth and put a hand on his arm. “It’s a nice thought to go out. But I’m kind
of tired—”

Seth frowned
and murmured, “You wanted my help with that other matter, didn’t you?”

Erin
immediately knew what he was talking about. “Oh.”

“This is part
of my plan.”

“Oh.”

She was having
some trouble thinking clearly, since it seemed like everything was happening at
once. But she figured she better go change into something nicer, as Seth had
suggested.

If Seth had a
plan to address Anna’s insecurities, then things would happen fast.

Seth Thomas was
an excellent strategist.

***

They went to one of the most
exclusive restaurants in Atlanta, one that Anna had been to only a couple of
times before. They still had their long-established “family night” at least
once a week, and often they went out to eat for that now instead of playing
games or watching movies. But they usually went to more casual, comfortable
places.

Only for
special occasions had the family gone to this particular restaurant. The last
time they’d gone—almost two years ago—Anna had fallen in love with the
chocolate peanut-butter torte, raving about it for weeks afterwards. So Erin
was touched that Seth had remembered and had chosen this place to take Anna
tonight.

Erin was
already feeling better about Anna’s emotional state, especially at the sight of
Anna’s pink cheeks and barely suppressed pleasure as they were shown to their
table. The girl was trying hard to retain her characteristic snarkiness but
Erin wasn’t fooled.

Anna was very
happy about this unexpected outing.

As they took
their seats, Anna quipped, “I thought we might have been going to Antonio’s.”
Her tone was wry but she shot a quick, searching look at her father’s face.

Seth met her
eyes blandly over his menu. “Antonio makes some decent pasta, but the ambiance
is too forced and hackneyed for my taste.”

Anna clearly
wasn’t convinced by his bored voice. “Right. I just thought you might want to
spy on Mac so you could make sure Justin wasn’t groping her.”

Her blunt tone
was clearly a challenge, and her choice of words made Seth’s eyes flicker with
a glint of outraged protectiveness. But Seth had never caved to his daughters'
strong wills—not when it was important—no matter how much he adored them and
longed to make them happy.

His expression
grew sober as he asked softly, “Do you really think I’d be as foolish as that?”

Erin actually
held her breath as she waited for Anna’s response. It could easily be flip or
disrespectful, since Seth’s question had left him open for it. But Erin
desperately hoped Anna wouldn’t take advantage of the way Seth had made himself
vulnerable.

Anna wasn’t
even fifteen yet. But she had the power to hurt Seth—deeply.

Her eyelashes
lowered. “No. I guess not.”

Erin let out
her breath.

Then Anna’s
eyes shifted back up to Seth’s face, and her mouth quirked a little with an
irrepressible humor she’d gotten from Erin.

Seth’s mouth
twitched in response. “That’s a relief.”

Erin
chuckled—absurdly touched by this small moment of father-daughter bonding. Then
the server came over to take their drink orders and the conversation became
friendly and casual.

Erin asked Anna
something about school and that was all she needed to get Anna to start
talking. Anna held court all the while they were waiting for their dinners,
blooming more and more from having the undivided attention of her parents even
as she tried to maintain her wry, witty demeanor.

In a lot of
ways, Anna was more knowledgeable, more responsible, and more mature than a lot
of girls her age. She had a strong moral foundation and a wider range of
perspectives and experiences.

But she’d also
been deeply sheltered by the love and resources of her family. She wasn’t
nearly as jaded or self-sufficient as Erin had been at her age.

And for some
reason the recognition comforted Erin. Her girls were growing up, but they
weren’t grown up yet. And Anna clearly still needed her parents as much as she
always had.

She wanted to
somehow share this reassurance with Seth—since she knew he needed it too. But
when she glanced over to meet his eyes, she saw that he was frowning.

As their
dinners arrived, Erin kept looking over at her husband. He was sustaining his
part of the conversation, but his eyes kept straying to some spot between Erin
and Anna’s chairs, and his frown got more and more obvious.

“Is something
wrong, Seth?” Erin murmured, taking her first bite of shrimp.

Seth refocused
on their conversation, although he appeared to be bristling inwardly. “No. Go
on, Anna. You were saying you had to interview the chair of the school board
for that story you were writing?”

“Yeah.” Anna
glanced behind her, looking in confusion for what had preoccupied her father.
“So I called him…”

She continued,
telling her story in endless, enthusiastic detail. But, as she went on, Seth
gradually got distracted again until he was glowering and stewing with obvious
temper.

Anna’s voice
kept trailing off as she lost her place in her story. She exchanged several
confused looks with Erin until she finally asked, “What’s wrong, Dad?”

Seth’s jaw was
clenched and his hand was fisted around his fork as he held up a forkful of
grilled vegetables. “Nothing.”

Anna made an
indignant sound at this blatant falsehood, and Erin reached over to put her
hand on Seth’s tense arm. “Seth?”

Under the
implied insistence of her soft voice, Seth finally relented. “I thought I might
be able to enjoy a family dinner without some fuck—”

“Seth,” Erin
interrupted in an automatic reproach. Obviously, Anna had heard language of
that nature before—her aunt Liz had been a bad influence in that regard from
the beginning—but Erin couldn’t seem to stop herself from an instinctive objection.

“Without some
young asshole,” Seth corrected without missing a beat, gritting the words out
through his teeth, “leering at my daughter.”

Erin’s eyes
widened and Anna’s mouth dropped open slightly. The girl looked around the
restaurant with a guileless disbelief that sent a pang of feeling through
Erin’s chest.

Erin easily
found the handsome young man Seth was glaring at so ruthlessly. He was
dark-haired, well-built, and looked to be college-aged.

As far as Erin
could tell, the young man had not been leering at Anna.

Since Anna’s
back was to the young man, she was still looking around in bewilderment. Her
cheeks were even pinker than they’d been earlier. “Who was?”

Seth ignored
her question and aimed a merciless glare at his innocent target. “Just because
she looks like she’s about twenty doesn’t give him the right to ogle my
teenaged daughter.”

Anna had
finally found the source of her father’s foul mood, and her pretty face twisted
in pleased surprise as she saw he was attractive and at least five years older
than she was. “He was? I think you’re getting paranoid, Dad. He doesn’t seem to
have even noticed…” Her voice trailed off, and she turned quickly to face
forward again as the young man caught her staring at him.

“I believe your
father has effectively scared him off,” Erin murmured, trying desperately to
keep a straight face as Seth continued to ham up his furious outrage and snarl
under his breath.

If he kept it
up, Anna would catch on. Children were often the most clueless about their own
parents, but Anna had always been unusually observant. Erin aimed a discreet
kick at Seth’s ankle but he’d already backed down to a low simmer.

“He wasn’t
really looking at me,” Anna said, peering at Seth suspiciously. “Was he?”

Her voice
cracked slightly on the last word—sounding so disbelieving and so hopeful at
the same time that it nearly broke Erin’s heart.

“He better not
be,” Seth muttered, sawing at his steak viciously. “At least Mackenzie just
attracts boys her own age.”

Anna shot a
look back at the table in question and appeared to be convinced by the young
man’s obvious preoccupation with their table. While Erin thought he was
probably just confused and disconcerted by Seth Thomas’s sudden, inexplicable
antipathy toward him, she could see why Anna might take it as guilt at having
been caught ogling her.

Anna gave Erin
a helpless, questioning look.

Erin
half-shrugged. “I told you,” she whispered with a smile.

Anna smiled
back, looking flushed and flustered and so pretty Erin was surprised the whole
restaurant wasn’t staring at her.

“Anyway,” Seth
said, clearing his throat with one last malevolent look over Anna’s shoulder,
“No need to let someone else’s poor behavior ruin our evening. You were talking
about your story.”

“Right.” Anna
took a sip of water and tried to concentrate on finishing her explanation. But
her eyes kept slipping back toward the table Seth had drawn her attention to.
After she finished eating, she excused herself to go the restroom.

Erin watched as
her daughter made her way through the tables toward the back of the restaurant.
Her hips were swaying more than usual as she walked past the young man, a fact
that made Erin chuckle and feel a tender pang in her heart simultaneously.

Seth was
frowning though. “She does look older than fourteen. Does she have to wear such
short skirts?”

Anna was
wearing a fluttery skirt that reached just above her knees. “That’s not a short
skirt. We’re not living in the nineteenth-century, you know.”

“Too bad.”

With a sigh,
Erin looked back at Seth when Anna had disappeared into the bathroom. “He
wasn’t really leering at her, was he?”

Seth’s mouth
tilted up just slightly. “He might have been.”

Erin covered
his hand with hers on the table. “You really are the most adorable man.”

With a
half-sneer, Seth said coolly, “I’d prefer a word more dignified than adorable.”

Erin snickered
appreciatively, giving his hand a fond squeeze. Then she said seriously, “It’s
going to take more than that to deal with this, though.”