A Good Boy Is Hard to Find (The Naughty List #3)(9)
Author: Suzanne Young

“Wait, did your injury have something to do with SOS? I thought it was a cheerleading accident.” My father’s cheeks were quickly turning red, and I had a feeling that I might be in a bit of hot water.

After Chloe had attacked me and Aiden dumped me last year, I’d told my parents everything. I told them all about the missions and the SOS motto. I even told them how it had ruined my life. And, yes, technically I did promise that it wouldn’t happen again. But I thought that since we were better organized and more mature now, it’d be okay. Wait, was his eye twitching?

“Well?”

“I was with cheerleaders. So it was sort of a cheerleading accident.”

“You were spying!” My father’s voice bordered on raised, and for him that was very rare—or rather, nonexistent.

“Yes, but—”

He held up his hand to stop me. His cheeks were flush, and I was glad my mother was in the shower. I didn’t think I could handle both of them being angry with me right now.

After a second of his silence (and my guilt), my father sighed. “Listen,” he said, almost apologetically. “Let’s not tell your mother that you’re spying again. She’d be very upset, and I don’t like seeing her unhappy. I try to protect both of you—even though you’ve been making that tough lately.” He reached to put his hand on my shoulder.

“I’m really sorry,” I murmured. “But we’re just trying to help the brokenhearted of Washington County. Those girls need us, Dad.”

My father’s mouth twitched with a smile. “Tessa, I know your heart is always in the right place. It’s your ankle I’m worried about.”

“Touché.”

He dropped his arm and glanced at the phone resting on the counter. “Do you need me to the call the school, or set up some sort of protection for you?”

I laughed. I could just imagine my father showing up in a black suit, like my own personal secret service agent. I suddenly worried that if things didn’t improve quickly, he might pull me out of school altogether. I couldn’t imagine. I was pretty sure the homeschooling community didn’t have a cheer squad.

“It’ll blow over.” I waved at him reassuringly. Did I believe that? It seemed pretty flipping unlikely. But graduation was only … eight months away. I slunk into the kitchen chair and rested my chin in my hands. Someone had ruined my life. Uh, again.

“What do we do, Dad?”

He exhaled heavily. “Seems you have two choices.”

Oh, good. Multiple choice!

“You can cower and hide, run away from the mess. Or you can accept responsibility and try to apologize. And to be honest, after the vulgarity of these messages, I’m leaning toward cowering.” He pressed his lips into a smile. My father knew I would never run away from a problem. Well, unless its name was Aiden.

“Thanks, Dad.”

“You just be careful. If things get too hard, you need to let us know. We don’t want anything bad to happen to you, Tess. You already have a broken ankle. I think that’s punishment enough. So don’t beat yourself up.”

I nodded. My father picked up his glasses and slid them back on before turning off the ringer on the phone. As he started to walk toward the bedroom, I couldn’t take the curiosity anymore.

“Daddy?”

“Yeah?”

“Did Aiden say anything about me?” My heart immediately began to race, scared of his answer and not sure what I wanted to hear. I just had to hear something.

My father looked at the wood floor, then back up at me. “He didn’t have to say anything. The worry on his face was enough. He still loves you, Tess. I think you should keep that in mind as you”—he furrowed his brow—“start dating again.”

Warmth spread from my chest up to my face, making my eyes tingle and begin to water. He thought Aiden still loved me. I wondered if it could be true.

My father rubbed at his mouth but said nothing of my reaction. After a second, he lifted his chin to me. “Good night, honey.”

“Night.” I sniffled and watched him walk away. When he was gone, I looked down at the tablecloth and picked at the linen.

Unicorns. Unicorns. Unicorns.

“Wow, that’s a pretty massive cast,” Leona said, knocking on it once and tilting her head toward the hollow sound.

“Um, ouch.” The doctor had called to say that surgery wasn’t needed, leaving me completely relieved. And when I called Leona, she and Izzie decided to come over and check out my new equipment (meaning my cast and crutches). We’d all agreed to skip our morning classes and take a half day. Partly because we were exhausted, but mostly because we were stalling. There might be a mob waiting for us at the stone steps of Washington High.

“I brought sparkles,” Izzie spoke up from the other side of the living room. I smiled at her, but something was off. Izzie definitely didn’t look sparkly. In fact, her hair was knotted toward the ends, and dark circles ringed her eyes.

“Thanks, Iz. Everything okay?”

She seemed alarmed by the question. “Fine. I’m fine.”

She blinked quickly, and I recognized that she was lying. Her eyebrows always did a weird shaking thing when she wasn’t telling the truth. She certainly wasn’t fine. I glanced at Leona, and she met my eyes immediately, the same concerned expression on her face.

“Izzie?” she asked. “Is there something going on that you need to talk to us about?”

“I said I’m fine,” she snapped, her normally soft features hardening.

My mouth fell open with surprise. Whoa. That was completely uncalled for. I shot another look at Leona, and she shrugged in a this-is-way-beyond-my-expertise sort of way. Izzie’s behavior would need some investigation. But first, we had to get a handle on our other problems. Namely, who turned us in.

“Have you heard any chatter?” I asked Leona, adjusting my leg to rest on the cluttered coffee table.

“Nada. It seems that all of my sources have dried up now that we’ve been exposed. Turns out lots of people thought they were dealing with ‘professionals.’”

“Professional what?”

“Detectives? I’m not sure. But as far as I can tell from the small bits of info I’ve gathered, the leak did not come from within the SOS.”

Izzie let out a relieved sigh, and we looked over. Her mouth twitched with a smile. “That’s good, right?” she said quickly.