Parental Guidance (Ice Knights #1)(12)

Zara fiddled with the hem of her flowy blue top and clamped her mouth shut so hard, she wasn’t sure if her jaw would ever work again. She loved her dad. Without a doubt, he loved her, too. But after Mom left, he kind of melted into being the good-time guy, everyone in the neighborhood’s favorite buddy.

He was the guy who bought everyone in the bar a round to celebrate her winning an art contest that he was sure was a sign of amazing things to come. It would have been a sweet gesture if he hadn’t bought the drinks with the family rent money. Then there was the time he was supposed to be paying the electric bill in person and in cash because it was late and ended up getting waylaid at the track because his friend had told him about a sure thing. Or the time… She shook her head. The seemingly infinite number of times her dad, the dreamer, had tossed away the good enough in the here and now for the possibility of great in the future only to lose both were legendary.

Her dad wasn’t a bad guy. He was actually very kind, funny, and sweet. He just wasn’t always in constant contact with the harsh realities of the world—and the man loved to go off script—especially when he was on the high of a sure-to-be-a-winner idea like becoming an actor.

“Dad, I need you to restate the plan for this interview.” She held her breath, waiting for his answer with the pent-up anxiety she imagined reality TV dance moms had watching their kids hit the stage.

Her dad shook his head and all but rolled his eyes, but he said it. “We’re skeptical of the entire situation. We’re not nasty about it but just aren’t totally on board with him, but he’s got the hots for you.”

Zara let out a relieved breath and allowed herself to believe that they might just pull this off.

Four dates. All you have to survive are four more dates to get to what you really want: one step closer to getting face time with Helene Carlyle.

And if to make that happen, she had to sit on a couch with her dad and tell a stranger—and a good chunk of Harbor City—about her dates, then she could suffer through it.

“Don’t you want to kind of give yourself permission to have that dream, though, to open yourself up to the possibility of this guy being the one?” her dad asked.

“No, Dad.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s not.” End of story. She wasn’t about to allow anything to disrupt her plans. “I’m here for a reason, and it’s not to fall in love with someone I went out with to help you get your SAG card.”

He looked like he was about to argue, but the arrival of Harbor City Wake Up host Asha Kapoor stopped him. Zara couldn’t blame him. It was a little intimidating seeing someone who was usually only seen on a screen or huge billboards. Their sudden gawking didn’t seem to bother Asha, though, who breezed into the living room part of the set where they were sitting. Zara, her dad, Caleb, and his mom all stood up.

“You must be Zara. I’m so excited to meet you.” Asha reached out and shook Zara’s hand before turning to her dad. “And here’s Jasper Ambrose, the proud papa. We are going to have a wonderful time. Don’t you worry about anything—it’ll just be a fun chat.” Her mouth tightened with displeasure when she turned her attention to Caleb and his mom. “Shall we do this?”

The word “no” bubbled up inside Zara, but she shoved it back down as everyone started to take their seats. Before they could, though, Asha’s producer stopped them, swapping their seating positions so Zara sat with Caleb and her dad sat with Britany. Her couch seemed a lot smaller with Caleb on it, his thigh brushing hers tormenting her already heightened sense of awareness. It was his leg touching hers, for God’s sake. It hadn’t been that long since she’d had sex. Okay, it had been that long since she’d had good sex, and there was a difference. Add that to her going-on-TV nerves and, yeah, she was over-aware of everything. It had nothing to do with Caleb. It was this whole bizarre situation.

She could do this. After all, how many people watched morning TV?

The flash of surly Asha had sent Caleb’s way disappeared, and Asha transformed into the woman people knew on TV: friendly, open, curious.

“Good morning, Harbor City, it’s time to wake up,” Asha said. “Today, we’re celebrating being the number one morning show in Harbor City, with more viewers than any other morning show anywhere in the nation, and we have something super fun for you. I am so excited to kick off the show this morning with Ice Knights defenseman Caleb Stuckey, his mom—and legendary high school hockey coach—Britany Stuckey, local miniatures artisan Zara Ambrose, and her dad, Jasper Ambrose. They are part of a fun new experiment from the folks at Bramble Dating that combines the technology of online date matching with its many algorithms and the old-fashioned guidance of parental advice. Welcome, all of you!”

“Thank you for having us, Asha. Zara and I just love your show. I watch it every morning at Doodle Bee’s Coffee Shop.” Her dad made direct eye contact with the camera. “Hey, everyone, I can’t wait to see you all there for the tuna plate lunch special later today. It’s delicious food at a delicious price.”

Oh God. Zara stopped breathing. Her dad had made a side deal.

He never had coffee at Doodle Bee’s. He was a Clifford’s Diner man all the way. There was no way he’d deliver a plug like that with all the subtlety of someone crunching their way through a bag of chips at a funeral without a paycheck. And if he’d made one deal, her dad had to have made more. What was next, Lucky Louie’s Lingerie?