Parental Guidance (Ice Knights #1)(24)

Well, it had been worth a try. That’s when he spotted Asha striding across the set with her producer. He braced for a laser beam look of hate that would sizzle him until he resembled a burned fry, but she ignored him.

“Well, I also have some business to take care of before our interview.” Then he made a fast break away from his mom and hustled over to Asha by the fake living room set.

The producer stopped mid-word, but Asha refused to look over at Caleb. The urge to take the hint and get the fuck out of there was making his toes itch, but he hadn’t been the kind of guy who ran when things got hard before, so he wasn’t about to start now.

“Asha, I was an asshole.”

“No shit.” Asha crossed her arms and lowered her voice. “You know, my sister wasn’t expecting a proposal. She went in knowing it was a one-night stand and was totally cool with that, but for him to act like he couldn’t remember her name? That’s just a real dick move. How many women out there spent days after that video came out feeling like they hadn’t had some mutual fun but instead had just been a nameless, replaceable woman? This isn’t about relationships or old-timey bullshit family values or anything like that—it’s about respect.”

It was like his ultimate dumb-ass jerk move he’d pulled was an onion—every time he peeled back a layer of obnoxiousness, he revealed a fresh, biting layer of how he’d inadvertently hurt someone and shown shit-ass leadership skills. He should have been better than that, and he hadn’t been.

He nodded. “You’re right.”

Asha’s rigid posture relaxed, but her glare remained in place. “I still don’t like you.”

“That’s fair.” Really, it was probably more than he could have hoped for.

The left side of her mouth twitched upward but never made it all the way. “Fine.” She started walking toward the set. “Let’s go get this farce of an interview started.”

Caleb let out the breath he’d been holding in preparation for getting his ass chewed on TV again and looked over at his mom as he followed Asha. Britany was already on one love seat sitting next to Zara’s dad, and they were talking animatedly about God knew what, but at least they weren’t ready to throw down like last time.

Zara was alone on the other love seat. When she looked up and spotted him as he was stepping onto the set, he tripped over his own feet and went flying forward. He flung his arms out to catch himself and landed, splayed out like he was about to get a spanking, on Zara’s lap.

…

It was chaos around them as people gasped and gave warning shouts as time seemed to stand still while Caleb sailed through the air right at her. His mom and her dad leaped up from their love seat. The producer hurried forward, arms outstretched. The makeup artist, who’d just finished with a light dusting on her dad’s cheeks, ducked to get out of the way.

Her instincts? Well, they pretty much all got distracted by a flying Caleb, and he landed on her lap with a thump that knocked time back into motion but didn’t hurt because the love seat cushions eased the blow. And then she couldn’t look away from Caleb’s ass as he lay across her lap. His butt was round and firm and still covered in denim, but she could just imagine—okay, she had imagined all night long—what it looked like without the jeans. A heated flush swept up her body, which was weird because she was frozen to the spot, squashed between Caleb on her lap and the couch.

“Shit.” Caleb scrambled off her lap and sat down next to her, his forehead crinkled with concern. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Just a little tingly all over in ways that she should very much not be. “Are you hurt?”

He gave her a sheepish smile. “Only my ego.”

“Lucky break,” Caleb’s mom said as she let out a relieved sigh and sat back down. “Could you imagine if you’d broken something? The season is about to start.”

“And my daughter could have been crushed. She’s half his size!” her dad exclaimed, his words coming out almost in tandem with Britany’s. “You okay, Button?”

“I’m fine,” she and Caleb said at the same time.

Embarrassment had her slumping back in her seat. Button? That hated nickname was not one she wanted to be said in public pretty much ever.

Both parents looked like they were about to continue when the show’s producer sidled up to the love seat with a clipboard and a pen. “I’m gonna need you to sign this release saying so. Just a formality, you understand, but our lawyers insist anytime something goes awry on set.”

She took the clipboard, gave the incident report a quick read, and signed her name on the line before handing it off to Caleb. He mouthed sorry as he took it from her, squinted down at the words on the paper—his jaw tightening.

“Did you want me to take a look?” his mom asked, half rising from her love seat.

“No,” he said, the words coming out between gritted teeth. “It looks fine.”

“It just says he tripped and landed on me but that we’re both unhurt,” Zara said, looking between the two of them and not quite understanding where all the gritted-teeth frustration was coming from.

Maybe it was just because he was used to having lots of people look at legal stuff before he had to sign? It made sense but still felt off, especially when Britany muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like “stubborn boy” as she sat back down. Caleb glanced down at the form and then scrawled his signature under hers.