Maid to Fit (5 page)

“Are you in the army?” one of the boys asked, pointing at the dog tags Ronnie wore
around his neck, more out of habit than anything else. He did look military with his
camouflage pants, high and tight haircut and the tags.

“We both were,” he said, indicating Buck.

“That’s beast!” the other boy said. “Can we pet him?”

“Let him smell your hand first so he knows that you’re an American.” Ronnie had to
grin when the boys looked in awe that a dog might be able to detect a person’s nationality.
Yep, kids were still gullible.

They approached and held out their hands in Buck’s direction. The dog sniffed them
and then bumped their hands for a pat.

“I’m looking for Addison Clark. Either of you guys know her?”

“Yeah, Addie is in the gym,” one of the boys said.

“We can wait out here with your dog while you go inside to get her,” the other boy
offered.

“I appreciate the offer, but Buck stays with me,” Ronnie said.

“Mr. Thompson, the principal, doesn’t allow animals in the building,” the taller of
the two boys said.

“This is no mere animal. This is a sergeant in the United States Army. Show some respect!
Don’t they teach you kids anything these days?” Ronnie said in disgust.

He nearly fell out laughing when one of the boys stood up a little straighter and
saluted Buck with a mischievous grin.
Smart-ass.

Tugging lightly on Buck’s leash, Ronnie headed into the building. Buck seemed more
like his old self with every passing minute. The two boys followed Buck and Ronnie
back inside and pointed him in the direction of the gym.

Once inside the gym he noticed the group of girls from yesterday doing a cheer. Perhaps
his
school had taken high school sports a little more seriously, but if this was their
cheerleading squad, he’d hate to see the actual
team
. They sucked.

The girls were not in even rows, either horizontally or vertically. Their movements
weren’t in sync with the cheer and a couple of them were clapping a second or two
later than the rest of them. Rusty would have freaked out if he had seen the lack
of symmetry in this bunch of kids. Fortunately for them they weren’t in the military,
or they’d be running until they dropped from exhaustion.

Ronnie sat on one of the bleacher seats near the door and watched. Addison noticed
him and waved. He nodded his acknowledgment.

Buck stood at alert watching the kids as though they were a new group of recruits.
The door to the gym opened and an older gentleman in a suit stepped through. He stopped
short upon seeing Buck. Approaching cautiously, the man cleared his throat.

“Sir, I’m sorry, but we do not allow animals in the building. I’m afraid you will
need to take your pet back out to your vehicle,” the man said.

Ronnie watched as the two boys he’d met outside came through a different set of double
doors to watch with even bigger mischievous grins. The little shits had dimed him
out to the principal and were waiting for a response. Standing back up, Ronnie faced
the older balding man and crossed his arms over his chest, still holding on to Buck’s
leash.

“Sir, let me introduce Sergeant Buck, United States Army,” he said, nodding toward
Buck. “I
know
you aren’t attempting to kick a decorated soldier out of your building. I forgive
your lack of respect for the politics involved but a representative of this country’s
fighting forces deserves better,” he said to the man.

The man looked at him with a stunned expression as the two young boys made their way
over to where Ronnie stood so they could better hear what was being said. Ronnie turned
to face the boys as they approached, and they stopped in their tracks. They tried
to snap to attention to salute Buck, and Buck went from being on alert to sitting
down.

“At ease, boys,” Ronnie said.

The principal looked as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t formulate a sentence
worthy of his thoughts. After looking at Buck and then the boys and then Ronnie, the
man turned and marched out of the gym. The boys looked at each other and then back
to where Ronnie stood next to Buck.

The guys would enjoy the hell out of this story…even Rusty. Ronnie forced down the
laugh that threatened to overtake him.

Kids were fun, especially at this age. They were halfway between being children and
becoming adults. They were trying to grow into the men and women they were destined
to become. Ronnie could see a bit of Ian in these two clowns who stood before him
now, looking like their little idea of a good time perhaps wasn’t working out so well
after all.

“You guys football players?” he asked the boys.

“No. Wrestling,” one of them replied.

Now that they mentioned it, he could see their sport of choice in their bodies. They
were fairly ripped for their age. Most teenage boys were either too chubby or too
skinny since the build of manhood hadn’t hit quite yet.

“So why are you fucking with a soldier rather than lifting weights or working out,
then?” he asked them.

Their faces blanked and they again looked at each other. He wasn’t stupid. He remembered
the stuff the kids in
his
high school had said. Their language was worse than what was said in the barracks.
What shocked these boys was that an adult was saying something to them they were used
to hearing only from each other.

“Dismissed,” he said, waving his hand at them and sitting back down on the bench.

The boys turned and headed out of the gym almost at a run. For the next ten minutes,
Ronnie occasionally saw different boys stick their heads into the gym, look at him
and Buck and then leave. His coaches in school would
never
have allowed such behavior. The coaches back then worked him and his buddies like
dogs during practice. Looking back over to the cheer squad, he noticed the woman who
must be the cheer coach texting on her cell phone, completely ignoring the cheerleading
squad. No wonder these girls were as bad as they were.

Soon enough, practice ended and Addie ran over and grabbed her book bag from one of
the bleachers on the far side of the gym before heading over to him. She eyed Buck
curiously as she approached.

“Is that your dog?” she asked.

“No, this is Sergeant Buck, United States Army,” he said.

She giggled and gave him a knowing look. “That’s awesome.”

Unlike the day before, Addie didn’t stare him down. Maybe it was because they’d gotten
the initial awkward meeting over with, or perhaps it was Buck’s presence. Ronnie was
glad she was more comfortable around him, poor kid. His parents had been at every
sporting event for all five kids in their family. He felt bad for Addie that it wasn’t
her mom or dad picking her up. He also felt bad for Kayla for having to miss it.

When they made it to his truck, Buck moved as close to Addie as he could get. She
began petting him and he lay down next to her on the seat and put his head in her
lap. The dog was an attention whore, but it worked for him

“What did you think of our cheers?” she asked.

Did he have to answer that? Ronnie wondered. If so, should he lie and encourage her?
Or just tell her the truth? He had absolutely no parenting skills at all and was at
a loss about how to answer her.

“Be honest,” she said, as though reading his thoughts.

Rather than giving her a straightforward answer, he said, “Are you all supposed to
be doing
different
things during the cheer?”

“So you noticed that, too, huh?” she asked with a sigh.

He smiled over at her, glad she hadn’t asked him to elaborate. The rest of the ride
to her house was done in comfortable silence.

When she entered the house, she stopped inside the door, obviously noticing that the
living room was now cleaned and meticulously dusted. The room would even pass Rusty’s
OCD inspections. She gave Ronnie a full-blown smile and bounded up the stairs to her
room. He and Buck headed into the kitchen, where he found a bowl, filled it with water
and put it on the floor for the dog.

“Be mindful of the designer china dish there, Buck,” he said with a smirk.

Laughing at the events of the afternoon, Ronnie began dinner preparations. After finishing
up, he made sure Addie would be okay alone and then headed out to take Buck back to
Rusty’s house, trying not to think about when he might see Addie’s beautiful mother
again.

Chapter Three

Twelve days. That was exactly how long Ronnie had been working for her, and he was
like some sort of miracle gift from God.

He had dinner waiting for Kayla every weeknight. Rather than doing the few items she
could think to write down on a piece of paper, he just came in and took over running
the household. As for her idea of wanting an older, grandfatherly type…

She truly appreciated the fact that Ronnie was closer to her own age and in
very
good shape. Keeping herself from ogling him whenever he was around was nearly impossible.
The man was the best-looking thing she’d seen in quite some time.

He’d caught her staring at him a couple of times and had only smiled as though he
knew what she was thinking. She would have been embarrassed if not for the fact that
she’d caught him eyeing her a couple of times in return. He didn’t appear to care
if she caught him looking, and his gorgeous smile was even bigger when she caught
him than when he caught her.

In spite of his gorgeous smiles, he was a serious man, mostly quiet and often all
business. He had wasted no time whipping her house into shape and keeping it that
way.

She and Addie had been taking a little more care to keep things picked up and organized
as well, and their efforts were making a huge difference. Addie was more relaxed,
and so was Kayla. Addie was appreciating being able to go to practices and hang out
with her friends without worrying about whether she would end up having to get a ride
home. Having the house clean and dinner taken care of actually allowed Kayla time
to talk with Addie and find out about her daughter’s day at school…almost like when
her mother had lived with them.

Last weekend, when Kayla had finally made it home, she’d been pleasantly surprised
to learn Ronnie had already done the laundry—until it dawned on her that meant he’d
washed her personal items as well. When she’d figured that out, he’d grinned and then
winked
at her!

Over the past week, they’d gotten into a routine. She was pretty sure that Addie was
well on her way to completely adoring Ronnie. Kayla was just grateful for his help,
though she could only imagine what Ronnie thought of her parenting and housekeeping
skills. He made organizing their lives look easy, while it had been difficult for
her to keep up even before all the overtime hours for this new ad campaign.

Sighing, she picked up her cell phone, selected him from her contacts list and hit
Call. Tonight was the first football game of the season and she’d realized there was
no way for her to make it on time if she still planned to stop at the nursing home
for a visit.

“I hate to ask,” she said when he answered, “but is there any way you could drop Addie
off at the football field tonight?”

When he didn’t respond right away she added, “I will be there to pick her up. In fact,
I should be there by halftime. I promise. I’m just running late and I wanted to stop
by and visit my mom to see if she needs anything.”

“Say please,” he said, his voice low and husky.

Was he
flirting
with her, or just teasing? It was a little unexpected coming from the normally quiet
man, so she paused a moment before saying, “Please, Ronnie.”

“Yeah, like that,” he said.

She could swear she felt his words. They made her breath catch. A flush of heat spread
across her cheeks.
Just breathe…

A suddenly heavy sexual tension stretched across the connection. Finally he said,
“I will get her to the game on time and make sure she’s fed beforehand. I will put
some dinner for you in the microwave. Make sure you eat and change into something
more comfortable…before you come.”

Even though he probably didn’t mean it like
that
, she could feel her cheeks burning as her mind conjured up images of his muscled
arms and firm hands doing more than just washing the dinner dishes.

“Thanks, Ronnie. I also need to know if I should send a check to Man Maid or pay you
directly for your services,” she said breathlessly.

She cringed as soon as the word left her lips.
Services
… Wow… Too late to unsay it now.

The tension between them was so heavy she could barely focus on anything but the fantasy
of him…. What would it be like to kiss him? He seemed to be good at everything….He
was probably a really good kisser, too.

She could hear him laughing quietly, and then he said, “I hope that I did a good job
these past couple of weeks. Are you pleased with me?”

“Yes,” she managed to choke out. She could just picture his devastatingly handsome
grin.

“Good, then you’ll be even more excited when I tell you that all the laundry is done.
I made Addie put her things away after school but your clothes are on hangers in the
laundry room. Addie washed her own personal items, which I appreciated. However,
your
more delicate things I
hand
-washed…and laid on the counter by the washing machine,” he said with a smile in his
voice.

She could hardly breathe, let alone respond. The thought of his big hands touching
her panties was the closest thing to intimate she’d known in a
very
long time.

“Did I do something wrong?” he asked. “Did you not want me to touch your—”

“No… I mean, it’s fine,” she said, interrupting him. The sexy low tone of his voice
was making this even worse for her. He
was
doing this on purpose…he had to be. But why? She was his boss! She shouldn’t be imagining
what she was imagining.