Page 2 of Her Loving Hero

He looked into her cornflower blue eyes and winced.

“Probably worse.” Wyatt admitted reluctantly.

Her smile brightened. “Good to know.”

“Why did you say that?” he asked as she turned.

“Then there’s hope for even Brant,” she smiled.

He watched her walk away, doing his best to ignore the slight sway of her butt in her white jeans.

Focus Leeds.

Wyatt took a deep breath before turning toward the teens. Damn, Brant sure as hell was a dumbass.

“Shit,” he heard Chris say as he tried to slip out of the booth when he spotted Wyatt.

“No need to leave on my account,” Wyatt said easily. “Miss Hoag and I, have been enjoying your class on the best way to pick up women.”

Brant gave him a nonchalant look. “Was she turned on?”

Game over.

Wyatt smacked him on the back of his head, not hard enough to slam him into the table, but hopefully hard enough to knock some sense into him.

“Whatchya do that for?” Brant whined.

“Give it a break, you deserved it you asshole,” Peter Jenkins looked across at his classmate in disgust.

“Delmar, the last thing you should do is listen to Brant if you want a chance with Farrah,” Wyatt said. “Come on, we’re heading out.”

* * *

As he drovethe van back to the youth center, Wyatt kept his eyes on the freeway and the rearview mirror so he could monitor the teenagers in the back. Delmar and Farrah were sitting together. The kid had decided to ask for help with an English assignment, always an effective ploy. On the plus side, he might actually pass his class this semester, so it was a win/win.

Brant was sitting alone in the second of the last seat of the van looking like his dog had died. Wyatt would bet his Ducati that Brant had been setting Delmar up to fail because he wanted to make a move on Farrah. Then there were the five girls that Emily was sitting with, a couple of whom were making eyes at Chris and Petey.

Ah young love.

Emily caught his eye in the mirror and grinned. Apparently, she was thinking the same thing. Wyatt winked at her. Was this the same woman he had met at the youth center five months ago? Damn, she sure had come a long way.

Wyatt pulled up to the front of the YMCA.

“We have arrived. Check around your seats and pick up any garbage that’s lying around your space. I don’t care if it’s yours or left by someone else, we need to keep this van clean so that we can keep using it.”

Axle and Petey were the only two guys who looked around to see if there was anything to pick-up.

Figures.

Everybody but Emily filed out, she started toward the back of the van.

“Hold up,” Wyatt said. “As the driver, I get to do the heavy-duty clean-up, it’s part of the job. Meanwhile, you’re stuck checking our charges in at the front desk.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Emily said as she picked up an empty bag of Dorito’s.

Wyatt put his knee on the seat in front of where she was. “Emily, have you ever had latrine duty?”

She gave him the side-eye. “I’ve been known to clean a toilet, does that count?”