“Will you have dinner with me tonight?”
She tipped her head to the side, pretending to think it over.
“I guess so.”
“You guess so?”
“You said it yourself. I’m used to classy.” She didn’t want to make this too easy for him. With that pretty face and muscled body, she doubted he ever had to work hard to get a date.
“Oh, I’ll give you classy, Ferrin,” he said. “You just wait and see. I’ll be back at six.”
“I’ll be ready at six thirty,” she said.
He threw his head back and laughed. “You’re a minx.” Doubtful. But she was tired of the same-old, same-old, and Hunter promised something different.
“Six thirty, then.”
She led him down the hall and opened the front door, leaning back as he brushed past her. But he stopped and put his hand on her chin.
Dinner suddenly seemed like more than just a break in the routine. She suspected he might want something from her but that was okay. She wanted something from him too. A chance to remember she was young and single. Maybe make a memory in California that wasn’t laced with guilt and disappointment.
* * *
His Seduction Game Plan is part of the Sons of Privilege series by USA TODAY bestselling author Katherine Garbera
His Seduction
Game Plan
Katherine Garbera
USA TODAY bestselling author KATHERINE GARBERA is a two-time MAGGIE® Award winner who has written more than seventy books. A Florida native who grew up to travel the globe, Katherine now makes her home in the Midlands with her husband, two children and a very spoiled miniature dachshund. Visit Katherine on the web at www.katherinegarbera.com, or catch up with her on Facebook and Twitter.
I know I mention them often in my dedication, but this one is for my parents, David and Charlotte Smith, who raised me to believe I could do anything. They have always been incredibly supportive of my writing even though no one in our family had ever done anything in the creative arts and they had no idea if I could earn a living from it. I wouldn’t have been able to write if they hadn’t been there for me. I love you both very much.
Special thanks to my agent Amanda Leuck for always having my back.
Contents
“Hello, sunshine.”
Ferrin Gainer forced a smile at the man who most days barely recognized her. She’d never been close to her father. He’d lived for football and for the trophies he displayed proudly in their formal living room. Having a daughter had been a huge disappointment to him. Having one who flinched every time a football came flying through the air at her had been an embarrassment.
She’d barely seen him after her parents divorced when she was ten. She was vaguely aware that two of his players—his honorary sons—had been accused of murder some ten years ago when she’d been fifteen. But even that hadn’t made him want to bond with her. In fact, it had only been two heart attacks and a severe stroke that had made him reach out to her.
She was twenty-five and had hoped she’d be past the need for a bond with her father, but let’s face it, she wasn’t. She knew not all of her friends had good relationships with their families, but that was what she wanted for herself.
She and her mom were close. They talked to each other every day. Her mom hadn’t been a huge fan of Ferrin taking a sabbatical from her teaching job at the University of Texas and coming to California to take care of her father, but had understood it.
As a professor of psychology, Ferrin had put herself under the microscope a few times and what she saw...well, it made her mad. She should be able to move on but somehow she couldn’t. She didn’t want to accept the fact that this relationship was horribly broken.
She would fix it.
Dammit.
“Hey, Coach. How are ya feeling today?” she asked. When she was little she’d tried calling him Dad a time or two but he always insisted she call him Coach. Even before her parents divorced.
“I’m okay,” he said, slurring his words. The last stroke had seemed to sap his will. There was something inside him that seemed to be keeping him from recovering. She wondered if not being able to work out and stay physically fit for the first time in his life was affecting him.
She had no idea. He barely talked to her. She was tempted to leave him in the care of the two in-home nurses, but she didn’t want to be that kind of daughter.