Read Loving Mr. Daniels for Free Online Page A

years.”
    Well, at least I could relate to one of the people in this household. Minus the stoner part.
    “Don’t listen to her. She’s in this weird, hippie, ‘I love the world’ phase of her teen years.” Ryan smirked, sitting up. “I’m Ryan Turner.”
    “Ashlyn.”
    “Cool name.”
    “My mom liked the names Gabrielle, Ashley, and Lynn and couldn’t choose. So Gabby became Gabrielle and I became Ashlyn.” I looked at the two sitting across from me and narrowed my eyes. “Who’s older?”
    “Me,” Hailey smiled.
    Ryan rolled his eyes. “By emotional age, maybe. By physical age? I take the crown.”
    “I’m a junior. He’s a senior. We’re Irish twins. Nine months apart.” Hailey laughed, shoving her ‘emotional little’ brother in the shoulder.
    “Why don’t you have a car, Ryan?”
    “Because my mom hates me.”
    “She doesn’t hate you,” Hailey argued.
    He gave her a sarcastic look, and Hailey frowned as if Ryan were telling the truth. He shrugged. “You’re really not going to let me use your car?”
    “Nope.”
    “But…I haven’t seen”—Ryan paused and glanced my way—“you-know-who in days.”
    I arched an eyebrow. “Who’s ‘you-know-who’?”
    Ryan and Hailey exchanged looks, having a complete in-depth conversation with their eyes and a few hand motions. I watched the Irish twins silently interact with one another and felt as if I were watching a Charlie Chaplin movie.
    It was a reminder of how Gabby and I used to communicate without words, only with looks. I wondered if Ryan and Hailey knew how lucky they were to be so close. I also wondered if they knew how cursed they were.
    Ryan tossed his hands up in the air in frustration at his sister and stood up. “I’m going to bed,” he said, ignoring my question. “Nice meeting you, Ashlyn.”
    “You too.” And he was gone. I gave Hailey a confused look.
    She shrugged. “He’s very selective with who he shares details with.” She paused. “He has a lot going on in his life.”
    “It’s kind of nice to know that your family isn’t as perfect as your portrait,” I said, pulling my messy bun down just to toss it up into a messier bun on top of my head.
    “No family’s perfect.”
    I opened my mouth and paused when Henry poked his head into the bedroom. Perfect timing. “You kids all right?”
    Hailey nodded. “Yup. Just getting ready for bed.”
    He smirked and turned my way. “There’s pizza in the fridge if you’re hungry, Ashlyn. And if you need anything else—”      
    “I won’t,” I quickly yapped to get him to leave.
    The wrinkles in his forehead deepened as he rubbed his hands against his brows. “Okay. Goodnight.”
    He left the room, and Hailey let out a long whistle. “You two are the spokespeople for awkward interactions.”
    “Is it weird with him being the assistant principal at the high school? I mean, I hardly saw him all my life, and now I’m living with him and he’s going to be in school with me, too. That’s pretty much twenty-four hours of seeing him. It’s like Henry overload.”
    “He’s not as bad as you think, once you get to know him. Just give him a chance.”
    Once I get to know him?
    The stranger was giving me advice on my biological father.
    What was wrong with that picture?
     

 
    I didn’t think I cared when I shut you out.
    But now for days you’re all I think about.
    ~ Romeo’s Quest

     
    I pulled up to the lake-house with my fellow band member, Randy, in the passenger’s seat. I’d moved into the house after I graduated from college back in May to help take care of Dad. It’d been a rough year since Mom passed away, and it’d only gotten tougher as time moved on and Dad lost the battle to his liver failure.
    “You sure it’s okay for me to stay here?” Randy asked, pulling out his bag and his acoustic guitar.
    I smiled his way and shrugged. Randy was my best friend and had been for years. I’d dated his sister Sarah for over three years when