15 Over Bearingly Protective Father

The muscular blond in the lead recovered first. "You must be Meredith," he said to Lisa, his wry expression making it clear that he thought Nick had stolen the best for himself. "I'm Craig Huxford and this is Chase Vauthier." He nodded to the dark-haired twenty-one-year-old beside him who was looking Lisa over like a man who has finally beheld perfection.

Lisa folded her arms across her chest and regarded them both with amusement "I'm not Meredith."

Their heads turned in unison to the opposite corner of the room, where Meredith was standing.

"God—" Craig Huxford whispered reverently.

"God—" Chase Vauthier echoed as they looked from one girl to the other and back again.

Meredith bit her lip to keep from laughing at their absurd reaction. Lisa raised her brows and dryly said, "Whenever you boys are through with your prayers, we'll offer you a Coke in return for your help stacking these packing boxes for the movers."

They started forward, grinning. Behind them, Philip Bancroft walked in a half hour early and came to a halt, his face darkening with fury as he looked at the three young men. "What the hell is going on in here?"

The five occupants of the room froze, then Meredith stepped in and tried to smooth matters over by hastily introducing the boys to her father. Ignoring her effort, he jerked his head at the door. "Out!" he snapped, and when they'd left, he turned on the girls. "I thought the rules of this school prohibited men other than fathers from entering this goddamned building."

He didn't "think" that, he knew it. Two years ago, he'd paid a surprise visit on Meredith, and when he arrived at the dorm at four o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, he'd seen boys sitting around downstairs in the dorm's lounge area, just inside the main doors. Before that weekend, male visitors had been allowed into the lounge on weekend afternoons. After that day, males were banned from entering the building at all times. Philip had gotten the rules changed himself by storming into the administrator's office and accusing her of everything from gross negligence to contributing to the delinquency of minors, then he threatened to notify all the parents of those facts and to cancel the large annual endowment the Bancroft family gave to Bensonhurst.

Now Meredith fought down her fury and humiliation over his behavior to the three boys who'd done nothing to warrant his wrath. "In the first place," she said, "the school year ended yesterday, so the rules don't apply. Secondly, they were only trying to help us stack these boxes for shipping so we can leave —"

"I was under the impression," he interrupted, "that I was coming here this morning to do all that. I believe that was why I got out of bed at—" He broke off his tirade at the sound of the administrator's voice.

"Excuse me, Mr. Bancroft," she said. "You have an urgent phone call downstairs."

When he left to take his call, Meredith sank down on the bed and Lisa slammed her Coke onto the desk. "I cannot understand that man!" she said furiously. "He's impossible! He won't let you date anyone he hasn't known since babyhood, and he scares off everyone else who tries. He gave you a car for your sixteenth birthday, and he won't let you drive it. I have four brothers who are Italian, dammit, and combined they're not as overbearingly protective as your father is!"

Unaware that she was only adding to Meredith's angry frustration, she walked over and sat down beside her. "Mer, you have to do something about him, or this summer is going to be worse than the last one for you. I'm going to be gone for half of it, so you won't even have me to hang around with."

The staff at Bensonhurst had been so impressed with Lisa's grades and her artistic talent that they'd gotten her a six-week European scholarship, where the chosen student was allowed to select whatever city best suited her future career plans. Lisa had decided on Rome and enrolled in a course on interior design there. Meredith slumped back against the wall. "I'm not as worried about this summer as I am about three months from now."

Lisa knew she was referring to the battle she was having with her father over which college to attend. Several universities had offered Lisa full scholarships, and she'd chosen North western University because Meredith was planning to go there. Meredith's father, however, had insisted she apply to Maryville College, which was little more than an exclusive finishing school in a Chicago suburb.

Meredith had compromised by applying to both, and she'd been accepted by both. Now she and her father were in a complete standoff on the issue. "Do you honestly think you're going to be able to talk him out of sending you to Maryville?"

"I am not going there!"

"You know that and I know that, but your father is the one who has to agree to pay the tuition." Sighing, Meredith said, "He'll give in. He's impossibly overprotective of me, but he wants the best for me, he really does, and North western's business school is the best. A degree from Maryville isn't worth the paper it's written on."

Lisa's anger gave way to bafflement as she considered Philip Bancroft, a man she'd come to know and yet could not understand. "I realize he wants the best for you," she said. "And I admit he's not like most of the parents who send their kids to school here. At least he gives a damn about you. He calls you every week and he's been here for every single major school event."

Lisa had been shocked their first year at Bensonhurst when she realized most of the other girls' parents seemed to live wholly apart from their children, and that expensive gifts that arrived in the mail were usually a substitute for parental visits, phone calls, and letters. "Maybe I should talk to him privately and try to convince him to let you go to Northwestern."

Meredith shot her a wry look. "What do you think that would accomplish?"

Bending over, Lisa gave a frustrated yank on her left sock and retied her shoe. "The same thing it accomplished the last time I stood up to him and took your side—he'd start thinking I'm a bad influence on you."

In order to prevent Philip from thinking exactly that, Lisa had, except once, treated Philip Bancroft like a beloved, respected benefactor who'd gotten her admitted to Bensonhurst. Around him she was the personification of deferential courtesy and feminine decorum, a role that was so opposite to her blunt, outspoken personality that it chafed on her terribly and usually made Meredith laugh.