Addy smiled so sweetly it verged on suspicious. “Yes, Mommy.” Waving at me, she fled out of the room. The sound of her bare feet on the wooden stairs made me shake my head and return my attention to Liv.
“When were you going to tell me she was in trouble, Liv? If she does something like that in school, it’ll go on her permanent record.”
She shrugged, mouth twisted in discomfort, a sign of her guilt. “She had a good reason to hit him.”
I blinked at her. “We didn’t teach our kids to fight to use violence against bullies.”
She grinned. “I bet he won’t be usingthatword again.”
“Liv. You’re lucky his parents didn’t press charges.” The thought had only just occurred to me, and I gave her a look. “They didn’t, right?”
“Of course not. The Hoppers attend the same yacht club as Mom. One word from her, and they were very forgiving.”
I groaned, falling against the counter with my ass and covering my face with my palms. “Your mom knows? What did she say?”
Peeking through my fingers and seeing the face Liv made was answer enough. I could already imagine Laura Yates’ shrill voice as she told Liv I was a bad influence for teaching the girls how to defend themselves, and how we should have hired them bodyguards like a lot of her rich friends did for their children. But Addy and Ellie weren’t just anybody, they were strong, confident kids, even at seven and five, and I wasn’t going to have them become spoiled and entitled, no matter if their grandmother was an award-winning actress.
Laura mostly hated me for coming out as gay, though, believing I was the reason her daughter was divorced and a “single mother.” It didn’t matter that I had the kids as much as Liv did. She couldn’t comprehend that Liv realized we were better as friends. I didn’t think Laura was very gay-friendly, either, which was probably why her son hadn’t come out to her. He was also afraid of what the media would say, too, as he had his own acting career happening. The only reason I knew he was gay was because we’d slept together after Olivia and I divorced, following a night of far too many drinks. The entire thing got awkward when he started calling me Daddy, and we agreed our kinks didn’t align and that the sex wouldn’t happen again.
That was probably the only story about my sex life Liv hadn’t heard.
“Liv.” I dropped my head forward and forced myself to straighten. If Ellie didn’t get down here soon, we’d both be late. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“Do we have to?” she teased, but I pursed my lips at her and strode out of the kitchen and to the bottom of the U-shaped stairs—made from walnut hardwood, exactly like mine. Liv’s house was decorated so much nicer than mine, with more picture frames and artwork hanging from the walls, including a photo of the four of us at Waikiki Beach from a trip we took a few years ago. I’d had a good summer of overtime, and I’d promised my girls I’d take them to Hawaii so that’s exactly what I’d done.
For a moment my mind wandered back to Mark. Would he appreciate a trip to Hawaii? He didn’t seem like the kind of person who’d enjoy the beach, but I suspected he’d never seen a real one before, either, the kind with large waves from the ocean rather than a lake. He’d have to leave the suits behind, of course, and I’d buy him a Hawaiian shirt for the occasion. The fantasy image of him in a pink flowered shirt made me snicker before I focused on the present.
“Eloise, come on or you’ll be late for camp, young lady,” I yelled up the stairs.
“Daddy.” She dragged out my name as she came storming out her door, her hair half pulled up into a ponytail on the back of her head.
I sighed. “Come down here.”
She trailed down the stairs, her blue plaid knee-length skirt, which I knew had shorts underneath so she could play, swinging around her legs as she skipped a step and landed on the floor with a clomp of her sneakers. I gave her a pointed look. She knew I hated it when she did that because I expected she’d fall one day and hurt herself.
Grabbing her shoulders, I turned her around and pulled at the hair tie gently, untangling it from her hair. I ran my fingers through her locks, straightening them the best I could without a brush, before I used my best dad skills and got her hair into a straight ponytail, the kind she was aiming for in the first place.
She grinned over her shoulder. “Tank you, Daddy.”
“Thank you. Remember thatthsound, baby girl.” I got onto my knees, which was easier than trying to bend, and bopped a kiss on her forehead. “Go to Mommy and get your lunch and backpack. We need to go now.”
Ellie nodded and took off down the hallway.
I laughed and followed her.
* * *
Wyatt glared at Royce Hawthorne, an executive who’d come down to check how things were going with the construction of the new head office for NG City Bank. It was about the fourth time Hawthorne had been here since we’d started the project, asking silly questions in his expensive suit, with his blond styled hair and endearing smile, and even after we’d answered everything he wanted to know, he stuck around longer than what was necessary.
Leaning in closer to me, Wyatt snorted, fingers drumming insistently on the blueprints we had spread out across the drafting table. “He’s a fucking spy, Cam.”
I laughed, peering out across the piles of timber to the languid man who was conversing with one of our head carpenters. Whatever Hawthorne was saying had Jim frowning. Jim ran his hand over his bald head and nodded, even though the confusion was evident on his face.
“If he was a spy, he wouldn’t be dressed like that. He sticks out like a sore thumb. Spies have more sense.”
“Then why is he here?” Wyatt grumbled, crossing his arms and continuing to glare at our resident businessman. My second-in-charge looked more tired than usual today, the dark rings around his eyes bruising his sun-kissed skin. His brown beard was shaggier than I was used to seeing on him, and while I didn’t mind because we were in construction and had no one to impress except other workers—unless we got surprise visits from executives, which had never happened on any other jobs we’d done before—I was worried for him.
I touched his shoulder, and he jerked in my direction, his messy hair bouncing. Typically he kept himself presentable, but something was off. “Are you all right, man?”
