“Daddy?” I ask as he rises from his chair.
“Yes, little bug?”
“This is really, really important to me.”
A smile curves his lips, and some of the jumping nerves in my tummy finally settle. “I know it is, baby. Don’t worry. Daddy will take care of everything.”
As I watch him leave, I realize I might actually believe him.
Bram
Shaking out the sting from my hand, I make my way down the hall to Colt’s office and knock. There’s a pause, and then my brother’s overly dramatic voice.
“You may enter.”
I roll my eyes as I push the door open. “Have you forgotten I’m supposed to be the nerdy one?”
Leaning back in his chair, Colt grins. “Wouldn’t be the first time we switched lives for a bit. In fact, I’ve always wondered about Josie…”
Jealousy claws at my chest, a snarling beast intent on ripping itself free and tearing my brother to shreds. “Absolutely the fuck not.”
“Aw, come on, Bram. She’d never even know.”
“She would. Josie would know me anywhere.”
Colt sighs, but there’s no real emotion behind it, and the realization he’s putting me on helps to calm the beast inside me. “You’re probably right. Still, can’t blame a guy for trying.Anyway,” he continues before I can snarl at him again, “that’s not what you came to talk to me about. What’s up?”
Dropping into one of the plush visitor’s chairs opposite Colt’s desk, I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “Josie wants to get back to work. Apparently she has a book with a deadline coming up fast.”
Still leaned back in his chair, Colt frowns, his fingers tapping at the wood of his desk the way they do when he’s working through a particularly thorny problem. “What does she need?”
“Her laptop, I assume, which we have stashed away somewhere. I remember someone grabbing it when we cleaned out her cabin.”
“Right. Internet access?”
Unease ripples through my stomach. “Is that something we can risk giving her?”
“Maybe. Let me talk to Gunther, see what kind of magic he can work. Ideally, we’d be able to lock down everything that’s not her email, and set up some kind of safeguard so we have to approve all her emails before they actually send. I’m not sure if that’s actually possible, but Gunther will know.”
“Perfect. How long do you think that will take?”
Colt lets out a snort of laughter. “Knowing Gunther, he can be here in about thirty minutes and have it all set up in ten. Why don’t you take the girls into town, let them run off some of the cabin fever they both clearly have, and by the time you guys get back we should have some kind of plan in place.”
“Thanks, Colt.”
A wide grin stretches across his face. “You can thank me by bringing home one of those pies from Thelma’s.”
“Blackberry or chocolate?”
“Yes.”
Laughing, I rise from my chair. “Done. We’ll be back in a couple hours.”
Trusting my brother to handle the logistics of getting my babygirl back to work, I rise and leave his office to get my Little girl ready for her trip into town. I find Axel first, and after getting his rather enthusiastic agreement to take the girls for ice cream, I head for the living room.
And stop dead in my tracks.
The girls are there, where I expected to find them, but so is Ford. He’s seated in the middle of the couch, with one Little girl on either side of him as he reads animatedly from one of the children’s books I keep stocked in the living room.
