“Dad?” Annie called from the front door, breaking his trance. “I’m back.”
He turned. Huzzah, good food,andshe was speaking to him once again.
“Welcome home.” He grinned, untying his apron, and pulling it over his head.
When she came home from school earlier, his little one was mad as a Tasmanian devil. But she’d made friends with Fiona since they both avoided gluten and sat at the special lunch table together. That was good. And, after Annie cleaned up the house with her chores and tidied the cat box, he’d allowed her to go for a visit with her mate, Harmony.
He’d done this so they could catch a breather.
“Is Jack coming in?” he asked. Jack was Ethan’s business manager, publicist, and good mate. He was also Harmony’s stepdad. Jack was usually all business, all the time. But Ethan had some amazing chicken to get back to, and he did not particularly want to deal with business at the moment.
Annie nodded and lifted her index finger while she announced, “I’m telling you now that this is a good thing. It’s not my fault you don’t listen to what’s good for you.”
She started to bound up the steps and nearly made it to the top before he said—
“Hold it right there.” He frowned.
She turned around, about halfway up. “Well, like, you know how people do the wrong thing, but they think it’s for a good reason because you should be happy?” She didn’t wait for him to respond. “Well, that’s what I did.”
She couldn’t have posted anything online. He had all her devices. Bloody hell, tell him she didn’t go searching for a new mum again with a new angle.
He kept his worry in check and said, calm as could be, “What happened?”
“Um. I think Jack is going to come in and tell you,” Annie said, and the bright smile she flashed was a faker.
Then again, Annie was a bit pale, wasn’t she?
“Are you feeling well?” Had she been sick at their house?
She was looking everywhere but at him.
The air in the room had a strange feel to it, as though everything was about to change, and he had no idea why or how.
“What. Is. It. You’re. Not. Telling. Me?” he asked, hands going straight to his hips.
Whatever it was, they would handle it. They’d handled a load since they’d discovered each other.
“I didn’t put you on a dating site,” she announced, heading back up the stairs. “So you can’t be mad at me.”
“I know you didn’t,” he muttered to himself. He did know. He’d been there that morning to stop the events before they could take off. Then he took her access away.
“And I’m not sorry,” she added as her door slammed shut.
Ethan was at the door as Jack made his way up the sidewalk to the house.
“Hey,” Jack said. And the way he said it was the same way he said things before giving bad news.
“What in the bloody hell has happened?” Ethan asked.
Jack grimaced. “Annie, uh, somehow posted on your Instagram for you.”
Ethan’s mouth went dry, and his body got heavier with gravity seeming to work extra in his living room.
How in the bloody hell did she log in? He didn’t even know how to login. He had a manager for that.
Crikey, but she was a smart one with the computers. Too smart for her own good.
“What did she post?” he asked, keeping himself as calm as he could.
