Daddy Undercover (Crescent Cove Book 9) Page 8

  God, he had a daughter. I wasn’t sure I’d ever stop doing a doubletake at that.

  “Religiously single,” I added as I served Kinleigh her triple decker club, just in case there was someone left in the tri-state area who had not heard me declare my personal status.

  A cough sounded behind me that sounded suspiciously like my sister, along with a harrumph that most definitely came from my mother.

  Caleb took a big bite of his burger before slowly wiping his mouth. “Religiously? I like that. Me too. Wanna be biblical together?”

  Someone stomped his foot under the table with enough force that he groaned, but I wasn’t sure who. Any of the other three people in that crowded booth were equally likely to try to do him harm.

  I gave him a thin smile. “I’m abstaining.”

  “Oh, really? Beautiful woman like you?” Caleb took another wolfish bite and then chewed and swallowed. “I can’t imagine why.”

  “Laying it on like that cheese, huh?” Ivy shook her head.

  Caleb was a bit of a ladies’ man in town, and he was rather shameless about it. As the only single Beck sibling, he made no bones about his desire to remain uncoupled for the next century.

  Lucky Roberts was his best friend, which sort of put an exclamation point on Caleb’s singledom. Those two were dangerous separately, but together, they were positively lethal. They were handsome, charming, gainfully employed, and existed for one solitary goal—to make a woman lose her panties.

  And now for unknown reasons, Caleb was looking at me.

  This probably consisted of one of those wrong place, wrong time scenarios. But instead of robbing a bank, he wanted to pilfer my panties.

  Like Jared did on Sunday?

  I frowned. Not the same at all. He didn’t want them for sexual reasons. He’d just sneezed—

  You are an idiot, Ramos. Dudes want a chick’s underwear for one thing, and it’s not because a Kleenex isn’t handy.

  I swallowed thickly, unwilling to think more about that right now. “It’s the busiest time of year,” I said to Caleb while August and Kinleigh squabbled quietly as married people tended to do, and Ivy poked listlessly at her salad. “I don’t have much free time.”

  “Tell me about it. I’ve got school Christmas play practice up the yinyang, but these three,” he pointed to his three family members in turn, “insisted on inviting me to the tree lighting by the lake on Saturday night.” He shuddered. “As if I don’t see enough kids when class is in session.”

  Ivy pursed her lips at him. “You love your kids. Come off it.”

  “I do, but the weekend after Thanksgiving is for letting loose after family time.” He sent me a tilted grin. “What do you say? Can you escape for a couple of hours and drink some cocoa with us while we freeze our nuts off?”

  I laughed. “Speak for yourself.”

  “Oh, I was. But c’mon, it will be fun. And we’d have chaperones.” He jerked his chin toward his family, who were mostly ignoring us as they talked amongst themselves. Ivy was gesturing wildly with a breadstick, and Kinleigh was nodding a lot as August made quick work of his meatloaf and potatoes. “They’ll have the rugrats with them, and I’ll be so sad and lonely. Would be nice to have a friend.”

  I leaned on the cart and shook my head on a laugh. I’d fully intended to say no, but knowing my mom was probably trying to hear every word had me reconsidering. Besides, I did want to go to the tree lighting. I had a rare Saturday night off, and I’d already asked Jared weeks ago if he wanted to go. He’d given me a bland expression and reminded me he always had patrol on holiday weekend nights, since Crescent Cove was such a hotbed of crime.

  Whatever. I had another option now.

  “Sure.” I flashed Caleb a smile. “Why not?”

  “Why not,” he echoed, swiping screens before handing over his phone. “Let me get your number so we can coordinate.”

  As I typed it in for him, it occurred to me he would more than likely try to coordinate getting me in bed as well. And that would be a futile pursuit on his behalf.

  I wanted to see lights twinkling on a moonlit night with a fresh coating of snow. Not the dick of some dude I barely knew when I had other…preoccupations.

  That was a good, safe word.

  “Hey, Gina. Phone call,” Polly called from the back as I returned Caleb’s phone.

  I frowned. “Who is it?”

  “Sheriff Hot Pants,” she said with an eyebrow waggle that both amused and irritated me. “Hubba hubba.”

  I forced a laugh. “Coming.”

  “Hope that’s a euphemism with you two,” Caleb said lightly. “I don’t poach.”

  I glanced back at the table and narrowed my eyes. “He’s my friend. Women and men can be friends without hopping into bed.” Deliberately, I lifted my voice on that last bit for my mother’s benefit.

  “So I’ve heard.” Caleb cocked his head at Kinleigh and August. “How’d that work out for you two?”

  August looked at his sister across the table. “You can hit him this time. You’re closer.”

  Cheerfully, Ivy pinched the back of Caleb’s hand.

  I forced myself to smile. “Do you want to cancel the tree lighting then? No problem if so.”

  “Nah. We’re looking at lights. Even the sheriff can’t find fault with that.”

  “The sheriff has no say in what I do.” Rather than continue this pointless discussion, I aimed a tight smile at the rest of my friends. “Enjoy your meals.”

  After rolling the now empty dinner cart into the back, I grabbed the phone and took it into the most private part of the kitchen. Which was not private at all.

  Not that I needed privacy to talk to Jared. I just wanted to avoid gossip.

  Good luck there.

  “Is she okay?” I asked in an undertone.

  “Hello to you too. How’s work?”

  “You didn’t call to ask how my shift is going. So, get to it.”

  “Maybe I want some sausage and peppers. It’s Tuesday, isn’t it?”

  As he damn well knew, since I’d spent the night there again last night. And the night before that.

  “If you want some, you know how to drive over here and get it.” As soon as the words were out, I realized exactly why he could not do that. I huffed out an exasperated breath. “You need to start talking. What do you want?”

  “Just you.”

  “Uh huh.” I pursed my lips. “Do you have spies at the diner?”

  “What? No.”

  Why would he need them? We weren’t a couple. He had no reason to care if I’d made a not-even-a-date with Caleb to look at some lights.

  Remember Scott Piney?

  I didn’t want to think about Scott, since he’d been a jerk of the first order. But I also remembered how he’d told me I should “get my shit straight with the sheriff” before he’d ghosted me last summer. We hadn’t even been dating, just sort of circling each other.

  I’d never known what Jared had said or done to warrant that comment, because Scott had gotten Misty Stor knocked up a few weeks later, and I hadn’t been invested yet anyway.

  But a lot of people assumed things about us. Was he giving off some kind of weird possessive vibes?

  Was I?

  “Why would I need spies there?” he continued. “Is someone hassling you?” I could hear rustling on the other end of the line. “I can figure this out and come down to handle it.”

  “No. Brooks, don’t be ridiculous. And figure things out how? She’s not twelve.” It wasn’t as if he could leave Samantha alone.

  I didn’t need him to come help me in any case. For what, a guy asking me out? In a manner of speaking.

  I had no reason not to tell him. I would. Probably.

  Just not on the phone.

  “Don’t question my methods. If you need me, I’ll make it work. You know you’re most important.”

  “Not anymore,” I said softly, though my chest was basically melted cheese right now. “And I’m fine. Jus
t you always seem to know when…”

  “When what?”

  When I’m trying to get a little distance from you for self-preservation.

  Then again, if he was working Saturday night, and I was with Caleb, who would watch the baby? Unless he finally came clean to everyone before then.

  And that was officially not my problem—except it felt like it was.

  I pressed my forehead against the wall. “What did you need? Don’t say me,” I warned, unable to resist smiling as his warm chuckle rolled across the line.

  “You’re coming over after, right?”

  I’d actually suggested tonight be the first one I spent in my own apartment—and my own bed—in a week. I wasn’t backing off on helping watch Samantha, since her father was still being a tight-lipped jackass about the whole situation, but this couldn’t go on forever. We couldn’t keep playing house as if that was normal. As if we were some kind of jacked-up roomies who just stole thongs and had sex dreams about one another.

  I assumed the sex dreams were strictly on my side, but with the belated conclusion I’d reached about my panties, now I wasn’t so sure.

  Maybe the reason people kept smelling smoke was because there was a fire somewhere. One I couldn’t see.

  Or couldn’t admit to since he’d made a baby with someone else, and I felt like he’d cheated on me.

  It didn’t make sense. Yet I was the foolish, besotted chick who couldn’t seem to convince myself of that fact.

  “I thought I was headed home tonight.”

  “There’s a Christmas rom-com marathon on. I DVR’d it. I thought we could watch? If you wanted to.”

  Like the silly woman I was, I twirled my hair around one finger and smiled into the phone. “You hate those.”

  “I wouldn’t say hate. I just have questions about them.”

  I laughed. “You tear apart every plot and call them nonsensical.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe I need to try harder to understand them. Since I have two women in my life now,” he added, slowly piercing my heart with every husky word.

  “Jared,” I pleaded.

  I didn’t even know what I was asking for. Space. Clarity.

  Not to feel like this for him anymore when it couldn’t go anywhere, and his focus should be on his little girl.

  “Well, three,” he corrected. “Have to include Sadie too.”

  I didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure I could.

  “If you’d rather go home, that’s fine,” he said stiffly. “I understand.”

  I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to go home.”

  “Then it’s settled. And maybe you could bring home that sausage? I didn’t get to eat on my shift, and somehow the fridge is mostly empty. Didn’t you just go shopping?”

  “A week ago.”

  A week that had changed his life. And mine.

  Even if I didn’t want to admit it.

  Just as I couldn’t admit that when he spoke of bringing things home, I wanted that. I wanted us to have our place. I wanted to belong to him and vice versa.

  This past week had brought all of the feelings I shoved down on a regular basis into sharp focus. Denial had been my life for a long time, but it was impossible when I was practically living in his house.

  Practically acting like a mother to his sweet daughter.

  He exhaled. “Yeah. I’ll have to go shopping. I meant to. It’s just been a lot lately, along with overtime at the station...”

  He didn’t finish, and I didn’t need him to. I was already mentally composing the shopping list of items I’d pick up after my shift.

  I glanced around furtively to make sure no one was listening. Luckily, the kitchen was bustling as always, and I was the least of anyone’s concern. “How is she on formula?”

  “Coming up on the last one. She’s so hungry. I fed her more than usual tonight. I read in the book it could mean a growth spurt? She still looks the same to me.”

  I had to laugh. “You can’t usually tell visually. You got a book?”

  “A couple of them. Ordered online from a store in Turnbull. I didn’t want to buy from—”

  “Someone not in the Cove. Yeah, yeah.”

  He spoke over me. “But it was still a local shop. I still kept my values.”

  “Bully for you. I’m going to Walmart tonight since I’ll be home late.”

  I bit off a sigh. Now I was doing the home stuff too. God, I needed to saw off my tongue. And numb all my parts below the neck that were so partial to him.

  A few in particular, the ones I blamed for those sex dreams. Sleeping in his house separated from him by a few thin walls did not help. Hearing his shower turn on and imagining being with him under the steamy water—

  Yeah, that was a dream sequence that did not need to be repeated, thanks.

  “That’s fine. I didn’t call you so you would go shopping.”

  “Right.”

  “I didn’t,” he insisted. “I was just thinking about you, Bee.”

  I did another check for nearby people. The coast was clear. Still, I kept my voice low. “While you were changing a dirty diaper, perhaps?”

  “I’m not going to pretend I didn’t send up a silent prayer for you to appear during that moment.”

  I grinned. “Yet you survived. She loves cuddles after, once the crying stops.”

  “She’s so small.”

  “She is. But surprisingly tough. She won’t break if you hug her.”

  He didn’t respond, and I clutched the phone that much harder. Someday he’d figure it all out.

  At least with Samantha, if not in any other way.

  “I’ll be there when I can,” I said before hanging up.

  I took off my apron and stepped out on the back patio to stare across the dark, rippling water. I’d already taken my break, but I needed a few more minutes.

  Most of all, I needed the cold wind to whip some sense back into me.

  I didn’t know what I was doing anymore. If I wanted to run away from this whole situation or throw myself at it.

  At him.

  To take the sheriff by the horns and well, at least tell him how I felt, even if he could never seem to manage to do the same with me.

  Maybe he wanted the panties and the movie time and the help with his kid without messy feelings.

  We were best friends already. Why did I need more? Even if I didn’t dare have it.

  If only coming clean was the only thing standing in our way.

  I wrapped my arms around my waist against the chill. Why did it have to be him?

  How could it be anyone else?

  Eight

  If the past week had taught me anything, it was that I was hopelessly inept as a father.

  Or father-in-training? I didn’t even know what to call myself.

  When Gina had come home from the diner last night, her arms full of grocery bags, Samantha and Sadie had competed over who was more excited.

  That probably wasn’t true. I’d been the most excited of all. It hadn’t seemed to matter that I’d just seen her that afternoon. I couldn’t get enough of her.

  We’d always spent a ton of time together. That wasn’t new. But watching her embrace my baby so openly, nuzzling her cheek and cooing to her, had kicked everything up a few notches.

  And I wasn’t alone in my craving time with Gina. The kid almost always reached for her first thing.

  I didn’t mind. Gina was so good with her. So sweet and patient in a way I wasn’t sure I’d ever be.

  I could already see myself in the baby. Just small things here and there. How her hair seemed so dark but wasn’t really under the lights. Her fierce expression when one of us corrected her for patting the dog too hard. Not that she could hurt Sadie, but we tried to set her on the right path. Gina still insisted our eyes were the same shade, although the baby’s eye color might shift as she got older.

  Every day brought new changes. Just in the week since she’d been in our lives, she was already making more soun
ds. Gina talked to her all the time, and more and more, the baby tried to respond.

  I tried to emulate Gina and kept engaging the kid, but it didn’t seem the same when I did it. I might as well have been an actor on the verge of being fired for being the worst dad ever.

  On top of all that, tomorrow was Thanksgiving.

  I usually spent the holiday with my dad and my brother before swinging by the Ramoses for dessert. I was no dummy. The pies those women baked were the best in the state. Especially Bee’s massive pecan pie that made my mouth water every time I thought of it.

  Like right now.

  But I still hadn’t told Bonnie about the baby. Or anyone else. Keeping the secret hadn’t been easy, since the Cove was a small, close-knit town. Everyone knew everyone else’s business, which could be homey and comforting on one hand and difficult and crazy-making on the other.

  I had to tell my co-workers soon enough. Bonnie would be a good choice to ease myself in. She was such a strong, sensible woman, and she’d have great advice. If I wasn’t playing a modified version of house with her youngest daughter—minus a shared bed and a guarantee it would continue—I would’ve handled it already. But the possibility she would see me as some kind of Lothario had slowed me right down.

  Until tomorrow anyway. I’d finally committed to confiding in her about my situation. If that meant she’d advise Gina to keep her distance from me, so be it.

  Bee was my best friend. I trusted her with my life. She’d had understandable concerns about this situation, but she’d come up big in the clutch.

  Man, had she ever.

  As I turned into my driveway and parked, I just stared.

  Speaking of holidays, my house looked as if Santa and one hundred of his elves had been busy. But no, all it had taken was one determined Gina Ramos. At least I assumed.

  Lights were wrapped around the porch railings and strung around the door. Colorful bells swung lightly in the breeze, and a giant Santa head glowed in the front window. On the door, there was a cheery wreath. Candles flickered in most of the windows.

  The show-stealer, however, had to be the enormous inflatable Grinch on my front lawn. Right now, he was half slumped over, clearly needing more inflation, and he looked a little out of place on the mostly green lawn. The snow had melted overnight from the surprising warm-up, but it wasn’t due to last too long. I could already picture him glowing brightly green against the blanket of white.