by Tami Lund
She waved in Hillary’s direction. “Your daughter?”
Hillary was always his daughter when she got in trouble and her daughter when she got some sort of recognition at school, like making the honor roll or receiving student of the month or whatever other awards the educational system was forever handing out.
RJ sighed and gave his daughter a long-suffering look. “Hillary, are you ever going to flush a pad down the toilet again?”
She shook her head so eagerly her hair slapped her face.
“And you—what’s your name?”
“Nina,” the other little girl piped up.
“Nina. Are you ever going to flush a pad again?”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Okay, good.” He patted each girl on the head and swiped his hands together. “Problem solved.”
Jessica’s eyes were so big she looked like a beetle. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. “That’s it?” she demanded.
Okay, he was sick of this shit. He wouldn’t win, no matter what he did. He’d finally learned that lesson five years ago, and even though he still had to deal with his ex-wife because they shared custody of Hillary, at least the majority of the time he did not have to try to guess what-the-hell-was–up-Jessica’s-ass-this-time.
He glanced at the giant clock on the wall behind the school secretary’s desk and then nodded at Hillary and her friend. “Why don’t you two go grab your backpacks? It’s almost the end of the school day anyway, and Hillary’s with me for the rest of the week. Where do you live, Nina?”
“Begonia Avenue.”
“That’s only two blocks away.”
She nodded. “My mommy hates the school bus, so we moved close enough that I wouldn’t have to ride it.”
“Smart mom. Is she at home right now? Or your dad?”
“My dad doesn’t live here, and I don’t talk to him anymore.” She wrinkled her pert little nose. “Mommy or Uncle Antonio or Aunt Phoebe usually comes to school to walk me home.”
The kid had involved extended family. RJ liked them already, even if the dad was obviously not in the picture.
“Well, why don’t Hill and I drop you off on our way home?”
She shrugged. Jessica slapped his arm. “You can’t take someone else’s kid out of the school. Not without her parents’ permission.”
“The bell’s gonna ring in ten minutes, Jessica. We’ll be at her house before her mom leaves the driveway. And in case you forgot—which isn’t remotely likely since that’s the main aspect of my life you hated when we were together—I’m a cop. If kids can’t trust cops, who are they supposed to trust?”
“My uncle Antonio doesn’t like cops.”
RJ peered at the little girl now standing before him. “Oh yeah? Most people who don’t like cops either had a bad experience or are guilty of something. Which one is your uncle?”
She shrugged. “He just doesn’t like them. Says they make him twitchy.”
Maybe he didn’t like her family anymore. Because Uncle Antonio sounded like he had something to hide. Maybe RJ should run him through the system, see what popped.
He glanced at Hillary, who grabbed Nina’s hand and tugged her out of the office, presumably to collect their backpacks.
Maybe he wouldn’t. If he ran the family members of every friend Hillary ever made, the kid would eventually become afraid to bring her friends home, and RJ didn’t want to be that dad.
Jessica stood there, arms folded, foot tapping a mile a minute. He gave her a mock salute and stepped out into the hall. He was already sick of dealing with her and they’d only been talking for ten minutes or so.
When the girls returned, he signed them out at the front desk and led them out to the parking lot. “You get to ride in a police car,” he informed Nina.
“It’s not a real cop car,” his daughter corrected him. “It’s an undercover cop car.”
“That’s still real,” he protested.
“It doesn’t have all the lights on the roof or the colors or the writing and stuff on it.”
“No, but it has the cage in the back, and there’s no door handles, so criminals can’t escape once we stick them in the back seat.”
“Can we ride in the back seat?” Nina asked, smiling up at him in that same angelic way Hillary did. That way that he knew was going to make him a sucker when his daughter was sixteen and wanted a car—or worse, wanted to date.
He was a cop and he knew how to intimidate people. Those boys were going to have to be damned worthy if they thought they had a chance with his precious daughter.
“Absolutely,” he said, opening the door of his nondescript but still badass gray Challenger so the girls could climb into the back. Those plastic seats were uncomfortable as hell and the space always made him a little claustrophobic, but to an eight-year-old child, it was an exciting experience.
“Will you turn on the lights?” Nina asked.
“Sorry, sweetheart, no lights.” Although it might be fun to turn them on as he pulled into the driveway, on the off chance her uncle was home. “All right, where to?”
She pointed at the path she probably walked every single day of the week, and he gunned the engine a little as he pulled out of the school parking lot.
She really did live only two blocks away, so the drive was over in minutes. He parked in front of a seafoam-green Victorian house with a steep, gabled roof and a porch that spanned the length of the structure. Flowers bloomed in a riot of colors, taking up nearly half the front yard.
He should probably walk Nina to the door and explain why he was dropping the kid off. He climbed out of the car and freed the two girls from the back seat and followed as they rushed up the steps onto the porch.
The girls were already inside by the time he reached for the door, and he heard a woman’s voice say, “Nina. Did you walk home alone? It’s not even time for the bell to ring yet. And who’s this?”
“Mommy, we got in trouble today and Hillary’s dad brought us home,” Nina announced.
“What? You got into trouble? What happened? And what do you mean, Hillary’s dad brought you home? You—oh.”
RJ stepped over the threshold into a wide foyer with sleek wooden floors and pale blue walls. The curtains were white with blue flowers. The framed pictures on the walls were typical New England artwork: water, flowers, covered bridges. No doubt there was at least one picture of fall color somewhere in this house. Probably more than one.
All of that detail slipped from his steel-trap mind when the woman stepped into view. Straight, dark hair that fell to just below her shoulders. Small eyes, pert nose, Cupid’s bow lips—she made him think of elves. Or fairies. Definitely fairies. She was stately like a fairy. Not that he was an expert, but Hillary loved the Renaissance festival and had a healthy obsession with the creatures, so he’d picked up a few facts over the years. Like that they were tall, elegant, and beautiful.
Her shoulders were narrow, her breasts small, and she was thin, with slender hips too. She was freaking gorgeous.
Nina said her dad wasn’t in the picture, right?
“Hi,” he said, offering a small wave but not moving any farther into the home to shake her hand, in case she was one of those types who didn’t like people walking in her house with shoes on. “I’m RJ Karney. Hillary’s dad.” He indicated the staircase behind her, where his daughter had disappeared with Nina.
The woman glanced over her shoulder and back at him, her brow furrowed, her hands clenched by her sides. Like she was nervous. Or maybe worried.
“The trouble was minor,” he assured her. “Stupid prank. Well, I’m not even sure it was a prank. I think they were just curious. You know how kids are.” He never rambled. Christ, what was wrong with him?
She glanced over her shoulder again. “The school allowed you to leave with my daughter?”
“No. I mean, it’s okay. I’m a—”
“Cop.”
Release date: March 28, 2019
Con
temporary Romance by Tami Lund ~
Sexy Bad Series (co-written with Misti Murphy)
Sexy Bad Neighbor
Sexy Bad Daddy
Sexy Bad Boss
Sexy Bad Escort
Sexy Bad Halloween
Detroit Mafia Romance
Trapped by the Mob
Freed from the Mob (releasing March, 2019)
Tough Love Series
Naked Truth
Undercover Heat
Delicious Deception
Baby, I’m Home
Separation Anxiety
(free read available on Tami Lund’s website)
Paranormal Romance by Tami Lund ~
Lightbearer Series
First Light (prequel #1)
Broken Light (prequel #2)
Into the Light
Dawning of Light
Light Beyond the Darkness
Change in the Light
Cupid’s Light
Twisted Fate Series
Of Love and Darkness
Prim and Proper Fate
Prisoner of Fate
(Blood Courtesans Vampire Series, written by multiple authors)
Resist
Eternity
(Bad Alpha Dads Series, written by multiple authors)
Dragon His Heels
Hungry Like A Dragon
All’s Fair: Love & Warlocks
Mirror, Mirror
Open the Magic, a Collection of Short Stories & Novellas
(Includes Gift of the Gods, which is not available anywhere else)
Find Tami’s books here:
Tami Lund Website
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Tami Lund is an author, a wine drinker, an award winner, and a lover of romance. She writes happily ever afters, one book at a time. You should sign up for her newsletter for updates, sales, free reads, and a regular dose of her quirky sense of humor: http://www.subscribepage.com/Tami_Lund
