Halftime Husband (Sassy in the City 5)

Poppy burst out laughing. “Dad. Stop. Dakota is way too young for you to date.”

The kid was savage, geez.

One, how old did she think Dakota was? Two, no. I was not too old.

“Oh, Lord,” Elijah said.

I didn’t dare look at Dakota. Maybe she agreed with Poppy.

“That’s not the point,” I told my daughter. “I’m just not sure it’s a good idea.”

“I’ll give up my allowance,” Poppy said.

Apparently she really hated sharing a bathroom with me. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it either, but we had been stuck with it. I hadn’t been about to share a bathroom with any of the previous nannies.

“Fine, you can change rooms.” I looked at the movers, who had been watching the drama play out with very little interest. “So change of plans. We need to move my daughter’s things to the empty room across the hall.”

Poppy was jumping up and down in excitement screaming multiple “thank yous!” as she fist-pumped.

“You’re welcome. Now as soon as these gentlemen move your furniture you need to clear out your closet as fast as possible.”

“Yes, sir.” She took off running down the hall. “Willow, help me!”

Dakota was looking around the apartment, but she started down the hall after the girls. “I should supervise this.”

I touched her arm when she went by me. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

The look she gave me went straight to my cock. “I’m very okay with it. As long as I’m allowed to take a bubble bath on occasion.”

“Whatever you want.”

“Oh, that’s right,” she said. “It’s whatever I want.” Then she winked and went to find the girls. “This way,” she told the movers confidently. They silently followed her with their boxes.

Elijah was shaking his head. “I hope you’re wearing a protective cup because she’s got you by the balls.”

“Who? Dakota or my daughter?” I honestly wasn’t sure which one he meant.

“All three of them.”

This was going to be a fucking disaster. I was seriously outnumbered by females and a total pushover when it came to my girls. And Dakota tested my willpower. “I wish I could argue with you but I’m not sure I can. I’m going to go pack so I can get on a plane and go yell at a bunch of men and feel like less of an idiot than I do right now. But I’m going to have a bourbon first. Care to join me?”

“I’d love to.”

Moving on up, indeed. This was a sweet-ass apartment. The girls hadn’t oversold it when they had said it was cool.

It felt like it went on forever. Just miles and miles of space.

Whereas Felicia and Michael had a traditional brownstone with narrow rooms spread over five floors, this was just a totally modern and open space with a multitude of windows. The view was amazing. Just Manhattan everywhere you looked, and if you leaned really close to the glass, you could see the park. But then I pulled back quickly. It gave me vertigo to be that close to the window when we were on the fortieth floor.

The kitchen was bigger than my entire apartment. By double.

The bedroom in question, that Poppy has been so eager to move out of because it was small, was substantially larger than my old bedroom. I took a peek across the hall at the room she had coveted so aggressively and it was massive. There was a built-in desk. I went back to the smaller room and found the movers disassembling her bedframe to carry across the hallway. Poppy was buried in her closet, filling a laundry basket with stuffed animals for the transport. I grabbed the bedding off of the mattress and carried it across the hall.

This was an unexpected turn of events. A doorway that led to Brandon. It was truly my lucky day in an otherwise not-so-awesome year.

When I got back to my new room, I opened the door I assumed led to the bathroom. Oh, hell, yeah. This was a bathroom. It was sleek and modern with a huge shower with a rain head. There was a floating mahogany double vanity and backlit mirrors. I was going to have amazing makeup, that was for damn sure. The soaker tub was an asymmetrical statement piece with no hardware in sight. I wasn’t even sure how it turned on, but it was basically begging me to hang out in it. Wet, hot, naked.

With Brandon sharing the adjoining room.