CEO Daddy (Crescent Cove 6.50)

I was doing that a lot lately.

I quickly replied to my best friend’s text and rushed to the front of the house to meet her. Lily was down for her mid-morning nap and I was in hardcore work mode during the two hours she slept. Especially since Asher’s note was very accurate. Lily was

definitely a Houdini these days.

Speaking of Houdini, I checked my phone app for the crib monitor just before I got to the front door. The little girl was still in angel form—aka sleeping. Though that wouldn’t last for very much longer. I did a quick check through the peephole on the front door—couldn’t be too careful—and swung it open.

“Hi.” I rushed toward my bestie and gathered her into a fierce hug.

“Hey. Did someone die?” She patted my back weakly.

A quick prick of tears hit me sideways at the familiar vanilla and orange blossom scent of my best friend in all the world. “No. It’s just been a damn long couple of weeks.” I got a hold of myself and stepped back. “Wow, you look great.” I tipped my head. “Did you cut your hair?”

Gabby—Gabriela Ramos, to be exact—pushed her way into the house and unfurled her miles long scarf from her neck. I was pretty sure she’d made it. If it was an Instagram fad, my bestie usually tried it. Knitting had been all the craze last year and I had two scarves to show for it in my closet.

“I did. Thank you for noticing.” She spun around in the foyer before dumping her overnight bag and coat on the little bench. “This is quite the gig, girl.”

“I know. Asher is insanely rich, obviously.” I hung up her coat and gave her the wiggle fingers to pass over her scarf.

“Asher, huh?”

Hmm. I suppose most nannies would go with Mr. Wainwright. Oops.

Gabby peeked down the hallway that ended in the huge formal dining room we never used. Her huge brown eyes were a little shell-shocked. I knew how she felt. The house was very luxe, but somehow not cold. “Well, those Wainwrights sure knew how to embed themselves into Central New York. I’m pretty sure they singlehandedly covered the cost of the rebuild on the gazebo in the park in Syracuse after that big storm took out the roof.”

“How do you know these things?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Stupid trivia sticks in my head. You know, like recipes stick in yours.”

“How’s John?” I hung up her coat and scarf in the main closet.

“Who?”

“The guy you were seeing around New Year’s?”

“Oh, I got rid of him already. Okay, so technically he ghosted me first, but I totally was going to do the same. He was boring with a capital and italicized B.”

I shook my head. Gabby went through men like she went through her Instagram fads. But she was sweet, so men flocked to her like lemonade on a hot day. She could charge a damn ten spot for a glass of her lemonade and they’d keep coming back for more. There was something about her that made men want to take care of her.

Unfortunately, she loved to let them. And the ones she chose didn’t have a long-term plan about anything, including her.

I’d lost count of how many times she’d gotten her heart broken, but somehow she always got up and tried again. She was convinced Prince Charming was out there.

“I started seeing another guy, Frank, but then he kissed me, and the spark died a tragic death bathed in halitosis.”

I scrunched my nose. “Yeah, that won’t work.”

“No way. I like kissing and the duck and cover should only be used for fires or hiding from Mami during the holidays when she asks me why I’m not married already.”

“She does realize we’re in our mid-twenties, right?”

Gabby shot a look over her shoulder as she sailed through the living room to the large archway that led to the kitchen. The open floor plan of this house meant there were many different ways to explore it. “As far as Mami’s concerned, I should be spitting out a second kid by now. If it was good enough for her, it’s good enough for all her girls.”

I instinctively put my hand over my still flat belly. Well, mostly flat, since I’d enjoyed my cooking a little too much since my sisters had gone away to school.

Eating my feelings? I chose to look at it like I was making sure my recipes worked.

Even if things with Asher didn’t work out, I had the Ramos family to lean on. Bonnie always treated me like one of her daughters. She had four of them by blood, so what was one more? At least that was what she always told me.