Daddy in Disguise (Crescent Cove 7)

“You were off today.”

“Obviously, all employees were called in to deal with this insanity. You should have called me. Luckily, I was alerted to the mayhem.”

I sighed. “Yeah, well, I just walked into this.”

“Did you know Gideon’s picture now has like sixteen thousand likes?”

“What?” What the hell kind of action was he hiding under his shirt?

Nope. I didn’t care. Liar McLiarpants could keep his nice chest. Even if I’d felt just how firm and wondrous it was last night.

God, I had to be hard up if I was even still thinking about it.

Now who’s the Liar McLiarpants?

Now that Rylee was helping out, the line started moving a little. People were not leaving, however. In fact, they kept peering around and checking their phones.

I knew an impressive chest could make women go ga-ga, but it wasn’t as if he was Chris Hemsworth, for God’s sake.

I headed to the kitchen to liberate my extra large coffeemaker. I hadn’t had to pull that sucker out since my last anniversary when we’d run a free medium coffee special as a thank you to patrons.

On the way by, I heard voices.

“Did you see those sweet pictures with his daughter? I came over from Syracuse. There’s no way I’m not going to put my hat in the ring for this guy.”

“What?”

I must have said it out loud because the very professional-looking woman looked up. “I suppose you think you have a chance?”

“Look, sister. I’m not looking for a chance. I have more than enough problems than to hook myself up to a single dad.”

Okay, that might’ve been a little harsh. What was my problem?

“That’s fine. More for me.”

“What about me?” Her blond friend shoved a corner of one of Vee’s peanut butter chocolate chip cookies into her mouth.

“We’ll find out if he likes redheads or blonds now, won’t we?”

“You are all crazy.” I shook my head and pushed through the swinging door to the back.

I busied myself with making a supersized batch of coffee. There wasn’t even six-thousand people in Crescent Cove, let alone sixteen-thousand.

“Don’t do it,” I told myself as I slammed the basket of coffee grounds into its slot.

Ivy Beck pushed her way into the kitchen, her eyes wild as she cradled her very pregnant belly. “Do I have backup ice cream in here?”

Saved by the pregnancy bell. More cold water to cool my damn jets about John Gideon. “Are you having a run?” I held up my hand. “I’ll get it, Pregzilla.”

Ivy pushed her ever present braids over her shoulder. “Have you seen it out there?”

I unlocked the big walk-in freezer and swung open the ancient door. But it was cold as fuck. I should probably sit my ass down in there a few minutes so I didn’t do something stupid like going looking for Gideon and demanding some answers about this insanity. “I’ve been kinda busy,” I said from the bowels of the freezer. “How many do you need?”

“All of it.”

I turned at her voice in the doorway. “Excuse me?”

Ivy blew flyaway strands that had come out of her braids out of her face. “I’m serious. The line around your cafe goes all the way down to that new clothing store, Vintage December.”