Daddy in Disguise (Crescent Cove 7)

“Limes.”

“Wicked.”

I laughed. “All right, since you did okay with the skulls, let’s see what you can do with my collection of bats.”

“Excellent.” She shoved the mug at me and hopped her way over to the boxes again. I couldn’t stop the smile when I followed her over.

By the time Vee came bustling in, belly first, we were moving on to the dessert station and spreading cobwebs everywhere.

“Holy Halloween.”

Dani turned around, fake cobwebs sticking to her hair. “Hi!”

Vee leaned on the door as she looked around. “Bit early even for you, Mace.”

“I know. I had an itch.”

“A rather big one. And a helper.” Vee rubbed the side of her belly. “I’m Veronica.”

“Dani.” She hopped up and winced when she forgot that she was supposed to be being careful with her left ankle.

I moved to her and she leaned hard enough that I had to take a side step. She was more sturdy than she looked. “This is Gideon’s daughter. She’s going to be hanging out with us today.”

“Oh. Well, that’s a first. We love your dad, but he hasn’t been very forthcoming about you.”

I gave Vee a hard look. “What Vee means—”

Dani picked a piece of the web out of her hair and made a face before wiping her hand on her cargo shorts. “It’s okay. My dad’s protective. It’s because my mom is famous. He doesn’t trust anyone with me really. Well, except for my usual babysitter, but Grumps told me it was after an FBI-level review.”

I snorted.

Dani grinned up at me.

“Sounds like your dad.”

She shrugged. “He’s really weirded out with this girlfriend search thing. I kinda messed up.”

“I’m sure he knew you meant well.” Vee’s soft heart went on full alert.

“Tell that to him. He keeps trying to figure out some way to ground me. Luckily, he forgets about it almost as fast.”

I pressed my lips together. Sounded like Gideon was pretty well wrapped around this little girl’s finger. I liked her even more already.

Vee laughed. “Happens to my husband all the time. My son, Bray, has his ways.”

Dani hopped over to the couch. “I just got back from my mom’s.” She dropped down with a overblown sigh. “I get away with more right after the summer.”

I wasn’t sure what to say there. It seemed skeevy to pump her for information. I’d resisted the urge to Google the hell out of Gideon after Dani’s Facebook post’s wildfire, beyond doing an image search for Jessica.

Hell, the post had ended up on Instagram too. Probably even on Twitter. All over the dang world, it seemed like. I still couldn’t believe it had become as huge a deal as it had.

Her dad had an impressive physique for sure. I had intimate knowledge of just how good he felt up close and personal. But just how famous was her mom?

Ugh. So many questions. I really hated having standards in morality. A lot.

Vee seemed to understand I was at a loss. She jumped in. “Sore?”

Dani shrugged. “A little.”