Daddy in Disguise (Crescent Cove 7)

“You got that right. Go on and sit down with your fancy friend. Coffee or a soda?”

“I’ll grab a Coke.”

“For her?”

“Got any fizzy water or something? With a lime, if you’ve got it.”

“Sounds like you know her well.”

I glanced over at Jessica, who was waiting to sit down. Maybe her pants were too tight. Probably more like she didn’t want to put her couture fabric-wrapped ass on the vinyl. “I used to. Thanks, Gina.”

When I reached my ex, I resisted the urge to sigh. “It’s not going to bite, Jess.”

She looked over her shoulder at me and let her wrap-thing fall off her shoulder. She handed it to me. “Why did you pick this place? Rusty Spoon, was it? Aptly named.”

I rolled my eyes and shoved her version of a coat into the booth next to me.

“That’s cashmere, John.”

“I’m sure the sheep didn’t wrinkle. It’ll be fine.”

She sighed. “This is one of the million reasons we didn’t work.”

I rubbed my cold hands together, then laced them together in front of me. I forced myself to look her right in the eye. “Glad we’re in agreement there. Maybe you can come to the same conclusion about our daughter. She should be with me just like we agreed upon years ago.”

“John—”

“No, let me finish.” Nerves tried to claw their way out of my gut. “I’m not sure what possessed you to actually ask for additional visitation rights. And I’d one-hundred percent support you if I thought you actually wanted to change your lifestyle and make room for her, but all of this,” I waved my hand at her cashmere coat and the head-to-toe cream-colored outfit she had on, “is not what your daughter is about. She’s all about Halloween and adventure books. She want to play softball with her friends and sing boy band songs at the top of her lungs. She’s happy here. We’re making an amazing life with Macy—”

“Okay, stop right there.”

I shut my mouth with a snap of my molars. Shit. Shit. Shit. I hadn’t meant to drag Macy’s name into the conversation. Jessica didn’t exactly like Macy for a number of reasons. And that probably wouldn’t help my cause.

Funny that Macy had seemed like the clear choice to show what a stable influence I was, and now just mentioning her could ruin my chance of keeping this out of the courts. That couldn’t be how this went.

“Macy is amazing with Dani. She’s the last woman I’d ever have pictured as the perfect stepmom, but she stepped up the very first day she met Dani. After that insanity with the women who descended on the town—”

Jessica sat back and crossed her arms. “I guess our little matchmaker of a daughter got exactly what she wanted all along.”

I gripped my hands tighter. “What does that mean?”

“Did you know that it was Dani who introduced me to Steven?”

“Who is Steven?”

Jessica sighed. “You really don’t look at the news at all, do you?”

“Not your kind of news.”

She gave me a bland look. “When Dani and I were in Maui this summer, she made friends with another little girl at the pool. She’s Steven Dahl’s niece.”

“You say the name like it means something to me.”

“He’s on Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.”

I frowned at her. “Wasn’t that a movie with Tina Fey?”

“You know who Tina Fey is, but not Steven Dahl?”