Daddy's Searching

CHAPTER10

Belinda was almost sad to end the last of her meetings with the department heads. She and Pedro had worked together to gather a lot of information that they could both profit from in the future.

As they walked back to Tower B at the end of the day, Belinda confessed, “I’m going to miss seeing you in all my meetings.”

Pedro wrapped an arm around her waist and hugged her to his side. “I’ll miss seeing you all day as well, but I have a feeling we’ll run into each other a lot. Would you like to schedule lunch together unless we have some sort of meeting or emergency?”

“Let’s. And we’ll see each other after work,” she pointed out.

“Of course. What would you like to do tonight?” he asked. “Do you like biking?”

“I haven’t ridden a bike since the fifth grade,” she said with a laugh.

“Your muscle memory would take over,” he assured her.

“Probably. Pedro, I know from your bio that triathlons are important to you. I don’t want to get in the way of your training,” she hedged, not wanting him to think she would try to keep him with her every moment of the day. Belinda was sure clingy women were the bane of men’s existence.

“Thank you for caring about me. Physical activity is important to me. It’s how I deal with stress. At times, my job will be hard core. I’ll need to burn off the adrenaline.”

“I can understand that. Coordinating all these departments is going to push me more than I’ve ever been before, too,” Belinda confessed. “I go to a yoga class with Fane—he’s Elaine’s administrative assistant. He picked out your admin, remember?”

“Of course. He found someone perfect for me. Elaine… Rivers, right? She’s Easton’s second-in-command?” Pedro asked, trying to put all the pieces together.

“I bet your brain is ready to explode with all these names.”

“There are a lot of new faces to remember, that’s for sure. I’ll get them all sorted soon. In the meantime, I cheat and look over the website to match people and pictures.”

“That’s a great idea. I might do that myself when I run into people I don’t quite have memorized,” Belinda laughed.

They arrived at Tower B and walked into the large lobby. Just walking through the door separated them. Belinda missed his arm around her. A movement caught her attention, and she pointed to the security desk.

Knox waved. When Pedro looked his way, Knox called, “I’m working out tonight if you’re up for leg night.”

Without thinking, Belinda looked down at Pedro’s legs. Nice. They’re even better when he doesn’t wear pants. Realizing she was checking him out in public, Belinda yanked her gaze back to Knox’s face. She knew he suspected they were more than neighbors by the gigantic man’s smile.

“Maybe? I’ll see what I feel like when I get my clothes changed. When are you starting?” Pedro asked.

“Twenty minutes,” Knox supplied.

With a wave, they walked to the elevator and entered with several friends. The Friday afternoon camaraderie was strong as everyone celebrated the weekend. Even working for an incredible company like Edgewater Industries, everyone looked forward to two free days to enjoy.

When the car stopped at their floor, Pedro and Belinda were the only ones to exit. Belinda loved that the handsome man walking next to her instantly rested his hand at her waist.

“You should go for it. You know… Exercise with Knox. I can relax and do my nails.”

“I could be an expert manicurist,” Pedro offered.

“A Daddy that knows his way around fingernail polish?”

“Find me a video. I can do it. I have some of my mom’s tamales frozen in my freezer. I can zap those and fix a salad after working out. Then we can do your nails.”

“Do you really want to do that? I can do it myself,” she assured him.

“Your job is to curl up with Bubbles to watch some girly program and relax as you search the internet for a relatively easy way for me to decorate your nails. You’ll need to choose colors, of course, too.”

It sounded like fun to have him try to do her nails. Belinda could always take it off if he did a lousy job. There really wasn’t a risk. Besides, she was exhausted after all the meetings this week. Being a technology person meant you usually worked alone with a pile of data or coding to keep you company. She genuinely liked people, but this week had been people overload.

“I like tamales,” she agreed with a smile as they reached her door.