Treat Me (One Night with Sole Regret 8)

him enough to explain her own feelings. Maybe it was because she’d been too busy getting dressed and fleeing the house to talk to him about it. Frankly, he didn’t give a shit if Tina knew all about his affair with her sister. He almost wanted to rub it into her conniving face. But the one who’d be most hurt by such actions would be Julie, and his protective instincts kicked into high gear where his little girl was concerned. So he’d try to keep Amanda a secret for Julie’s sake, but not for Tina’s and not even for his own.

He opened the door to Tina’s scowl. At times he wondered how he’d ever thought she was beautiful. Of course, when they’d been in love, she hadn’t perpetually shot eye daggers at him.

“Took you long enough,” Tina grumbled. “I’m in a rush here. Didn’t you hear me honking in the driveway?”

“No.”

“Probably going deaf from all that loud music,” she said as she shoved an overnight bag into his chest.

“Daddy!” Julie called as she squeezed between her mother’s leg and the doorframe to peer into the house.

Jacob’s mood instantly brightened. He dropped her bag with a disconcerting crunch and bent to scoop her into his arms. She was light as a feather, but he pretended she weighed a ton and that he couldn’t lift her from the floor. “You’ve been growing again,” he accused, grunting with exertion. “Didn’t I tell you to stop doing that?”

“I eat all my vegetables. Did they make me too fat?” Julie rubbed her hands over her belly and scowled down at her petite figure.

Why would a four-year-old even think to ask such a thing? Jacob turned an accusing glare on her mother. Tina avoided his gaze. “Give me a hug, Jules,” she said. “I’m already late for my appointment.”

Julie hugged and kissed her mom. “Love you!”

“Love you too, baby. I’ll see you on Sunday.”

“Okay, Mommy. Have a nice time at the sprawl.”

Jacob pursed his lips to stifle a grin as he imagined his ex-wife sprawled on the ground. Good place for her as far as he was concerned. He knew it was wrong of him to think of her in duress and enjoy it, but he couldn’t help being amused at her expense.

“I’m sure I will.” Tina stood and met Jacob’s eyes for the first time since she’d arrived on his doorstep. His heart produced an uneasy thud as she held his gaze. “Take good care of her,” Tina said.

“Of course.”

She leaned a bit closer, her lips pursed as if she was considering kissing him goodbye, and he took an automatic step backward.

“Uh, Tina?” Surely he was mistaken about her intentions.

She blinked up at him and covered her lower lip with two fingertips, her bright eyes beguiling in her beautiful face. He remembered when that look used to bring him to his knees. Now it produced a knot of displeasure in his gut. Tina backed away and turned, rushing toward the huge SUV idling in the driveway. She honked and waved goodbye to Julie, who waved back enthusiastically. When the vehicle turned out of the driveway, Jacob crouched down to four-year-old level.

“What do you want to do first?”

“Eat. I’m practly starved to death over here.”

He grinned at the morose expression on Julie’s face and reached out to tickle her ribs. She giggled, twisting away from his digging fingertips.

“Pancakes?”

“Do you know how to fix anything else?”

“Eggs.”

Julie crinkled up her nose. “I don’t like eggs.”

“I think I have some fruit.” He hoped Tammy had remembered to restock his kitchen. He and Amanda had cleared out his fruit supply almost a week before.

“Nanas and pancakes.”

They might have to go to the store to get bananas, but Jacob didn’t mind. As long as his little princess had what she wanted.

Jacob picked up her overnight bag and followed her into the house, smiling at her attempts to skip and sing “Old McDonald” at the same time. Perhaps he was a tad partial, but the kid had inherited a talented set of pipes. She came to an abrupt halt in the doorway of the kitchen and held out both hands to encourage him to stop.

“Wait! I almost forgot. I brought you something,” she said.

“A present?”

“Well . . .” She cocked her head at him, a tiny fist on each hip. Sometimes she did remind her of her mother. “You can just borrow it. Okay?”

She dashed to his side and pulled open the zipper of her overnight bag and yanked out two pairs of sparkly fairy wings made of some gauzy material. They had elastic loops where child-sized arms could go through. He knew she would talk him into wearing them before she’d even slipped the pair of pink ones onto her narrow back.

“I brung you the blue ones ’cause you’re a boy.”

He chuckled. “Are you sure these are for boys?”

Wide-eyed and irresistibly adorable, she nodded up at him. “I’m sure, ’cause they’re blue. And I’m the fairy princess, so you must be the fairy king. Little girls are princesses and their daddies are kings.”

“Do fairies have kings?” he asked, slipping one arm through the elastic band and stretching it to its limit over his man-sized shoulder.

“Yes. I saw it on the TV.”

“It must be true then,” he said, struggling to get his arm through the second loop. “I don’t think these will fit me, sweetheart.”

“Come down here. I’ll help you.”

He squatted, deciding kids were hard on the knees, and Julie pulled and wrestled with the wings until she finally managed to get them onto his back.

“Well?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder at the lopsided and crumpled set of glitter-covered wings between his shoulder blades. He wondered what his bandmates and the fans would think if they could see him like this. Not that he cared, because Julie broke into a fit of giggles. She had the cutest laugh. He couldn’t help but smile at her.

“You look silly, Daddy!”

“Are you sure?” He wiggled his shoulders to try to make the wings move. He only managed to set them further askew.

She nodded and covered her mouth with one tiny hand. “I don’t think you can fly with those puny things.”

“I can if I’m magic.”

Her blue eyes widened with wonder. “Are you magic, Daddy?”

He chuckled and tapped her nose with a fingertip. “I just like to pretend. Maybe I should take them off so I can cook your breakfast.” He’d probably need to cut the strings or dislocate his shoulders to remove them.

“No! You’re the fairy king. Fairy kings cook the best breakfast in the land.” She spread her arms wide.

Well, Jacob was sure he looked like a fairy. Wasn’t so sure about the king part.

“You just need to get some big wings for growed-up people,” she said as she assessed his attire with her head cocked to one side.

“I’ll keep that in mind the next time I go shopping at the growed-up fairy store.”

Her belly growled loudly, and she covered it with both hands. “Excuse me.”

“I think we’d better get you fed first.”

In the kitchen, she sat on a stool at the breakfast bar and ate bites of bananas he’d cut into circles for her while he prepared pancakes. He attempted to delight her by making her pancakes shaped like butterflies, but getting them to look like anything but blobs was a losing battle.