My Favorite Daddy (Dark Daddies 6)

“Martha?” I call out.

Suddenly, there are a couple barks and the scrambling of paws on hardwood floors. Two big dogs come bounding over, one a black lab, the other a yellow.

I grin and get down on one knee as the two dogs barrel into me. They’re so excited, jumping around, licking my face, wagging their tails. There’s nothing better at making you feel loved than two labs that haven’t seen you in a few days.

An older woman comes into the room after them.

“Oh, stop it, you two,” she scolds the dogs.

“It’s okay. I haven’t seen them in a bit.” I pet my dogs, grabbing them and pushing them back, making them jump even more with excitement.

“Aria, this is Davey,” I say, grabbing the black one. “He’s three. The yellow is Lady, she’s six.”

“I didn’t know you have dogs,” Aria says, petting Davey.

“I don’t keep them in the city. Lots more space out here to run around.” I stand up. “And this is Martha. She watches the house and the dogs while I’m away.”

“Pleasure,” she says, shaking Aria’s hand. “He’s normally only here on weekends, so I was a bit surprised when I saw the car pull up.”

“I wanted to introduce her to the dogs,” I say.

Aria grins at Lady and Davey and kneels down to play with them. Instantly, she has two new best friends.

“Come on, let’s see the house,” I say. “Martha, you can take the day off.”

“Well then, I’ll leave you to it,” she says. “Holler if you need me.” She waves and heads out the front door.

“You have someone over here to watch your dogs?” Aria asks.

“Sure,” I say. “I have to be in the city for work, but I stay out here most weekends. I’m going to move out here full-time sooner or later, though.”

“Where does Martha live?”

“Over there,” I gesture vaguely. “She’s a widower, lost her husband a few years back. She worked for Quanta for years before retiring, and we got to talking one day, and, well, we just sort of fell into this arrangement. I pay her old salary to watch the dogs during the week, make sure they get exercised and all that.”

“Pretty good job.”

“Yeah, it is. Works out for both of us, although eventually I’m taking the dogs on full-time.”

“How long has it been like this?” she asks.

I shrug. “About a year or so now. I had a bigger place in the city before, bigger yard, but I sold it when I moved into the new building, and that penthouse just isn’t good for these two. They’re happier out here where they can run around all day, chase rabbits and all that crap.”

“Sounds like you really love these guys.” She scratches Lady’s ear absently.

“Come on,” I say, walking toward the back of the house. The dogs run around our legs, calming down but still happy to see me.

I show her the kitchen, the living room, the dining room. We do a quick tour of the upstairs, the guest rooms, the master bedroom. “I’ve had this place for a couple years now,” I say. “I’ve been slowly renovating it, updating it, but it’s not done yet.”

“What’s left to do?” she asks, laughing. “Looks pretty nice to me.”

“Lots of stuff. I need to do something about the floors, painting, remodeling the bathrooms, all that stuff. It’s just an old house, you know?”

She laughs a little. “Right, of course. Old house.”

I head back downstairs. “I guess it’s stupid. I mean, it’s a beautiful house.”

“Most people don’t have a country house, you know.”

I shrug a little. “Should I feel ashamed of my success?”

“No, I guess not.”

“Truth is, I wouldn’t have another place in the city, or anywhere else for that matter.”

“Really? You’d want to live here full-time?”

We stop downstairs and the dogs bustle around me, still excited, but starting to calm down. I give her a look for a long moment and nod to myself. “Come on, let me show you the grounds.”

We get the dogs harnessed up, although I don’t put leashes on them. They listen to me pretty good, and the harnesses are really just in case I have to pull them away from fighting a skunk or something like that.

We head outside and the dogs instantly go running ahead. We wander down the back lawn, cut close with some decent landscaping around a back patio and a firepit, down toward the woods and the stream

“I own most of this,” I say, gesturing ahead.

“The woods?” she asks.

“Yep. About six acres, actually.”

“Wow, really? This close to the city?”

“Not many forests left out here,” I say. “I bought the house and a couple months later, the rest of the land came up. I think they wanted to sell to developers, but I offered them twice what it was worth.”

“Just for some empty land?”

I look out at the trees, the birds nesting, the sound of the dogs running through the grass, and I take a deep breath.