Holy shit.
I loved that kid.
It was staggering and almost shocking, but really, made perfect sense. This mini-me of the man who was currently painting my daughter’s nails had stolen my heart.
And the more I watched his father applying hot pink polish to her tiny fingers, I realized something else.
He was a thief, too.
The worst kind, because he’d snuck in and stolen a piece of me I never knew was up for grabs.
He’d stolen my daughter’s heart.
And that meant he’d stolen mine, because a part of me lived within her.
Except that isn’t the only part of your heart he’s stolen, Perrie Fox.
I walked around the table and wrapped an arm around Zac. Doing just what I wanted to, I smacked a huge kiss to his cheek and ruffled his head.
“Don’t worry, Zac, it’ll be football season soon enough, and then nail polish will have to be themed to team colors,” I whispered in his ear.
His face lit up and he looked at me. “You think?”
“Compromise.”
“Done.” Adrian screwed the brush back into the bottle. “Now don’t move for, like, five minutes, okay?”
“Five minutes?” Lola shrieked. “There’s a sixty on the bottle! That means one minute!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Damien’s amused raised eyebrow. And he said I looked like Mom when I did it…
“That isn’t gonna dry in sixty seconds,” Adrian argued. “No way.”
“Well…” I waded into the fight. “It does, actually.”
All three men in the room stared at me.
I held my hands up. “Excuse the beauty industry for understanding that we don’t all have time to wait five minutes for our nails to dry. Sometimes we need to paint and go.”
“Exactly,” Lola answered, holding her hands up in front of her and examining them. “I’m far too busy to wait for five minutes.”
“You are, are you?” Adrian asked with a twist of his lips.
She looked him with her eyebrow raised and, holy shit, she looked like my mom, too. “Well, yeah. Barbie and Ken have to get married tonight. Why else does a six-year-old need her nails painted?”
I folded my arms, smirked, and waited for his response.
Adrian grimaced. “That is an excellent question.”
“Who’s that?” Zac pointed in the direction of Damien.
Two sets of eyes swiveled to him. Lola’s as curious as Zac’s, and Adrian’s hard.
“Kids. Why don’t you go watch TV?” I bent down between them and dug into my purse. An impromptu stop at the grocery store on my way to my interview got them candy that I whipped out now.
“Deal.” Zac snatched it up. “C’mon, Lo.”
“I’m not watching the tranny show again!”
I looked at Adrian in alarm.
“I like the Transformers!” Zac shot back. “And I have the candy. Watch it or you don’t get any.”
I groaned as Adrian slapped his hand against his forehead.
“Zachary!” he snapped.
“But I don’t wanna watch another princess,” he whined through the doorway.
I ditched my purse on the table and joined them in the living room to scroll through the channels. “The Jungle Book. There. Done. And I’m taking the controller so nobody can change the channel, so nerner.” I poked my tongue out. “And, Zac, share that candy or I’m gonna eat it.”
His jaw dropped.
I winked and headed out of the room, slamming the controller down on the kitchen table. “There problem solved.” I took a deep breath and looked at the two men now standing in the room.
Well, one problem solved.
“I don’t believe you’ve ever officially met, so… Damien, Detective Adrian Potter with the LVPD. Adrian, my brother, Damien Fox.” I motioned between them.
They both murmured greetings and shook hands before, in a typically male way, put distance between themselves.
I wanted to roll my eyes, but clearly I had to be the bigger person here.
“Was Lola good? They seem feisty,” I asked Adrian.
“She was fine. It’s only been the last half hour or so. But they were too busy playing Minecraft at six this morning, remember?”
I sighed. “Too well.”
“How did your interview go?”
“Well. I think I might stand a chance.” I shot a look toward Damien and hoped Adrian didn’t notice.
“I called the chief today.” He leaned back against the counter and met my eyes. “He’s emailing you a notice for the mutual termination of your employment as a consultant with the LVPD when you say the word.”
“And if I don’t get the job?”
“You can take a hands-off approach.”
“You won’t need to work for them,” Damien cut in. “You know that.”
“Maybe she wants to,” Adrian replied. “We’ve always treated her fairly.”
“I wouldn’t call putting her in cuffs treating her fairly.”
“I wouldn’t call telling her to abort her child treating her fairly, either.”
“Enough.” My voice was hard, cold, and cut right through the growing tension like a knife. I focused my angry glare on both of them. “This conversation will not happen around the kids. If you’d like to continue taking shots at each other, there’s a backyard right there.” I pointed at the door. “Otherwise, shut up and let me talk.”