The Daddy Box Set

“But I don’t want Gina to want for anything.”

“All she wants for right now is her father. And I know you had a rough time growing up, but that’s in your past now. Jess and Gina are your future. Soon enough, you’re going to blink and Gina will be all grown up, and you will be alone, without someone like Jess to be with. Someone who cares for you and that amazing child sleeping in your office.”

“You’re right,” I said, realizing how much of an ass I’d been to both Gina and Jess.

“Damn straight, I’m right. Now, what are you going to do about it?”

I didn’t know quite yet. But something had to change. And the idea of that made my skin crawl, but it was for the best.

After Brandon had left, I went back into my office and sat on the other end of the couch from Gina, watching her sleep. I must have fallen asleep at some point too because sometime later, I felt a tugging on my shirt, waking me up.

Gina’s little face was close to mine and her hands placed with my scruff. “You were asleep, Daddy.”

“I was,” I said, pulling her onto my lap. “You know I love you, right?”

“Yeah,” she said.

I looked over at the side table and picked up one of her drawings. “Show me what you’ve been working on today.”

Chapter Thirty

Jess

Even though I knew I didn’t have a job, I still woke up at five in the morning. No matter how hard I tried to get back to sleep, I couldn’t. Thinking of the conversation with Noah and how Gina might react to me not coming to work filled my mind. Gina would be so upset. I wondered what Noah would tell her. I did nothing wrong other than inform him of what his working did to his little girl. Yet, I was the one who was unemployed and heartbroken.

I rolled over and wrapped my sheets around my head, creating a little cocoon around me. I found my phone and turned it on. I didn’t know what to expect. Maybe a dozen phone calls from Noah, apologizing for being a complete ass and begging me to come into work. But my messages and missed phone calls remained at zero.

Then I thought of Gina. What was he going to do with her today? Bring her to work? He claimed he was so busy, how could he work with Gina in his office? He probably would enlist his secretary to care for her. As much as I never minded, Allison, she wasn’t much of a kid person. Gina would be even more ignored being ten feet from Noah than miles away.

I threw my covers off my head and groaned.

I looked around my room and saw that I still hadn’t unpacked from Australia. Even at home, I continued to live out of a suitcase.

Since I was gone for an entire week and worked late every night this week, I thought my apartment could use a deep clean. It wasn’t as if I had anything better to do.

I pulled my hair up, shoved on some sweatpants and an old t-shirt and got to work. I plugged in my ear buds and blasted some energetic pop music into my brain, shoving out all of the crap that was currently clogging up the space. If I thought about Noah and Gina anymore, I might burst out into tears again. Or want to punch a wall, thinking it was Noah’s face.

So instead, I scrubbed every inch of my apartment while at the same time attempting to scrub out the memories of the Stone family. It was the only thing I could do to keep myself sane and not want to get in my car and drive over there, demanding to have my job back. That would be embarrassing and only make things worse for Gina.

When my apartment and soul were somewhat clean, I wanted to get out of my place before my head floated off my shoulders with all the chemical sprays I’d washed with. All thoughts of Noah returned the second I took out my ear buds. So, I allowed myself to live in them again while showering and cleaning myself up. I still didn’t understand where he was coming from, but he wasn’t the first dad that I had to deal with. And he wouldn’t be the last. I supposed it was a good thing that we ended things before it got too serious. Though a vacation was serious enough for me. Obviously not for him.

I grabbed a granola bar for lunch and devoured it. I hadn’t had much of an appetite for anything that morning, but I knew I had to eat something before I passed out. My body didn’t do well without food for too long.

On the way to visit Sierra, it felt strange to be driving without Gina with me. Even though we never took my car, it didn’t seem right that I was going to see Sierra at work without the little tacker by my side. I kept checking the rearview mirror for her smiling face, but instead, I saw my empty backseat.

When I arrived at Sierra’s work, I stepped into the record shop, and her eyes immediately met mine. She smiled and then she looked around me. Confusion flitted across her face.

“Where’s Gina?” she asked. “Don’t tell me you left her in the car; that’s dangerous you know.”

And then it all came out of me. “I got fired.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” she said, rushing over to me. She pulled me into her arms and squeezed. She pulled back and held me at arm’s length. “Tell me everything.”

“Honestly, I don’t know what happened,” I said. “We had a lovely time at home with Mom. Then when we got home, he was an entirely different person. He was working late and snapped at me every chance he got.”

“And he fired you because he was in a bad mood?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, Gina mentioned several times how upset she was that he was so busy and unable to see her like he did when we were on vacation. So I told him. Then he went off and said I was trying to tell him how to raise his kid.”