Color Me Pretty: A Father's Best Friend Romance

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, something he would have given me grief over if he’d seen me do it. “I’m not alone. Dallas is lurking outside pretending not to be.”

His silence told me I was right.

“Plus,” I added softly, “you’re here.”

Another hum.

We danced liked that for a moment longer, our breathing on the foreground of sound that took over the warehouse. I found myself remembering all the times I’d begged him to do this with me when I was younger. Sometimes it called for dancing when we were at events—other times it was in the living room of my parents’ house when he visited, and I clung to him until he caved. It never took much.

I found myself softly laughing over the fond memory. It seemed like so long ago. I wasn’t sure what it was like to be as innocent as I was back then. “Remember when I used to stand on your shoes while we danced like this? Where were we when that woman, the blonde, had a fit when I stood on top of those fancy Fords you had on?”

My smile widened when his deep chuckle vibrated against me. “Arabella. I remember well. She reprimanded me all night until I finally told her to leave.”

I hadn’t known that. “Oh.”

“She was a bit much,” he admitted. “I needed a date and your mother insisted…” Ah. My mother always meant well, but I’d heard my father and Theo talking about her matchmaking skills. Or lack thereof. I loved her, but I agreed with the men. I didn’t like anybody with him, though I tolerated Mariska because I had no other option when they’d gotten married. If he’d found somebody he cared for, wh

o was I to stop him? I was raised to be proper and civil, and that was what I was. Sometimes, I even liked Mariska, even if I was a little moody toward her because she got to spend so much time with Theo.

“I’m surprised you didn’t get sick of me always bugging you to dance then.” I’d been relentless and he always did as I asked. My father joked I’d had him wrapped around my finger, a place I wanted him to always remain, even if that was selfish.

“I didn’t mind.”

“You never used to—” I squealed when he lifted me up and guided my feet to his shoes where they rested as soon as he dropped me back down, then started laughing when he kept dancing just like that. Like the old times.

“I enjoyed those days, Della,” he told me honestly, his face drawing back ever so slightly until his breath caressed the side of my face.

“You did?”

Half his lips quirked up. “I did. Those were simpler times when there was nothing heavy to worry about.”

I licked my lips as his nose grazed mine. My heart sped in my chest as I closed my eyes again and willed him to close the gap between our lips, but it never came. So I said, “Things now are certainly complicated because of my father…”

His sigh was felt in my soul, heavy and burdened, and I wanted to know his thoughts. “It isn’t just your father that makes things complicated now.”

“It isn’t?”

A pause. “No, Della, it isn’t.”

We kept dancing like that, my feet on top of his, without another word spoken between us. I wanted to push him for more, for whatever he wasn’t saying, but I opted to soak in the moment instead because I knew it’d have to end.

I wrapped my arms around him and used his chest as a pillow as he moved us in a slow circle. My only hope was that he didn’t end it too soon.

Chapter Four

Theo

Another curse slipped past my lips as I read through the emails crammed into my inbox from over the weekend. It wasn’t like I hadn’t known they were there considering I’d logged on one too many times, even after Friday night. I’d just tried taking advice a long time ago from somebody who knew what he was talking about.

“Work can’t be everything, Theo.”

Anthony made the choice to leave work behind after hours because he had a life to go home to. Even when Mariska was in mine, it was never a clear decision I got to make. While she was with her girlfriends, the studio, and who knew where else, I was pulling overtime to sort through the mess Interactive Marketing had surrounding it when stock nosedived, or investors dropped for one reason or another. My money was tied up in IM because nobody else’s was, so I saw no point in listening to him when he told me to go home to my wife when the weekend came around.

Blowing out a breath, I noted the numbers on the second monitor screen and realized the stress wasn’t worth my time. We were doing fine, better than. So, I got through the emails that mattered and ignored the rest, making a note for Abigail, the secretary, to finish going through non-essentials another time when she wasn’t busy doing paperwork.

When my phone rang as I logged off for the day, I was tempted to ignore the name across the screen but thought better of it. It wasn’t often that Sophie Vasquez called me, but it was always interesting when it happened.

“To what do I owe this pleasure,” I greeted, voice as leveled as it could be. Once upon a time I had no problem with Sophie besides the slight irritation over how she treated Della like a child no matter how old she was. I’d gotten over it because I knew Della could handle herself, and she usually did. There were times, though, when Sophie pushed too far, and I couldn’t help but want to rip into her knowing her niece wouldn’t.