Daddy Undercover (Crescent Cove 9)

“Esther?”

“Yes, sir?”

“You can relax with the sir.”

“Yes, sir—I mean, yes, Sheriff.”

I shook my head and grabbed my wool coat off the rack. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I hustled out to my Jeep. I’d swapped my uniform shirt for an olive button-down and skipped a tie. I was picking up Bee from the café to save some time. My dad had agreed to take Sami for the day since she was still so fussy. Brewed Awakening was around the corner from the station. I’d been prepared to go inside to get her, but she was outside talking to Kinleigh.

It was a rare sunny day in the Cove. Lake effect left a perpetual haze over the sun most of the time, so the park was especially crowded with people. The breeze lifted Bee’s hair. It was down today and floated around her shoulders in dark ribbons. She was wearing a red sweater and gray trousers with her long navy wool coat.

She was laughing at something Kinleigh said and it punched me in the chest to realize I hadn’t seen her smile in days. I pulled up in front of The Haunt since, as usual, parking was chaos near the hub of town. Everyone and their grandmother stopped in for coffee at Macy’s place, but on a sunny day? Yeah, that was double time.

Bee noticed my Jeep and waved a goodbye to Kinleigh. She was holding two cups, so I reached over and opened the door for her.

“Hey.” Her spicy gingerbread scent floated into the car first, then the strong scent of my usual coffee as she swung her legs in. “Thought you might need a little caffeine.”

I leaned in and took a taste of Bee instead.

She sucked in a surprised breath, her lips cool from being outside, but then she relaxed and kissed me back.

I drew away but couldn’t help smiling. “I needed that more.” I took the cup for a sip. “Now I’m perfect.”

She grinned at me and tucked her cup into the cup holder. “How was your day?”

“Mostly smooth. Yours?”

“Mitch only threw one bag of ice at Polly today. We’re making progress.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Polly has been reorganizing the freezer.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

I didn’t know Mitch well. I wasn’t sure anyone really did unless you worked for him. But he didn’t seem like the type who liked change.

We chitchatted about town things and Sami on the way to Kensington Square. It was only about twenty minutes from Crescent Cove, but it was much more of a city than we were. Preston’s place was in a business complex across from a community park. Except this park wasn’t really set up for families. It was more urban with benches to eat at and a large patch of grass that was used for outdoor yoga sessions or picnics in the summer.

It was similar to the Cove in that it was more small businesses than chains, but it definitely had a more urban chic flavor to it. Artists, foodies, and young professionals made up the majority of the people as we

drove by.

I was going to head into the parking garage but got lucky with a parking meter right near his building. I fed the meter and met Gina on the sidewalk. She was checking her phone.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I was just checking on Sami. That tooth is going to come in any day.”

“She’s drooling on everything in sight. Including Sadie.” I laid my hand on Bee’s lower back as we started walking.

“I know. Now I know why my mom complained about laundry. That little girl goes through at least four outfits a day.”

“And grows out of two of them.”