Page 18 of Their Forever Daddy

“I appreciate you girls. More than I can say.”

“Good. Maybe you can appreciate me enough to let me have that last bite of brownie?”

Laughing, Edie nudged the plate over to Carly. “It’s all yours, Carly-girl.”

And as the conversation shifted to Carly’s upcoming honeymoon, the baby, and a dozen other far more enjoyable topics, Edie began to believe she might just be strong enough to get rid of Jesse Walker without making a complete fool of herself in the process.

Chapter 7

Jesse

* * *

Wherever Edie had gone the night before, she didn’t come back until after Jesse had dragged herself off to bed, her arms aching from the effort of scrubbing the cabinets until they were as clean as possible. It seemed like the least she could do since Edie had refused to let her pay for the damages or even punish her for being so careless. The guilt still sat heavy in her chest and as she’d laid curled up in her bed, she wished she hadn’t left her Daddy behind.

Then again, the spanking she was in for when she finally returned home would be more than enough to cleanse any lingering guilt over Edie’s kitchen. Which was both comforting and terrifying. Sitting on the edge of her bed the next morning, phone in hand, she stared down at the black screen and nibbled worriedly at her bottom lip as she debated the wisdom of calling him and at least letting him know she was safe.

But if she did that, he’d be able to see her phone’s location on the app she’d insisted on downloading so they could keep track of each other since they both traveled so much. And once he knew where she was, he’d be on the first flight to Lost River. And even though she missed him so much it was a physical ache in her chest, this was something she needed to take care of herself. If she couldn’t work things out with Edie today though, she’d need to at least send him an email from the library or something.

But her reconciliation with Edie was going to have to wait a little longer, apparently, since Edie’s truck was already gone when she finally made her way downstairs. She hadn’t set an alarm, assuming she’d wake up when she heard Edie getting ready for the day. But either she’d slept like the dead or Edie was quiet as a fucking mouse in the mornings.

Dammit.

Since she didn’t dare touch the stove again, Jesse made her way back upstairs and hopped in the shower. She’d just get herself prettied up, head down to Joe’s Diner, and get some breakfast before she went hunting for her wayward hostess.

Edie McDowell could run, but in a town the size of Lost River, she couldn’t hide for very long.

Grant

* * *

Stepping out of the sleek rental car that had been waiting for him at the airport, Grant Carter scanned the surprisingly busy Main Street of Lost River, South Carolina. The way Jesse had spoken of this place, he’d expected a ghost town. But there were people everywhere, moving in and out of the shops lining the street.

His gaze landed on the fifties-style diner across the road and for the first time in two days he felt a wave of relief. His Little girl had a weakness for greasy diner food. Even if she wasn’t there right this second, it seemed like a good bet someone had seen her.

If she was even here. There was no guarantee she was, but nobody in her inner circle had seen her since she’d vanished with nothing more than a hand-written note telling him she had ‘some business to take care of’ and she’d be back in a week or less and not to worry.

Right. Like he was just going to sit at home and pretend everything was fine when her phone was off and none of their friends had any clue where she’d disappeared to?

It would have been laughable if he wasn’t so fucking worried.

The diner was just as busy as the street outside, but to his surprise the patrons barely glanced his way when he stepped inside. Then again, perhaps it wasn’t that surprising given how close they were to Charleston. He was probably just one of many tourists passing through as far as they were concerned.

Stepping up to the glass case housing an array of cakes and pies, he smiled at the woman behind the counter as she hurried back and forth, boxing up what appeared to be to-go orders. “Excuse me.”

The woman didn’t even pause, and barely looked at him as she placed two styrofoam containers in a large paper bag. “Be with you in just a minute, sir.”

He might have been born and raised in California, but he knew enough about the South to know good manners and polite words got you farther than barked demands.

So he waited while she rang up orders and chatted easily with the other two customers in line. And while he waited, he watched.

That was his superpower, Jesse said. Watching people. Learning everything he could about a person by the way they carried themselves, the way they spoke as much as the words they actually said. And perhaps it was a superpower, seeing as how he’d leveraged that ability to help grow his father’s struggling restaurant into one of the most successful chains in the world.

He didn’t know a damn thing about food. But he knew plenty about people.

So when the door opened again, and a little pixie of a woman entered, dark sunglasses covering half her face, her nearly black hair chopped even shorter than Jesse’s, and her back straight but not defensively tense, he took notice. And he took even more notice when the woman behind the counter’s smile brightened several notches at the sight of her and nearly half the diner waved in greeting.

A local. But not just any local—the kind of woman everyone knew and respected. Perhaps not liked, because even with the sunglasses on, the firm set of her jaw told him she didn’t take anybody’s shit unless she had a damn good reason to. Which, in a small town like this, likely rubbed some people the wrong way. But he’d bet his very hefty portfolio that even the people she annoyed respected the hell out of her.

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