Page 78 of Daddy By Design

I pressed my forehead to the steering wheel and blew out a shaky breath. I was going to earn the fuck out of this second chance. No matter what.

SEVENTEEN

Trying to juggle our schedule with Gideon’s was a lesson in patience. Every window I’d found to get him to the work site—well, future worksite—was immediately shut and locked.

I checked my phone for a reply from him. I was sitting on the bench beside the water at the Barrows house. I wasn’t sure I’d catch him in time to let him know the inspector was running late.

I only had Gideon for an hour between his current jobs. The phone rang in my hand. “Shit,” I muttered before I answered. “Hey, Gideon.”

“Did Bob kill our appointment again?”

Right down to it, then. “He did. But he is sending out his son Rob instead. You good with that?”

I could hear the road sounds in the background as Gideon sighed. “Yeah, that’s fine. I can juggle some stuff. See you in ten.”

“Oh, thank you!”

“You got it.” The line went dead.

He really was Macy’s soulmate. They definitely had a similar vibe when it came to wasting time.

I brushed sand off my butt. I’d dressed correctly for once. Since I didn’t have any other client meetings today, and it was Friday, I’d gone with a sleeveless black shirt and jeans. And maybe the jeans made my butt look especially good. And the shirt was just this side of sheer, so I had to wear a cute bra.

Looking good was a bit of girl armor. Especially when I was still stinging from Nolan’s jackass move after we’d hooked up.

There had been two of us in my bedroom. I’d been a willing participant. And if he hadn’t gone all caveman on me, I would have been an active one, as well.

Instead, he’d gone directly back to his beastly and cantankerous self.

I’d thought a good orgasm would put him in a better mood.

Wrong.

Disgusted that I kept overthinking that night, I shook off my mood as I climbed up the makeshift path toward the balcony destruction. Nolan had built a ramp to the back door in lieu of the crumbled stairs.

When I got inside, TJ was doing whatever it was she did with her levels, measuring tape, and the other doodads in her tool belt that I didn’t have a name for. My expertise for woodworking was of the “Here hold this,” variety while she nailed stuff.

“Gideon is on his way, and we have a backup Bob,” I called up to her.

“Always good to have a backup Bob,” she said with an exaggerated leer from the second-floor landing.

I laughed. “What are you doing up there?”

She gripped the edge of the bookcase and started pulling. “There’s a secret room.”

My heart tripped. “No, there is not.”

She waved me up the stairs. “There is.”

I took the stairs two at a time. “I’ve always dreamed of a secret room. Is it Narnia?”

TJ laughed. “All I can see are cobwebs right now, but it’s impressive.” The bookcase scraped the rug as if it hadn’t been opened for some time, but with effort, we managed to get it open enough for both of us to slip through. TJ clicked her flashlight. “Damn, it might just be a tunnel.”

Gutted, I huffed out a whine. “Really?”

“It looks like the tunnel splits off though. Maybe we’ll get lucky. You go down that way.”

I peered around her down the not-so-clean hallway. “By myself?”

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