Page 125 of Driven Daddy

Penn had found a ridiculous owl with a wizard cape and a frazzled zombie pigeon in honor of our city life.

Bruce was still a staple at the house. He came by nearly every morning for breakfast and kept us company while Penn and I worked on the workshop. In the afternoons, we swapped to our own manuscripts.

Or Penn and Larsen took off to Asher’s office.

Otherwise, I was getting used to the crazy Masterson clan and their nosy ways. Penn’s mother stopped by at least once a week with some sort of baked goods to talk books and television.

JoAnn was actually becoming one of my favorite people to bounce ideas off of. She was a voracious reader and she was a lot of fun to talk to.

The cookout at Travis and Bridget’s place had been such a success we’d fallen into an easy friendship. She stopped by for coffee a few times a week, usually overlapping with JoAnn,which filled the cottage with a lot more laughter than I was used to. I think it was actually helping my words flow.

That and my walks in Crescent Cove when the writing was being extra annoying. Actually, being part of small town life helped me add more depth to my new book than I’d ever had before. Even if it was a bit disconcerting that people were starting to recognize me on the street.

Bridget and Travis convinced us to go into town for something called Trunk or Treat. The cars were all parked along Main Street so the kids could trick or treat safely. I was sure a bunch would got even more candy in the suburbs around JoAnn and Hank’s place.

They’d done up their front yard almost as much as Travis had.

I’d even survived the November Masterson dinner. The sheer number of children in attendance had driven me out into the backyard after dinner. It was a delightful and warm chaos, but it was still overwhelming to me.

Penn understood and we bundled up in the swing for a bit of quiet time. Unfortunately, the kids were equally happy to run around the backyard after dinner so the alone time had been brief.

The spaghetti and meatball dinner had been more than worth the unnerving introduction to all Penn’s family.

However, I wasn’t sure if I was already heading into hibernation mode or what. Ever since that dinner, I’d barely made it past nine o’clock each night. I was perpetually tired.

I shut my laptop when I heard Penn’s car outside. He’d been out with Larsen all day. They were doing their first print run of Ryan Moon’sTripodtoday. I hoped it was going all right.

Penn was getting nervous that the deadline for her massive preorder was coming in hot.

The slider door opened, and he came in all smiles. “Freaking success. I can’t believe it!” He held a copy of the book. “I gotta proof it and make sure everything is okay, but we did it!”

He dropped his messenger bag beside the kitchen table, dragged me out of my chair, and swung me around.

The room tilted a little too much, making my stomach go queasy. I grabbed his shoulder. “Penn!”

He set me down and dropped a kiss on my mouth. “Sorry, sorry. Just wanted you to be the first one to see it.” He sat down in my chair and hauled me into his lap. “It’s not the final cover, we’re still deciding on paper.”

His excitement was palpable, and his warmth didn’t hurt. The nights were getting colder, especially by the water. His strong arms were looped around me as I paged through.

“This is super adorable. And I don’t want to be insensitive?—”

“But it’s better than the version at the signing? You’re totally right.” He tucked his chin on my shoulder.

I nodded. “I love this paper. People pay attention to those details now.”

“They sure do. Which was why I was worried about going bald to make this work.”

I patted his arm. “Don’t say that about your luscious hair. It’s half your hotness.”

He snorted. “Now I have a little something for you too.” He reached down for his bag and flipped the black leather open. He pulled out a hardcopy book and set it in front of me.

“What’s this?” I picked it up and turned the book to look at the edges which were sprayed in a delicate pink with a cherry blossom design.

“Open it.”

I flipped open the linen cover and turned the first blank page to find a title page.

Mytitle page.

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