Page 20 of Driven Daddy

This wasn’t going to be good.

I fumbled my way through the door, pinching my finger against the door and the carrier as Theo blasted around me.

“Wait for me,” I yelled after him.

A cat wound its way through the slats in the fence between the house and the next-door neighbor’s.

Theo ran straight for him.

“Hey!” I looked over my shoulder to see my mom in the doorway, waving at me. “You’re good, right?”

I huffed out a breath. “Right. I got this.”

I lumbered to the van and stepped back as the door slid open. I glanced back at where my mom was standing.

“Need these?” She waggled the keys.

This so wasn’t going well.

I spared a look at Theo, who was sitting on the leaf-strewn grass with the cat on his lap. At least they were friends—I was pretty sure, anyway. I tossed the bags in the third row of the van.

Dear God, the third row.

What the hell had I gotten myself into?

I lifted the carrier, my arms protesting a bit at the weight. “You are going to be like your daddy,” I said to Harmony.

She just giggled at me, her cheeks reddening. Did that mean she was going to cry? I frowned and looked at her closer.

Nope, she was just hot.

Who the hell needed a full jacketanda blanket in this heat? It was still in the high sixties, for God’s sake. Even as the sun was making its descent.

Whatever, I wasn’t a parent. My mom probably knew better than me, that was for sure. I looked under the carrier to see the little slots.

Was that how it went?

I shuffled around the van to make sure Theo was still with the cat and tried four times to click the stupid carrier in place. Thankfully, Harmony thought it was a game and giggled each time I didn’t make it into the right slot.

I sighed as my mother came up behind me.

“Move.” She handed me the keys and clicked the stupid seat in place in one stealthy move. “Go get Theo while I give this princess all the kisses.”

Admitting defeat, I pocketed the keys and went around to wrangle Theo, who was chasing the cat around the yard. The little gray and white cat was adorable and about as energetic as my nephew.

“C’mon, bud, we’re going home to see dad.”

“No!” Theo dove at the cat, who leaped away only to come racing at him again.

This didn’t seem like it was the first time they had played this game.

I glanced over at my mother, who just leaned against the van with her arms folded, an indulgent smile on her face.

I definitely wasn’t getting any help from her.

I sighed and decided I’d probably end up getting this done faster if I jumped in with him. I did a tuck and roll, a handy memory from my Tae Kwon Do days. Of course, back then I’d been a bit more limber.

Hours at a drafting table or my desk wasn’t great for my former athletic self.

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