Page 99 of Driven Daddy

I sighed. “True.” I took the serving spoon from her. “I’ll survive.”

Larsen came back with a carafe, salt, and pepper, as well as something that looked like tabasco sauce, only far more intense.

“Oh, thanks.” Rita snagged the bottle.

“You’re a hot tamale?” Larsen asked. “I think I saw that on that wing show that flays your mouth off.”

She grinned. “Hotter, the better.” She dashed it on her eggs and picked up her fork. “Should have told me you wanted to talk to Asher. He’s doing the calendar for us. I know him.”

Larsen gave me a put-out face.

“I didn’t realize that.” My shoulders slumped.

She popped a piece of bacon in her mouth. “While you were sleeping the morning away, I talked to my agent. Since the news of Jenelle’s deal, I decided to ask Asher to swap my last book forDate with Disaster. It’s not exactly the runaway hit that the other book was, but it did make a few bestseller lists.”

My eyebrows shot up and I paused with my fork at my mouth. “Damn, Duchess.”

She shrugged. “She wants to play hardball. I’ll play hardball. It’s time I took control of my career instead of trying to play nice.” She waved a piece of toast. “I have a meeting with Asher this afternoon if you want to come with.”

“We do,” Larsen and I said in unison.

“Now that actually sounds like a plan.” She took a sip from her juice.

Damn, how was I not supposed to fall in love with this woman?

SEVENTEEN

Larsen tookoff after breakfast to pull reports and figures together for the meeting.

Was I insane to offer up a contact to a man I barely knew?

Hadn’t I learned anything from Jenelle?

The instinct had been so keen to help. Especially when I’d had to do everything by myself at the start of my career. Jenelle had been the one to hustle for contact. She’d been the one to comb over the contracts for our first print deal.

I hadn’t wanted to add anything else to my plate, and now I had to nearly start over.

“What’s going on in that beautiful brain of yours?”

Penn was on the opposite end of the sectional with a notebook. Bruce was stretched between us, on his back, snoring lightly. He looked up from his drawing, black-rimmed glasses perched at the end of his nose.

Why was that so ridiculously sexy?

I tucked my feet under my legs and opened my laptop. “Nothing.”

He snapped his notebook closed and shoved his glasses up into his curls. “I don’t believe you.” He leaned forward in thatway he had, his hands clasped between his knees. “You don’t have to bring us with you this afternoon.”

How did he always know? “No. I want to. I just…”

I didn’t want to look like an idiot. Especially since it had been my idea to offer up the meeting, for God’s sake. I didn’t know anything about Penn’s business plan. I knew I liked his product and I definitely loved Ryan’s webcomic. I’d managed to snag a copy ofTripodwhile we were doing our signing. The quality of the cartoon was top-notch, but I knew the printing could be better.

Which was why we had decided on a major publishing house to do ours.

But Penn was brave enough to do everything on his own, even when he didn’t exactly have the best path. He was brave in ways I’d never be.

He set his glasses and notebook down and stood. He gave Bruce an absent pat, then took my laptop away and closed it.

“Hey.” But then he was drawing me up out of my cozy corner. I didn’t have a real choice but to stand up.

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