Page 81 of Second Chance Baby

“I bet he did. Did he tell you to bring a swimsuit?”

Her lips twitched. “Matter of fact, he did suggest that. Not that I have one here. I’ll have to grab one from the store unless you have an urge to go to the city tonight instead of waiting for the weekend.”

The possibility was already growing roots. “Yeah, we can have dinner at my mom’s then hit the road, avoid the weekend traffic.” I glanced over my shoulder at Carrington. “You cool with spending the night with Gams? Then we can get Biscuit back in the afternoon when we pick you up from school.”

Carrington shrugged. “Works for me. Halloween is mostly done in the yard, and the rest of the stuff we can put up as we go. It already looks awesome. Gams has gotta come by to see everything soon!”

I signaled to pull over to park near the lake. We were much farther out now than we had been this morning, but this late in the day, it wasn’t surprising.

We got out of the truck and went over to talk to Daphne, who completely understood Carrington not wanting to model. Though she’d no sooner gone back to the truck with her mother when Daphne muttered, “She would’ve been perfect.”

“C’mon, Daph.”

She waved me away. “We actually have another volunteer, Laurie Hamilton. She’s just about the same age too. Come on over and meet her and then you two can come back tomorrow, and we’ll do some boating shots. The Hamiltons are letting us use one of their boats too.”

We were standing around talking when Bridget returned, wringing her hands together as we went over the details for tomorrow. Then Drake pointed at her. “You’ll have your suit with you?”

“I will. We’re making a late-night trip to the city to get my stuff. And Laurie’s perfect to play our daughter.” She glanced at me, lowering her voice. “Can you believe she’s Carrington’s age now? I’m so out of the loop with Crescent Cove residents.”

“Time passes too damn fast,” I acknowledged, looping my arm around Bridget’s waist as we listened to our agents’ spiel about what was left to take, pictures-wise.

Which, thankfully, wasn’t much.

Drake showed us some of the proofs so far, and I asked him if I could get some extras of one particular image, where Bridget was perched on my lap as I kissed her shoulder. She was looking at me under her lashes as if she adored me, and I knew I’d want to make probably half a dozen copies.

Then it started to rain, reminding all of us that it was fall in a lakeside town. We’d been lucky to get such amazing weather, but it officially ended our shoot, scattering all of us to our vehicles. At least we didn’t have to be there first thing tomorrow, which was good since a trip to the city would eat up most of the evening.

But for now, we were going to my mom’s to have some damn chili.

On the way, I went by our house to make sure all the lights had come on as they should on their timers, and then I took a quick video for my mom to see the wonderfully spooky chaos.Carrington was so excited by all we’d put up, and she kept turning up the Halloween-themed music we had blasting from the front stoop.

“I love all of this so much. But Amerie asked for us to add some Trolls, if we could find some?” Carrington jogged back to where I was still filming, her duffel bag with her overnight clothes over her shoulder. “Just if it was possible. And maybe a blow-up dog too, just so Biscuit has some representation.”

I had to laugh as I gave her a quick hug. “We’ll make it happen. Somehow. Maybe we can stop in a store in the city if we get going early enough tonight. We’ll probably have to eat and run. We kind of searched through all the stores around here, don’t you think? I didn’t see any blow-up Trolls. Or dogs.”

“Maybe something for Scooby-doo?” Bridget suggested.

“Good idea. You all set, kid? Let’s get a move on so we can do even more searching on the way to the city.” I had to laugh again as I climbed back in the truck. “Somehow I turned into Mr. Halloween along the way.”

“Because you’re the best daddy ever.” Carrington leaned forward to hug me in my seat. “Amerie doesn’t have one, so she’ll be so happy you cared to find stuff for her too.”

Bridget and I exchanged a glance as I hissed out a breath. “We’ll find something just for her, I promise.”

I headed over to my parents’ place, parking at the end of a line of cars that extended far beyond the driveway. I recognized all my local siblings’ vehicles and even Penn’s Jag. “Guess it’s a full house tonight for the Bewitching chili. My stomach is roaring.” I turned off the truck and hurried over to open Bridget’s door.

“Mine too, Dad.” Carrington hopped down from the truck, frowning. “Should I have asked Jesse over?”

“The boy who isn’t your boyfriend?”

She made a face at me. “Yeah, but we still do stuff together.”

I exchanged a look with Bridget. Hopefully, not sex type stuff. Maybe we needed to have the talk with her just in case. Would I be totally lame if I asked Bridget to field that? I hadn’t yet had to have the period talk, either, so maybe they could be combined into one?

Ugh, I was getting a headache. Maybe I’d just see what my mom thought before discussing it with Bridget. One thing at a time. I didn’t need to get ahead of myself.

We went inside, immediately launching into Halloween talk when Christian started asking if I’d really added more items to the décor since my brothers had helped decorate. I was quick to say no, but I didn’t mention that I would be adding more soon if Trolls or Scooby-doo items could be sourced.

What he didn’t know yet couldn’t hurt him—or me.

---