Page 24 of The Secret

“Can one of you please explain what the…” I looked over at Floss and Sam, still occupied by the train set, “EFF you’re talking about?”

Cooper sat back down on a beanbag. “They’re setting you up.”

“For what?”

He raised his eyebrow at me. And suddenly, all the enthusiasm, insistency to manage the interviews, and assurance they knew best, became crystal clear. It was more than simply trying to be helpful. Bloody matchmaking, nosy sisters, with my scheming mother as the ringleader!

“Seriously?!” I glared at the girls who wouldn’t look at me, and I knew I was right. They were trying to set me up. “You two are fucking unbelievable! Unbelievable. Anyway, she’s not my type.”

Although in my tiredness I hadn’t really noticed what she looked like, beyond short and blonde, but neither of those were attributes I usually went for, so I was pretty confident in my assessment.

“Why? Because she’s not six feet tall and eastern European, with razor sharp cheek bones and a stick up her arse?” snapped Freddie.

I ignored the jab, and Rafe’s low chuckle.

“Whatever. But even if she was, I’m still not interested. I’ve got bigger things to worry about, like how to raise a daughter. Not to mention she’s now my employee.”

Jasper dropped his head. “Just you wait man, just you wait. She’s going to be living here and you are in for a world of trouble.”

I let out a deep sigh of irritation at their lack of faith in me.

“Mate, you’re overeacting. I am capable of keeping it in my pants, you know.” I rolled my eyes, turning to Penn and Rafe, who were sitting quietly in the corner drinking wine and watching everything unfold. “What do you two think?”

Penn propped his chin in his hand pensively, tapping his finger against his cheek, taking a second as he gave it some serious thought. “I think… if she was a teacher, I’d definitely be giving her my apples.”

He snorted as Cooper high-fived him. Don’t know why I bothered fucking asking, of course that would have been his answer. Even my dad started laughing, and I could feel my annoyance at all of them swiftly rising.

“Seriously, I’m not about to sleep with the nanny!” I protested, not really sure why I was bothering to entertain their stupidity.

“Fine. But I’m going to re-read the NDA she signed,” Rafe said as he sipped his wine.

“Why?” I frowned, not realizing I’d played right into his hands.

“Need to make sure you’re covered for when you finally admit we’re right; and because of your track record.”

Everyone started laughing hard again at my expense, but my sense of humor had long since disappeared a few days ago, along with my sleep.

“Fuck off, the lot of you. That was one secretary, and it wasn’t my fault she became a level five clinger.” I stood up, pointing to the girls, aiming all my annoyance and tiredness at them. “Seeing as you two think you know best, you can deal with the rest of today. I’m going to bed and I don’t want to be woken up under any circumstances.”

Even if the building caught fire, I’d likely sleep through it.

I stormed off up the stairs to my bedroom, not bothering to say goodbye to anyone, their laughter still ringing around my head. I would have gone to see the baby but as I walked past her room I could hear my mother and Kit talking, and I was too pissed to make polite small talk.

I stripped and jumped into the shower, soothing my tense muscles and washing away my irritation. Grabbing a towel from the hot rail, I dried myself off before standing in front of the mirror, staring hard. I might not look different, but I felt it. I was a father now, I had actual and real responsibilities beyond taking care of myself, and I wasn’t going to fall at the first hurdle, no matter how much my stupid friends and idiot family expected me to.

I looked at my watch - three-forty five p.m. If I was lucky, I’d sleep through until tomorrow morning and emerge feeling more human. I opened my bathroom drawer and rummaged around until I found the bottle of Valium I kept in there for emergencies, popped one and crawled into bed.

I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

* * *

It was still dark outside when Barclay’s soft snoring woke me up from the middle of my bed. Even though it had been custom-made to not only allow me to stretch out my six-foot-three frame and take Barclay into account, he still somehow managed to spread across seventy-five percent of the space, until I was squashed on the edge.

I gently shoved him over and uncurled my body, lengthening it out on the mattress, already feeling a million times better than I had all week. I looked at the clock; I’d slept for nearly fifteen hours and could probably go for another fifteen.

Instead, I got up and padded through to my dressing room, pulling some pajama bottoms and a hoodie from my drawers, throwing them on. The apartment was silent as I walked downstairs to the kitchen, clearly far too early for anyone else to be up, although the baby would be awake soon for her first bottle of the day.

The baby.The baby. I needed to decide on her name, and today was the deadline. I flicked on the coffee machine while I mulled it over. I still liked Betty, although maybe I needed to change it so no one else made one of Rafe’s asinine comments.

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