Page 114 of Under Daddy's Spell

There was a wealth of emotion in that one word. She’d touched him.

“My heart is full of love for you. I don’t think you can dig in any deeper.”

“You love me,” she breathed, still finding it hard to believe.

“I don’t know how to say it more clearly, so I’ll have to show you.”

“You already do—every single day.”

She had the volume down and set the game to record, so it was hard to miss when it switched from the channel guide to Falcon’s field in Atlanta.

“The DVR switched to your game. Don’t you have to go to work?”

“Oh shit. I’m on after the opening. See you tonight.”

Sure enough, after Carrie sang, they switched to the broadcast booth where her gorgeous daddy, in his dark-blue suit and the tie she hand-picked for him because it matched his eyes exactly, sat with two other men. She barely noticed them. When he gazed into the camera, it was like he was speaking solely to her.

For a fleeting jealous moment, she wondered how many other women watching felt the same way. But she discarded those thoughts because she was the one he was coming home to after the game.

When the camera switched to a wide shot of the field, Tessa fanned her face and tossed off her blanket, glad for the break from close-ups of Jordan on the enormous screen. The Saints were kicking off to the Falcons. The ball went so high she lost it in the crowd, picking it up again when they zoomed in on someone from the other team catching it. No one tried to tackle him, and he didn’t run with it. He simply tossed the ball to the referee and trotted off the field.

She glanced at the game clock while reaching for her book. Only four seconds had ticked off, and she needed an explanation already.

“Get comfortable, Rufus. It’s gonna be a long game,” she told him as she flipped to the index and searched for the term Jordan had used. “Now, what the heck is a touchback?”

Epilogue

JORDAN GRINNED WHENhe saw her through the front window, bundled up like it was Boston in January rather than New Orleans in mid-November. She waved as he approached the doors but was so eager for the afternoon they had planned, she rushed over, getting there a step ahead of him, and held it open.

“I can see you’re raring to go,” he said as he walked in. “Excited?”

“I’ve been looking forward to this all week,” she replied, beaming up at him. “But what I’m most excited about is you coming home. I missed you.”

His arm snaked around her waist. As her sweet fragrance surrounded him, he brought her body flush against his. “Not half as much as I missed you, baby. Next time, I’m taking you with me.”

“Deal, but I was planning on stowing away in your suitcase if you ever thought about leaving without me for a whole week ever again.”

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