Page 68 of Baby For The Billionaire Silver Fox

Nicole: Babysitting? Doesn’t he know about your almost-burned-the-house-down babysitting fiasco?

Me: Ha. I’ve come a long way since then. I can cook. Really.

Nicole: Good to know. Can I swing by when I get off work? I need to talk to you.

Me: Sure. What’s it about?

Nicole: Good. See you then.

I wondered what this was about. Damn texting. I couldn’t tell if this would be a good thing or not. I had no idea, and I was going to have to wait all day. I wondered if it was something to do with us or not.

“Big Dan, do you have any zip ties or duct tape?” Chloe’s eight-year-old voice broke my train of thought. She gave me a sweet smile.

“Why?” I asked suspiciously.

“So I can tie you up. We’re playing detective and bad guy. You’re the bad guy, of course.”

“What? I want to be the detective,” I said and tickled her until she agreed we could both be the good guys.

Nicole showed up in dark pink scrubs. She smoothed down the tendrils that had escaped her braid with hands that shook slightly. She was biting her lip and looking around, avoiding eye contact.

I took her hands in mine. “Hey, you look so serious. Is it that bad?”

Nicole pulled her hands out and paced the living room, clearly agitated. I frowned, sure I wasn’t going to like what she had to say. She took a deep breath and blew it out. “Well, here goes nothing…”

Her phone buzzed with a call. “Son of a b… Oh, it’s Nana. I’d better take this. I like to be available to her, given her past health issues.”

“Hi Nana, what’s up?”

Nicole listened, and I saw her face grow concerned. I moved closer and motioned with my hands that I wanted to hear too.

“Nana, I’m at Dan’s. I’m putting you on speaker.”

“Like I said, I don’t know where Buddy ran off to. I brought in my mail and must not have shut the door tight. I went upstairs and took a nap, so it was quite a while later before I went downstairs and noticed the door was open. Buddy wasn’t in the house. I walked around a bit outside and called for him. But, I got nothing.”

“So he could have been outside on his own for, what, a couple of hours?”

“Yes. He could be in Timbuktu by now. I’m sorry, Nicole.”

“Shit happens, Nana. I’ll come right home and start searching.”

“I’m coming too,” I said.

She flashed me a brief smile and mouthedthank you. “Be there in a couple minutes.”

I followed her over in my car, watching for Buddy as I went. Hopefully, he hadn’t gone too far afield.

We were met by Lexi and Matt, who wanted to help with the search.

“You guys go that direction, and we’ll cover the other way.”

Nana looked like she could cry. “What should I do?”

“Stay here with the door open in case he gets tired of wandering and comes back.” She sniffed and nodded. Nicole was itching to go, but she paused and gave Nana a hug. “We’ll find him,” she said encouragingly.

“Okay, B team, good luck. Keep me posted,” Nicole said.

Lexi saluted. “Okay, A team. We’re on it.”

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