Page 26 of Kissed By Her Fake Fiancé

“Yeah, Dad, go kill them.” J.J. frowned. “Wait, is that a good thing?”

“In this context, it is,” Holden said. “Okay, if you two have everything under control, I’m going to shower and prepare for my meeting.”

He felt a little uneasy as he grabbed a bottled water from the fridge and started out of the room. But one glance at Faith told him he was leaving his daughter in good hands. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her. He did. If he’d hired a nanny he didn’t feel this attraction to, there would be no problem. She was far better than the last nanny, who’d repeatedly left his daughter unattended.

No, this uneasiness came from just how much hedidtrust Faith. Maybe J.J. wasn’t the only one he worried would get attached to the new woman in their life. Maybe he was worried that he too would get attached, which would make it all that much harder for her to leave when inevitably she had to. She deserved a husband and children of her own. She was still young. Young enough to start over with someone who didn’t have all this baggage.

He didn’t just need to keep his distance for himself and his daughter’s sake. No, he needed to keep his distance because he wasn’t the right one for Faith. He’d have to find a way to do the right thing for all three of them, even when it felt like walking away from her would be all wrong.

14

Faith was pretty sure Holden hadn’t intended to arrive home to find his daughter covered in flour. Faith was too, but the difference was that J.J. found it fun. She broke into giggles every time she looked down at her arms and saw that they were powder white.

“I see you two have been busy,” he said, stopping in the doorway. He had a big smile on his face. That had to mean he had good news. “It smells good.”

“We made dumplings,” J.J. said.

“I’ll clean up the mess,” Faith said.

“You have to show him the pantry,” J.J. told Faith.

He frowned. “The pantry?”

“The closet,” J.J. said.

She pointed toward the door next to the refrigerator. It’d been packed with junk, which Faith had moved to an unused storage closet. That made way for the shelves she planned to add—with his permission, of course.

“Put your stuff down and sit at the table.” J.J. shifted her extended index finger to the table. “It’s time to eat. And no phones.”

With a big smile, Faith and J.J. exchanged a look, then burst into laughter. Faith couldn’t remember the last time she’d had this much fun. Maybe when she was a kid herself.

But the look on Holden’s face made it clear he was confused. He somehow managed to smile, even when his brow was creased in what might have been a puzzled frown. Seemingly resigned to his fate, he shrugged and set his laptop bag on the floor next to the desk.

J.J. had set the table while Faith was finishing up the chicken. Holden took his spot at the head of the table, his plate, fork, and napkin in front of him. Together, they carried the large bowl of dumplings and smaller bowl of chicken over to the table, then J.J. ran back to get the rolls.

“This looks delicious,” Holden said as he took it all in. “Thank you for going to all this trouble.”

“You’ve been working hard all day,” Faith said. “It was the least we could do. Your meeting must have gone well.”

He scooped some of the dumplings onto J.J.’s plate, then his own, before handing them across the table to Faith. “It did. It was supposed to only be a couple of hours, but they wanted to loop in one of their partners who’s traveling right now. It ended up being an all-day thing. And then I stopped in to see an old associate since I was already in Knoxville. I didn’t get any of my own work done, but it was a great day of networking.”

“No business at the table, either,” J.J. said. “That’s like phones.”

Holden narrowed his eyes at his daughter. “We always talk about our day. I look forward to it.”

“But business is boring.” J.J. rolled her eyes. “Nobody wants to hear about investors and business partners and stuff. Let’s talk about the ice show. I think you should take off early so we can go eat at the Mexican restaurant before the show.”

Holden glanced over at Faith, who shrugged. This hadn’t been something they’d discussed earlier, but J.J. spent most of that time practicing. By the time they’d put in their grocery delivery order, J.J. had to rush to get her practice in before her vocal coach arrived. After that, it was time to start making dinner. Most of their talking had been J.J. telling Faith all about her friends while they cooked.

“I think I can do that,” Holden said. “I don’t have any meetings tomorrow. I just have to catch up on some work during the day, but I’ll take off a little early and we’ll go grab Mexican food. Does that sound good to you?”

His gaze landed on Faith, and all she could do was nod as she scooped up a bite of chicken and one dumpling. “Sure,” she finally said. “I love Mexican food.”

Their eyes met and held then, and her heart skipped a beat. It was getting harder and harder to deny that he felt the same attraction she did. When he looked at her like that, it made her insides all melty.

“Amber A. said she saw Santa,” J.J. announced, her words slicing right through the moment.

Holden jerked his gaze in his daughter’s direction. “We saw him at the mall yesterday,” he reminded her.

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