Page 32 of Accidental Irish Daddy

“Mr. Duncan’s right,” I tell her. “We don’t have to worry about him finding us because he doesn’t know where we are. That makes us safe.”

“What if he finds us, though?”

I don’t know how to answer that. I look at her, searching for some answer that might calm her down.

Mr. Duncan replies, “Then I’ll just chase him away.”

We both look over at him as he casually walks in, wiping his face with a towel.

Bridget looks at him with hope in her eyes. “Really?”

“Really. You can’t tell when you look at me, but I’m a tough guy.”

Bridget’s face splits into a smile, and she laughs. “I can tell, all right. You’ve got muscles. Uncle Liam just has a lot of fat.”

That makes me laugh and even Mr. Duncan chuckles. “Well, then, you know that muscle beats fat any day of the week. Not only that, but I’m also smart, too. I can outthink just about anybody I meet.”

Bridget puts her hands on her hips and gives him a skeptical scowl. “No, you can’t. Nobody can outthinkeverybody.”

“I can. I bet I could even outthink you if I wanted to.” He grins.

She snorts a laugh. “Of course, you can. I’m just a kid!”

“Yeah, well…I hear you’re a pretty smart kid. Might be a challenge.”

Her entire spirit makes a one-eighty. She’s smiling as bright as the sun shining through the windows.

“Baby,” I say to her. “Why don’t you go upstairs and get dressed while I make us breakfast?”

“Okay. Can we go for a walk through the rose garden today?”

“We’ll see how Mrs. Duncan’s feeling. If she’s up for it, we’ll all go.”

“All right!” She runs out of the kitchen at that, her footfalls echoing through the hallway, then up the stairs before I speak to Mr. Duncan.

“Thank you for that.”

He shrugs nonchalantly, then he rubs the towel on his chest. He’s so casually sexy, it ought to be a crime.

“No problem.”

I watch as he walks over to the fridge and gets a bottle of water.

I turn away from him. I don’t need the distraction of watching him drink sexy, too. Especially since Bridget just brought up a very good point.

I’m not sure what I would do if Liam showed up on our doorstep one day when Mr. Duncan isn’t home.

“You know,” I say to him. “We’ve never discussed that.”

“Discussed what?”

“What would happen if my uncle showed up here.” I put the teapot on the stove and switch it on. I don’t turn around, though. I can’t bear looking at him right now. “You’re at work all day, leaving us here with no defense against him. I mean, Bridget and I can’t even run. We’d be leaving your mother here alone and—”

“I meant what I said to Bridget,” he says. “You don’t have to worry.”

I look at him and find him leaning against the fridge, the bottle of water in his hand. I swallow and direct my eyes up to his face.

“You sound so confident. Unless you employ actual ninjas to come jumping out of the bushes, I don’t think anyone could stop him from coming here should he ever manage to find us.”

---