The Hot Daddy Box Set

by Lexi Wilson

  And I didn’t want to argue with him about it. The important thing was we both agreed that even if I had someone who could watch Sasha, it might be better to take a few Sundays off so we both could concentrate on the new women in our lives.

  I glanced down at my naked lower half and smirked, remembering when Sandy had seen everything. I shook my head, reflecting on the strangeness of fate.

  At the time, her abrupt departure had almost destroyed my newfound happiness, but her leaving led to Morgan helping me out with the baby, which was more than I ever could have hoped.

  Still, I didn’t want to get into the habit of wandering around my house naked. My housekeeper might not take it so well. She might not be there that day, but still. I slipped into some sweatpants and a shirt before heading to the baby’s room to check on her.

  I paused at the door and listened. No baby sounds reached my ear, crying or otherwise. I took a deep breath and then opened the door. I crept toward the crib.

  Sasha still slept soundly. For all her trouble sleeping when she’d first come home, she was already becoming a champion sleeper at night, even if she didn’t manage to make it through the entire night. Still, I could handle being awoken a few times a night, as opposed to never even being able to get to sleep for more than thirty minutes.

  The baby was even sleeping so well now that we occasionally had to wake her up to feed her. I hated the idea, but Morgan insisted we had to wake up the baby on occasion to make sure she was fed. Sandy had said something similar, but it’d never really been a concern before, as the baby never slept long enough that we’d even had to think about it. I guessed that was a concrete example of progress.

  Satisfied that Sasha was all right, I quietly crept out of the room and down the stairs. I made my way into the kitchen. Morgan and I were going to start that Sunday outright, like a real couple. I wanted us to be one, but I was pretty sure she didn’t think of us that way.

  I took a minute to put some of Hunter’s special blend into the coffee maker and start frying up some eggs. A quick check of my refrigerator revealed a melon, so I pulled it out and sliced it up.

  So domestic. I chuckled. I wasn’t sure if I could say I loved Morgan yet, but I definitely wanted her to be part of my life, so now I had a woman and a child, and we were all going to spend the day together. That was assuming Morgan agreed to my plan. I hadn’t really talked to her about it yet, but I wasn’t all that worried.

  I finished the eggs and set up a couple of plates. A few slices of melon were added for good measure, and then I poured us each a cup of coffee.

  Morgan walked in almost at the exact moment, a very awake Sasha in her arms. The baby wasn’t crying though.

  “Good morning,” I said.

  “Good morning.” She moved over to a bouncer in the corner and slipped the baby into it before heading over to the table to take a seat. “This is all very nice.”

  “Not all that fancy. Maybe I should hire us a personal chef.”

  Morgan shook her head. “Your housekeeper is nice enough, but it helps she’s not here all the time. I—” she sighed, shaking her head.

  “What?” I leaned in, trying to figure out what was up.

  “I’m not used to having a lot of other people in my space who aren’t family.”

  I nodded. “I can understand that, but I just can’t maintain a place like this without help.”

  “That’s fine, but I’m just saying if we’re both here, we can probably get by without a personal chef.”

  I laughed, “Most women would like the idea of more people to take up the work.”

  “I guess I’m not most women.”

  “No,” I said, my voice low. “You’re not, and that’s why I like you.”

  Morgan’s cheeks reddened, and she focused on nibbling on her melon instead of me.

  “I bought a nice travel stroller for the baby,” I said. “I thought maybe we could take her down to the park. She’s not really had a chance to see much of the outside world yet.”

  Morgan managed to lift her head. “Oh, that sounds lovely.”

  I offered her a grin. “Let’s finish and gear up then.”

  Thirty minutes later, I was pushing the stroller down the sidewalk, a sleeping Sasha inside. There was a nice park nearby, and we didn’t even have to worry about driving.

  The sun shone high in the sky, and there were few clouds. Good. I wanted my niece’s first outing to not be a dreary typical Seattle affair.

  An old woman walking across the road smiled warmly at us. I almost laughed. I’d jogged around here countless times, and most people just wanted to scowl at me, but add a baby and a woman on my arm, and suddenly I’m a beloved pillar of the community.

  We strolled along under the shadows of the trees lining the streets in silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable. If anything, it was the opposite. It was like we didn’t need to talk. Just being beside each other was enough.

  “All those nannies and I just needed my trusty assistant,” I said.

  Morgan laughed. “Oh? Is that what it is?”

  “Even Sandy wasn’t this good with Sasha. You’re a good mo—” I winced and looked away.

  “A good mother? I would have been, I think,” Morgan said softly. “You don’t have to tiptoe around it anymore, you know.”

  I looked back at her. “I didn’t want to upset you.”

  “Sasha’s changed me, healed me somehow, I guess.” She let out a long sigh. “Reminding me of why children are so wonderful.”

  “I’m glad.” We stopped at a crosswalk and waited for the signal to turn. “I guess she’s changed me too.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’d kind of given up on the idea of kids. Not that I was all that interested before. Hell, I’ll be honest, even though this is embarrassing. At first, I didn’t see why everyone was fawning over her.”

  Morgan nodded slowly, no judgment in her eyes. “Go on.”

  “I just kept thinking about my sister and how I suddenly had been saddled with this baby.” The signal turned to walk, and I started pushing the stroller across the street. “I was angry and frustrated.”

  “You’d just sustained a horrible loss. I don’t think anyone can blame you.” She glanced down as the baby stirred in her sleep. “Besides, the important thing is that you did look out for Sasha. It’s not like you had to.”

  “Didn’t I?”

  “You could have put her up for adoption.”

  “Not really. She’s my flesh and blood. I would never do that.”

  Morgan smiled, “And that’s why I have so much respect for you.”

  The park came into view, dotted with play equipment and carefully manicured trees. I could see how Sasha would really enjoy this place in a couple of years. For now, though, she could at least enjoy the fresh air, scenery and the other kids playing.

  We pushed into the park and headed toward some benches.

  A smiling woman approached the stroller. “What a beautiful baby.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “She looks just like her mommy,” the woman said, beaming a smile at Morgan.

  “Yes, she does.”

  “Well, I’ll leave you alone. I remember how tough it can be to keep them asleep when they are that young.” The woman waved and headed off.

  Once the woman was out of earshot, Morgan chuckled. “I don’t look anything like Sasha.”

  “Well, they just said she looks like her mother, and she does look like Daisy, but honestly, you kind of do. With the dark hair and all.”

  Morgan rolled her eyes. “So Sasha resembles every dark-haired woman on the planet now?”

  “Not every, just some.”

  She stared at me for a long while, her eyes narrowed. “It doesn’t bother you, does it?”

  “What?”

  “That she assumed this was our baby.”

  I shrugged. “I’ll worry more when Sasha is older and she might be confused, but right now I don’t care if some random woman in a lo
cal park is confused, no.”

  We stared at each other for a moment. I ran my fingers along my sweaty palms. The truth wanted to burst from my lips.

  I love you, Morgan.

  I’d accepted that now. I’d danced around with semantics for a time, but I understood it now. I wasn’t a kid, and I wasn’t a fool. I understood my mind and my heart, and I knew what it was telling me.

  But I couldn’t tell Morgan that, not yet anyway. It was too soon. She wouldn’t understand. I’d only barely been able to get her to stay at my place, and I knew she was still leery of us being together.

  Sasha started crying, and Morgan pulled out a bottle to offer it to the girl. The baby eagerly accepted the bottle and happily started drinking the formula.

  So simple. Maybe we weren’t meant to be together in some sort of cosmic sense, but we worked well together in taking care of the baby, at work, and even in bed. It made no sense that we were not staying together.

  I understood Morgan’s past pain, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t walk away from what we shared.

  She shot me a smile as she fed the baby.

  Yes, I loved Morgan, and I loved Sasha, and I wanted to start planning for their future.

  “If you could live anywhere, where would it be?” I asked.

  “Why are you suddenly asking that?”

  “Just curious.”

  Morgan tucked a few dark strands of hair behind her ear. “I love the ocean. I used to have a house with an ocean view, but—we sold it when we separated.”

  “Sorry to hear it.”

  “It’s okay.”

  I smiled, “Maybe someday you’ll get another ocean house.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  I made a mental note. It was time to start looking at some properties.

  Chapter 28

  Morgan

  I slipped another dress into my suitcase. I’d need to iron it later, but I needed to have more outfits over at his place. Otherwise, people might get suspicious when I kept cycling through the same few sets of clothes.

  Then again, would it matter? It wasn’t a secret that I was helping out with the baby. Maybe I hadn’t been all that aggressive in announcing my love life to Iris or some of the other employees, but I wasn’t sure if it mattered. I mainly only dealt directly at work with Daniel except for the occasional meeting, and even in those, I mostly sat quietly and took notes.

  I returned my attention to packing clothes.

  Checking the clock, I relaxed a bit. I was doing well timewise. Not that showing up a few minutes later on a Tuesday morning would make Daniel angry.

  A long sigh followed. The personal and professional boundaries were blurring in a way I wasn’t sure I was totally comfortable with, but I supposed it was inevitable. I wasn’t prepared to quit my job, and I’d already tried to keep my distance from Daniel only to fail horribly.

  I wouldn’t pretend anymore that I could keep it all business, or only focus on Sasha when it came to Daniel. Whether it was my heart, my body, or both, he kept drawing me in like a moth to a flame.

  “What am I doing?” I said, taking a long look around my bedroom. Dusty. Empty. Old.

  It was funny. It’d only been a few days, but my own apartment was already feeling strange and foreign, like it wasn’t my real home, but Daniel’s place was.

  It’s not like I felt that way after a few days at a hotel. Then again, maybe I would if I was dating the owner of the hotel.

  I groaned. But we weren’t even in a relationship. At least, not that we’d ever really talked about. Somehow, he kept convincing me to stay over, and the next thing I knew I’d been staying over for several days.

  It was like some strange quasi-relationship that maybe existed or maybe didn’t. Sleeping together wasn’t a relationship. That was just friends with benefits. Wasn’t it?

  The only problem was, I wanted a lot more than friends with benefits.

  I sat on the edge of my bed, shaking my head. I’d tried my best to guard my heart, tried my best to be rational about it, but I’d failed completely. There was no way to pretend that I wasn’t in love with Daniel.

  I’d become a weepy, emotional woman who wanted to be with her boss and be an adopted mom to his niece, like some sort of weird cliché. Jacy would have been proud.

  Not that I’d seen her much. From the amount of time she’d been spending with Hunter, I half-wondered if she was staying over at his place every night.

  Taking a deep breath, I got moving. Love was a good thing, and liking a baby was a good thing. I wasn’t going to torture myself anymore.

  Nodding to myself, I made a big decision. When I next saw Daniel, I’d admit my feelings, and then we could move past this awkward phase of not knowing what we were to each other.

  I needed to finish packing. It’s not like I needed to move everything I owned, just some more clothes.

  After I entered the building, I slipped into Hunter’s shop to grab some coffee. He was busy with customers, but Jacy sat on a stool at the end of the counter.

  I was a bit surprised to see her just because I figured she’d already be at work. She rose from her stool and rushed over to pull me into a hug. With a tug, she led me over to a table on the side.

  “What about my coffee?” I asked.

  “Just sit down. You can get your coffee later.” A huge grin split her face.

  I slipped into a seat and eyed her warily. Jacy was an upbeat person, so she was nearly always in a good mood, but she was in a stupidly good mood today, which made me a little nervous.

  “I’m kind of running late, Jacy,” I said. “Sorry, I don’t really have time to chat.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, I’m so sure that Daniel will fire you if you show up a few minutes later, especially when you’re helping him with his baby.”

  “I—” I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “Well, it’s still a matter of professionalism.”

  “Oh, stop being such a party pooper, especially when I have such good news.”

  “Okay, then, what’s your good news?”

  Before, I would have expected her to tell me about some cool new bar or club that she’d discovered, but I doubted she was as interested in that sort of thing now that she was dating Hunter.

  “I’m getting married,” Jacy announced.

  I stared at my friend, waiting for her to start laughing at her hilarious joke.

  “What?”

  “This weekend.”

  “What?”

  “Married! Me!” Jacy’s grin somehow grew even wider.

  “To who?”

  Jacy sat back, a confused look on her face. “Are you serious right now?”

  “That’s what I was about to ask you.”

  She rolled her head to the side then jerked it a few times towards Hunter on the other side of the room. “Who else would I be marrying?”

  “But—huh—you barely know him.”

  Jacy shook her head. “I know him well enough to know that I love him, and I don’t see a reason to wait. I’m not some stupid little girl. I know what I want from a man, and he’s willing to offer it.”

  Leaning forward, I lowered my voice. “It wasn’t all that long ago that you were acting like me even dating Daniel was crazy, and now you’re marrying Hunter?”

  “Daniel has a new baby and is getting over a tragedy. Hunter’s just a normal stud with no tragedy and a coffee shop.”

  I shook my head, still having trouble believing it, but after seeing the huge pleading look on Jacy’s face, I couldn’t help but smile.

  “Congratulations,” I said, leaning over to hug her. “Are you sure you want to do this so quickly? No big ceremony?”

  “Nope, just a courthouse thing. I need you as a witness, though. Can you do it?”

  “Of course. I’d love to come.” I laughed. “I guess—wow.”

  “Hey, you know how I am. If I want something, I go for it.”

  I glanced over at Hunter, but he was still busy dealing with a rus
h of customers. “Did you ask him, or did he ask you?”

  “He asked me, he talked about how he’s been trying to find the right woman for him, that’s why he was even out that night. Then when he saw me, he just knew.” She blushed. “I guess it’s been kind of selfish of me to be so scarce lately. It’s just I’ve wanted to spend every spare minute with Hunter.”

  I waved a hand. “It’s fine. It’s not exactly like I’ve had a lot of free time between work and the baby.”

  Jacy’s smile disappeared. “And Morgan, I’m sorry. I was wrong to say what I did.”

  “What?”

  “About you and Daniel. I think you’re meant for each other as much as Hunter and I are meant for each other.”

  “Well, I’m not getting married anytime soon,” I chuckled darkly. “I still have a divorce to work through for one thing.”

  Jacy reached over and patted my hand. “Well, maybe you should get busy taking care of that.” She glanced at her watch. “And, I guess I should get going before we both get in trouble with our bosses.” She winked and stood, “See you this weekend.”

  I offered her a wave as she headed out, then rejoined the line. Hunter motioned to the side, and I hesitated for a moment before moving over to him.

  He pushed a cup of coffee at me. “No friend of mine needs to wait in the line.”

  I felt the angry glares of a few other customers, but I wasn’t about to complain.

  “Congratulations,” I said.

  Hunter grinned. “Love is in the air it seems.”

  “Something like that.” I picked up the cup. “Thanks. So, I guess I’ll see you this weekend.”

  He nodded, grinning as happily as Jacy had, then returned to helping his employees.

  I stumbled toward the hallway and then to the elevator in a haze. Hunter and Jacy were getting married. Jacy could be fun-loving and liked her men, but she’d never, ever talked about getting married before, so I didn’t question it. Whatever they had, it was very serious.

  As I rode the elevator up, it made me question what I had with Daniel. I thought I loved him, but the idea of marrying him terrified me, and if I wasn’t looking for that, then what was the point?