“Uh-huh.” She continued coloring.
“Honey, stop for a minute.”
She did.
“You know when Daddy works from home, you don’t come into my office because I’m busy.”
“But sometimes I come in and you stop for a little while.” Her smile melted him.
“For the next few days, Providence and I are going to be working here in my office.”
Her eyes lit up. “I can give my artwork to her, today!”
“We have a big project and I’m going to need you to wait for us to finish working.”
“Sammy and I can spend some time in my apartment,” Miranda said. “She loves playing downstairs with me, right, Sammy?”
“Okay.”
Despite not getting a break, Dakota wasn’t going to lay down the hammer with Sammy. He would wait to see how the afternoon played out, first. “Who wants scrambled eggs?”
“Me!” She finished her juice.
Dakota made enough eggs for all of them, ate breakfast at the table like it was a normal Monday, kissed his daughter goodbye, and left.
But there was nothing normal about this Monday, at all.
Slogging his way through rush-hour traffic toward D.C., he called Providence.
“I saw the news,” she said. “I hate that we’re playing defense.”
He loved that she said ‘we’. After he brought her up to speed, he told her about Sammy. “I adore my child, but I’m concerned that she’ll want to spend time—”
“Don’t sweat it. One day at a time.”
“I am not getting a damn break,” he growled.
“You haven’t been arrested. The police haven’t returned to question us. That’s a good sign. Maybe the evidence is taking them in a different direction. If your sweet daughter wants a few minutes of my attention, I’ll give it to her. If we have to work after she goes to sleep, we’ll do that.”
“You’re rock steady.”
“That’s me.”
“And drop-dead gorgeous.”
“Okay, cowboy, enough of the sweet talk. I’ve gotta go.”
“Meet me at Sin’s office in Georgetown.”
“Will do. Good luck.”
“You, too.”
After parking in Sin’s private lot, he went upstairs to Develin & Associates. Sin was on the phone, and waved him in. Dakota shut the door behind him and sat on the arm of the sofa.
“If you’d contacted him directly, he would have given the exclusive to you,” Sin said. “You aired the story and ran the photos.” As he listened, he slid his gaze to Dakota and a devilish grin filled his face. “When you find yourself in a position where you need me to fix some scandal for you, don’t call me.” He grew silent, then added, “Get yourself out of your own fucking mess. You have a good day now.” Sin hung up. “What a douche bag.”
“I’ll assume that was the news director who chose to run the story about me.”
