Page 38 of Hired By My Rich Baby Daddy 3

Miss Carolyn laughed. “Yep. Like a grilled cheese.”

All three of us laughed.

Noree walked over to the island, and out of instinct, she placed Oaklynn right into my arms.

The second I had her, my smile grew wider.

“Good morning, my pretty baby.”

I kissed her cheek, and she looked up at me with sleepy eyes. When I lightly tickled her side, she squirmed in my arms and smiled.

“There go that pretty smile,” I said in a softer voice. “You sleep good? Hmm? Did my baby sleep good?”

Oaklynn stared at me while I continued talking to her.

Noree stood there watching us for a second before she smiled.

“I’m going to go freshen up and get myself together,” she said.

“Aight.”

She turned and walked back out of the kitchen, leaving Oaklynn with me.

I looked down at my daughter as she grabbed one of the strings hanging from the ugly-ass velour jacket I had on and wrapped her tiny fingers around it. I smiled and gently bounced her in my arms.

All I could do was smile because something told me it was going to be a good morning and an even better day.

“Here, I made her some mini pancakes, and she loves grits. You can place her in her highchair. Her greedy self gone clean the plate. Watch and see.”

Miss Carolyn laughed, and I got up, lifting the highchair with one arm and pulling it closer to me while I held Oaklynn securely against my chest.

I then placed Oaklynn into the seat and snapped her in. She seemed to perk up almost immediately after seeing me walk over with her food on a pink kiddy plate with a spoon. I scooped up some of the grits for her, and out of instinct, I blew on them a few times and made an airplane noise before feeding her, causing her to giggle.

Noree then walked back into the kitchen and said, “Aww, you’re a natural.”

The rest of the morning went smoothly until Derez started blowing my phone up.

I opened our message thread to text him and let him know I was busy, but he sent me a link to a blog. There was a picture of Ginger as the thumbnail, and the headline said, “Ozy Love Isn’t Who You Think He Is. He Cheated on Me and Stood by Watching His New Girl Jump on Me for No Reason.”

I clicked the video, and she cried into the camera, making my blood boil.

“Look at my face. I look horrible, and he just stood there and laughed. Ladies…” She sniffled. “Never love a man more than he loves you. Oh… and he had a baby on me. He’ll be announcing it soon, but I’m sure he won’t tell the whole story. His baby is one. We were together when she was conceived.”

I shut my phone quick, then looked up at Noree. She looked pissed.

“What the hell?”

When I woke up, I was on the couch. I wasn’t even sure how I’d fallen asleep out there, especially since my couch wasn’t the softest thing in the world. I immediately sat up and had to stretch and crack my back a couple of times before I could even think straight. I yawned, swung my feet over the edge until they touched the floor, and just sat there for a minute, letting my eyes adjust.

Everything from the night before came rushing back to my head at once.

I went to stand up and heard my phone ringing somewhere close by, vibrating against something. I started fishing around the couch cushions, finally found it wedged down between two of them, and by the time I pulled it out, I saw it was my sister calling. Just as I went to answer, she hung up.

That’s when I noticed the missed calls. Three of them, all from her, all in the last ten minutes. My eyebrows went straight up, and my stomach dropped a little, ’cause I knew she and Ozy were supposed to be headed to my mama’s house last night to pick up Oaklynn. I didn’t know if something had happened over there or what.

I called her right back, clearing my throat and already pacing my living room floor, nerves shooting through me, eyes wide open now, fully awake.

She picked up before the first ring even finished. She didn’t even give me a chance to say hello.