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Cara rolled her eyes as most pre-teens tended to do. “Duh!”
“Cara Anne, tone.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry. I just meant that Jessica’s the best. I didn’t have the best day at school.”
“Was it those girls again? The ones who maimed your hair?”
“I can’t say.”
He reached out and patted his daughter’s hand. “I’m going to be meeting soon with the school officials about that.”
“Dad! I didn’t get hurt.”
“But what they did was still assault, and they can’t get away with it. It’s not fair to you, and it’s not fair to any girl they’re also treating this way.”
“Dad, it can’t get better. I just have to stay out of her way!” She sighed. “Their way.”
“I know it’s hard.”
Cara shook her head. “You were popular in school. Grandpa said so. You were always captain of every sports team there was. You don’t know how it is. Besides, her dad is very powerful. I don’t want you to get in trouble ‘cause you made a senator mad.”
“And that’s how she’s gotten away with so much for so long, sweetie,” he said, stroking her soft, golden hair so like LeeAnne’s. God, he still missed his late wife. She’d have known how to fix all of this. She always had, even when Cara was so little. “I’m not scared of anything except for you being upset and hurt.”
“I’m not upset though, and it’s just hair.” She pulled back and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I have a great look now. Jessica said so.”
Brent shifted in his chair and tried not to think of his new nanny. Above everything else, the real reason he shouldn’t think about Jessica – no matter how beautiful and honest she could be – was for Cara’s sake. Anyone who could open her up mattered. He absolutely could not mess that up by being a selfish prick.
“And you like her?”
“I thought I was a little old for a nanny, you know?”
“You’re barely eleven!”
“I could still legally take care of myself this summer.”
“I’m not so sure about that one. I’d have to consult my lawyers.”
“But I’m not a little kid.”
“I don’t know about that either,” he said, ruffling her hair again. She could be three, thirteen, or thirty, but she’d always be his little girl. Nothing would change that. “I feel better knowing you have someone who isn’t just Danny or Cecile to keep an eye out for you this summer.”
“I know. And I do like Jessica. I can’t wait to go to the zoo! They have amazing African penguins. I’ve read and read about them.”
“You have?”
Cara nodded and pulled on the threads of her comforter. “I think I want to study birds when I grow up, and penguins have been my favorite since Happy Feet.”
It was suddenly hard for Brent to swallow. How had he missed this? Clearly, his daughter had been deeply into penguins and biology for a long time. He should have been aware. Sure, he’d been working hard, especially in the last five years, to really get his production company off the ground and, okay, in overdrive since they just barely missed out on an Oscar last year. But he knew Cara. Didn’t he?
“You didn’t say anything.”
Her large blue eyes regarded him with something akin to pity. “Daddy, I know you’re really busy. I don’t want to take up your day with too much. It’s okay. Grandpa has taken me to SeaWorld a few times, and I knew we’d go back to the zoo eventually. I haven’t been there in a while, but you’ve got work.”
His stomach turned when he heard about her spending extra time with his father. About her sharing deeper parts of herself with his dad. The old bastard was exactly the type to start manipulating Cara early in life to be the perfect CEO for the telecom company that Brent had no interest in. So far, his father had held off on the mind games with Cara, but Brent wasn’t comfortable with Cara wanting to share secrets more with her grandpa than with him. If there was one thing he knew painfully well, it was that you never shared secrets with Donald Sanderson.
Not without it coming back to bite you hard in the ass.
“I’m never too busy for you, Cara. I know it’s hard, and I know right now the kids at school are being little jerks, frankly. But I don’t care which call I’m on or how hard I’m working on a project, you can always tell me. And, ladybug,” he said, poking her nose like he had when she was a small child. “I can’t wait to go to the zoo with you either.”
