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Marlowe tried again. “No, Dad, I’m saying we need a day care center on the premises. If I want to be close to my baby, other mothers, other parents,” she corrected herself, widening the circle to include fathers, too, “should have the same option, as well. How about it, Dad? Can we set one up here?”
Payne didn’t like being put on the spot like this, especially since it wasn’t his idea to begin with. “I’ll think about it,” he told her evasively.
But Marlowe shook her head. Her father’s answer wasn’t good enough to satisfy her.
“You need to do more than just think about it, Dad,” she insisted. And then she looked at her brother. “Back me up here, Rafe.”
Rafe said simply, “I think she’s right, Dad.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” Payne asked his adopted son in a mocking tone.
The tone was meant to make Rafe back off, but the latter surprised him by digging in. “Yes, I do.”
Payne looked at him in disgust. “And just who is going to foot this bill?” he demanded.
“Oh, come on, Dad,” Rafe answered in disbelief. “You’re pinching pennies now? Having this day care center on the premises will buy you more goodwill than you can possibly imagine,” Rafe assured the overbearing head of Colton Oil.
Payne frowned
. He really hated to be forced to admit it, but he had to say that Marlowe and Rafe did have a valid point.
Although he wouldn’t come right out and say it, he demonstrated his agreement by retreating.
“All right, you two handle it,” he told the pair. “I’ll underwrite the day care center. Now let’s move on to more pressing problems,” he said authoritatively to the duo.
Marlowe and Rafe both knew their father was talking about trying to locate the real Ace, as well as finding the one whom they had thought of as Ace for all these years. There would be no peace until both of the Aces were found and the mystery surrounding their unorthodox switch was solved.
“I’m already looking into that, Dad,” Rafe reminded his father. “I still think the idea of hiring a private investigator is a good one. Think about it,” he said before Payne could protest. “If it’s our PI, we get to control what news is released and what is kept secret until such time as all the pieces of the puzzle come together.”
Marlowe nodded her agreement. “Rafe has a very good point,” she told her father.
Payne looked from his daughter to his son. “So now the two of you are tag teaming me?”
Marlowe wasn’t certain if her father had just made a joke. But for the first time since she had entered her office that day, she smiled at the larger-than-life man.
“Is it working?” she asked.
“Maybe,” Payne answered evasively. And then he finally conceded. “Yes,” he said. “But don’t let that go to your heads. Odds are that you’ve got to be right at least once in a while,” Payne conceded.
“Thanks, Dad,” Marlowe said. “Coming from you those are glowing words of praise.” His daughter was only half kidding.
Payne looked at her for a long moment, thinking.
“Seriously,” he began in a tone that was extremely subdued from the one he usually used. “Did that bastard hurt you? The stalker, I mean,” he added in case he hadn’t been clear.
“I know who you mean, Dad, and no, he didn’t. Thanks to Bowie,” she stressed, wanting Payne to acknowledge that she was here due to Bowie’s efforts.
Payne frowned as he cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, tell the boy I said thanks,” he mumbled.
“Wow. More praise,” she marveled in surprise. “I’ll pass that along, too,” Marlowe told her father, clearly impressed by this magnanimous side he was displaying.
“Yeah, you do that,” Payne said in a low, less-than-enthusiastic tone of voice.
It was clear that uttering kinder words like this made the older Colton completely uncomfortable. Payne was far more in his element when he was shouting at people and ordering them around than when he was dispensing any sort of praise, no matter how much the other party might deserve it.
“Well,” Payne said, looking from one of his children to the other, waiting. “Anything else that we need to discuss?”
“Not that I can think of at the moment,” Marlowe answered. She turned toward Rafe. “You?”
