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Laughing, Mickie scooped up his daughter. “Oh, how can you say that?” She kissed a chubby cheek.
“See? The goober gets all the sugar. It used to be mine, but now I get nothing.” He pouted.
Mickie smiled at him. Even after months of getting to know her, her down-to-earth personality and love of a quiet life surprised him. She’d graced movie screens across the world, earned millions upon millions of dollars, and lived in the glamorous world of an A-list movie star. Now she settled on the worn carpet with baby dribble soaking into her silk blouse and a cheesy grin on her impeccable face.
“You know,” she said, letting Kayla grab onto her necklace and tug for all the little monster was worth. “I’m pretty sure if you take this smoosh out with you, you’ll attract every woman within a five-mile radius. You think Kayla repels them, but I have it on good authority that women can’t resist a sexy man with a cute baby.” She winked one of those perfectly made-up eyes.
He snorted. “Yeah, but the minute I go to make a move, she’ll have a shit explosion. Or she’ll spit up all over my face. Or scream like a fucking banshee. Did you hear her last night?”
Man, the previous night had nearly killed him. After drinking an entire pot of coffee this morning, he finally felt awake enough to function at half capacity, but, fuck, this baby-raising shit wasn’t for the weak. He was trying his damnedest but doubted himself at least two hundred times each day.
With a laugh, Mickie shook her head. “I don’t think even this loud mouth’s lungs are powerful enough to wake me across the street.” Then she turned her attention back to Kayla. “Did you keep your daddy up last night? Were you singing to him all night long?”
It was still such a mind fuck to hear someone refer to him as daddy. Well, someone fully clothed and not looking for the fun kind of spanking.
“What’s that?” Mickie held Kayla up to her ear. “It’s all lies? Hmm. That’s what I thought.” She frowned at JP. “Why are you making up stories about this perfect little angel?”
“You’re lucky you’re so cute,” he grumbled.
“Thank you,” Mickie said with a smirk as she set Kayla down on her stomach.
Who the hell ever heard of something called tummy time? Apparently, it was a thing, and Kayla needed to be doing a lot of it to help develop her muscles for crawling. At least that’s what the blogs claimed.
“I was referring to the baby. You are too intimidating to be cute.” As Mickie burst into laughter, JP clicked a link he’d been debating opening since before Mickie distracted him. A quick perusal of the page confirmed what he’d read elsewhere. He could pursue a degree in landscape architecture online by taking either full or part-time classes.
But it’d take years. And more money than he had to spare. He shut the computer with a grunt. “Probably not worth it.”
“What are you mumbling about over there?” Mickie placed a soft toy just out of Kayla’s reach.
The baby stretched her chubby little arms and kicked her legs. He had to admit watching her attempt tasks and progress toward achieving them gave him a thrill. For example, yesterday she’d spent fifteen minutes trying to use a sippy cup. He’d cheered along with her gleeful squeals when she mastered the task.
“JP?”
“Sorry. What?” He tore his attention away from the little girl whose entire life was reliant on him and his ability to provide for her.
“What were you looking at on the computer?”
For the first time in his life, his face heated. Usually, he loved the spotlight. Being the life of the party, working the crowd. Now he felt like a bug under a microscope as he endured Mickie’s assessing stare. “Nothing. Just looking at some options for the future, but it was probably a dumb idea anyway, so I scrapped it.”
“Tell me.”
“Nah, like I said, it’s dumb.”
“Tell me anyway. I’ve had plenty of dumb ideas in my day. Some of them even turned out to be amazing. Like that time I gave up my career in Hollywood to move to a small town in Vermont.”
Smirking, he shook his head. Stubborn woman. “Touché.”
Kayla pushed up on all fours and rocked back and forth. She’d been doing that a lot over the past few days, but fell within seconds.
And down she went with a frustrated shout.
“Come on. Lay it on me.”
“Anyone ever told you you’re annoying?” He asked as he shifted from the couch to the floor to join Mickie and his daughter.
Holy shit, you have a daughter.
Maybe if he reminded himself more, it’d stop freaking him the fuck out.
He tapped the carpet in front of him. “Come on, Kayla-girl. Crawl to Daddy. You can do it.”
