Second Chance Baby (Crescent Cove #18)

Chapter 11

ELEVEN

Carrington grumbled under her breath. “How could she race ahead of her own kid? Bad enough there probably won’t be any bitchin’ costumes left because we waited too long.”

I let the swear word pass, since she wasn’t lying. Spirit still had a ton of decorations left, but the costume section was a little sparse.

I also had no clue what kind of mental damage I’d recently suffered prior to our trip to the store. Why had I pressed that whole movie issue?

True, this whole new relationship thing was brand new, and I was fumbling my way through all of it.

Even so, she was blowing my mind. And not because she seemed to love gigantic skeletons almost as much as our daughter. Or not only because of that.

“You can’t put a cowboy hat on a skeleton,” I insisted as Carrington rooted through a huge box of props. “Bad enough you got me to buy some cowboy boots at that western store.”

“You looked hot in them,” Bridget volunteered before ducking her head.

I started to preen before I remembered that wasn’t the point.

Sure, I looked okay in them. I knew how to sell what I was putting out there.

Like having sex with Bridget for the masses. I’d definitely sold that one.

Ahem.

“Why not? Cowboys need love too.” She pried out a pink cowboy hat and started jumping to try to reach the skeleton’s head.

So, of course, I plucked the cowboy hat out of her hand and put it on the display skeleton’s head.

“Tilt it more,” she announced.

I did as she asked, but she shook her head and motioned with her hand to tilt it more the other way. I obeyed her and yet she still was motioning.

What the heck?

Bridget sidestepped me and angled up on her tiptoes to adjust the hat yet again. Then Carrington clapped her hands with a joyful smile wreathing her face. “Perfect. See, Daddy?”

Oh, I saw, all right. I was outvoted.

I kind of loved it.

But I knew my part and I played it off with a low growl that made Carrington giggle and hold up a hand for her mom to slap. Bridget shot me an overwhelmed look that briefly made me wonder if I’d gone too far, but then she slapped hands with her daughter and drew her in for a hard hug.

I let out a relieved breath. I simply didn’t know my moves in this sphere.

I was used to being a dad by now. Most of the time, I actually felt as if I had those steps down. I knew I was taking a risk by ever thinking that way, because that was tempting the universe to knock you down a few pegs. I was quite certain I’d be reminded soon enough that I was no expert there, either, but compared to this new situation with Bridget, in the father arena, I felt like I had it all nailed down.

But then again, I’d demanded to see my ex in some apparently explicit movie, so I was cruising for a damn bruising.

Big time.

As if I could watch her get naked with some dude who was not me. Had I recently suffered some mental issue without being aware of it? How did I think I’d be able to watch that without jumping up to punch the damn TV?

I loved my damn TV. I didn’t want to have to buy a new one right when I was trying to save money—since my modeling days were probably the next thing to finished, our latest possibly viral near-porn shoot aside.

At least I had a line on a new position with Gideon and my brother. It wouldn’t pay that much unless I decided to put in a ton of hours, but what the hell else did I have to do while Carrington was in school? I wasn’t used to staying in one place, and to be honest, traveling around so much gave me less time to think.

To dwell on shit in my past I’d made a righteous mess out of. We might be able to close the door on that and move forward now, but until I had my ring on Bridget’s finger, I wouldn’t feel certain.

Carrington darted up a nearby aisle and started squealing. “We gotta get these too.”

I had no clue what she was referring to since Bridget had gone off to get a cart and was now attempting to muscle the nearest boxed skeleton into it. I took over for her with the skeleton and she went to grab another pink cowboy hat out of the bin since the one she’d originally grabbed had been snatched off the skeleton by another overzealous mother. But she was tossing stuff here and there as if she couldn’t find one.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, wheeling the cart over to her.

“There isn’t another pink cowboy hat, and that woman stole it!” She made no attempt to keep her voice down, so I sent the woman in question a friendly smile when she looked our way with obvious disgust.

“There has to be another one,” I said placatingly, nudging Bridget aside so I could look.

“There isn’t. I dug through that entire bin. She just stole it,” Bridget repeated, aiming her death stare toward the woman she was referring to.

Who stared back at Bridget just as ferociously,

“We’ll just pick something else. What about this purple one?” I held up a purple cowboy hat, figuring that should calm the riled tempers.

But Carrington saw what I was holding up and immediately abandoned the aisle of Halloween goodness to come get in my face. “I wanted the pink one. Not purple. Where’s my hat?” Her voice pitched dangerously high.

I didn’t cover my ears, but it was a close thing.

Especially since I knew which way this whole scene was going, and I had a feeling our nakedness yesterday might not end up being the biggest topic of conversation in the Cove this week.

Usurped by cleanup in aisle three at the Halloween decoration store. News at eleven.

I stepped over to the cowboy hat thief. “Ma’am, I’m sure you can understand the pickle we’re in. My young daughter had her heart set on that particular cowboy hat, and in fact, that was her decision to put it on the skeleton.”

“So what?” The woman clutched the hat to her ample chest, crushing the wide brim against her boobs. “It’s mine now.”

“Why would you want to make a little girl sad?” Bridget asked, tossing aside the unwanted purple hat on top of the prop bin.

“The purple hat is just fine,” the other woman announced.

“Then you take it and leave the pink one my little girl wants.”

“Mom, I’m not little.”

Bridget waved a hand. “Just a matter of speaking, Care Bear.”

Then she looked back at the hat thief as she opened her tiny purse and withdrew her pink wallet.

Must be pink was the color of the day.

Bridget opened her wallet, quickly flashing a wad of green bills. “Here, I’ll make this worth your time.”

The hat thief’s eyes narrowed. “I have a kid too, you know.” Her voice lifted, verging on a screech. “Actually, two of them and both my girls actually wear cowboy hats, so, you know, we need them more. Not just for a dang skeleton.”

“Well, then you could go to the western gear store on Main Street in town instead of stealing Halloween items someone else saw first.”

The woman stepped up to Bridget, edging up to get as close as she could to her face. Which wasn’t that close because Bridget was tall while the hat snatcher was extremely petite. But anger seemed to puff her up a few inches, as did her overly teased curly hair. “I didn’t steal a damn thing. I’m holding on to it in the store where it was available to purchase for anyone who wanted it. And yanno, possession is 9/10s of the law or whatever.”

More people were joining the fray to watch by the minute. I should intervene somehow to cool down everyone’s tempers, but how?

Honestly, I wanted to see how far Bridget would go to save the hat for her daughter. The light of battle in her beautiful eyes was hard to resist.

Not to mention, I still kept thinking about how she’d starred in some kind of French sex movie. What the actual hell? Even if some other guy was touching her, it might be kind of hot—in the right light.

It was just a movie, right? Movies weren’t based in reality.

Just make-believe, which was what the whole twenty-four hours plus since the shoot felt like somehow. I kept expecting to wake up alone in bed after having this unreal dream, horny and pissed.

“Look, I got a big credit card bill to pay.” The woman’s gaze dropped to Bridget’s still open wallet. “How much dough you willing to shell out for the hat?”

Carrington tugged on Bridget’s sweater sleeve. “Mom, you don’t gotta pay extra. Just let the lady have it for her daughters. Maybe they need it more.”

“No, you don’t ask for much, Care Bear. I want you to have it.”

“But she has two daughters, and I’m only one.”

The woman’s mutinous expression softened as she gazed down at Carrington. “Well, if her nickname is Care Bear, she’s obviously not that old. My girls are teens, and this is probably the last Halloween they’ll even care much about it. They might not even care now. So, you know what? I’ll take the purple one, after all.” The woman handed the pink hat to Carrington and snatched the purple hat, looking around frantically as if she expected someone to demand that one next.

Especially since we’d drawn a small and growing crowd.

“Thank you,” I said softly, cupping Carrington’s shoulder with one hand. “I’m very proud of your thoughtfulness, young lady,” I added in an undertone as the other woman hurried off toward the checkout line.

Then I lifted both hands in the air. “Show’s over, folks. Everyone’s happy now.”

One by one, the crowd dispersed—a little disappointedly, if I wasn’t mistaken.

“Think they were hoping for bloodshed?” I muttered to Bridget, who couldn’t hold back her bawdy laughter.

“Why are you staring at me?” she asked, rubbing her nose as if she had something on it.

“Because you don’t laugh like that anymore. At least that I’ve seen.”

“I haven’t had all that much to laugh over until recently.”

“Glad that you did today.”

“And yesterday,” she interjected. “Remember Barry?”

She did have a point there.

“Yeah. We’ll just have to find much more to make you laugh, hopefully not involving fisticuffs with the fine denizens of the Cove.”

“Fine denizen? She wanted to hose me for that cowboy hat. Did you see the gleam in her eyes before Carrington made her feel guilty?”

I smiled proudly. “Kid might just be a lawyer someday. She’s got a way with words.”

“Has she ever mentioned that?” Bridget questioned as we headed up the nearest aisle, following a bit behind our daughter. “Being a lawyer? Or any other career? I mean, she’s awfully young, but I wanted to be a teacher by her age.”

“Even younger, you were. You were always the one with her eye on the prize. And look how you’ve succeeded.”

“You, too.”

“Yeah, but this was never what I wanted to do. It just was a quick way to make some cash. And now I’m getting older, so it’s not as lucrative as it once was.”

“What are you talking about? You’re still just as gorgeous as you ever were.”

My grin was quick. “Look who’s talking.”

Her blush instantly made walking more difficult. Gorgeous didn’t even begin to cover how stunning she was. Especially when she was embarrassed.

I’d always been helpless against my need to tease her, just in the hopes of seeing her flush as her full lips curved and she looked down at the floor. She tucked one of her wayward blond curls behind her ear. God, Carrington looked so much like her from the eyes to the golden curls.

I was tempted to draw her into my arms right there, regardless of who could see.

Holding hands on our dog walk was one thing. Full-on making out at the almost full Halloween store quite another.

Truthfully, I’d always had a touch of the exhibitionist inside me, so if people wanted to watch us, I had no problem with that.

Clearly not, since I’d turned kissing into full-on sex mid-photoshoot. At least I’d managed not to drop trou until the room had emptied out in a hurry.

“What are you thinking about?” Bridget’s voice lowered to a whisper.

“How I want to touch you again right here. Wish I could.”

“Do your worst.”

My pulse skyrocketed. “Gotta say I like how you think.”

Her lashes fluttered. “As if I ever denied you anything anywhere.”

After ascertaining Carrington was currently fully occupied by some crazy clown display that consisted of tossing colorful balls into his mouth, I gripped Bridget’s arm and brushed my mouth over her hair. “Yeah, because I wasn’t the only one with exhibitionist tendencies.”

“No, you sure weren’t.” She shifted toward me, rubbing against me in a sensual way that had my erection going from half mast to full-on in an instant. Looking up at me, she rolled her tongue over her lower lip. “Think we’ll be able to wait for the movie?”

“Considering we don’t have nearly enough Halloween stuff yet to suit our daughter, I’d say we have no choice. But I can’t wait to see that movie. What’s it called, by the way?”

Her whiskey eyes took on an unholy gleam. “ L’aventure .” She leaned up to playfully trail her fingernail down my throat before she walked toward Carrington.

“Oh, what’s that you’ve found? Looks fun.”

“You get points for whatever ball you toss into his mouth. He’s really hungry. See, the balls have different foods on them and a range of points.”

They bent their blond heads together to confer over which ones to toss, and I had to rub my fist over my chest to get my breath going once again. Just seeing them standing so closely together did things to my gut. And to my heart.

It was truly incredible how the years lost between us had seemed to dissolve in mere minutes. Probably because all I wanted to focus on was our future possibilities.

And right now? They truly seemed endless.