My (Mostly) Secret Baby - Penelope Bloom Page 0,37

part child.

What the hell did it mean for food to have an identifiable history? Secondly, how was I going to manage to not only find that sort of thing but do it within an hour? More importantly, I also needed to do this impossible task without alerting anyone that I’d snuck my daughter into work today.

I ducked my head down below my desk so I could see Luna. She popped an earbud out and stopped gnawing on my leg long enough to look up. “Yes, Mommy?”

“If I ask one of my worker friends to watch you for a little while, can you promise to be good?”

“I’ll only be good for that one.”

Luna pointed past the box I’d set near my bag to block her off from view. I followed her little finger and saw she was pointing to a beautiful blonde woman I’d never met. I groaned.

“I don’t know that lady. I can’t trust someone I don’t know to watch you.”

“You said this place was safe.”

Damn it. Kids had a way of weaponizing your own words. Luna was a weapons expert, too. “It is safe, but it would make mommy feel better if it was someone I know keeping an eye on you.”

“Fine. I want him.”

This time, I turned around to find about six feet and four inches of bosshole standing behind me. Glorious smelling, dripping with sexuality, and fuming bosshole.

“Oh, hi,” I said.

“Hi,” Luna echoed.

I was dead. I was about to be thrown through the paneled windows to crash on the streets. If I was lucky, maybe I could pull one of those stunts from movies where I bounce off a few conveniently placed fabric overhangs.

Probably not. With my luck, I’d more likely end up falling through a sewer grate and getting hit by a train. I wondered which was technically faster. The ground racing up to meet you or a speeding subway train.

“Hello?” Damon asked. “Do you care to explain this?”

Luna angled her phone toward him. “That’s Gibblet. He gets into all kinds of trouble because he is always breaking things. See?” She let out an adorable little chuckle as the hairy creature in her show started to disassemble the car of a pig who was waiting for a red light. “He wants to know how it works,” she added, still laughing.

To my surprise, Damon was smirking. “I took apart my dad’s watch once. My brother told me there were little people in there who kept track of the time, and I wanted to see them.”

“What were they like?” Luna asked.

I smiled, forgetting everything except that my daughter was looking at her father and he was smiling back at her. Of course, neither of them knew it. They were just talking, and my heart hurt because it felt so painfully right.

“They were super small and very cute. You should take apart one of your mommy’s watches when she isn’t looking to meet them for yourself.”

Damon straightened, then focused back on me. “Do you have the food yet?”

Was he not going to mention Luna? He wasn’t even going to ask about it?

“Um, not quite yet. I just needed to—”

“You need someone to keep an eye on her while you go get it? We’ll figure it out. But you need to go now if you want to be back in time.”

“You’re sure?”

“Go, Tinkerbell.”

“I love Tinkerbell!” Luna squealed. “Have you seen the one where she makes the whole fairy village tree grow huge?”

“I haven’t,” Damon said. “Is that one good?”

Luna laughed like he’d just asked the dumbest question imaginable. “If you like fairies.”

“Sounds like I’d really enjoy it.” Damon’s focus shifted to me for a split second, and my stupid brain decided to take that as some sort of secret message.

I was Tinkerbell to him, and he said he’d really enjoy a movie about fairies? Okay, yeah. I was overthinking it. “You’re really sure it’s okay? And you’ll make sure she’s okay?”

“Go, Chelsea. And yeah, this is a multi-million-dollar company. Somehow, I think we’ll manage to handle keeping a little kid alive for a few hours.”

“I’m not little. I can see over the kitchen counter,” Luna said crossly.

“Impressive,” Damon said. “But how high is the counter in your house? Two feet?”

“I bet I could see over your counter.”

“You absolutely couldn’t. My counter is this high. You won’t be able to see over it for years.” He held his hand up way above her head.

I watched the two of them argue in a mild state of shock. Even though they were bickering