My job is the only thing that I’ve ever been successful at that matters.
“Go,” I repeat.
“Stay home tomorrow. Bond with the baby and get help lined up,” she orders me. “Mr. Jaeger, watch yourself.”
While my grandmother leaves, Westley turns away from me, but not all the way, and I catch the big bad construction guy’s face softening into a gentle smile.
Swoon.
No. No. Not swoon. Swoon is only for foreign hotties who believe me when I say my name is Melanie and that I get mistaken for Daisy Carter-Kincaid all the time. For men who know I’m a one-time deal. For men who can’t just drive down to Miami, and yes, there was that one who just drove down to Miami from California a few years back, so no, I don’t date Canadian or Mexican men either.
All of North America is out.
My security team agreed it was a good idea.
I knew when I found West in the pool house that he wasn’t a stripper, but I also knew that whoever he was, he was there because The Dame had ordered him to be, much like she’d had my security team find me and inform me she was headed over and needed to talk.
And I knew it would irritate the shit out of her to walk in on me making out with whoever he was.
And now I have to pay for my sins.
So, so much.
Five
West
It’s late. My head hurts the way it normally does after an adrenaline crash. There’s something orange dripping behind Daisy all over her marble floor and killing my curiosity about the wall of frozen yogurt in this bright, airy office—which I assume is her office because of the frozen yogurt wall and the distressed white desk at one end—and I don’t have a fucking clue where this baby needs to sleep tonight.
Me? I’ll be on the floor. Right next to him. For tonight, at least, while my temper cools and my injured pride heals. Nothing like being kicked with a dangled insta-family that’ll be taken away soon enough by those lawyers Imogen Carter was talking about.
But this little guy has bigger problems than my temper and pride.
He’s a fucking orphan. Without a bed. Probably have to sleep on—christ.
That round pink Persian-inspired rug in the center of the floor has a circle of penises woven into it. And the sunken white leather seating area around an indoor gas fireplace at the other end of the room has curved end tables decorated with jade stick figures doing each other in the butt.
My balls whimper. Tonight could’ve gone soooo differently. Are we sure all’s lost?
“So. You’re not a stripper,” Daisy says with an easy, friendly, trust me smile that puts an ache back in my shoulders.
“No,” I answer curtly.
“We could still play pretend.”
I scowl.
She sighs, grabs a handful of napkins from a dispenser, and turns in a circle while she tries to wipe the orange frozen yogurt off the white and gold sparkle dress holding her tight, round ass. “Let’s start over. Hi. I’m Daisy. Welcome to my house. Thanks for feeding the baby. Who are you and how did you know my cousin?”
I know how this ends. They have more money and access to better lawyers than I ever will. This kid isn’t my insta-family, and my rapidly cooling temper is making me regret that ballsy move in telling off her grandmother. “Redid the kid’s nursery. Never met her—Julienne—before the job. Haven’t—didn’t talk to her after.”
“You’re the guy she one-starred because you wouldn’t take out a wall to put in a marble statue and fountain?”
I give a single nod, because I have no idea if it’s actually normal for rich people to think taking out a fucking exterior wall—and raising a ceiling eight inches—in four days with a crew of two is no big deal.
“Don’t take it personally. She gave my driveway one star because she would’ve picked starfish instead of crushed seashells, and she once one-starred my mom’s boobs for being too boob-like. How’d you get the job?”
“My brother.”
Her brows pull together briefly. “Wait. Tyler Jaeger? That asshole who knocked us out of the play-offs this spring with that buzzer beater?”
“You follow hockey.”
“I follow a lot of things. How’d Tyler get you the job?”
“Knew somebody who knew somebody who said she couldn’t get a contractor to take the job. Just retired from the Marines. Needed the work.”
She rolls her eyes. “That makes unfortunate sense. Why did Julienne put you in her will?”
“No clue.” I should put the baby down,