Daddy in Disguise: Crescent Cove Book 7 Read online

  “You’re my woman.” I dared to rub my thumb along the little dip under her lower lip, reaching upward when her lashes fluttered and her mouth parted.

  Not to admonish me. Not to tell me to go to hell. But to make the softest exhalation I’d probably ever heard. Barely audible. Just enough to cause me to angle my head and fuse our mouths together the way I’d been aching to do since she’d kissed me days ago.

  This wasn’t like that kiss.

  Oh, the same aggression and frustration were there, layered under a sweet sensation of surprise that had me cupping her face and going deeper, dragging her with me whether or not she was ready to dive. That she’d take this ride even knowing there would probably be a collision with some pretty fucking hard rocks shook me to my core.

  Then again, maybe she had no choice. Just as I didn’t. There was only her mouth, so hungry and pliant against mine, her teeth razing over flesh and leaving a sting of blood that tasted like victory.

  Hers and mine.

  For a moment, only the battle counted. It didn’t matter who came out on top, because the spoils were ours to share.

  That this could exist beyond years of petty arguments and snarky comments and judgy looks was some kind of miracle, and I’d given up in believing in those beyond the sparkle in my little girl’s eyes.

  Then she drew back and sucked in a greedy breath before tilting her head in challenge at the newscaster. “What he said. Make sure you write all that down.”

  Six

  Deciding to decorate my café at nine at night wasn’t the best idea.

  Then again, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Gideon’s mouth on mine. Not only did we now have two kisses in our collective unconscious, the whole damn town and world had witnessed the second kiss.

  That was the part that had me so wound up I couldn’t settle. The idiot had just grabbed me. Oh, and instead of me hauling off and smacking the crap out of him like I should have, I’d kissed him back.

  So freaking stupid.

  The worst part? Now there were tons of videos floating around with me looking like a shellshocked moron. A bunch of entertainment shows had picked it up, thanks to Gideon’s boneheaded mention about his ex-wife cheating on him.

  If it had just been him and me, it would have blown over. Nope, now he had to bring in his famous ex. Before this week, I hadn’t even known he had a wife, let alone that she was relatively famous. To add a little more acid into the wound, because honestly, salt wasn’t nearly enough for how it burned when I got a look at this Jessica Gideon. She was stacked, currently platinum blond, and gorgeous enough to make feel like an extra on The Walking Dead—you know, comparatively speaking.

  Just ugh.

  Secondary kick? The kiss had actually killed the entire mass hysteria. All the extra foot traffic had disappeared like a puff of smoke. I mean, Brewed Awakening had served our regular Friday customers, but the town was almost back to normal. Disappointment reigned that John Gideon had a pseudo-girlfriend.

  Aka me.

  So, now I was the bad guy. I wasn’t quite sure how that had happened.

  What I did know? That my life needed some order. And the only thing that truly made sense to me was Halloween. So what if it wasn’t quite September yet?

  Of course now it was nearly four in the morning and I was at an all-time high for insomnia insanity. I’d been dusting and cleaning every crevice before putting out my vintage, kitchy, and sometimes ridiculous decorations. I’d covered the back counter in pastel pumpkins and a few of my Halloween-esque houses I’d been collecting since I was a girl.

  I was aware I’d need to ease the town into my obsession. They already knew I was bad, but I usually waited until mid-September to deck the café out. End of August was definitely pushing it for the annoying biddies of the town council. So, the actual counter was pretty-in-pink style for now. Leaf garlands in pops of orange wound around the white and pink plastic pumpkins I’d been collecting since I’d opened Brewed Awakening. End of the season sales were golden for cheap decorations and I always stocked up for next year.

  I made sure everything was still functional for counter space. One of the many reasons I’d used Gideon’s talents during my first year. He’d created a maze of shelves and cubbies for me. It usually was full of Brewed Awakening merchandise. Now it was pumpkinfied with a selection of my favorite bats and skulls.

  Before midnight, I’d attacked the front window with the pink and orange brigade as well. The first of October, the coffee shop would be transformed into my true nature of witchery, creepy bats, and skulls.

  I just had one section left. I pulled down my bandana and took a long drink from my 32 ounce Jack Skellington tumbler full of water. I walked around the front of the counter and fussed with a trio of skulls on top of the bakery display. I’d commissioned Dahlia McKenna to do artsy, spooky florals in the skulls and had found a kindred horror spirit with an equally sad case of insomnia. The bonus round had included the fact that she was an interior designer. Collaborating on a themed restaurant seemed like the perfect storm.

  We’d been working on plans for The Haunt for almost a year, and now it was so close to becoming a reality. Between obsessing over the progress of my restaurant and this ridiculous thing with Gideon—well, it was a wonder that I wasn’t more of a basket-case.

  I refilled my cup with the perpetual jug of lime water on the scarred table I was using for a decoration station. If I’d only lived on coffee like some people assumed, I would’ve probably ended up in the emergency room with a heart attack.

  Picking out a few more bats, I tucked one of the furry ones into a mug. The creamer station was decked out in Rae Dunn Halloween items due to auctions on eBay, Facebook, and Mercari. I’d been buying since last Christmas when I found my first Spooky black mug. I didn’t even care that I was a trendy bitch. Halloween was my jam and I wanted it all.

  IKEA and I had enjoyed a date yesterday after the incident. I certainly wasn’t going to ask Gideon to build me shelves for Halloween decorations.

  Besides, the IKEA ones had ended up being super sturdy. Not everything from that store was blinding white. Who knew?

  Instead, these were wrought iron and fake dark wood that would fool most people, me included. Gideon or August would probably sneer at the shelving, but it worked for me. And it made cleaning up the copious amounts of coffee that somehow seemed to spill everywhere far easier.

  Crawling around under the structure, I found a few more spots for bats. I had a battery-operated black cat with ominous green eyes nestled in with bags of my special August coffee blend. It wasn’t quite summery, and not yet filled with the spices of fall.

  I yawned and contemplated curling up under the creamer station like Isis, my cat, but I backed out and moved over to my remotes. It was far too late to sleep now. I’d just have to make it through the morning rush then I could disappear for a nap.

  I turned on my spooky playlist. Lana Del Rey’s moody voice filled the empty café. Since I was alone, I twirled and swayed my way across the room with my big stepladder to tackle the best part of my Halloween transformation—the corner bookcase. It was my favorite place to sink in and make it as over the top spooky as humanly possible.

  Well, that and to still be functional…ish.

  I gathered my rags and cleaner and climbed up to the top to start dragging down the books and mugs I’d used as decor. Dust kicked up and I pulled up my bandana to keep from swallowing it all. I sang along with the whispery, sex-voiced Lana. Her version of “Season of the Witch” was one of my favorites.

  My hips swayed to the beat as I tucked in a skull and a raven from my Poe collection. The old typewriter I’d found at a consignment shop in Salem held center stage. I’d typed up a few stanzas from The Raven and added a little slashy blood on the parchment paper.

  “Daddy, what is she doing?”

  I screeched and only my quick grab on the ladder kept me from tipping.

  Gideon rushed across the room to stabil
ize my ladder with one hand. His other gripped the back of my calf. “Jesus, Mace. What are you doing up there?”

  I glanced down at him. “Better question. What are you doing here trying to scare eight years off my life?”

  His jaw was tight and his eyes hooded as his gaze kept tracking to my ass then back to my face as if he couldn’t decide where it belonged.

  A strawberry-haired girl hobbled forward on one crutch. She twirled to take in the room, then seemed to realize Gideon was no longer next to her. She hopped double-time to get close to Gideon. Her eyes were huge. “Whoa. This place is so sick!”

  “Um, thanks.” I glanced down at Gideon’s hand still gripping my leg.

  He cleared his throat. His green eyes looked about as bloodshot as mine probably were. “Right. Sorry.” He released me and stepped back.

  “Hi.” The little girl was grinning up at me with a tooth missing in the front.

  “Hi.” Then I turned to Gideon with probably matching huge eyes and tilted my head in the universal sign of what-the-fuck?

  “Your mask is super sick. Can I have one?”

  “My what?” I blinked before realizing what she meant and pulled down my bandana with the evil jack-o-lantern drawing on it. “Sorry.” Dumbfounded, I didn’t know what else to say.

  I felt vaguely sick too and not from my inherent cool factor.

  Gideon held out a hand and obviously, I was well past sleep deprived since I accepted it and let him help me down the stairs.

  “What’s going on?” I asked out of the side of my mouth.

  Gideon didn’t let go of my hand. “So, I have a huge favor to ask.”

  I tried to detangle our fingers, but he was holding on like I was a damn lifeline. “What are you doing here? And who’s your friend?”

  He frowned at me, one eyebrow raised. “This is my daughter, Dani.”

  She waved. “Hi. What’s your name?”

  I finally was able to get my hand away from his. Probably because I’d immediately started sweating like a prepubescent. I swiped my palm down my jeans. “I’m Macy Devereaux.”

  “Wow. Cool name. I’m just a lame Danielle.”

  “Still French, right?”

  She gave me a gap-toothed grin. “I guess so.” She hooked her hand around her dad’s wrist. “Is my name French?”

  He smiled warmly down at her and swiped his big hand over her shiny strawberry hair. She had uneven ponytails on either side of her head that she’d probably done on her own. “I do believe it’s a French name. But your mom just liked it, I think.”

  “Oh.” Dani shrugged, her attention already jumping from names to my large box of decorations. “Holy crap.”

  “Dani,” he warned.

  “I mean, wow.”

  He rolled his eyes. “My babysitter came down with something, either the flu or something far worse. She can’t watch Dani today.”

  Dani pulled a skull out of the box. “Is this real?”

  At a loss, and not really able to tell Gideon to fuck off in front of his kid, I cleared my throat. “Actually, it is.” I winced as my gaze shot to Gideon. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “So cool!” Dani carefully set it back into the bubble wrap.

  “You’ll find that my daughter is about as into Halloween as you are.”

  “I doubt that.”

  The crutch clattered to the floor as she dropped to her knees and dug in.

  “Hey, be careful—”

  Huge green eyes that matched her father’s bugged out as she lifted out a book. I resisted the urge to snatch it out of her hands. “Is this the Necronomicon?”

  Huh. I tilted my head. “What would you know about it?”

  “Only that it was the coolest thing in Army of Darkness. Well, next to the chainsaw. I mean, Ash’s chainsaw was fairly amazing if improbable because of the weight of it.” She sounded so matter of fact, I laughed despite myself.

  “Well, don’t pull an Ash and screw with the book.” I gave her gimme fingers.

  She laughed. “Can’t have that. Wouldn’t want to get the words wrong like he did.” She handed it over then picked up the skeleton head. “Then we’d be in real trouble.” She held the head up to her father and stabbed the air with the mandible. “So much trouble.”

  Gideon hung his head. “Put that down, please.”

  Dani turned it back to face her. “Give me some sugar, baby.”

  He swiped his hand over his face. “I found her watching the movie at two in the morning.”

  I grinned. “I’m sure she’s seen worse.”

  “Oh, I have,” Dani said. “It wasn’t even scary.”

  Gideon’s jaw muscle ticked. “When she was seven. I wouldn’t have let her watch it if I’d known.”

  I pressed my lips together against a huge smile. “Probably about how old I was when I found the movie. Now about this babysitting deal?”

  “I’m in a jam. Karen, my usual sitter, is a college kid. She’s great, but sick as a dog. With Dani’s ankle, I can’t really send her to the usual daycare.”

  “Dad. Daycare? Really? I’m eight.”

  “I know, kiddo. That’s just what they call it.”

  I sighed. “Still have a lame nickname for her.”

  Dani winced as she moved to the next box. “He doesn’t understand nicknames.”

  “Oh, and what would you name her, hotshot?”

  “Obviously, Ash.”

  “Yes!” Dani grinned up at me.

  “That’s not her name.”

  “Yes, but nicknames are about moments. And now that I know she loves Army of Darkness, she’s Ash, the lead in the movie. Until a better nickname comes around.” Not that it would because I wasn’t getting close to this kid.

  He shook his head and raked his fingers through his hair. “Whatever.” He tipped his head back and I saw the exhaustion dragging at him. “I wouldn’t ask.”

  “Which is smart since I, you know, run a business. I’m not exactly babysitting material, Gideon.”

  “No, and I get that. But if she could just stay here in the café? I’m right next door working on The Haunt, so if she needs anything I can be close by. All she needs is a corner to watch movies or read. She’s really no trouble.”

  “Ruff!”

  “Danielle Alicia.”

  “Jeez, Dad. Stop talking about me like I’m a puppy. I told you I could stay home alone.”

  “As capable as you are, legally, it ain’t happening.”

  “Rules. Ugh.” Dani practically dove headfirst into my box of bats. “Can I help you decorate? Dad doesn’t let me do it at home.”

  “You don’t let her decorate?”

  Gideon crossed his arms. “I let her decorate plenty.”

  “Lame decorations from WalMart don’t count.”

  “By the time I get out of work, the other places are closed. And by the time we get time to put them up, it’s time to change to Christmas anyway.”

  “Okay, you need to go. Clearly, you’ve been abusing this child. I shall correct all past transgressions and get her straight.” I turned Gideon around and pushed him toward the counters. “You owe me so big. So big,” I said under my breath.

  He pushed back on me, digging his heels in. “I promise I’ll find someone this afternoon. Probably my father, but he is out of town until this afternoon.”

  “If she’s a handful, I’ll just start taking money off your bill for The Haunt.”

  “Seriously, Macy, I would never ask unless I was absolutely screwed. With all this nonsense that’s been going on, we’re days behind at the restaurant. I can’t have her over there since we’re ass-deep in the kitchen installation.”

  “I have no idea what that means, but a construction zone is no place for a kid. Just give me a holler when your dad can take her.”

  “Thanks.” He turned and slid his arm around my lower back, his hand splaying along the curve of my spine. His gaze dropped to my mouth before lifting to meet mine again. “We still need t
o talk about yesterday.”

  “What’s to talk about?” I tried to step back, but he held me fast.

  “You know everything got way out of control.”

  “It was just an act, right?” That his mouth on mine tasted more perfect than coffee? Sure. Just an act.

  “Was it?”

  “Of course it was.”

  “Nothing has ever been easy between us, Macy. But it sure as shit hasn’t been an act. Now that I’ve had a taste, you really think I can turn this off?”

  My fingers twisted into his soft shirt. “You never pulled the trigger before. What stopped you?”

  “Always with the hard questions.”

  I lifted my chin. “Always with the avoidance.” Because God, if that wasn’t the truth. And I was tired of the dance. I wasn’t fucking good at it. “What do you want?”

  “You.”

  I drew in a breath.

  “Go out with me.”

  I frowned. That question did not compute. In fact, it was more of a statement than anything else. “I’m sorry?”

  His lips quirked under the fullness of his beard. “I know we’ve been doing this crap all backwards, but maybe it was the shakeup we needed.”

  I tried to wiggle free. Things with Gideon had always been more of a nebulous maybe and I rather liked it there. Like a celebrity crush—no basis in reality. He was the hot blue collar guy with big working man hands. A little rough around the edges with a banked fire that made a woman wonder what would be unleashed.

  I could say with absolute accuracy that he might normally stay on simmer, but there was a fuckton of heat waiting to bubble over.

  But I wasn’t sure I was ready to be brave. And that chafed more than I wanted to admit, even to myself.

  “So much going on in that head.” Gideon lowered his face to mine, but instead of a kiss this time, he just brushed his nose along mine. “Give us a try. Give me a try.”

  “You’re still not actually asking me,” I said in the rapidly dwindling space between our lips. His breath was warm and minty and I had the ridiculous urge to slip the pads of my fingers over his bearded cheek and pull him closer. There was something about his beard that drove me a little crazy.