Page 19 of Their Forever Daddy

“Be with you in just a minute, Edie.” The woman behind the counter—Wendy, according to the name tag pinned to her pink and white striped uniform—turned to him with a significantly dimmed version of the smile she’d given Edie. “What can I get for you, sir?”

“A slice of that pound cake, if you don’t mind.”

Her smile widened a bit. “Excellent choice. It’s my grandmother’s recipe. We’ve got some fresh cream and strawberries to go with it if you like.”

“That sounds amazing.” His stomach rumbled in agreement, reminding him it was nearly noon and he hadn’t eaten yet.

“Coming right up.”

Awareness crawled up his spine, and he had to work to resist the urge to turn around. The little pixie was sizing him up. He didn’t want her to know he knew she was watching him, so he pretended not to notice the weight of her gaze on him.

“You on your way to Charleston?” Wendy asked, her blonde ponytail bobbing as she boxed up the strawberries and cream.

“No, actually. My… friend lives around here and I was hoping to surprise her with a visit. But I got here and realized I don’t have an address for her. And she isn’t answering her phone, so I’m just hanging out until I can get a hold of her.”

“Oh?” Curiosity, the weakness of nearly every human he’d ever met, shone in Wendy’s eyes. “Who’s your friend? Perhaps I can help you find her.”

“That would be amazing. Her name is…” He hesitated for a second, torn between using her stage name and her real name. But surely people in her hometown would use her given name, the way he did, right? “Jesse. Jesse Walker.”

Wendy’s face lit up. “Jesse? She was just in here this—” She cut herself off, her gaze flicking to Grant’s right before shifting back to his face, her expression suddenly much more guarded. “Nope, sorry. Afraid I can’t help you.”

It took him all of two seconds to realize the woman standing beside him must have signaled for her to shut up.

Interesting.

He smiled for Wendy, because even if she had been cut off before she could give him any actionable intel, she’d told him exactly what he’d suspected all along: his wayward Little girl had come home for a visit. “I appreciate it, anyway.” After swiping his card, he took his paper bag and sent her a little wink. “I’m looking forward to grandma’s pound cake.”

It was exactly the right response, judging by the pink that blossomed on Wendy’s cheeks before she thanked him and shifted her attention to her next customer.

Grant carried his bag out to his car and settled in to see where the mysterious little pixie went next. If anybody in this town could lead him to Jesse, his gut told him it would be her.

Edie

* * *

“What do you think that was all about?” Wendy dropped her voice to a stage whisper, as if everyone in the diner wouldn’t be talking about the mysterious stranger who had come around asking after Jesse Walker.

The very handsome mysterious stranger, Edie couldn’t help but notice. Tall, possibly even taller than Matt Crawford, with broad shoulders that stretched his expensive-looking polo shirt to the max. His face looked as though it had been carved from stone by an artist who must have been feeling particularly generous that day, other than the slightly crooked tilt of his nose suggesting he’d broken it at some point and it hadn’t healed quite right. But even that small imperfection only served to add an air of danger to a man who looked like he’d be more at home in a boardroom than a small-town diner.

And those eyes. Jesus. It wasn’t that they were a particularly interesting shade of brown, but there’d been such a depth to them, like he saw everything, even the parts most people would like to keep hidden. Those eyes had nearly knocked the breath from her lungs, which wasn’t a feeling she was particularly comfortable with.

So, yeah, as pissed as she was about Jesse’s sudden return to Lost River, she wasn’t about to give some nosy stranger the smallest hint as to her whereabouts. She supposed there was a chance he was Jesse’s Daddy, but wouldn’t her Daddy know where she was, or at least how to find her? More likely, it was some celebrity gossip mag asshole who’d followed her out to Lost River.

“I’m not sure,” Edie said at length. “But until we know more, I don’t want anyone telling him where Jesse is. Spread the word.”

“Will do.” But there was a glint of curiosity in Wendy’s eyes as she bagged up Edie and Noelle’s lunch. “Hard to tell him where she is, anyway, when nobody really knows. She’s not at the B-and-B, and if anybody’s rented to her from that app some of the folks around here use, nobody’s fessed up to it just yet.”

“It’s a mystery.” Swiping her card to pay for the food, Edie grabbed the bag and headed for the door without offering any additional fuel for the gossip mill.

Their mysterious stranger was in his car, right in front of Edie’s store. Which was just fine by her, even if it made the hair on the back of her neck stand up a bit when he watched her jog across the street.

“Anybody comes asking around after Jesse Walker, you don’t know anything,” she said as she shoved open the door of her shop.

Noelle looked up from the papers scattered across the counter in front of her, one dark brow raising in what might have been amusement as Edie stepped inside. “Is that so?”

“Yes,” Edie snapped, sending Noelle’s other brow to match its twin at her hairline.

Taylor had apparently filled her in on the drama to date, which meant Noelle was aware of how well Edie was not handling Jesse being back in town. “Why, exactly, are we protecting the bitch who broke your heart?”

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