Page 6 of Their Forever Daddy

The McDowell feed supply store was proof that nothing ever really changed in a small town. It looked almost exactly how she remembered it, other than a fresh coat of paint and some cute little decorative touches she imagined were more Taylor’s idea than Edie’s.

Unlike the store, Taylor had changed, quite a bit. She’d been in high school when Jesse had left for California, and she’d grown up a lot in the past ten years. Was she seeing anyone? Married? Babies? It was jolting to realize how much she hadn’t kept up with the town gossip while she’d been gone.

A prickle of guilt stabbed at her belly. Once she’d left Lost River, she’d done her best to pretend it never existed. Nobody in Hollywood, not even her Daddy, knew much of anything about the people she’d left behind.

Which meant she hadn’t kept up with town gossip, because she hadn’t kept up with, well, anyone. Not even her own family. Her calls to her parents were few and far between, and video chats with her sister even rarer. And with her crazy schedule, she’d missed Courtney’s wedding, and the birth of her niece.

That didn’t make her a bad person, though. She was just… busy.

Right?

A loud jangling noise jerked her out of her self-pity spiral. She turned to the front of the store where a cute blonde with wide blue eyes was hurrying inside, her head whipping from side to side like she was searching for something. “Taylor! Are you here? I need you to hide—oh my god.”

The blonde stopped dead in the middle of the store, her eyes somehow going even wider as her face paled. “You’re… are you…”

Jesse couldn’t help but smile. She hadn’t really planned on running into a fan in her hometown, but since she didn’t recognize the woman who was staring at her as though she were a being from another planet, it seemed safe to assume she was a newbie. “Yes, I’m?—”

“Carly Simmons!” The words finally burst out of the blonde and she squealed, jumping up and down in place. “Oh my god, I just love you! I know this is silly, but I started watching your movies because we have the same first name and I just fell in love with you. I’ve seen all your movies. Even the scary ones, but don’t tell my—” Red blossomed in her cheeks as she cut herself off. “My, um, boyfriend—sorry, husband now, wow that still feels surreal to say—doesn’t like me watching the super scary ones, but I would watch a whole movie about paint drying if you were in it.”

There were some aspects of Jesse’s career that had become routine, almost mundane over the years. But meeting a true fan one-on-one, someone who seemed to genuinely enjoy her work and not just her celebrity status, was one of those things that still brought her untold joy. “Thank you. That means a lot to me. Would you like an autograph or a selfie or something?”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t. I shouldn’t have pounced on you like that in the first place, that was really rude of me. I’m sorry.”

“No apologies necessary.” Glancing down, Jesse reached out and plucked the phone from Carly’s hands. “Come here.”

The yearning on the other woman’s face was almost comical. “Only if you’re sure. I really don’t want to impose.”

“You’re not, I promise.” Jesse held her arm out, and Carly ducked under for a sideways hug as Jesse held up the phone and snapped a few pictures. “There you go, doll.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! Oh, man, this has been the best week ever. I can’t wait to show Matt!”

Even in a town as small as Lost River, there was more than one ‘Matt’ running around. But before she could ask for a last name, the sound of a clearing throat drew both her and Carly’s attention to the back of the store where Edie was watching them with her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.

Jesse pressed a hand to her stomach, where a few hundred butterflies had suddenly taken flight. God, that look shouldn’t still affect her this way, not after all this time.

But it did, and Jesse wasn’t sure what the hell she was supposed to do about that.

“What are you doing here, Carly-girl? Shouldn’t you be packing for your honeymoon?” Edie asked, her voice a mix of amusement and exasperation Jesse recognized well.

Jealousy coiled in Jesse’s chest as Carly’s cheeks turned pink. It didn’t seem to matter that Carly was recently married, or that Jesse herself was making her own plans to walk down the aisle in the next year or so. Hearing Edie use that tone with someone else, especially with someone who shared the name Jesse had been claiming as her own for nearly a decade, had her vision turning green.

“I was trying, but then Matt started getting onto me about lifting too much. And he tried to make me take a nap! At ten o’clock in the morning, Edie!” With a dramatic toss of her hands in the air, Carly turned in a circle. “The man has lost his mind! How am I supposed to survive a whole week of this?”

“He’s just worried about you and that little bun in your oven,” Edie said, her expression and voice both softening in a way Jesse didn’t recognize. A way that had the jealousy inside her burning hotter and brighter. “Go home, apologize for sneaking off, and let the man baby you for a bit.”

“Ugh, do you always have to be the reasonable one?” Carly grumbled, her bottom lip poking out in a pout that reminded Jesse of her own expression when she didn’t get her way with her Daddy. It was so obviously a ‘Little’ reaction, Jesse couldn’t help but narrow her eyes at cute, bubbly Carly.

Had Edie found herself another Little to play with after Jesse left?

If she did, it’s her right. And it’s no different than you finding a Daddy.

Logic wasn’t doing anything to bank the jealousy, so Jesse shoved it down deep and plastered on a smile. “Edie? Reasonable? That’s a new one.”

Three heads swung her way, and suddenly she was very aware her joke hadn’t landed at all the way she’d hoped. The iciness in Edie’s expression was a given, but she hadn’t expected sweet, always-a-kind-word-for-everyone Taylor Dawson to tilt her chin and glare at her as if she’d just insulted her mama’s cooking.

Even Carly, who’d been so excited to meet her a moment ago, shifted closer to Edie, her expression turning mutinous. “Edie is amazing,” Carly said, her tone clearly daring Jesse to say otherwise.

“She is.” Throwing an arm around Edie’s shoulder, Taylor lifted her chin even higher. “She’s the best.”

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