Page 34 of Daddy's Little Liar
She didn’t want to leave. Georgia stared after him, unable to make herself move. His ex-wife had just walked into his house, without knocking, as if she still lived there. That said something, didn’t it? It implied an ongoing relationship. Didn’t it? She didn’t really want to get involved with a guy who was obviously still seeing his ex.
Did she?
“That was code,” Iris suddenly said.
Georgia looked at the other woman, then at the baby balanced on her hip. It was beyond awkward to be standing here, having any kind of conversation with Daddy’s ex.
“I’m sorry?”
“What he just said.” Almost hesitantly, Iris edged closer. “He’ll give you every choice. He’s good that way, the absolute best Daddy, right up until you screw him over.”
A corner of her mouth lifted in a kind of smile.
Georgia didn’t dare ask if that was what she’d had done. She could see in Iris’s face that it was.
“I shouldn’t have called him Daddy when I came in. You’ve no reason to believe me, but he hasn’t been that for a very long time. I… I was just rattled, and something happened today… so I fell back on an honorific I’m not entitled to. Honestly, we really don’t see much of each other.Today has been unusual.”
Georgia had no idea what to say. Not even when Iris half smiled again and added, “Jessie’s not his baby if that helps.”
Was she that transparent?
Footsteps in the hallway put a stop to that conversation.
“Ready?” Kace said, coming back to the front of the house.
“Yeah, um, I’ll get my stuff from the car,” Iris said, tossing Georgia one last smile that didn’t quite touch her eyes before walking back out through the kitchen and his shop.
Left alone, Georgia felt the awkwardness growing. “She seems nice.”
“Let’s talk about it over dinner,” he suggested. “What do you like best, pizza, Mexican, burgers, or bar food? I’ll warn you now, the local bar serves really rotten food.”
“In that case, pizza sounds yummy.”
Despite the turn the evening had taken, she liked the way he smiled at her just before the warmth of his hand settled on her back as he walked her to the door.
“Help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge,” he told Iris, as they were on their way out and she on the way back in. He held the door long enough for Georgia to slip out and Iris to step in, and then, grabbing his wallet from his desk and keys off the wall, he shut down the garage and headed for his truck.
“You’re being unbelievably nice under the circumstances,” Georgia said over a plate of unfinished pizza crust and half a glass of beer. “I don’t believe I’ve met anyone who would do what you are for their cheating ex.”
Kace brushed that off. He didn’t feel like he was nice about it. He was just trying to get through it without being a complete dick. Had there not been a baby involved, Iris would be sleeping in her car in her mother’s driveway.
“She’s not a bad person,” he said grudgingly. “Just a bad wife. Anyway, that was two years ago, and the reason I’ve waited until now to, I don’t know, get back into the dating pool. I have you to thank for that.”
Her face lit up with a smile. “Oh yeah?”
“Last night, all of it, being a Daddy again… it felt like coming home. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until you left this morning.”
Her smile turned into a faint wince. “And then all that happened.”
He acknowledged her mistake with a shrug of his eyebrows. “And we still have to deal with it.”
Pulling her beer closer, she played with the straw. “Is it too late to say I’m sorry?”
“It’s never too late.”
She bit her lip and glanced at him from out beneath her lashes. On any other woman, he’d have judged that a coy, seductive look. On Georgia, coupled with that slow blush stealing up into her cheeks, he took it for what it was—her trying to figure out how to navigate her way through a situation she found weirdly erotic and embarrassing.
“It’s just,” she huffed, “people say that all the time, you know? ‘Let me know when you get there.’ It doesn’t mean they mean it, especially when they don’t know each other well. I mean, moms mean it when they say it to their kids, but just about no one else does. If I’d known for a second, you were actually going to worry about me…”
