Page 10 of Dagger

Dani eagerly tried it out and let out a delighted moan. “Dad, you have to try this,” she said, making another one and holding it out to me expectantly.

I opened my mouth, and she popped it in, watching as I chewed, taking note of my reaction.

“Good, right?”

I nodded. “It’s really good.” It was good as fuck, and the juicy quality of the peach had my gaze snaking over to Sinclair, who watched the interaction with my daughter carefully.

She noted the heat in my gaze and quickly turned away, but not before I saw her cheeks turn a bright shade of red.

We both kept quiet as Dani tested out different deli meat and fruit combos until she was satisfied she’d tried all of them. “I like peach and ham best, how about you, Miss Bronson?”

“I’m partial to anything with the peaches. I’m easy like that.” Her eyes sparkled and then rounded when she realized what she said. “When it comes to food,” she clarified as her cheeks turned a damn near fluorescent shade of pink.

“Good to know.” I bit back a smile and stabbed at a cube of Gouda along with a Spanish olive.

The afternoon passed in a blur of laughter, fresh air, and whatever voodoo magic Sinclair had woven around me and my daughter. It was nice, really fucking nice, and I didn’t know what to do with that.

***

Dani couldn’t stop talking, not during lunch and not on the drive home. She was completely enamored by the woman. She ate up the feminine attention, shined bright with every question Sinclair asked. It was eye-opening, showing me just how much Dani needed women in her life.

It was just too bad I had no plans on providing a more permanent solution for her.

“She’s always reading, just like me,” Dani said as she bounced in the passenger seat. “She told me that she gets anxious too. Like starting a new job in a new place where she didn’t know anyone.”

My hand tightened around the steering wheel and my jaw clenched. “I’m sure that wasn’t easy.” Of course she shared her own struggles with Dani, because that’s the type of person she was. I knew that after only knowing her for a short time.

“She said it was okay to be anxious, that everybody is sometimes.” Dani turned to me. “Are you?”

Damn it, Sinclair. “Yeah, sometimes, I am.”

“What do you do?”

I weighed my options. I could lie to her, but that would probably make her feel like shit. The truth, well, that wasn’t something I wanted to deal with right now. Or ever. “I’m older and wiser now, so I push through it when I can. But when I was younger, I would act out or respond with anger.”

“Who were you angry with?” she asked in a small voice.

I laughed. “More like whowasn’tI angry with.” I was a little shit when I was a kid, mostly because I was raised on a steady diet of anger and violence. “Over the years, I learned ways to channel it.”

She nodded sagely. “That’s what Miss Bronson said. She said there was nothing wrong with me and I would figure it out.”

“She’s right,” I admitted reluctantly as we pulled up to the house and I parked the car.

Dani unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to face me. “Thanks for today, Dad. It was nice.”

“I had a good time too, kiddo. We should do it again.”

“Okay.” She slipped from the car quickly. “Bye, Dad.”

“See you later, Dani.”

I had things to do. The man in the park had unsettled me, so my first port of call was to return there and see if he was still hanging around. He might have been your regular-ass park creeper. However, there was no sign of him, which made methink that my original assessment of the situation was correct. He’d been watching Sinclair.

Night had fallen by the time I swung around to Sinclair’s cozy cottage and found her curled up on her sofa with her attention fixed on the TV. Whatever she was watching held her full attention because unlike most nights, she was completely oblivious to her surroundings. She didn’t jump at the sound of a car door slamming in the distance. She didn’t look towards the window when an engine revved up her block.

Despite my promises to myself that I was going to stop watching her from the shadows, somehow, I felt responsible for her. After the incident in the park I needed to see if she was okay.

For her safety. Her protection.

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