Page 16 of Single-Minded
“Well,” she said, facing me with an irresistible grin. “I suppose you can’t do it by tomorrow…”
“I never said I could do it ever,” I clarified.
When her shoulders sagged, I reassured her, “What I can do is ask my coworkers, see if anyone’s interested.”
“Really? You think you can find someone who will do it?”
I suspected there were multiple someones who’d step up for no other reason than to work with her specifically. Plus the money. The money would be welcome for any of us. Levi paid us fairly, but there were never enough funds when you had three little princesses.
“I’d be surprised if we can’t find someone. We’ll need to run it by Levi to make sure he’s cool with it. He should be, as long as it’s all after-hours work.”
“How long do you think it would take?” she asked. “Like, if you hypothetically decided to do it, how long?”
“I’d need to think about that, put some things down on paper. A lot would depend on if I had help.”
“I told you I’d help.”
My brows shot up.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she said.
“What am I thinking?”
“That I’d be more in the way than helpful, but I can assure you, my drive is unparalleled when I decide I want something.” Her eyes flared with intent. Was there a double meaning in there? Interest?
It didn’t matter if there was. That was not happening, no matter how she made my blood pound.
As if sensing she hadn’t convinced me, she said, “I like to be busy. I’m not good at sitting around my house. I’d rather get a hammer and help build walls between creating a business plan and deciding on beans and blends. I err toward workaholism. I’m trying to avoid that again, but there’s a happy medium between overworking and planting flowers, right?”
“Sure is.”
Commotion out on the sidewalk caught my eye. My daughters approached, mouths running, bodies hopping, twisting, turning, with Flora lagging behind them.
We could hear the girls even before the door opened, all excited chatter and high spirits. They waited for their mom to catch up. Nova pressed her face against the glass, peering inside and jumping up and down when she spotted me.
“Gonna need some glass cleaner,” I said to Presley as I headed to the door. “Sorry about that.”
“Nothing to be sorry about. Are these your daughters?” Presley asked, laughing.
“This is my circus. These are my monkeys.” I opened the door, and it was as if someone had turned the volume from two to nine in an instant.
“Daddy!” Nova threw her arms around me.
“Hi, Daddy,” Sienna and Scarlet said together and gathered in for their share of a group hug, with me bending down and pulling all three of them in.
“You girls smell like sugar,” I said, then pretended to nibble on their necks, eliciting an uproar of giggles that made me laugh too.
I stood and met Flora’s impatient gaze.
“Everything go okay?” I asked.
“We had a fun time,” she said. “We all had waffles.”
“Did you get any protein in them?” I asked my ex.
“We got extra whipped cream!” Scarlet hollered.
“Of course you did,” I said. They’d go for that any time they were allowed.
