Page 14 of Her Cover Model Daddy
She sucked in a breath and rolled her teeth over her lips to keep from continuing to give him an out.
“You are not bothering me. I don’t need to go and deal with anything. My girl needs me and I’m here for her. Now, read me your list and let’s find one thing you can do this afternoon to help get your business off the ground.”
“Okay, if you’re sure,” Lacy whispered.
“Read me the list, Lacy-girl,” Drake’s voice began, the one that told her she’d be earning a consequence if she kept on arguing with him.
They’d had a conversation weeks earlier about naughtiness and consequences and how they would deal with it. If it was a small infraction of the rules they’d agreed upon then they would do a facetime call and he would watch while she was in timeout, or writing lines. If it was a bigger infraction then he would keep track of it until they were together again. Then, at some point during their time together, there would be a spanking to clear all the punishments she’d earned. It wasn’t a perfect system, but so far it had worked. She’d learned from experience she did not like long-distance consequences.
Taking a deep breath, she started reading. Drake did not speak until she finished.
“You’ve put together a very thorough list. And while it might seem overwhelming in total, you don’t need to do everything all at once. And there are some things that you should probably hand off to a professional. Like setting up the business with the state and getting business licenses. A business attorney can do all that, which takes the stress off of you.”
Lacy looked at the list and realized he was right. “And paying someone else to do it can be deducted as a business expense.”
“Yes, it can. What you’re going to do this afternoon is make a list of everything an attorney could take off your plate. Then you’re going to find a business attorney and make an appointment to meet with them and discuss what all needs to be done to set up your business.”
Lacy found herself nodding in agreement with her man even though he couldn’t see her. “Probably need to come up with a business name before I meet with the attorney, too.”
“That would be a good idea. Make a list of names and search them to make sure no one locally has those business names,” Drake said. “Feel better?”
Lacy took a deep breath and sighed as the last of her nerves settled and her shoulders relaxed. “I feel a lot better. Thank you, Daddy.”
“You are very welcome, Lacy-girl. Now, get to work and I’ll talk to you at eight.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Drake slipped his cellphone into the pocket of his sweats with a smile and a sigh. Talking to Lacy always left him smiling andfeeling good. Being able to Daddy her through this mini crisis left him feeling like they really were meant to be together, even if they were so far apart.
“New girlfriend?” Rose, his seventy-five-year-old client, who had been with him since his second week as a trainer, asked as he gave her a hand to help her sit up from doing her bench presses.
“More than a girlfriend, I hope. Just have to work through a few challenges,” Drake said, knowing his smile had turned into a cheesy grin.
“Is she married, engaged, or otherwise entangled? Or is she a he?”
Drake shook his head and chuckled at the old woman’s nosiness. “She’s single. I’m single. The challenge is we live four hundred miles apart. Her family might also get in the way.”
Rose patted his chest as she said, “Fuck her family. As long as you’re both adults, their opinions shouldn’t matter. Life is a long, sad time if you allow others to dictate how you live.”
“You ready to go, love?” A much younger man joined them, pulling his arm around Rose before bending her back and giving her a kiss that had Drake looking away.
“In a minute,” Rose said before turning back to Drake. “If I had let my family dictate my life, I would have never said yes to a blind date with this hot stud who is twenty years younger than I am. Don’t let anyone or anything but your heart tell you who to love and how to live.”
Drake had to clear the lump from his throat before he was able to speak. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll do that.”
“Good man. I’ll see you Friday for leg day.”
With that, Rose took her man’s hand and walked with him out of the gym, leaving Drake to wonder again at the sass the woman had, as well as the wonderful advice she’d given him.
Heading to the front of the gym, he found his water bottle and a protein bar under the front counter. One more client and he would be done for the day. Then he could go home and make plans for the next phase of helping Lacy get her business up and running. They also needed to discuss the upcoming convention they were both going to and what costumes he would need to put together for their next shoot. He was excited about the con, as he always was, but he was even more excited to get to see his Lacy-girl.
Chapter 10
“Shit,” Lacy muttered when the red-and-blue lights of a police car began to flash in her rearview mirror.
Glancing at the car’s speedometer, she took her foot off the gas pedal and pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. She deserved a ticket for going twelve miles over the speed limit, but she couldn’t be late. Not today. She had to get to Raleigh and the airport sooner rather than later. Drake was coming in for the con and she needed to be there to pick him up.
The last things she needed was to spend the next five or ten minutes dealing with the crap that went with getting pulled over.
