Page 48 of Summer Heat
"You're letting Maya do the work?" Hudson asked, genuinely curious.
"I said she was my assistant." Shep pulled up a picture on his phone of Maya in her hard hat wielding the hammer.
He picked up his sandwich. "I can't believe you let her help you with the demo."
Shep placed his phone on the table next to his plate. "She wore the safety equipment and listened to my instructions. She's a good helper."
"We're always with her when she's working," I added.
Hudson considered Shep carefully. "You two are close."
"She's my little buddy. I like teaching her things."
"He even sings her a song about brushing her teeth to encourage her to brush. It's really sweet. I'm fairly sure I have a video of it here somewhere—" I began to pull out my phone, but Shep reached across the table, stopping me with a hand on mine.
With a sharp shake of his head, Shep said, "Hudson doesn't want to see that."
"I can assure you that Hudson does want to see it." Hudson took a large bite of his sandwich.
I smiled as I tried to wiggle my hand free from Shep's grip. "It's an adorable video."
Shep squeezed my hand. "It's really not."
I frowned. "How do you know? You haven't even seen it yet."
"I was there, remember? Lived through the experience, and I'm confident no one needs to see that video."
"Maya loves it. She plays it when you're not here and she needs to brush her teeth."
Shep removed his hand as his face softened. "She does?"
"It's her favorite video at the moment. I would have sent it to her father, but I doubt he would have played it for her. We keep things fairly separate." I set the phone down, not wanting to embarrass Shep in front of his brother even if I thought the video was sweet.
"How is your relationship with her father?" Hudson asked.
"Dalton has a lot of drama around his ex, Oakley," Shep added.
I waved a hand. "We've gotten to a good place. We understand our parenting styles and stay out of each other's way."
"Did it take a while to get to that place?" Hudson asked, taking a huge bite of his sub.
"It wasn't easy. I wanted him to keep the same schedule at his house to prevent meltdowns when Maya came back to me, but it was a losing battle. My attorney said he can do whatever he wants at his house as long as she's safe. And I'm not worried about that." I popped a grape into my mouth.
"What kind of a dad is he?" Shep asked, his expression vulnerable.
"I don't know how he is with her, but I suspect he's not always present. The reason we broke up is that he didn't want to be that involved with raising her. He felt like I could do the job better so he didn't need to help with bath time or when she was sick."
"That's messed up," Hudson said, and Shep nodded. "I can't imagine not wanting to be involved."
Shep was involved with Maya. He cooked her breakfast, helped her brush her teeth, and taught her things. He was a good role model for her.
"When you have kids, you'll know what to do," Hudson said.
Shep rolled his shoulders back. "Who said I want kids?"
"I think you'll make a wonderful father one day, if that's what you want. I'm fairly sure there were red flags about Derek that I missed. But then again, we hadn't exactly planned on having Maya. It just happened."
Shep's shoulders stiffened. "It shouldn't matter if you planned for her or not. You're still a parent."
