The Job (Auctioned) by Cara Dee (highly illogical behavior txt) 📕

started browsing through her loot. Nail polish, body glitter, nail stickers, some candy, a pack of gum… I blew out a heavy breath and bent down, resting my arms on the edge of the door, and I scratched my eyebrow with my car key.

“Ace. What the fuck have we said about shoplifting?”

She looked up at me, eyes wide with innocence. “No one saw me! I swear. And I made sure there were no security tags.”

“I don’t fucking care.” I clenched my jaw, irritated as fuck, and pinned her with a serious look. “We don’t shit where we eat. You’re here every goddamn week—either with me or with Gramma—and if you get caught, you can’t come back. You hear me?”

She dropped her gaze and chewed on her bottom lip.

It robbed me of some of my anger, and it became a struggle to stand firm. “I’m not fuckin’ around, Paisley.” Using her real name meant business. She knew that. “Don’t shoplift here again, okay?”

“Okay, I won’t,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry, Daddy.”

Fuck. She looked up with those big puppy-dog eyes of hers, and when they flooded with unshed tears, I didn’t stand a motherfucking chance.

“Put your seat belt on,” I muttered and got behind the wheel.

Kids.

Two

“Are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?” I asked.

It was the main reason I’d driven us straight out into the desert after we’d dropped Paisley off at Ma’s place. We were supposed to work, but Case had been acting weird all week. Strung tight, rattled, lost in his own world.

The desert was his place to refocus. It wasn’t the first time I’d pulled into a rest stop near Red Rock, and it wouldn’t be the last.

He paced in front of my truck and lit up a smoke.

“I’m starting to like the kid,” he blurted out eventually. “It’s freaking me out. Today when I picked her up at day care, I told some bitch off for speaking baby talk with her. I hate that shit. But it was the feeling, you know? Someone was crossing a line, and I felt this urge to protect the girl from it.”

It was too soon to grin. It would only piss him off. But the relief… Not to mention the warmth that filled my chest. It felt good. I leaned back against the truck and let him get it all out.

“She was supposed to be this annoying kid that Tia was forced to bring along everywhere because she couldn’t find a sitter,” he said, still pacing. “We were never meant to even like Paisley, Boone.”

I knew that. There’d been no slot for a kid in our life. No place where we could sit a kid down and go, “Okay, so she’s part of it all now.” But things changed.

Everything had changed.

“They’re fast,” Ace noted.

“Yeah.” I stood behind her on the sidelines of the soccer field and ran my fingers through her crazy long waves, waiting for Boone to show up. When our girl wanted a braid, he was much better. I could do a haphazard ponytail at best.

The team they were facing today ran around on one half of the field, close to where we were standing, and I liked Ace’s way of preparing. She could warm up anywhere, but she could only study her opponent right here and now.

“You’ll be on the lookout for that number nine,” I said.

“I was just thinkin’.” She nodded. “By the way, do you love me, Daddy?”

I shrugged to myself. “You’re all right, I guess.”

She giggled and peered up at me.

I smirked and dipped down, pressing a smooch to her forehead. “Of-fucking-course I do. What do you want, and how much is it gonna cost me?”

She knew that one. “Lunch at Denny’s.”

I furrowed my brow. “We already said we were going after the game.”

“Yeah, but…” She turned around to face me, and she grabbed my hand. Then she unleashed the doe eyes on me. “I want Dad to come along.”

Fuck.

This was one of those times I didn’t allow myself to hesitate or get bitchy. “Okay.” I nodded and swallowed the resentment that bubbled up. Not at her, just…our fucked-up situation. I didn’t wanna see him more than I had to. “The three of us will go out.”

“Yes!” She fist-pumped the air, only making me feel like a dick. “Just one more small thing.” She pinched her fingers together to demonstrate how small. “I need you to admit that ‘The Sign’ is the best song Ace of Base ever made.”

Get the fuck out with that nonsense. I laughed at the ridiculousness and folded my arms over my chest. “You’ve lost your goddamn marbles. It’s the most overrated song by them.”

Everyone in their right mind knew it was the underdog “Life Is a Flower.”

Ace couldn’t argue with me because I was right—or because Boone showed up and she forgot I existed for a beat. She ran over to him and jumped into his arms, to which he picked her up and positioned her on his hip like back when she’d been little.

To him, she was still tiny, I guessed. He dwarfed most people around him, including me, even though he only had a couple inches on me in height.

Fuck him.

“Can you braid my hair?” she asked, holding up a rubber band.

“Sure thing.” He set her back on the ground when they reached me, though he paid me no mind whatsoever. Not even a hello.

Asshole.

“You’re coming out to lunch with us afterward, just so you know,” Ace mentioned to him.

“All right.” Boone frowned to himself but made no further comment, and he didn’t look my way to confirm or ask anything. He just trapped the rubber band between his teeth and started braiding Ace’s hair.

Something was wrong with him, and it pissed me off. He looked tired and couldn’t pretend to be happy to be here. He usually loved coming to her games.

As soon as he finished with her hair, Ace beamed up at him and gave him a big hug before she ran off to join