“Then you’ll leave her with me and come back on the weekends.” He hoped she wouldn’t, but Dillon braced himself for an emphatic denial. “I want my daughter to stay here.”Įmma let out a long tired sigh. He drew his brows together and shook his head. I’ll bring Annie home with me during the week, and we can stay with you on the weekends.”

She drew in a heavy breath, her chest rising and falling. When you go back to work on Wednesday, if you do decide to commute, I’ll cover your expenses.” She didn’t say anything for a moment, but stood twisting her fingers together before finally looking at him. I’m prepared to pay you ten percent over what you’re making now, whatever it is. Most of them had been there since he opened.Įmma looked at her hands, resting on the back of the chair. There are only one or two people I know I can trust, but to be honest, I’m half tempted to fire the rest and hire a whole new crew.” It bugged the hell out of him he didn’t know who to trust in his own place. I need to catch them in the act before I can start firing people. “I’m having security cameras installed this week. Last month’s inventory was off by three hundred dollars and cash came up short by five.” It’s a position I need to fill and frankly, it’d get you back into town, but,” he sat forward and turned to face her, “more importantly, I need someone I can trust. You just can’t do eighty hours a week with a kid.” Now, with Annie, I’m going to have even less time because I’d like to be able to cut my hours. I need people hired and I don’t have time to do interviews. I could also use someone to keep track of the employees. Frankly I’d like to be able to spend more time down on the floor and less time doing all that damn paperwork.

“Been thinking about it all night, actually. Her fingers moved up the back of his neck, kneading the spot at the base of his skull. He needed to get her into town first, where he could take care of the both of them. This one simple task he could do for her. After everything she’d been through, she didn’t deserve to be treated that way. Oh sure, he could do what he threatened and call his father’s lawyers and fight her for custody, but he didn’t have the heart to do that. He needed his daughter close, preferably in town with him, but in order to get to Annie, he had to go through Emma first. Someone had left the paper on his desk, turned to the real estate section. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how to get her to move back into town, and he came across a piece of information in the newspaper that spurred an idea. Her presence had his mind continuing to drift back over the night. He surrendered and let his head loll forward, a low groan slipping from his lips.

The Playboy's Baby by J.M. Stewart