Page 1 of Second Chance Baby
ONE
“Daddy?That woman is on the phone again. She said you’re late.” My daughter’s voice carried up the stairs.
I frowned and scrubbed my hands over my face. I’d been up for all of fifteen minutes and my muzzy brain was evidence of it. I dragged on shorts over my still damp skin.
I hurried down the stairs.“Thatwoman? My agent?”
My almost eleven-year-old daughter Carrington shrugged and tossed her long blond hair. “Sure. Whatever.”
Whateverwas her most often used word lately.
I grabbed the landline phone from her and sat on the arm of the couch. The landline was at the insistence of my mother, who said I needed one so Carrington didn’t think her iPhone was the center of the world. Good luck there. “Hi, Daphne.”
“You figured out it was me from her calling me ‘that woman’?” Daphne’s tone was rife with amusement.
“Everyone is ‘that woman’ to Care Bear. What’s up?”
“Did you forget the very important romance shoot was today? Well, the redux shoot?”
“No. I got in late from the city and crashed.” I stretched my arm behind my head, the popping joints reminding me I wastoo damn old for all this travel. “I just woke up. Forgot to set an alarm before I went to bed. At least I managed to shower.”
“That is a positive thing. Hey, listen, there’s been a little change. The model you were going to shoot with had something come up. So, they called in someone else. Someone well-versed in the industry. Honestly, she’s a total score. Still not sure how they snagged her at all. She’s usually booked out months.”
I was only half listening. I hadn’t had any coffee yet, and while I’d showered, it had been far too quick for me to lose the sleepiness still clouding my vision. And my thoughts.
Not to mention I needed to drop Carrington off at school before I headed to the historic Sherman Inn, the location of today’s shoot.
In previous years, my daughter had only been a part-time student in town because of my modeling career, but she had tutors. She’d spent more time in regular school this year than she usually did since my schedule had hugely slowed down. Mostly because I’d been taking less jobs on purpose. Carrington was getting to the age where she needed more guidance, which meant more days in school and fewer ones dealing with tutors.
And then there was the fact that I was reaching an age where I was too young to fall into the silver fox demographic and too old to be a young hottie. Or whatever the current lingo happened to be.
“Sounds good. Can you give me like an hour to get there? Gotta take my girl to school first.”
“Dammit, does that mean no Harley today?”
With a grin, I glanced over my shoulder at the bay window overlooking the wide lawn already strewn with colorful leaves. One of my neighbors was currently poking at one of my bushes, since okay, yeah, it was a little overgrown. I hadn’t had time to tackle the shrubbery—or to deal with the lawn—since I’d been gone for the better part of a month. “Yeah, and so does thefucking rain.” I took another look outside. “Though seems like it stopped now.”
The loud clearing of a throat made me cough. Care Bear always got on me when I slipped up and swore. “I mean, freaking.”
Daphne laughed. “C’mon, since when did a few raindrops slow down Hot Topic Travis?”
“Why did I ever tell you about that old nickname,” I muttered as Daphne laughed again. “See you in a bit.” I clicked off and gave my daughter a hard stare as she giggled. “What?”
“Hot Topic? Dad, you’re seriously lame.”
“And why are you listening to private phone calls, huh?”
“Not my fault she was talking so loudly. I didn’t intend to listen.”
I reached over to ruffle her wild curls. “Get your backpack. You’re gonna be late if we don’t get a move on.”
“Don’t blame me. I’ve been up. While you were still snoring,” she added, darting away as I reached for her. She darted upstairs to her room while I grumbled following her with a good-natured grumble, vowing to get her back later.
Good luck there.
Keeping up with Carrington was hard on a good day, never mind one where I’d maybe gotten five hours sleep max. I’d gotten in far too late last night since my mom was watching Care Bear here, so I hadn’t bothered to rush.
My kid had gone to sleep in her own bed under the watchful eye of her patient, loving, practically-a-saint grandma. It didn’t get much better than that.