My Young Rebel Daddy (The Young Daddies #3)

9. Nick

Chapter 9

Nick

‘Woo-hoo! Aaron is coming soon!’ I sing to myself, gleefully taking a moment of quiet in The Little Petal to dance around and have some fun.

Don’t get me wrong, I love that fact that my florist is so popular.

But sometimes I really do enjoy those moments in the day where there isn’t a customer in sight, and I get to take some time to myself.

I used to work in a high stress and very intense environment back when I was an investment banker. There were some days where I could feel myself getting way more stressed out than I wanted to be.

It’s not quite the same thing now that I run my own florist, but sometimes there are moments during a day when all I want to do is just shut up the store and relax.

But, hey, it’s all good – and as soon as Aaron gets here I’m going to finish off my bouquets for the local old folks home and shut up the store for an hour and go for a nice walk on the beach.

‘Hey-hey!’ Aaron says, striding into the store with two juice boxes, and a bag of treats. ‘Look who brought some tropical tastiness!’

‘Yay!’ I reply, so happy to see my friend – and even happier to see that he had come with supplies. ‘Are they… donuts I see in your bag?

‘They sure are!’ Aaron replies, coming in close to hug me. ‘And they’ve got triple-custard crème filling too.’

‘OMG-OMG-OMG! You got them!’ I reply. ‘It’s so sweet that you remembered I wanted to try them. Wow, thank you!’

‘Hey, what are Little friends for?’ Aaron chuckles, putting the drinks and treat bag down on the store counter. ‘I thought you said you were busy though. Was that merely a rouse to get me here with snacks?’

‘Hehe, no, silly!’ I giggle in response. ‘I’ve been rushed off my feet all morning, but it’s gone quiet all of a sudden. It’s just a case of perfect timing on your part.’

‘Well, of course,’ Aaron giggles. ‘You should expect nothing less from me!’

But before we can even take a single bite out of the donuts, I hear the front door open.

‘Hello?’ I call out, leaning to try and glimpse the customer who has just come in.

Soon, I wish I hadn’t…

‘Oh, Christopher,’ I say, immediately bummed out by the sight of my neighbor Christopher Snoot. ‘Looking for some flowers for a friend?’

‘Hardly,’ Christopher replies, rolling his eyes in disgust. ‘No, I’m here to… warn you.’

‘Warn me?’ I reply, having no idea to what he’s referring. ‘I think I might have missed something, but warn me about what?’

‘That so-called builder you have working on your property,’ Snoot says, a look of barely concealed glee on his face. ‘I have it on good authority that he’s a cowboy. A no-good conman of the highest order. Apparently, he’s got a criminal record too.’

‘No! That’s nonsense!’ I reply, my lip trembling with anger. ‘Jason Rock is an honest man who is good at his job. And I’ve got no reason to think otherwise.’

I want so much to pick up one of the donuts right now and smoosh it right in Snoot’s stuck-up, smarmy face.

I can’t believe he’s making up all this crap about my Daddy – and he needs to know that he can’t just walk into my florist and talk like this.

‘Unless you’ve got anything else to say, you need to take your stinky butt and get out of here,’ I say, my voice sounding emotional. ‘I don’t like liars. So stop lying about my… Daddy!’

‘ Pffft , Daddy?’ Snoot says, shaking his head in disgust. ‘Whatever you get up to in your private life is your business, I suppose. Even if it is seriously weird. But you do need to know that your… friend … is not who he says he is. He’s no good! And when he cuts and runs and leaves you hundreds of thousands of dollars down, do not come crying to me!’

I’m speechless.

I feel angry inside, but like I might burst into tears at any moment too.

This isn’t like me, and I can’t believe I’ve let Snoot get into my head like this. There was just something about the way he was so confident in his accusations that is making me think…

‘Hey, come here,’ Aaron says. ‘Don’t let that stinky butthole get you down. I think we need to take our treats and hit the beach. You’ll have forgotten all about him in no time.’

‘I guess you’re right,’ I reply. ‘But…. no, forget it. Let’s go. I want to feel the sand between my toes and a whole heap of donuts in my tummy!’

With that, we pick up our stuff and shut the store.

It’s time to hit the beach and put The World’s Worst Neighbor well and truly out of my thoughts!

The trip to the beach with Aaron was fun – and we certainly had a good time as soon as the sugary juice boxes and donuts hit our lips.

In fact, the pair of us did so much laughing, running around, and splashing in the waves that I decided to shut the florist early for the day and head on home.

Hey! I’m the boss, I can shut my own store if I want to LOL!

Anyway, I’m back at home now and it’s just me. There’s no sign of Jason, but he left a note to say that him and his crew had signed off at around four o’clock.

That’s cool, and I can see that they’ve made good progress on the building site.

I can’t wait until I can see some real progress on the build itself, although I suppose for that to happen I’ll have to make sure that Snoot’s planning application appeal isn’t successful.

Urgh , why did I even have to think about that horrible man – and why can’t he just leave me alone?

I’m so mad at Snoot for even putting those thoughts into my head.

But I might just Google Jason and see some online reviews of his work…

‘ Hmmm , nothing,’ I say, scanning my eye over the search results on my phone. ‘Well… this doesn’t prove anything. Anyway, Daddy said this was his first big solo project. But… why is there literally nothing about him online?’

This sucks .

I know I shouldn’t be feeling paranoid about Jason – so far, he’s proving to be a great contractor and an even better Daddy.

But I can’t help feeling a little bit worried that he doesn’t seem to have any online presence whatsoever. That’s quite a rare thing nowadays and it’s not as if Jason’s ever mentioned anything about being intentionally offline…

‘Stop being so silly!’ I say, losing patience with myself. ‘Daddy is a hard-working builder, he’s got no time for social media or any of that nonsense.’

I might be saying all the right things out loud, but my mind is doing its best to try and convince me that everything is not as it seems.

Maybe it’s a throwback to my days working in the city.

It was common for men to try and work their ways into my life and promise me everything only for them to turn out to be rotten Daddies with only my money as their ultimate goal.

There were even occasions where I felt like some of my so-called friends were using me for my money too. It might only have been small things, but over the course of time it added up to something worth more than money.

The longer I stayed in the city and working in finance, the less happy I got. It was always going to be the same way for as long as I stayed in that environment – so when the chance came to seal one final huge deal and then walk away, I knew I had to take it.

Since then, I’ve made a life that I truly enjoy.

The only missing piece of the puzzle up until recently had been having a Daddy to share my life with – and then OlderLittles.com and Jason happened.

‘Big sigh, Rosie,’ I say, looking over toward my darling stuffie as she sits patiently on the kitchen table. ‘I hate feeling glum. I want to be a happy boy all of the time. And I would have been today if it wasn’t for our stinky neighbor.’

I really shouldn’t let this get in the way of my relationship with Jason – he’s pretty much the total opposite of any of those awful gold-digging men who dared to call themselves Daddies!

‘Come on, Rosie,’ I say, picking my stuffie up and wandering from the kitchen and into the living area. ‘I think we need to do some coloring. It always cheers us up, doesn’t it?’

With that, I pull out a big box of my best coloring pencils and paper from the cupboard over by the window.

I might not be in the best of moods now, but I’m determined not to allow Snoot to totally ruin what was a really great day prior to his totally sucky intervention.

And anyway, Daddy will hopefully come and call for me later – and I just know that he’ll be able to set everything right again.