Chapter 4
“Technically, he said no paint.” ~ Kai
Kai
I notice the time on the clock as I park. Shit. I’m late. Rhett is going to have my ass. If Dakota doesn’t get to me first. I promised I wouldn’t be late to babysit their kids today.
I hurry out of my car and rush to the front door. It flies open before I reach it. Dakota taps her foot as she glares at me.
“Sorry. I’m late. I was ready early, so I decided to clean the house.”
She lifts an eyebrow. “Clean the house? Is that what we’re calling pranking these days?”
My nose wrinkles. “I didn’t prank anyone.”
She shakes her phone at me. “But you did make a Pinterest board with a ton of prank ideas.”
“I thought I made my board private,” I mutter.
Rhett joins us on the porch. “Good. You’re on time.”
“On time?”
Dakota groans. “I told him the wrong time to make sure he got here on time. But now he knows my trick. ”
“Uncle Kai,” Pearl shouts as she darts out of the house. I lift her up in the air and she giggles.
“Who’s your favorite uncle?”
“Kai! Kai! Kai!” she shouts.
I kiss her cheek as a reward and she giggles. The sound warms my heart. Pearl was shy and afraid of everyone and everything when she arrived at Rhett and Dakota’s house a few months ago. But now she’s a terror. I’m very proud of my influence on her.
“Are you going to be good for Uncle Kai?” Dakota asks.
Pearl bats her eyelashes. “Yes, Mom.”
Tears form in Dakota’s eyes. Pearl has only been calling her mom for a week. Although Pearl and her half-sister Mira are technically foster children, Rhett is doing everything he can to adopt them. Having a big brother who’s a billionaire doesn’t hurt.
Don’t get me wrong. Eli never throws the wealth he earned as a founder of Apparoo around. But he also doesn’t hesitate to use his influence to help his family. Such as founding a distillery so all of his brothers have jobs and can stay on Smuggler’s Hideaway.
“No getting into the paint,” Rhett orders.
“Yes, Dad.”
My niece is good. She has Rhett and Dakota wrapped around her adorable little finger.
“Mira is in bed. She should be out for the night. She’s a good little sleeper,” Dakota tells me before kissing Pearl. “Be good for Uncle Kai. ”
Rhett hands me the baby monitor. “No paint.”
“Get out of here. Pearl and I have plans that do not involve boring parents.”
Dakota doesn’t move from the porch. For someone who wants ‘date night’ with her boyfriend, she doesn’t appear eager to leave.
“It’ll be fine. Kai won’t allow our babies to be hurt. Unless he wants to die.” Rhett glares at me.
I salute him. “I will not hurt my favorite nieces.”
Rhett grasps Dakota’s hand and leads her to their car. I stand on the porch with Pearl and wave to them until they’re out of sight.
“They’re gone. What do you want to do? Go surfing, skydiving, ride rollercoasters at Mermaid Mystical Gardens ? Name your poison.”
She giggles. “I’m too young to do any of those things.”
“Young? Phew. What a relief. I thought there was a problem with your growth.”
“You’re silly, Uncle Kai.”
“But fun, right?”
I set her down and she scampers inside. I shut the door behind me. The second the door is shut, Delphine trots toward me. I get to my knees. “Who’s a good girl?”
Her tail thumps as I pet her ears. I dig a doggy treat out of my pocket and feed it to her.
“Delphine can’t have treats.”
I gasp. “Says who?”
“Mom and Dad. ”
I wrinkle my nose. “What Mom and Dad don’t know won’t hurt them.”
She giggles. “Shall we get the paint out?”
No way. No how. It’s impossible to paint with a four-year-old without her parents finding out. I have learned my lesson there. But I’ve been googling fun stuff to do with a small child and I have some ideas.
“Do you want to hear my idea?”
She bounces on her toes. “Yes!”
I place a finger over my mouth. “We have to be quiet. Your sister is sleeping.”
“Yes,” she whisper-shouts.
“We could make a mud kitchen.”
Her nose wrinkles. “Dad gets mad when I eat mud.”
“Okay. How about playdough?”
“Boring.”
I tap my chin. “What about painting with colored sand?”
I came up with this idea because I know how much Pearl loves to paint – the girl is an artist in the making – but I don’t want Rhett to shave my hair off in my sleep because I got his precious daughter dirty with paint again.
“We don’t have colored sand.”
I smirk. “But I do.”
She claps. “Yea!”
“Shall we check on your sister before we get our supplies?” I tag Pearl’s hand and we make our way down the hallway to the baby’s room .
I love this room. Dakota went all out decorating it. She even hired a local artist to paint a mural on the wall. Since this is Smuggler’s Hideaway, the mural is full of mermaids, smugglers, seals, and otters.
Speaking of seals and otters, there are life-sized stuffed animals of a seal and an otter on the floor. The mobile above the crib features otters, raccoons, and parrots. Rhett commissioned it since his first date with Dakota was an attempt to steal Plank, the foul-mouthed parrot.
Each town on Smuggler’s Hideaway has a live mascot. Smuggler’s Rest has Viking the otter. Rogue’s Landing has Rogue the raccoon. And Pirate’s Perch has Plank.
I tiptoe toward the crib. Mira is fast asleep on her back with her arms and legs spread out in the shape of a jellyfish. I resist the urge to kiss her cheek. I don’t want to wake her.
I shut the door to the nursery behind us before leading Pearl to my car, where my supplies are. I grab a bag full of squeeze bottles filled with colored sand and we return to the kitchen.
“We need to cover the dining room table before we begin.”
Pearl rushes off and returns with some papers.
“Perfect.”
Once the paper is spread out on the table, I set the squeeze bottles with red, pink, purple, yellow, and blue sand on the table.
“What do I do?” Pearl asks.
“You can draw whatever you want with the sand. Here. Let me show you.” I use the yellow to make a smiley face.
“I’m going to draw a princess! ”
She gathers all the colors to her before starting to squirt the sand onto the paper. The princess has a purple and yellow gown and blue hair.
I play around with the red color.
“Why don’t you have children?” Pearl asks as she works.
“I don’t have a wife yet.” I won’t be the first person to explain to Pearl how it’s possible to have children without being married. Rhett would throw me off the cliff at Mermaid Mystical Gardens if I explained the birds and the bees to his precious daughter.
“Why don’t you have a wife?”
“Ah, that’s a tough question.” I can hardly tell my adorable little niece, the woman I want doesn’t want me.
Harper. Merely thinking about her has my heartbeat speeding up and warmth spreading through my body.
Harper is beyond a doubt the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. She has shoulder-length brown hair and light blue eyes. Eyes, I’d love to watch flare with passion. When she smiles, she has a dimple on each cheek. Unfortunately, she doesn’t smile around me much.
And then there are her curves. She’s short but has curves in all the right places. My fingers itch to dig into her hips. And my mouth waters to taste her breasts.
But there’s more to Harper than her beauty. She’s wicked smart. The hardest worker I’ve ever met and I have three brothers who are workaholics. She’s tough and grumpy, but I’ve glimpsed a softer side of her. A softer side I’m determined to see more of .
“Uncle Kai!” Pearl yells before squirting sand into my face.
I bat the sand away. “Why are you attacking me?”
“You weren’t listening.”
“I was too listening.” I pick up my red bottle and squirt her top with it.
She squeals before gathering the sand on the paper and throwing it at me.
I punch my hand in the air. “This is war!”
Pearl giggles before jumping from her chair and racing away from me. I chase after her. The front door flies open and I freeze. Rhett is standing at the door, glaring at me.
“What are you doing back home?”
“Dakota forgot her purse.” He points at the table. “I told you no painting.”
“Technically, you said no paint.”
“And you decided to use colored sand in the house?” He stalks toward the table and picks up a piece of paper. “While using the quarterly report as your background.”
I cringe. “I assumed it was an old report. Who prints out reports anymore?”
Dakota walks inside. “What’s taking so long?” She glances around. “Oh.”
“Pearl started it.”
She fists her hands on her hips. “You’re blaming my five-year-old daughter for this mess?”
“Is this a trick question?”
She reaches down and picks Pearl up. “You can clean up this mess while we go for dinner. ”
I survey the room. There’s sand all over the kitchen floor, as well as a trail of sand through the living room. I groan. I hate cleaning up. Who doesn’t?
“Bring me back a doggy bag?” I bat my lashes and do my best to appear innocent.
Dakota snorts. “There’s frozen pizza in the freezer.”
My nose wrinkles. “What am I? A destitute college student?”
Rhett hands me the vacuum cleaner as he passes me. “Don’t wake the baby.”
They shut the door behind them, leaving me with the mess to clean up. At least I’m still Pearl’s favorite uncle.