Chapter 7
Lacy followed Rebecca around the ballroom as her cousin took hundreds of pictures. She shot the authors at their tables, readers excited to meet them, and everything else that caught her eye.
No matter where they were, Lacy couldn’t stop watching the corner of the room where Drake was standing and talking up the author who had him on several of her book covers. She had also paid for him to attend the convention.
Women were lined up to not only buy books and have him sign them, but also to have their picture taken with him.
He smiled and talked and joked, though Lacy seemed to be the only one who noticed that his smile did not reach his eyes.
His expression was pleasant, but seemed to be one he’d practiced, not quite genuine.
Then he glanced at her, his gaze locked on hers, and his expression changed. His eyes sparkled, his smile grew, and then he winked.
Lacy would have winked back except she’d never mastered the ability to close just one eye at a time. She’d never figured out how to whistle, either.
“Lacy, are you okay?” Rebecca asked as she nudged her shoulder.
Lacy jumped and turned to face her cousin. “What?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Lacy answered even as she raised a hand to her mouth to cover a wide yawn.
“I’m going to take a break and get some lunch. Do you want to come with me?”
“Yeah, okay. Give me a minute and I’ll meet you in the lobby,” Lacy said before heading to where Drake stood.
When she approached, Drake finished with the women and then asked the next one in line to wait for just a moment.
Lacy had to fight the need to throw herself into his arms and snuggle against his chest. Instead, she focused on the reason for her to interrupt his work.
“I’m going out for lunch with Rebecca. Would you like me to bring you back something?”
Drake glanced around before shaking his head with a smile. “They brought us box lunches. Thanks for thinking of me.”
“Sure thing. Okay, guess I’ll see you later?”
“You will, Lacy-girl. I’ll be done about five and then we can go out for dinner together.”
Lacy nodded. “I’d like that.”
“Drake, I need you,” Kate, the author he was working with, called.
Without another word, Lacy grabbed his hand and squeezed it before turning and walking away.
She took deep breaths as she left the ballroom, trying to keep her big emotions locked down.
Just because they’d spent the night together was no reason to be jealous of the women who had his attention today.
Drake watched Lacy walk away, wishing he could go with her. His hand still tingled from where she’d squeezed it, and his cock was twitching in request for a repeat of their early morning loving.
But that would have to wait until after he finished working.
Taking a deep breath, he switched his focus back on the job he was here to do. Help Kate sell books and win them both some new fans.
Turning to the crowd in front of their table, he smiled. “All right, ladies, who’s next for a picture?”
When he got a few minutes, Drake scanned the ballroom and kept watch on the open doors, hoping for another glimpse of his Little girl.
And Lacy Grey was his Little. After only a day and a half of knowing her as more than just a social media contact, he knew she was meant to be his. The challenge was how to convince her to accept him as her Daddy, and then figure out what would happen next.
He did not relax until he saw her enter the ballroom again.
She was once again following her cousin, who was a fair photographer, but Drake wondered what the woman thought of Lacy getting involved with him.
Rebecca seemed a bit too tightly laced, and rather self-centered, but he was making a snap judgement having only met the woman two days before.
Forcing himself to turn away from watching Lacy was the hardest thing he’d had to do since he’d quit drinking five years before, but he did it. The bigger challenge was to focus on the job and not on the Little girl who now appeared to be shopping her way around the room.
“We’re all sold out,” Kate said, bringing his attention to the table where the stacks of books with his images on the covers were gone. There were still plenty of postcards with his face on them, along with stickers and other swag items for readers to collect.
Checking his watch, he was surprised to see there were only fifteen minutes left in the book signing.
“Is it okay if I wander for a few minutes?” he asked, not wanting to leave if Kate needed him.
Kate smiled. “Go. Wander. Have a great time and relax. I’ll see you at the after-party.”
“Thanks,” Drake said, giving the woman one more hug and a kiss on the cheek before collecting his backpack from under the table.
Though he was exhausted and really only wanted to go upstairs, order room service and take a nap until the party, he needed to check in with Lacy and see how she was doing.
Maybe he could talk her into joining him for dinner and a nap.
He smiled and spoke to the last few readers who were wandering the room, as well as the authors who asked about the photographers he worked with and how to buy images for their next books.
When he told them that he’d done a session with Rebecca, several got excited and started looking for the photographer.
He caught up with Lacy as she was buying a t-shirt and big travel cup at a vendor stand. She turned away and jumped when she saw him standing only a foot behind her.
“Hi,” she said with a grin.
“Hi. Get any good stuff?” he asked, seeing that she was juggling several bags, as well as her cousin’s camera bag.
She shrugged and dropped her gaze to the middle of his chest. “Some books, a couple shirts, lots of stickers and bookmarks and other swag. You can’t come to one of these things without going home with lots of swag.”
He touched her chin with the side of his finger, startling her into meeting his gaze again. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. I was just interested.”
Lacy blinked and her expression brightened. “Oh. Okay. Sometimes Rebecca teases me about all the stuff I bring home from one of these things.”
Drake frowned. “She shouldn’t. It’s really none of her business what you do.”
“What’s none of my business?” Rebecca said, moving in from where she’d been taking pictures of the t-shirt vendor’s display.
Before he could speak, Lacy said, “Nothing. He didn’t mean anything.”
Drake frowned as Lacy tried to soothe her cousin, as if Rebecca was going to lash out at her in anger or something. Was that why she was hesitant to start a photography business of her own? Was she afraid of reprisals if she surpassed her cousin’s mediocre success?
That was just bullshit. The pictures he’d seen on Lacy’s camera told him that she had an eye and way of bringing out emotion in her subjects that Rebecca didn’t. And there was no way he was going to allow his Little girl to downplay or ignore her talent.
When both women looked at him, he realized he’d missed something. Possibly something important. But he didn’t care. He was going to have his say.
“What I was saying was that it is none of your business if Lacy wanted to buy books or cups or shirts or whatever. She’s a grown woman with her own money that she can spend anyway she wants.”
The women’s reactions stunned him. Lacy took a step away from her cousin as her shoulders and head dropped and she looked like she was preparing to take a punch. Rebecca sucked in a breath and made a face like she’d just smelled a week-old fish that had been marinating in a pile of shit.
“I can’t believe you said that to me,” Rebecca whispered, her tone furious. “Don’t you know I could get you blackballed in the industry?”
“Or I could put the word out that you’re not a photographer to work with. But neither one of us will do that, will we? Now, from what I’ve seen the past few days, someone needs to stand up for Lacy since she doesn’t seem capable of standing up for herself.”
“Well, I never,” Rebecca huffed, grabbing Lacy’s arm. “Come on, Lacy, we’re leaving.”
“But I’m not done shopping,” Lacy said, looking like she wanted to cry.
Drake realized he’d put her in a tough spot, but he hated seeing anyone bullied, especially someone he cared about. Knowing he needed to make amends, he looked at Rebecca.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
Rebecca took a deep breath, but didn’t look like she was calming down. “You might not want to spend too much time with Lacy. She wears her heart on her sleeve and will give it away to any man who smiles and talks nice to her.”
“Rebecca!” Lacy protested as she pulled her arm from her cousin’s grasp. “That’s enough. I’m going to finish looking around and I’ll see you in the room. Later.”
With that, Lacy walked away, leaving him standing there looking at her cousin, both of them stunned by her show of anger.
“I just want what’s best for her,” Rebecca explained after another deep breath, which seemed to help her fully calm down.
“She falls in love at the drop of a hat and gets her heart broken just as quickly when the men walk away or don’t return her feelings.
I don’t want her to watch her fall apart when she goes online and sees that you’ve moved on with a new boyfriend in a few weeks.
It would be better if you backed off now, before she makes a fool of herself. ”
Drake looked the photographer in the eye and said, “I don’t plan on moving on.
I plan on making a long-distance relationship work.
For now. In the meantime, I’m going to help her learn to dream again, and then make those dreams come true.
It was nice shooting with you and I can’t wait to see the final product and help you sell the pictures we got. Goodbye.”
With that, Drake walked away, determined to find Lacy and make her understand that he didn’t care about her past. He was determined to remain focused on the now, and the future, and how they could build a relationship even though they lived four hundred miles apart.