Chapter Fourteen
Ω Blakely Ω
It took me what feels like too long to decide what to wear. Jeans and a t-shirt won. I was debating on if I wanted to taunt Bronx some more, but I figured I really shouldn’t push it anymore than I already have.
When I get to Knautical Grill, I see my dad’s car so I don’t bother waiting for Bronx. He’ll text me when he gets here, or he’ll just come in.
I open the door and smile when I see my dad. “Hey, baby girl,” he says as he stands up from our table.
I run to give him a hug. No matter how old I get, there’s nothing like getting a hug from my dad.
“Hi, dad.” My dad wraps me tightly in his arms.
“How are you doing?” he asks, pulling out a chair for me.
“I’m good. I was working on a marketing proposal for Alexander Walker’s newest business venture. He’s getting into wrapping cars now, apparently,” I tell him.
My dad laughs. “His new girl is really making him expand his business, huh?”
I nod. “Oh, she’s putting in the work for it, too. They also want to start a bakery, apparently. The amount of things that they’re accomplishing in the short time of knowing each other is just crazy to me.” I take a sip of the Sprite in front of me.
“I thought you said you were wanting to delegate more?” My dad cocks an eyebrow at me.
I grin at him and rest my chin in the palm of my hand. “I’m not great at delegating. I’m pretty sure I learned that from you.”
My dad laughs. “I delegate. I’m the boss. I get to delegate.” He points a finger at me. “Not only are you the boss, but you’re the owner of your business. You can do what you want.”
He’s right. I burnt myself out in the first year of my company because I was trying to do everything myself. Clients kept pouring in, and I was doing it all myself.
My dad noticed and helped me to realize that I couldn’t keep going like I was or I was going to run myself into the ground. “I know, Dad. I promise. I like working on Charlotte’s projects. She’s really fun to work with.”
I notice my dad’s eyes trail down to my neck. He tilts his head. I immediately reach up and brush my hand against the side of my neck thinking there’s a bug or something. “What?” I ask. “What’s there?”
“Do you have a hickey on your neck?”
Do I have a hickey on my neck?
“No?” I answer, but I’m not sure.
Did Bronx leave a hickey on me when he was kissing me earlier? Of course he did. Of course he had to leave a mark in the most obvious part of my neck. “You have a hickey on your neck,” Bronx says as he walks up right behind me.
He leans down and presses a kiss to my cheek. I feel my cheeks turn red as I stare at him. Bronx sits down in the open seat next to me. I turn slowly to look at my dad, and if looks could kill, Bronx would be long gone.
Bronx grins. “How’s it going, Mason?” he asks with the cockiest grin on his face.
I’m embarrassed. Does he just like making my dad mad?
“It’s Chief Knight to you,” my dad growls.
“How’s it going, Chief Knight?” Bronx corrects himself.
“Well it’s terrible now. A hoodlum crashed a lovely lunch with my daughter. What do you recommend to fix that?” my dad asks before looking at me. “I thought you were joking that he was coming.”
I smile innocently at my dad. “He just got off shift. In my defense? I didn’t think he was going to walk in here acting like that.” I glare at Bronx. He just winks at me. “I don’t know what made him act like that.”
I feel Bronx’s hand on my upper thigh, but I refuse to look.
My dad looks at Bronx. “He was up really early worrying about your whereabouts. Three AM, to be exact. He didn’t get his beauty sleep.”
“I sleep at three in the morning.”
Bronx just shrugs it off. “It was a shift. I couldn’t sleep anyway.” He doesn’t look at either of us.
The look on my dads face says it, though. Paramedics have to witness a lot. They go through a lot, and it sometimes sticks with them. My dad clears his throat as the waitress walks up to us.
“Hi! My name is Emily! How can I help you today?” the pretty blonde says with a bright cheery smile. “Is this your daughter that you were waiting for? Are you ready to order?”
My dad nods. “Yeah, but you can put through the order I gave you earlier. I just didn’t want her food to get cold before she was able to eat it. We’re going to be on one ticket. He’s on another,” my dad tells her.
Bronx grins, and I know he’s about to try and start more problems with my dad. I shoot him a look. “Don’t,” I mouth to him.
Bronx nods. “I’ll take whatever he ordered,” Bronx tells her. “I don’t care what it is. Can you give me a double as well? I’m starving.”
Emily nods and looks at me. “Do you need a refill on your Sprite? Your dad says you might want a lemonade instead.”
I laugh and shake my head. “No. I’m good with this. Thank you, though.”
Emily walks off to put our order in. “How’d you let this one trap you in his grasps again?” my dad asks.
I laugh. “He ran into me at the coffee shop.”
“He ran into you… Like with his car?”
“NO!” Bronx answers insanely quick. “No. No. I wasn’t paying attention and bumped into her. Not with my car. With my person.”
“That was a wrong choice of wording. I’m sorry. But I wouldn’t say he trapped me in his grasp.”
“Tomato tom-ah-to.” My dad shrugs at me. “I would’ve gotten a call if you were in a car accident.”
Bronx tilts his head. “You would have?”
I nod. “Yup. Everyone of the paramedics apparently knows my car, make, and model so they know to call my dad if anything happens to me.”
“That, and I’m her ‘in case of emergency’ number. So if someone doesn’t see her car or know her car, that’s my plan b,” my dad says proudly.
Bronx nods his head in approval. “I didn’t know the make and model of her car until recently. But good job for you, Dad.”
“That’s my dad. Not your dad,” I tell him before I can stop myself.
My dad chuckles. “That’s my girl.”
Maybe this lunch won’t go as bad as I thought it would.