Page 32 of Badd Daddy
He just grinned. “Don’t worry—they’re all spoken for. Good women, too.”
“Why would I worry?”
He rolled a heavy shoulder. “You got five daughters, and I know I’ve mentioned my boys being troublemakers. Most moms take one look at my sons and hide their daughters as far away as possible.”
The blond Adonis laughed. “Theytryto hide ’em. Usually the daughters just escape and come looking for us.”
“Humility is a family trait, I see,” I said.
He grinned broadly at me, and even as a woman old enough to be his mother, and a woman attracted to his father, I felt a little dizzy and weak-kneed. “Remington Badd, at your service.” He took my hand and shook it, firmly but not painfully.
“Olivia Goode,” I replied.
Remington eyed me with intense scrutiny, and then turned his gaze to his father, sitting shirtless in the middle of the kitchen. “Clippers,” he muttered, handing over a pair of professional grade clippers in a bag with a full set of guards. “I’ll need ’em back though, Dad.”
Lucas took the clippers, and then handed them to me. “Thanks, Rem. How’s business?”
Remington shrugged. “It’s the busy season. Ink is thinking of opening another location closer to where the cruise ships dock, which would work for Juneau and me. She’d like to be closer to the wharf anyway, and that works just fine for me.”
“Would all three of you work at the new location?” Lucas asked.
Remington shrugged. “Dunno. Probably not. Ink’s regular clientele won’t want to go near the tourists and, honestly, neither will Ink. Juneau and I are better suited to a busy tourist shop anyway. Plus, I think the three of us are a lot of personality in one shop.”
“You hear from Ram lately?” Lucas asked, his voice a deep rumble.
Remington snorted. “He’s way the fuck up near Coldfoot, guiding a group of big game hunters on a month-long hunt. Won’t be back for, like, two and a half weeks. Poor Izzy is going loony, too. Shoulda taken her with him, if you ask me.”
“Surprised she didn’t make him take her along.”
Remington cackled. “She likes hiking and camping with him, but a full month away from toilets and Wi-Fi is a bit much, even for her.”
“You ever think of going on one of those long hunts with him?” Lucas asked.
I continued fine-tuning the haircut with the scissors while Lucas spoke with his son, but I was ready to start using the clippers to blend and trim the beard.
“Nah. I don’t mind a week or even two out in the wilderness, but where he’s at? Man, that is therealwild. Plus, Juneau says that’s how she grew up, and she fought like hell to get away from it, so why would she go back to it voluntarily? And if she ain’t going, I ain’t going. Not for a full month. But Ram and Izzy have their own way of doing things. They like a little time apart, I guess. June and I, not so much.”
“So what’s Izzy doing while Ram is gone for a whole month?”
Remington shrugged. “Annoying the shit out of me, that’s what. Over at our place all the damn time.” He huffed and waved a hand. “I don’t mind, for the most part. But it’s becoming a bit much. I get that she’s bored and lonely, but it’s putting a serious crimp in my A-game, if you know what I mean.”
Lucas glared at his son. “Remington.”
I snorted, pulling the scissors away and covering my mouth. “If you think I’ve never heard my daughters speaking that way, boy, do I have news for you.” I brushed hair off of Lucas’s shoulders, laughing to myself. “Lexie, my middle daughter, once told me her college town only really offered two forms of entertainment: parties, and…boys.” I hesitated. “Although, she didn’t use the word boys. She used a much dirtier word which I won’t repeat. I cut the limit on her credit card down to a thousand dollars for two months for that one.”
Remington laughed. “Hit ’em where it hurts, huh? The pocketbook.”
“Yes, exactly,” I said. “Those cards are only supposed to be for emergencies, but they have a way of thinking everything is an emergency solvable by Mom’s credit line.”
Remington laughed again. “I had a credit card once. For emergencies only, I told myself. But then I ran up a huge bill on things that seemed like emergencies at the time, and I ended up cutting that fucker up into a million pieces.”
“Probably smart,” I said. “But with the five of them being scattered to the four corners of the country, and me up here, I sleep better at night knowing they have something to fall back on in case of a real emergency, and I keep the limits low enough that they can’t get into any real financial trouble. And they do all have at least part-time jobs to help pay down the minimums.”
Remington slugged his father in the shoulder. “I gotta get back to work. See ya ’round, old man.”
“See ya, Rem. Thanks for bringing the clippers.”
Remington eyed me again, clearly wondering about my relationship with his father, but not asking any questions. “Yep. Nice to meet you, Olivia.”