Page 76 of Badd Daddy

He grinned. “Well, I’m hoping we’ll have time to answer them all, Liv.” He opened his door and hung his foot out, but paused to look at me. “For now, though, that girl needs you. She may not be able to say so, but it’s written in every line of her body and every word she says. She needs her mama.”

“I know she does.”

“You just call me when you’ve got a few minutes. I don’t aim to get in the way of your time with Cassie.”

I frowned. “I don’t have your number..”

He opened the console armrest and pulled out a new iPhone. “I’m even learnin’ to send text messages. My boys find it funny, for some damn reason. My big old sausage thumbs don’t like to hit the right keys and I spell shit wrong, seein’ as my education is spotty at best.”

He unlocked the phone, laboriously hunted through the apps until he found the contacts, and eventually figured out how to add a new contact…watching him mistype three times in the process of entering my name, which was only three letters, was funnier than it had any right to be, and I had to suppress laughter as I watched him struggle.

He huffed. “Okay, now what’s your number?”

I reached for the device. “Want me to just type it in?”

He kept it out of reach, snorting. “Nope. I gotta learn.” He glanced at me, amused. “Roman says watching me try to use this thing is the most frustrating experience in the world.”

I laughed. “It’s...something.” I told him my phone number, and again, watching him type the ten digits was comically frustrating, as he had to back up and retype at least a dozen times. Finally he had my number in correctly, and he sent me a message:

This heer is lucas.

I bit my lip. “Got it.”

He eyed me. “What?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

He flushed, ducked his head. “Look, I told you I don’t spell too good. Liam and I quit school when we was, like, nine. Or if you want to know the truth, my dad quit takin’ us. Closest school was almost an hour drive from our homestead, and he just didn’t have the time, so Gramps took over our learnin’, but he could barely read, write or add himself.”

“Lucas, you know I could—”

He shook his head. “Liv, if you’re about to suggest you could teach me to read and write…well, just don’t. What I know works fine for me.”

I nodded, sighing. “Okay.”

He grinned at me. “It bugs you, don’t it?”

I laughed, shrugging. “I just want to help.”

He gestured at Cassie. “Right now, she needs your help more than I do.”

I reached across the console and wrapped my arms around his neck, inhaling his scent once more. “I’ll call you, okay?”

His hand slid up my back to curl around the back of my neck, and I felt his nose against my cheek, his breath on my jaw; all I’d have to do is twist my head ever so slightly and his lips would brush against mine—

I yanked away from him, my heart hammering in my chest. I dragged my fingers through my hair, clearing my throat.

“It’s good to see you, Lucas. You look amazing. You should be proud of yourself.”

He nodded, rubbing his thumb across his lips. “I actually am pretty proud of myself.”

I swallowed hard. “Would it sound condescending if I said I was proud of you?”

He lifted a shoulder. “I know what you mean, and…it means a lot to me, comin’ from you.”

“MOM!” Cassie bellowed.

I sighed. “I have to go.”