Read Online Four Times the Trouble by Tara Taylor Quinn - Free Book Online Page B

different somehow, more human.”
    Jacob frowned. “More human? What have I been up to now? An alien?”
    “You always seem so invincible. In all the years I’ve known you I’ve never heard you ask anyone for anything.”
    “Maybe you weren’t listening,” he said lightly, reaching for his wallet as he picked up their bill.
    “And maybe you weren’t asking.” She snatched the bill from his fingers. “I said I’d pay. See if you can handle having someone do that much for you.” Her tone was teasing, but her eyes told a different story.
    Jacob drove her home, waiting until she’d waved at him from her living room window before he pulled away. Michelle might think he needed to reach out to people more. But she was wrong.
    * * *
    H E WALKED his babysitter to the end of his driveway, watched while she ran across the street to her mother’s bungalow and went slowly back inside, locking up for the night. Looking in on the girls on the way to his bedroom, he tucked in a stray limb here and there. As he bent to put Jessie’s teddy bear back into bed with her, he was surprised to see his daughter’s big brown eyes gazing up at him. Her brow was puckered, her lower lip quivering.
    Jacob sat down on her bed and lifted her onto his lap. “What is it, precious? Did you have a bad dream?”
    She sniffled and shook her head. “Tomorrow’s Valentine Day,” she said softly. Her little voice was so forlorn Jacob had to struggle not to smile.
    “Is that a problem?” he whispered back.
    Her head moved against his chest as she nodded. Jacob loved the feel of her slight weight leaning on him, trusting him. Needing him.
    “I forgot to tell you that me and Meggie are s’posed to bring cookies to the party.”
    “That’s easy enough, punkin. We’ll stop at the store on our way to school in the morning. Okay?”
    “’Kay.” She didn’t sound any happier.
    “Jess? Is there something else wrong?”
    She sat up and studied him for a moment, then settled back against him. “Meggie says not to say,” she said barely above a whisper.
    While Jacob was concerned to hear that his daughters were deliberately keeping things from him, he was even more concerned about the reason for their silence. Picking Jessie up, he carried her out to the living room, reaching to flip on the light by the couch as he sat down with her on his lap.
    “Okay, sport. Get this once and for all. There is never, ever, anything you can’t tell me and there never will be—got that?” He took hold of her shoulders, turning her so that she was looking at him.
    Wide-eyed, she nodded.
    “I can’t keep you and your sisters safe unless I know what’s happening, Jess. So it’s important that you guys don’t keep secrets from me.”
    She fiddled with one of his shirt studs. “It’s just that when I said me and Meggie’d bring cookies to the party, some of the kids said we always bring yucky store kinds, so I said uh-uh and they said uh-huh, ’cause we didn’t have a mommy to make cookies for us to bring and I said we had you and they said daddies couldn’t make cookies, so I said you could and now we’re going to be bringing yucky store ones anyway ’cause I forgot to tell you about making them,” she finished in a rush.
    Jacob would have loved to have a talk with each and every kid in Jessie’s class. “I’m not glad you forgot to tell me about the cookies, Jess, but I think we can solve this pretty easily. Lucky for you I don’t have to work in the morning because of tonight’s benefit show. So I’ll make a deal with you. You put your pretty little self right back to bed, go to sleep, and I’ll see about getting those cookies made. Deal?”
    Jessie flung her arms around his neck and squeezed him so tightly it hurt. “Thank you, Daddy.”
    * * *
    M ICHELLE FLUFFED the pillow on the end of her couch and settled down against it—again. She couldn’t sleep. Usually, when her demons drove her from her bed, she’d be out as soon as she lay