Hot Daddy Package: An Enemies to Lovers Romance Read online

  “I… uh…”

  “Don’t apologise. It’s not like you were the one who abandoned me. You might have fucked every woman with a pulse, but I think you might have been too young to have been involved.”

  “I wasn’t—” she raises an eyebrow at me. “Okay, so maybe I was.”

  Suddenly, everything she’s done for Doe and me makes total sense. Her reason for putting aside everything she feels for me, or doesn’t, becomes clear. This really is about Doe.

  She sits back on the sofa, crosses her arms across her chest and stares at the black TV screen. It’s clear she wants to talk about her past about as much as I do, and I fight to find a different topic of conversation.

  “You know, there is one woman with a pulse I’ve not fucked.”

  “Oh yeah, who? The Queen?”

  “Okay, make that two then. No, I was more thinking…” I drop my eyes to her tits that are pushing up over the top of her shirt with the way she’s sitting.

  “I don’t fucking think so.” She stands up and marches to the other side of the room, her face turning back into the sour one I’m used to when she turns her eyes on me. “You don’t want my help, just say the word and the truce is over.”

  “No, no,” I say in panic. “I want you here. I’m sorry, I was just… trying to change the subject away from the heavy stuff. I don’t actually want to fuck you. The opposite actually.”

  Her brow furrows. “And what exactly is the opposite?”

  “Uh… no idea. Shall we go out then?”

  “You’re an idiot.”

  “You wouldn’t have me any other way.”

  “You sure about that?”

  She shakes her head and starts packing a bag for Doe.

  I can’t help but smile as I think about how much fun the next few days could be.

  It takes fucking forever to actually get out of the house. Just as we’ve about packed up everything that Doe owns, she grumbles because she wants another bottle. It’s over an hour later when the three of us do eventually step over the threshold and into the hallway.

  The second we’re in the Uber, Suki pulls her phone from her pocket and puts it to her ear.

  I can’t hear what’s being said on the other end but it’s immediately obvious that it’s a man. Something stirs inside me. I always assumed that Suki was single. I mean, what man in their right mind would put up with her brand of bitch for any length of time?

  “Ha, well they’re both still alive if that’s what you mean.” She glances over at both of us, making it even more obvious that she’s talking about me. “I know right?” She laughs and my spine stiffens. Are they laughing at me? I start to fume but I’m cut off with the next words out of her mouth. “Listen, I need a favour. Well… Scott needs a favour. His spare room isn’t exactly fit for purpose. Any chance you’d be up for fixing up a nursery?”

  They chat away for a little longer, allowing me to stew on what they’re planning for my flat and daughter and not filling me in on.

  She eventually hangs up. “Okay, that’s sorted.”

  “What’s sorted? What have you done?”

  “That was my cousin, Carl. He’s a builder. He’s going to come around and help out with the nursery, or should I say tip. He’s going to—”

  “I’m more than capable of sorting out my own daughter’s nursery,” I snap, but when her face drops, I immediately feel bad. She’s just trying to do something nice.

  “I- I know that. But you’ve got enough on your hands; you don’t need more adding to it. I’m sorry. If you don’t want—”

  “No. I’m sorry. I need all the help I can get.”

  She turns and looks out of the window. I’m assuming I’m not meant to hear the words that pass her lips. “Wow, he does know how to apologise.”

  I open my mouth to respond, but concerned we’ll just end up in a slanging match before we’ve even started our few days together, I shut it again and turn to face my sleeping daughter.

  “What’s first on the list?” I ask once we’re standing in the retail park Suki directed the driver to.

  She looks me up and down, standing with a carrier bag full of Doe’s stuff in one hand and her in her car seat in the other. “Pushchair and nappy bag.”

  “Pushchair it is. I looked at them when my auntie sent me out yesterday. I actually had some help from the shop assistant and I already know the one I want… I think.”

  I march straight into the shop and locate the one I was test running yesterday. It’s a different colour to what I saw yesterday, and it throws me a bit, but I come to a stop next to it and announce, “This one.”

  “Er… that was quick.”

  “You want to know why?” She stares at me curiously so I put Doe down, and make quick work of unclipping the seat that’s currently on the frame before slotting Doe’s car seat into place.

  “Wow. I’m impressed, Daddy.”

  “Hmmm… it’s weird.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “I’ve only ever been referred to as that in the bedroom. Sounds all kinds of wrong out in public.”

  “There’s something seriously wrong with you.” She rolls her eyes as a shop assistant walks over and starts to give us the speech about the pushchair before I stop her midflow by announcing that I want it, but in navy, not black.

  “And does Mummy agree with this choice?” the woman asks turning to Suki. I follow her stare to find the most horrified look on Suki’s face.

  “Oh, no, no, no. She’s not… I’m not…”

  “Oh God, I- I’m so sorry.”

  The shop assistant tells us she’ll get everything sorted and leave our details behind the till before running off with a tomato-red face.

  “That was fun. Let’s see who else we can freak out,” Suki suggests rubbing her hands together.

  “And you think I’m the one with issues.”

  “This is insane,” I mutter, looking at the amount of stuff we’ve bought, and it’s only the tip of the iceberg seeing as all the big stuff is going to be delivered over the coming days.

  I pull out a bank card that I hardly ever use and hand it over, fully expecting it to be rejected. But thankfully it goes through and I breathe a sigh of relief. After I sold Mum’s house, I put everything that I inherited into a bank account and left it there for a rainy day. I knew that at some point in my future I’d need it, whether to settle down myself or… I guess, ready for the day a random woman dropped my surprise daughter with me and ran. Emotion burns the back of my eyes as I think about what an incredible grandmother my mum would have been. She’d be in her element if she was still here now.

  I don’t say anything but somehow Suki must sense the change in me. She reaches over and squeezes my hand. “She’s going to love all this.” I’ve no idea if she’s talking about Doe or what my mum would have thought but having someone beside me right now does make me feel a little better.

  Chapter Eight

  Suki

  “Come on, let’s get everything in the Uber and then just pop to mine quickly for me to get a few things. Then we can go to yours and get settled for the night.”

  Scott looked a bit emotional and although I wouldn’t have believed he was capable, having a baby daughter almost literally dropped on your lap would overwhelm anyone. I wonder if he was thinking of his mum then and what she’d have thought to having a granddaughter? He’s not mentioned a father and although I’m intrigued, I’m not asking, as he might want me to share something else about my own past and me and Scott Sullivan do not confide in each other, we slag each other off. That’s our thing.

  He waits in the Uber while I go into my own flat and pack stuff for a couple of days. I make sure to stick an extra couple of changes of outfit in my duffle in case of baby sick, piss, or shit. Better to be prepared. Before long we’re on our way back to Scott’s place.

  “Thanks for this, Suki. Really.” Scott says after a few minutes of silence. “I think what’s happened is just starting to sink in. Y
esterday and this morning, I’ve been so busy and shocked that I’ve just got on with things, but now, coming back and facing a second night at home with Doe, it’s hitting me. It’s real, isn’t it? I have a daughter.”

  His eyes stare into mine and there’s a rawness there I’ve never seen before. Worryingly, it makes me want to reach out my arms and comfort him. Thank fuck my arms are weighted down with belongings and I’m strapped in.

  “It is real, and it’s going to take some time for it to truly sink in. I think once the DNA test is done, that’ll be a load off because as much as she looks your double, you just can’t be definite, can you?”

  “When you gave me Doe yesterday, if you’d have done a DNA test and she wasn’t mine, I’d have shouted ‘hallelujah’ and probably booked a vasectomy. But now,” he swallows. “If they say she’s not mine, I think I’ll actually die. I don’t know what’s happening to me, Suki. Can you have a go at me because I need some normality to centre me right now.”

  “It’s about time something happened to make you grow up because you’re a manslut, and now I’ve seen your spare room, I can confirm you’re a dirty, filthy manslut.”

  “That’s why the ladies love me.” He winks.

  “They’d not love the diseases that come with you. If you don’t give them the clap, they might get some kind of fungus from that place.”

  “Hey, I’m clean. I get checked. And I always wrap it.”

  “Well I guess it’s a bonus you put some of your shit in a plastic bag.”

  “You’re calling my dick shit? Just shows that you’re woefully ignorant of what it can do.”

  I look pointedly at Doe in her car seat, eyes open. “Oh I can see what it can do. Guess some plastic bags have holes in, maybe?”

  If he doesn’t actually beam. “Good though, isn’t she?”

  Laughing, I nudge his arm. “Can’t disagree with that one actually.”

  “Thanks for the banter. I feel better now. More normal.” He says as the Uber pulls up outside his place.

  “Yeah, you’ll not be saying that in a minute when we’re trying to assemble baby paraphernalia.”

  When we get into the flat, I close the curtains while Scott feeds Doe, changes her nappy and puts her a vest on. I purchased a sleeping bag and I put her in it. “See, she doesn’t need covers now. It keeps her snuggly all night.”

  “And she looks even fucking cuter and I didn’t think that was possible.” Scott says kissing her head. Seriously, the guy’s had a personality transplant. I’m actually looking for his secret twin or evidence of a brain injury.

  “Now she just needs a cot to sleep in.” I announce.

  Scott groans.

  After an hour-and-a-half, the cot is done and so is Scott. I’d taken Suki out of the Grobag as the cot glue wouldn’t be dry tonight and I’d dressed her in a sleepsuit and put her in her Moses basket. I walk over to my bag and pull out a four pack of beer.

  “Celebration drink?”

  “You had beer all the time I was making that fuckarse of a cot and kept quiet? I may never forgive you.”

  “You needed to be able to fully concentrate on the instructions. Now you deserve one, or two if you like. I’ll stick to one.”

  He reaches a hand out for a can. I hand it to him. “Yeah, I’d better just have one seeing as I’m now a responsible adult.”

  I’ve just taken a drink out of my own can and at his words I spray a whole mouthful of beer directly into his face.

  “Was that entirely necessary?”

  “A responsible adult. Hahahahahaha. If you were a responsible adult, she wouldn’t be in there would she?”

  He placed a hand on his hip. “I’m obviously super fertile and somehow one escaped.”

  That has me in hysterics again. “Scott Sullivan Sperm Olympics.” I shout out.

  “Oh fuck off.” Is all he can manage to come back with.

  Scott offered to sleep on the sofa with Doe at the side of him but of course I wouldn’t hear of it. “No, you need to get settled into a routine. Anyway, I’m nearer the kitchen here. I can make myself a drink. Hopefully, you’ll manage through the night and I’ll realise I’m not needed.

  Scott bids me a goodnight and once he’s left, I change into my pyjamas, lie on the sofa, rest my head on the pillow I brought from home and pull the sheets over me that Scott supplied. I start to think about the sofa. I hope it’s not been the scene of a thousand Scott shagfests. The thought makes me feel a bit ill and I rearrange myself so that I’m lying on one sheet with the others on top of me, even though I’d been sitting on the sofa happily all night. The mind does weird things in an evening when it has time on its hands.

  Scott must only have been in bed an hour and I don’t know if he’s been asleep, but I haven’t when Doe lets out a shriek of a cry. It’s not like her previous cries for food and so I dash towards Scott’s room. I knock and he shouts, “Come in.”

  Rushing into the room, Scott’s bedside lamp is on and he’s walking around the bedroom with Doe in his arms. She’s sobbing her heart out and screaming, her face beet-red and scrunched up. “What’s the matter with her, Suki? She seems in pain. Should I phone an ambulance?”

  I hate seeing the little beauty in pain but know it’s unlikely to be serious. “Let’s do the usual things. Change her nappy first. Then give her a bottle.”

  As we change her nappy, Doe pulls her knees up to her chest, crying all the time. Scott looks about to join her. I send him to make her bottle but she refuses it when I try to give it her.

  Scott is pacing and hysterical. “She’s dying, Suki. Dying. I’m going to call 999. Fuck, I can’t live without her. Don’t die, Doe, please. Can you dial 999 while I pray?” He drops to his knees. I place Doe on the bed for a second and I do something I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time. I slap Scott’s face.

  He looks at me wide-eyed. His hand to his smarting cheek.

  “W- what did you do that for?”

  “Get a grip. She’s probably got colic. Unfortunately, we forgot to buy some colic medicine.”

  “What’s colic?”

  “I dunno really but something babies get regularly and it’s really painful. I’ll be right back.” I run and get my phone, bringing up a web page and searching for colic. When I return, Scott is walking around with a still wailing Doe, looking even more panicked.

  “Okay it suggests a warm bath can help, so let’s get that organised and I’ll pop out to the supermarket for some colic medicine.”

  “You really think it’s colic and we don’t need an ambulance?”

  “I really do. She’s doing everything it says. Her grimacing and pulling her knees up. I’ll go fill the washing up bowl.”

  “No. I have it in hand. Can you get dressed and get the medicine please as soon as possible?”

  “Okay.” I leave the room and start getting ready.

  I hear Scott go into the bathroom and once dressed I go to see what he’s doing given I thought Doe was being bathed in the bowl for now. Walking into the bathroom, I witness Doe laid in a pile of soft towels on the floor, while Scott strips off entirely butt naked.

  My hand immediately goes up in front of my eyes. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What the fuck is happening here?”

  “I’m getting in the bath with Doe. Then I can hold her in the water and cuddle her, so she knows she’s safe and protected.”

  “My eyes weren’t fucking protected.”

  “It’s a dick, Suki. Haven’t you seen one before?”

  “You’re a dick.” I shout. “I’m off to buy the colic stuff.”

  I walk out of the bathroom, dropping my hand from my eyes, and then for reasons I cannot explain, I look through the crack in the bathroom door. I tell myself I’m checking that Scott gets safely in the bath without dropping the baby, but all I really notice is a mighty fine arse, taut and muscled thighs that I imagine feel like rock as I watch him lower himself carefully into the tub, and his dick swinging proudly from side to side before he
’s submerged under the water. He then coos at Doe as he cuddles her.

  “Come on, baby. Don’t cry. Come on, Daddy doesn’t like it.”

  That breaks my stupor. The faster I get to the supermarket, the faster Doe gets her colic treatment. I grab my bag and more or less run out of the door, away from the frantic father trying to console his baby and away from that pretty impressive package that my brain needs to block out.

  I get a weird look in the supermarket when I smack myself in the forehead, but the vision of Scott’s dick won’t leave and I can’t cope. Now I know why women try to come back for more, especially if he knows what to do with it, and given his fan club he must do. I buy some colic medicine, a few other medicine type things that could come in handy like Savlon, a thermometer because we need to check her temp and make sure it definitely is colic, and then I quickly go and grab a punnet of cherries because I need some comfort food.

  Dashing back to the flat, I let myself in and go back to the bathroom. Ignoring Scott’s nakedness, I read the instructions and give Doe a dropper of the colic liquid.

  “Has she been any better?” I attempt to ask over the screaming.

  “I think the warm water has helped. She stops for a minute but then starts again.”

  “Well, we just need to wait for the medicine to kick in and then hopefully she’ll be okay. If it is colic the instructions say you can give it with every feed. Oh and I got a thermometer. Not the basic kind. An all singing, all dancing one. So we can make sure she’s okay.”

  We sit in the bathroom for the next twenty minutes and eventually, Doe’s sobs subside and her eyes begin to close. Scott passes her to me and I turn around and dry her while he gets out of the bath. Placing her carefully onto the pile of towels once more so Scott can pick her up when dressed, I start to back out of the room.

  “It’s okay, I have a towel on.” Scott says and so I slowly turn around.