Born to Be Badger (Honey Badger Chronicles #5)(120)

“And I’m glad he did.”

“Did you have fun on your trip?” Dani asked, eyes so innocent.

“Fun?” Innocent eyes. Innocent eyes. “Oh. Yeah. Lots of fun. Fun, fun, fun.” Tock grabbed her travel bag and pulled a box out of it, handing it to Dani. “This is for you.”

“For me?” She untied the pink ribbon wrapped around the box and lifted the top. Dani’s eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped open. Tock was expecting the kid to say something or jump up and down. You know . . . kid stuff. What she didn’t expect, though, was the high-pitched squeal that rammed into Tock’s sensitive ears like an ice pick.

“What the hell?” Charlie screeched from the kitchen. And not even a second later, Shay and Finn ran into the house.

“What?” Shay hysterically demanded. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

“Look, Daddy!” Dani held the open box high so her father could see. “Look what Tock got me!”

Realizing his daughter was safe, Shay immediately released a breath. He bent over at the waist, resting his hands on his knees. “I thought something . . .”

“Train your child,” Finn ordered his brother before going in search of Mads.

“Look, Daddy!” Dani said again, completely ignoring her uncle. “Look! Look! Look!”

“Yes,” Shay said, now panting from the spike of adrenaline. “That’s gorgeous, baby.”

“Put it on me! Put it on me!” Dani ordered Tock.

Tock took the watch out from its packaging. It was pink and sparkled like the sun from all the pink Swarovski crystals she’d added because she knew what the kid liked. She put it on Dani’s wrist, tightening it almost to the last lug hole on the band. She wanted the kid to be able to grow into it over time.

“There,” Tock said when she was finished. “What do you think?”

There went that high-pitched squeal again. Tock reared away from the kid, worried her ears might start bleeding.

Dani took off running, maybe to show Nat.

“Tell me you didn’t pay two hundred and fifty thousa—”

“I didn’t. She’s too young to appreciate a watch of this caliber,” Tock said while gesturing to her own pride and joy with her other hand. “I just pulled a watch from the case and had my watchmaker bling it up a little.”

“Your watchmaker? The expensive one?”

“Yeah, but Dani’s watch wasn’t expensive. Besides, a watch is an investment.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It is to me, and it is to your daughter.”

“How do you know that?”

The high-pitched squeal started again and Dani, now outside, ran by the living room windows, her arms above her head, waving them wildly.

“Let’s just say”—the kid ran by again going the opposite direction. And, yes, still squealing—“it’s a good guess.”

*

Shay reached over and took Tock’s hand into his. “I missed you,” he admitted.

Okay. Finn was probably right, and he was moving too fast, but Shay didn’t want to hold back or lie about his feelings just to keep from freaking Tock out. If she really liked him, was comfortable with him, telling her how he felt shouldn’t freak her out. And he had no doubt that if she wanted him to back off, she’d tell him that in no uncertain terms.

“I was gone three days,” she pointed out.

“I know. But I still missed you.”

“I—”

Dani jumped in front of one of the living room windows, still screeching about her new watch. They gazed at his daughter until she ran off into the yard and then looked back at each other.

Tock cleared her throat and finally said, “I missed you, too.” She gave a small smile. “I also missed the kid. I have five new notebooks filled with equations for her to work on.”

“That’s great because she already went through the ones you left for her. She tried to work with Stevie, but Stevie was really busy and when she did try to help Dani, she overwhelmed her, I think.”

“Overwhelmed her how?”

“Something about time and space and the probability of asteroids crashing into the planet and wiping out all of life as we know it.

“Oh, my God.” Tock closed her eyes. “Yeah. I’ll . . . uh . . . I’ll work with Dani.”

“Thank you.”

They were still holding hands, but Tock intertwined their fingers. Shay decided to take that as a good sign.

“Did you get home okay after you left the Hamptons?”

“Yeah, but . . .” Shay blew out a breath. That conversation with the Malones had been interesting. Uncle Cally and the others never admitted to anything. They never said, “We’re here to do this. Or we’re here to do that.” They never said, “We’re here to protect you because we feel bad about how shitty we were to you after your father died.” Or even, “We’re vengeful tigers, too, and pissed someone shot at us. We’ll get even together!” Instead, they drank Irish beer, made jokes, and promised to hang around until, one day, as Shay and his brothers knew, they’d all be gone. Off to torture another street in another neighborhood.

Their next-door neighbor had stormed out of his house to complain about all the noise and the strangers on “his” street, but one roar from Uncle Cally had sent the idiot fleeing back to his house. They hadn’t seen him since. More upsetting was the interest that a few of his dad’s cousins were showing in Shay’s mother. Something Keane, Finn, and Shay weren’t going to let get any further than general flirting. Because . . . just . . . no! Absolutely not!