Page 12 of Special Delivery

“I was trying to find the perfect ingredients for my homemade pizza.” A smile pulls on his lips. “Kim led me to the best artisanal burrata money can buy, and I realized it must be fate.” The sentence would sound ridiculous coming from anyone else, but when it comes to our dad, not a lot of things can surprise us.

“Pizza? That was months ago.” Jordan does the math faster than me, but she’s right. It’s hard to forget his pizzaiolo era, especially since we had to chew through the whole rock-hard attempt at a pizza while smiling politely. “You’ve been together this whole time?”

“Yes. Four months to be exact. We wanted to be sure…”

“Four months?!” The shock slips out, so I quickly recover with a bright grin. “Wow, four months. We hadn’t even known Dad was dating someone.”

Dad darts a questioning look at me, and nerves ramp up in my belly. Fuck, Jordan is usually the lead on our investigations.

Still, Kim is nonplussed as she responds, “We were careful, yes. We wanted to make sure this was something that had a future before we brought it onto you kids.”

My mouth parts on an ‘oh’. That must have been her idea. It also means this is more serious than his previous flings with women half his age.

“What do you do, Kim?” Emma asks. I doubt she means it as an interrogation, though.

“I’ve been an administrative assistant at a marketing company for over twenty years, but I retired just a couple of weeks ago.” She gives Dad another loving look, and I grind my teeth.

“Did you? How interesting.” Jordan’s words are laced with subtext. Our dad’s money certainly didn’t hurt her ability to retire.

Dad squeezes her hand gently, turning his head toward Ryan. “You’re currently working as a delivery guy, aren’t you?”

“A delivery driver. But yes, I am.” There’s terseness to his voice, making me let out a silent huff. I guess Ryan isn’t thrilled with the situation, either.

“You haven’t been doing it long?” Dad asks.

“Just a few weeks now. But so far, I like it.”

“Must be an interesting job,” Dad comments politely.

Ryan plasters on a smile that seems too bright for the occasion. “Oh, it is. Plenty of interesting things happen on deliveries. The stories I could tell.” He runs his tongue over his teeth as his pointed gaze lands on me.

Luckily, my dad doesn’t notice. He lets out a laugh, charmed by his words, even though he meant them for me. I down a gulp of my drink, just before two servers place plates in front of each of us. The mere sight of the prawn risotto coils my stomach, so I pick up the fork and push the rice from side to side, pretending to eat.

“Maybe you should share some of your stories with Paige. She needs them for her column,” Dad, so unhelpfully, suggests.

There were plenty of times in my life that I was so grateful to call him my dad. But this… this isn’t one of those times.

Ryan’s mouth hooks into a smirk, a dimple popping out on his cheek. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure she has some stories of her own.”

Dad’s brows furrow with confusion, but he doesn’t get to ask further when Kim places a hand on my wrist. “Roger told me all about your writing. How exciting.”

“Y-yeah. Pretty exciting.”

“You should read her upcoming article about monstera propagating. Whew, it’s a doozy,” Jordan adds, and I kick her shin under the table.

“Monsteras, you say? Sounds like a tantalizing read.” Her lovely voice sounds unconvinced, meaning my article idea isn’t even interesting to sixty-year-olds.

Dad swallows a bite and continues his questions to Ryan. “How’s the house search going?”

“Slow. But it’s coming along.”

Kim waves him off. “I told him not to hurry. I’m already spending most of my time at your place and I don’t plan to sell the house once we get married.”

Wine sprays from my mouth as utensils clink on the plates. She looks like she just got caught red-handed, but it’s too late.

“You’re getting married?” Jordan is the first one to ask, her eyes bulging out with shock. Emma lands a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah, Mom. What’s that about?” Ryan looks just as surprised as the three of us, which is ridiculous. His mom leaving him the house while she mooches off our dad is hardly a bad thing for him.