Edge of Chaos | Dad's best friend | 20 Squad BOOK #1

Six | DEACON

I should've just stayed in my fucking room. The whole point of hiring a nanny was to get some rest in while I can, so I should be crashing in bed right now, not trying to watch a movie with my best-friends daughter.
She blinks surprised before nodding her head. "Of course."
"I hope you don't mind." I say, sinking down into the couch next to her.
"It's your house." She replies which didn't sit well with me.
"You're not a prisoner Mya. You live here now. So if you want to invite Taylor over or swim in the pool without the girls or watch a movie in the living room, you can. You're doing an amazing job with the kids, you don't have to be so guarded all the time." I tell her.
It was as if she's always in work mode. I wonder if she'd ever be comfortable around me to just be herself.
"I know." She smiles for good measure to make me believe her.
"My home is your home as long as you're working for me." I reassure her.
"Thanks."
"I don't know about you, but I can use a drink." I tell her, before I start to stand but Mya waves me back down.
"I'll get it. You just got home from work. I know you're tired." She stands and heads for the kitchen before I can argue.
A few minutes later, she comes back into the room with two beers in her hand and when I raise an eyebrow at her she rolls her eyes.
"Oh please. I can do this in front of you or behind your back. Which would you prefer?"
I wasn't sure how her dad would feel about me letting her drink knowing that she's underage, but it's like she said; she could do it when I wasn't around. At least this way I could monitor her.
"Only one." I tell her.
"Okay daddy." She says with a roll of her eyes and for some reason her calling me daddy stired something deep and warm inside me.
"What are you watching?" I ask, needing to distract myself. The screen went dark from no activity and when she pressed play on the remote the title of the movie appeared.
"When A stranger calls."
"I've never heard of it." I confess.
"Really? It came out in 2006." She explains, as if that made it any clearer.
I do the math in my head. I was twenty-nine at the time. So that put her at... four? Jesus. I've lived a whole life time before she even started kindergarten.
I glance over at her young face and hopeful eyes.
She's only a sophomore in college.
We watch the movie in silence. She's seen it a few times if the way she mouths the words is any indication and jumps at all the appropriate scenes.
"I don't know why I do this to myself." Mya says, breaking the silence.
"Do what?"
"Watch a scary movie knowing it's just going to give me nightmares later."
"Just tell yourself it's just people acting." I tell her.
"Yeah, but then I also think about how these kind of things can happen in real life. I mean, I'm your nanny; you can go on a date and leave me alone with girls and some creep can call and try to kill me."
At my look, she quickly adds, "but that's just me having an over paranoid brain thanks to being a cop's daughter."
"I get enough bad guys in my real life. I don't need to take them home with me." I tell her.
"Why did you become a cop?" She asks me.
     "I wanted to help people." I answer. "I know it sounds so simple, but really. That's all I want to do. There's too many bad people in this world and not enough people to protect them. I want my daughters to grow up feeling safe."
     "Do you miss her?" She asks me, but when I look at her she isn't looking at me, but down at the wedding ring on my finger that I can't seem to take off.
     I think about the moment I proposed to Annie, after a late night drive we went to our favorite park and I proposed at our favorite spot. I thought we'd be together forever. Forever turned out to only be ten years.
"All the time." I confess.
"I wasn't around too much, but I know that Annie loved you very much."
She did.
She was two semesters away from graduating with a degree in law when she gave it up and to be there for me when I was training to be in SWAT. The plan was always for her to go back to school but then she got pregnant with Lilah and then Victoria and she took care of me and the girls with a smile on her face the entire time.
"Yeah, she did." I look up from my ring and look up at Mya. "What's about you? Ever think about getting married? Or is that the furthest thing from your mind?" I wonder. She's only twenty. I'm sure she had plans to travel the world and start her own business before she even thought about settling down or if she even wanted to. A lot of people her age were in life long relationships with no title.
"I want to get married." Mya admits quietly. "I want to come home to find my husband making dinner and singing off key to his favorite song and dancing in the kitchen and I join him and we just sing and dance in each other's arms knowing how incredibly lucky we are to have each other." The way she explained it, the wishful smile on her face, it made me realize that she wasn't like most girls her age.
"You want what your parents have." I say.
"Yeah."
"You'll get it." I tell her.
"How do you know?"
"Because you Harrelsons always get what you want." I crack a smile at her.
"Oh, is that the only reason?"
"No," I shake my head. "You'll get it because you're too amazing not to. You're sweet, smart, driven, great with kids, got a good head on your shoulder and you're sexy. Any guy would be lucky to have you."
"You have to say that. You're my dad's best-friend." Mya argues.
"It's actually because I'm your dad's best friend that I shouldn't say that."