Episode 703: Run This Town

He’d hated being away on business for Valentine’s Day, but he was more committed than he ever had been to success. Not that he wasn’t already a success in business, he was simply hungry to do even better, to provide Hope with her every heart’s desire and be a dad she’d take pride in rather than the careless playboy to whom everything had come so easily.

Curran headed down the hallway, finding his wife and daughter in the little girl’s room playing on the floor. Hope raced over to him the moment she saw him in the doorway. He scooped her up, and she snuggled against his chest. Her little hand reached up and pressed something to his cheek, presumably a sticker not unlike the ones plastered on her cheeks and various other surfaces of the room.

"Daddy is pretty," she giggled, patting the sticker on his cheek.

"You’re not the first female to think daddy’s pretty," his wife noted.

"Only two ladies’ opinions matter to me," he said, meaning it, though he was quick to change the subject, never eager for his wife Michael to dwell on his past indiscretions, that never led to good things. "When did we become so sticker happy?"

"They were a Valentine’s gift from Lucy. Aren’t they cute?"

Wasn’t his wife far too trusting at times? Not that Curran minded when he was the beneficiary, but other people? Specifically the people who had power to take their child away? "Lucy visited?"

"No, her friend Paul dropped them by at the office. We bumped into him in the elevator and Hope just flew into his arms to get her hands on the stickers." His wife laughed. She laughed!

"Don’t you think you should be more careful about whose arms you let her fly into?"

"You’re way overreacting. I know Paul by now. He’s a good guy, he was doing Lucy a favor, he’s her friend."

Paul was a hell of a lot more to Lucy than a friend. Curran didn’t believe he was overreacting at all, in fact, he didn’t feel like he’d reacted strongly enough to the situation. It was time to make the boundaries abundantly clear.

Episode 704: Respect