The truth sank in.

John had a daughter.

And not just a daughter—a grown young woman.

Does he have a wife? Is he divorced?

Her stomach twisted as she recalled how Cam had looked at her.

The young woman had given her a cold, assessing stare—just like her father would.

Icy blue eyes, sharp. Almost a mirror image of John. But the vibrant red-orange hair tied back in a loose ponytail? That wasn't from him.

Charlie had barely gotten through the rest of her shift, her brain spinning too fast, her hands clumsy as she fumbled through drink orders. She finally had to escape.

"Hey, can you grab these for me? I gotta use the restroom."

Her coworker barely glanced up from behind the espresso machine. "Yeah, sure."

Charlie bolted before she could say anything else. The moment she was safely behind the swinging door of the backroom, she pressed her back against the nearest wall and sucked in a sharp breath.

Oh. My. God.

Her hands shook as she reached for her phone. She had to talk to someone. Now. Before she spiraled into full-blown panic.

Her fingers trembled over the keyboard as she typed.

Charlie: 🚨 SOS. FREAKING OUT. 🚨

Her heart slammed against her ribs as she hit send.

The response was immediate.

Hailey: Wht happen? Wht did you do?

Charlie tried to calm herself down but it wasn't helping. She was typing fast—too fast. She kept messing up. Words jumbled, letters out of order.

Charlie: ITS NOT WHA I DID ITS WHAT HE DID

Not wha Charlie!

She exhaled sharply, deleting half the message before trying again.

Charlie: JOHN HAS A DAUGHTER. A GROWN. DAUGHTER.

The typing bubbles popped up instantly.

Hailey: ???????

Hailey: DEFINE GROWN.

Charlie wiped her clammy hands on her apron and forced her fingers to move.

Charlie: LIKE. AS OLD AS ME.

Hailey: 🤡🤡🤡

Charlie: This is not funy!!!

Hailey: Bitch, it is SO funny.

Her breath coming in short gasps.

Charlie: STOP.

Hailey: NO. THIS IS THE FUNNIEST SHIT I'VE EVER HEARD. OH MY GOD THIS IS HAPPENING!

Hailey: Do I start calling you Step-Mom???

Charlie gritted her teeth. Her hands were shaking too much to type properly, but she still tried.

Charlie: Im going to pas away.

Hailey: *pass.

Hailey: No, you're going to breathe.

Hailey: Deep breath in.

Hailey: Deep breath out.

Charlie squeezed her eyes shut, sucking in a shaky breath.

Charlie: I hat u.

Hailey: *hate ❤️

Despite her anxiety tightening in her chest, Charlie forced herself to slow down. Her grip on her phone loosened a little.

Charlie: I don't know what to do.

The pause stretched longer this time.

Hailey: What's there to do? So he's a daddy. He's still the same guy, right?

Her fingers twitched over the screen. She hesitated, deleting words over and over before finally settling on:

Charlie: Yeah but...

Hailey: But what? You're not suddenly signing adoption papers. He didn't drop a baby in your lap and go "Congrats, babe, you're a mom now."

Charlie stared at the message bubbles, her throat closing up.

She started typing... then deletes... and then types again.

Hailey: ...Hello???

Her hands felt like lead. Why was it so hard to explain what she was feeling?

Her thoughts didn't line up in a straight line—they bounced, scrambled, tangled into knots she couldn't undo.

Say something, Charlie.

She exhaled sharply and forced herself to type.

Charlie: Its not just that.

Charlie: Her name is Cameron btw. But I dont knwo how to talk to him.

Deletes again. Frustrated before she corrected herself and send and typed another.

Charlie: She knows who I am and probly hates me.

Hailey: Charlie you met his kid why the hell would you think she hates u??

Charlie: She was looking at me like I was someone who wanted his money 😐

Hailey: Bitch you ain't a gold digger. I am! At least u r lucky to find a hot sugar daddy who has hots for you.

Charlie: I CAN'T!! I feel so STUPID.

The words stung as she sent them.

Her throat tightened, her vision blurring.

She hated this.

The way her dyslexia made her second-guess everything. The way her thoughts refused to line up clearly when she needed them to. The way her hands couldn't keep up with her brain, leaving her feeling like a mess.

She blinked hard, swallowing against the lump rising in her throat.

Hailey: You're not stupid. You're just having a dramatic episode.

Charlie: 😢

Hailey: You wanna cry, don't you? 😒

She bit the inside of her cheek, her hands tightening around her phone.

Charlie: Maybe.

Hailey: Then do it. Cry it out. Then go talk to him.

Charlie pressed her palm against her forehead, breathing through the ache in her chest.

She hated crying.

Especially over things she couldn't control or understand.

But her emotions had been ambushed and she wasn't sure how else to process them.

Her phone buzzed again.

Hailey: But listen. Don't run from him, ok?

Charlie: Ok.

She locked her phone, fingers tightening around it.

She still didn't know how she was going to have that conversation.

But she knew she couldn't avoid it.

***

John was simmering. Not outright furious—he was too composed for that—but his jaw was tight. His mood had taken a nosedive the moment Charlie left. 

The coffee shop's usual hum of conversation and clinking mugs felt more distant, drowned out by the weight of his thoughts. He could still hear the damn laughter from Soap and Gaz echoing in his head, their cheeky comments replaying like a broken record.

Simon had his phone still on FaceTime as Gabby was updating Cam, Gaz, and Soap about Ivory's mischief adventures.

He tried to keep his focus ahead, but his eyes kept flicking toward the counter—searching for a golden hair chick. But Charlie was gone. A small wrinkle formed between his brows. She'd gone to the back. Hiding, maybe?

Either way, it wasn't good.

John knew the moment her smile had become forced—polite. She was rattled. And he hated it.

Should've told her sooner. He mentally thought.

He wasn't going to make excuses. It wasn't that he'd meant to hide Cam from her—he just hadn't found the right time to bring it up. Not over text, not in casual conversation. And now? It was a slap in the face for her, and he could feel the shift.

Soap stretched with a satisfied sigh. "Well, that was fun."

John shot Soap a sharp, cutting look.

"What?" Soap repeated, feigning innocence.

John exhaled through his nose. "You really don't see what you just did?"

Soap blinked, tilting his head like a confused puppy. "I mean—she looked flustered but—"

"You put both of us in a bad spot, MacTavish." He said sharply.

Then, his smirk faltered a little. "I didn't mean to," Soap defended, his usual bravado dimming under the weight of John's stare. "S'not like we knew she worked here, Cap."

John almost chuckled in a cynical way. "That's not the point. The point is that I shouldn't have listened to you from a first place before getting into all spark matching shit."

The table had fallen silent.

Gaz, who had been entertained by the whole situation earlier, was now acting like he wasn't watching a bomb about to detonate. While Simon leaned back in his chair, unreadable as always, though there was a slight tilt of his head that suggested he was definitely listening. And Gabby? She was still present as her eyes moving between Soap and John with the excitement of someone watching a live-action telenovela.

"That's hardly a crime," Soap huffed in an arrogant manner. "She didn't know you were a papa. No need to be upset, it's easy to fix. Just talk to her and tell her that you're a papa and she'll understand."

"Easy for you to say," John scowled.

"Easy?" Soap continued, "you barely knew her. Maybe it's time that you need to get out and socialize. Tell her who you are and you're good. You need someone to tease with, someone to lean onto, like me and Cam. We enjoy each other's company. You should see what I do to Cam when—"

He immediately stopped.

It was as if the entire world had frozen in place.

Cam, who had been listening to Gabby, looked at Soap and she narrowed her eyes. "What?"

Soap cleared his throat, realizing way too late that he had walked himself into dangerous territory.

John was already staring at him, hard. "I'm listening."

Soap, however, had the worst survival instincts when it came to keeping his mouth shut.

"Okay, remember when we were paintin'?" he tried to recover, eyes darting to Cam and avoiding a cold stare back from John, voice growing entirely too smug for his own good. "You did this thing where ye painted me first, so I painted youback, and—well, let's just say things got messy, love."

Her entire face turned red.

"Johnny," Cam warned.

"And then, naturally, one thing led to another—"

"Johnny."

"I mean, you were the one who decided to go all—"

Cam kicked him under the table.

"Ow, bloody hell woman!" He yelped, moving himself a little away from her since she was close to Cam.

Gabby wheezed from the phone, absolutely no help at all. "Why would you say that in front of her father, cabrón?!"

Simon gave a quiet, amused snort. And Gaz had physically turned his chair around, facing away from them like he wanted to exit the chat.

John?

He stared at Soap like he was contemplating actual murder. Like he wanted to dig a six-foot grave for his demolition sergeant. But he couldn't act on his impulse because of Cam. Soap was Cam's boyfriend, and she loved him, and John—despite every instinct in his body screaming at him to strangle the loudmouthed Scotsman—had to let him live.

"MacTavish."

Soap swallowed thickly. "Aye?"

"Shut the fuck up," he said sharply with a deep frown.

"Yes, sir."

Gabby had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard, while Cam buried her burning face in her hands.

Determined to leave before he acted on his frustrations, John turned back towards the counter, his fingers lightly clenching into his palm. His already bad mood darkened further. He took a moment to collect himself before rising to his feet.

"You all go on without me," he said hurriedly. "I'll join you later."

Simon raised an eyebrow but didn't question it. "Copy that."

Cam eyed John for a moment before glancing at Soap, who still looked like he was processing his own downfall.

"You coming?" she asked.

Soap nodded very quickly, clearly not willing to be left alone with John for any longer. "Yes, lassie."

When the others followed suit, gathering their things. Cam gave her father another glance but she didn't press him. Instead, she looked at Soap with a knowing look while grabbing her leather jacket and pulled it on. She grabbed her gift bag and glanced at Soap, silently telling him to stop poking the bear for real.

"We'll be outside waiting, John," Gaz said while adjusting his hoodie.

John turned his glance to Gaz and said "okay" before returning his focus onto the counter. He found her reappear behind the counter, her expression guarded as if she was trying to mask her true feelings. But he could tell when someone was rattled. Without hesitation, he moved to the front, maintaining his composed exterior.

Charlie noticed him right away, her eyes widening a little. She hesitated, but to her credit, she didn't run.

As he stopped in front of the counter, he was close enough that the warmth between them sparked again—but there was a bit of a tension. She looked at him, really looked at him, and he could see the uncertainty swirling in her brown eyes.

That stung.

John exhaled through his nose, keeping his voice steady. "Can we talk?"

She swallowed and nodded. "Y-Yeah."

There was a beat of silence before he cut straight to it. "I should've told you."

She blinked, taken off guard.

"I wasn't trying to keep it from you," he continued, his voice low enough that only she could hear. "That's on me."

Charlie looked down at her shoes before him. "It's not—I mean, I get it. You didn't just bring it up out of nowhere."

"But it caught you by surprise, am I right?" John said, titled his head like he was studying her.

She hesitated and answered with her gaze lowered quick. "...Yeah."

He nodded before continuing, "I don't want this to change between us."

Charlie glanced back at him. She was quiet for a brief second while her eyes searched his. Before she could respond, he continued.

"Let me make it up to you."

She blinked. "What?"

"Dinner date," he said simply. "Tonight."

Charlie immediately faltered. "Oh, um—I can't."

His brow lifted. "You got plans?"

She exhaled slowly. "Yeah. Thesis. I have a deadline coming up, and I really need to work on it."

That, of all things, made him smirk.

"You're stressin' over that?"

"Yes."

"I'll help."

Her mouth opened—then closed. Then opened again. "Wait. What?"

"I'll help you," he repeated, completely unfazed. "You get your work done, I get to make up for today."

Charlie stared at him like he'd just suggested something insane. "You—you want to help me with my thesis?"

He cleared his throat and shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jacket. "I don't mind."

She let out an almost disbelieving laugh. "You do realize it's on international relations, right? Not, like, tactics or... whatever you normally deal with in the military."

John gave a slow, lazy smirk. "Charlie girl, I think I know a thing or two about global affairs."

She sputtered. "I—but—"

"Unless," he added smugly, his deep and raspy tone became low, "you're worried I'll be too much of a distraction."

Her cheeks flushed as blood rushed above from her neck. And he watched her try to process, and it was adorable (to his sight).

Finally, she huffed, crossing her arms. "Okay, you win."

John chuckled, pleased.

Charlie exhaled, still looking at him like she didn't quite know what to do with him.

His smirk faded slightly when he said, "I'll text you."

Her expression shifted; her lips pressed tight, yet her brown eyes softened slightly. She nodded in response. "Okay."

He gave her one final glance before turning to leave the coffee shop.

Charlie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and ended with a smile.

----

📢 AUTHOR'S NOTE: PRICE'S SECRET REVEALED!

Well... Charlie just found out the hard way.

• John Price: Rugged, serious, built like a god... AND A WHOLE DAD?! 🤯

• Cam: Cool, composed, and sipping her coffee like this isn't hilarious. ☕

• Soap & Gaz: Thriving off the drama. 😂

• Gabby: Absolutely living for the chaos.

• Charlie: Currently questioning all her life choices.

This chapter was a mess (in the best way possible). Poor Charlie went from casual flirting to full-on existential crisis in record time. Meanwhile, John? Yeah, he's realizing real quick that he really should've mentioned this sooner. 😬

And now? He's making it up to her—with a "thesis study session" that's absolutely going to be filled with tension. 👀

💬 ENGAGEMENT QUESTIONS! COMMENT BELOW!

1️⃣ Charlie's reaction to John having a grown daughter—was it fair, or was she overthinking?

2️⃣ Cam immediately clocking what's going on—do you think she's going to keep teasing her dad, or will she back off?

3️⃣ Hailey calling John a sugar daddy—ICONIC OR DISRESPECTFUL? 🤣

4️⃣ John's "study session" plan—is he really going to help, or is he just looking for an excuse to be near Charlie?Be honest. 😏

📢 REMINDER:

I release 3 chapters every Friday! 📝💥

And if I'm in a generous mood, you'll get a bonus chapter on Wednesday. 😉

🔥 Make sure to VOTE, COMMENT, and SHARE this book with your friends! If you're a fan of John Price, spread the love! 💙