The hearth was cold, although she must have attempted a fire, since she’d stacked twice as much kindling as she needed and four big logs in the fire grate. That didn’t make him angry so much as it filled him with purpose. And there was Stace, sitting on her sleeping bag bed with Lily in her lap and a clutter of alphabet blocks and an assortment of multicolored plastic shapes spread out around them. Lily froze midchew on the yellow star she was tasting when he came in. Stace stopped too, her hand frozen in the act of taking the star out of the baby’s mouth.
Her eyes wide, Stace stammered, “I-I was going to come back before nightfall.”
“What are you doing here now?” he asked, the hot wave of anger that had propelled him with every step between his back door and her front door, already dissipating. She didn’t look hurt or angry, or uncertain—well okay, she looked plenty uncertain now that he’d burst in on her, but there was more worry in the way she looked at him now and nothing of the emotion he thought he’d find.
“I wanted to give you privacy?” Her voice lilted, turning that statement into a question for his approval. “I was going to come back, I swear!”
Coming in the rest of the way, he shut the open door so as not to let in more of the rapidly chilling air. Approaching her, he hunkered down to bring himself eye-level with her and fixed her with a stern look. “Did you leave a note so I’d know where you went?”
She blinked. “Was I supposed to? I... I’m a grown up, Brock. I’m not a little kid and I don’t feel like I should have to ask.”
Her voice trailed off, but she was right and he knew it. Still, it grated inside him. For one brief moment in time, he hadn’t known where she was and being separated—they weren’t even together—that had hit him like a hammer. A very uncomfortable hammer, the impact of which still left him shaken.
He had no business being this proprietary over someone he wasn’t dating. Never in his life would he have thought he had this big of an overprotective bone, but here it was, keyed up inside him, happy that she was safely back in his care...
What was wrong with him?
She made his Daddy Dom half go crazy, he realized. Because the way she looked at him right now was not the way a grown-up adult looked at someone when she was telling him she could take care of herself. It was uncertain, apprehensive. It was the look of a little girl asking her Daddy if she was grownup enough to take care of herself.
And damn if he didn’t want to tell her no.
“Yes, you are,” he confirmed for them both, although it made his throat tight to have to say it. He almost couldn’t get it out without choking. “You don’t need to ask permission to come over to your own home, or...” He cracked his neck, trying to ease the tension locking up the muscles of his shoulders. “Or to leave mine. I’m sorry. I just—”
He just what, couldn’t bear not to know for one second where she was? Or maybe it was just because she’d gone out of his reach and he hadn’t liked feeling the absence of her from his side. Which was ridiculous. He’d dated women he’d known for longer than he had Stace and never felt like this about them. He’d had Little girls in the past too, and yes, he’d felt something like this for them, but in slightly different ways. Never this intensely, though.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized again. “Thank you for thinking of me, but there was no need for you to leave. The last thing Adrianne and I need is privacy, I promise.”
She blinked again, her uncertainty growing. “She seems... smitten with you?”
“She’s smitten with a lot of men. I’m hardly special in that regard.”
“Oh.”
He nodded his head to the cold fireplace behind her. “Did you forget we had an agreement about this too?”
She shook her head, ducking a little as she looked at the small pyramid of wood she’d tried to build. “Yes, but I didn’t think it would be this cold over here. I thought I’d get able to turn the heater on, but it’s gas too. So I thought… but I don’t have lighter fluid, so I couldn’t get it started.”
He nodded again, glad he’d come when he did. “How about you come back over to my place, and after dinner, I’ll show you how to light a fire inside a fireplace. Rule number one, never use lighter fluid. Rule number two, no sleeping bags within three feet of an open hearth. I might have another screen in the shed. I’ll look for it tomorrow and if I find it, I’ll give it to you. Okay?”
“Until I get one for myself,” she said.
His little girl and her insistence on doing everything herself. Despite his scare of only a moment ago, that actually made him smile. “Agreed.”
“I can cook dinner tonight,” she offered, gathering up the toys scattered across her makeshift bed. He took them from her, putting them into the nearest box, still stuffed half-full of stuffed animals, a music box, and other assorted noise makers meant to keep a baby Lily’s age occupied for hours. He picked up the box when she picked up the baby. “Want me to grab a couple boxes of hamburger helper?”
“How about I show you how to cook hamburger helper from scratch, and you can be my sous-chef?”
She beamed. “I can do that. I baked Pops a pie.”
“I thought I smelled pie when I came home.” Holding the door for her, he closed it behind them and fell into step beside her as they walked to his house. ”Tell you what, after dinner, would you and Lily like to come with me into town? We’ll pick up some ice cream to have with our pie and maybe a movie from the Red Box at the gas station. What do you say?”
“Can it be a Christmas movie?” she asked, brightening.
“I guarantee the Red Box will have at least a few of those. Gus always stocks a few for the holidays.”
She hopped up and down beside him while he opened his front door to let her in. “Please let them have Die Hard. Please, please, please. It’s my favorite Christmas movie of all time!”
Shaking his head, he smiled and followed her inside.
