And freeze at the sight of Sheriff Donnelly standing on our front porch.
Both of the sheriff’s brows go shooting toward her hairline. “Where are your clothes, Lanie?”
Oh, god. This could not possibly get any worse.
“Melanie Brynne!” Two sharp swats connect with my bare skin before Daddy scoops me up and settles me on his hip, his expression thunderous. “You know better than to answer the door alone. I swear, you aren’t going to sit right for a week when I’m through with?—”
He cuts himself off when his gaze lands on Sheriff Donnelly, who is now watching us with far too much interest. “Sheriff. We weren’t expecting you.”
“Clearly,” Sheriff Donnelly drawls. “But I’m glad you’re here. I wanted to talk to Melanie. Alone.”
“No.” Daddy shifts, blocking me as much as possible with his large body. “You can talk to her, but I’m staying.”
“Respectfully, Axel, you don’t have much of a say in the matter. Either I talk to her here, or I take her to the station with me.”
A muscle jumps in Daddy’s cheek. “Fine. You can wait in the living room.” Turning away from the door, he bellows loudly, the entire house seemingly shaking with the sound of his voice. “Gray! We have a visitor!”
Auntie Gray comes striding into view, a frown on her face. “Why are you—” Stopping a few feet from the door, her expression closes off completely. “Sheriff. What a… surprise.”
“Grayson. Apparently you’re my babysitter.”
“I see.” Auntie Gray’s gaze darts from my face to Daddy’s, back to the sheriff and she nods once. “Follow me.”
As Auntie Gray leads the sheriff into the living room, Daddy heads for the stairs. “Where are your overalls, Melanie?”
“Um, in the kitchen. Uncle Eli took them off when he spanked me.”
Switching directions, Daddy detours into the kitchen to grab my denim overalls from the small table in there. Uncle Eli looks up from where he’s peeling potatoes, concern stamped all over his face. “What’s wrong? I heard you yelling for Gray.”
“The sheriff’s here. She wants to talk to Melanie.”
Everything about Uncle Eli hardens in a fingersnap. “I’ll gather the others.”
“Stay close, but out of the way. If Donnelly thinks we’re closing ranks, she’s liable to take Lanie into custody.”
“Got it.”
Jeans in hand, Daddy makes his way up the stairs to my nursery, where he lays me on the changing table and lifts my legs to slide a fresh diaper beneath my bottom. He pauses and lets out a low whistle. “What did you do to piss off your Uncle Eli?”
“Um, I might have sorta tried to grab a cookie off the tray right after he took them out of the oven and almost burned myself.”
Shaking his head, he lowers my legs and makes quick work of wrapping the diaper around me. “As soon as the sheriff leaves, this diaper is coming right off so Daddy can spank that naughty bottom. You know the rules.”
“But Daddy, Uncle Eli already spanked me really hard! With a wooden spoon!”
“And you should be thankful for that. Because if I wasn’t so convinced he did a very thorough job, I’d be tempted to use my belt to teach you a lesson about doing dangerous things. You know better, Melanie Brynne.”
“Sorry, Daddy.”
“It’s all right, little one.” Tugging my overalls into place and buttoning the straps, he picks me up again and settles me on his hip. “It's hard to be good when you’re so very Little, isn’t it?”
“Thehardest.”
He presses a kiss to my temple and we head for the stairs.
“Daddy?”
“Yes, little one?”
