He closed his eyes and when he opened them again I was surprised he still didn’t appear angry. If anything, his grip on me felt nicer. He tapped his fingers to my wrist until I smiled at him.
“I like sleeping on the floor near you. I’m close if you need me.”
He growled. “I hate seeing you uncomfortable.”
“I’m not, you gave me pillows.”
He hung his head and his jaw tightened. “I’m offering you choices I find acceptable.”
“I don’t want it,” I hissed at him, then froze, horrified. Panic immediately bit at me, but he shushed me and rubbed his fingers on the back of my hand. I let out a deep breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “I’m sorry. If you want me to have it, of course I’ll sleep where you tell me to sleep.”
He slid his hands up my arms and squeezed my shoulders. “If you don’t want the other bedroom, we’ll put the futon in mine. You’ll only be a few more feet away from me. You’ll still be there for me if that worries you. I—”
“It feels like a punishment,” I whispered. “To be farther away from you isn’t better.”
Time slipped by as Daddy glanced all around us before he settled his attention back on my face. “Okay, I understand you feel that way, but it isn’t.” He massaged his thumbs against my collarbones, and I leaned into the pleasant sensation.
Shrugging, I felt lost. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I’ll choose to sleep there if you want me to.”
He groaned and hung his head. “That isn’t how choices work. How about we get the futon and set it up as a couch, and you can decide if you want to sleep on it or the floor. I’ll leave it up to you.”
All I really wanted was to sleep with Daddy, but I nodded because he’d let me know his true wishes, and he wasn’t yelling at me or telling me I’d be in trouble later—even though I’d talked back to him. It took a long time with Daddy rubbing my shoulders before my heart seemed to drop out of the back of my throat and go where it belonged.
“Now—” He smiled and glanced around us. “—which frame do you like?”
“Whichever one you think is best.” I fidgeted and didn’t want to pick because that would be worse, somehow, to saddle myself with the thing that would keep me farther from Daddy.
“Okay, you still don’t like this idea.”
I peeked at Daddy out of the corner of my eye, but he didn’t seem angry yet.
He sighed. “We’re getting it because I think it’s best. It makes me sad to see you on the floor.”
A bolt of awful lightning hit my stomach. I’d made him sad? “I....”
“Help me pick it, even if you don’t end up using it.”
Nodding, I glanced at the purple one. The paint on it was color shifting, so if you moved around, the light reflected pink or gold over the base coat. Perry would have thought it was trashy and never allowed it in his home. “That one,” I said, pointing at the gaudy color. He stared, waggled his eyebrows, and then grinned.
“Good boy,” he said quietly. “I’m proud of you.” He froze and closed his eyes, but then opened them again and smiled. “I’ll go talk to Bobby and have this delivered. What do you think, the school next?”
Staring around the store, I already felt exhausted—the last two days had been more interaction with people than I’d had in the last two years. I was happy to be out of the house and with Daddy, but I wasn’t sure how to tell him it was all a lot. I nodded because I knew it would please him, and sure enough, he smiled as he patted my knee. “This’ll take a minute.” He hopped up to his feet and strode off toward Bobby, where he was talking to the other customer by a dining room set. Getting everything set up took more like twenty minutes, and when Daddy came back he held out his hand for me, and I took it as he tugged me to my feet.
“Your mom said she would show me how to cook.” I perked up as I remembered and gave his hand a hopeful squeeze. “Can we go back home?”
He frowned. “No pressure here, but it might be good to go to the school. It could take a while to get everything arranged. The semester already started, but you don’t want to miss the cutoff for enrolling in the next one.”
Reluctantly I nodded, and he held my hand the whole way to the bus stop. I liked the way he didn’t seem to notice he was keeping me safe and at his side, almost as if it was so ordinary it was beyond mentioning. It made my belly warm, and even though I wanted to be back in his house, I would do anything he asked, as long as he kept holding on to me.
The bus came after about fifteen minutes, and we went to the back again in almost the exact same spot as the one we’d sat in riding here. I was surprised when he slipped his arm around me and gave me a quick hug.
“You were happy earlier. What happened?” he asked quietly.
He was right, I had been excited. Now I wasn’t. I mulled the question over since he didn’t seem to be in a hurry, and again I was struck by the familiarity of this area. I thought maybe there were big old houses a few streets away from the river, and I was fairly certain I could walk to one there in particular. Maybe I’d lived around here? I shook off the memories and considered Daddy’s question. “The world seems like nothing but a bunch of choices, and it’s been a long time since I made any. I don’t like it.”
“I’ll help you.” He tweaked my chin with two fingers.
“Promise?”
