Color bloomed on her cheeks, but she still didn’t drop her gaze, which filled his chest with pride. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Isn’t it?”
“No, it’s not. I know what kind of man you are, Dylan. Which is exactly why you deserve to live the best life possible. Not to just settle for someone else’s leftovers.”
There it was. The real reason she was trying to keep him at arm’s length. “Listen to me, little girl.” He put every ounce of “Daddy” he could summon into his tone, and her eyes went round at the change. “You are the most incredible woman I’ve ever known. You’re strong and smart and hilarious and loving and kind. And if Ieverhear you refer to yourself as ‘someone else’s leftovers’ again, I can promise you won’t sit comfortably for a week. Am I understood, Samantha Kay?”
“That’s not?—”
“Am I understood?”
Swallowing so hard he could actually hear it, she nodded. “Y-yes, Daddy.”
“Good girl. Now, you sit here and finish your pizza. I’m going to let Ethan know that we’re tabling this discussion for the time being and that any decisions about our future are between the two of us.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Rising to his feet, he leaned down, dropping his voice to a low growl. “And tonight, you and I are going to have a discussion about naughty Little girls who think they don’t have to follow Daddy’s rules just because we have company.”
Her breath caught, an audible hitch that had him grinning as he made his way out to the living room.
Ethan looked up as he entered, his expression still unreadable. “Come to lecture me,Dad?”
“Nah. Figure you know you were kind of an asshole, you don’t need me to tell you.”
Silence stretched between them for several long moments before Ethan sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I was. It’s just really fuckingweird, Dyl.”
“I know. And I am sorry I didn’t tell you before.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Lots of reasons. I was worried about your reaction, but I also didn’t see any point in poking the hornet’s nest if I got here and Sam turned me down flat.”
“Which she clearly didn’t, and youstilldidn’t tell me.”
He hadn’t, because Sam had been adamant about not telling him. But he wasn’t about to put that on her shoulders. “No, I didn’t. And maybe I should have, but I can’t go back and change it. So I’ll just say I’m sorry and I hope you can forgive me for being an asshole.”
More silence, thick and strained. “You really plan on sticking around?”
“If she’ll have me. But that’s between me and her. All I can promise you right now is I have no intention of hurting her.”
“More than I can say for my actual dad, I guess.” Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to like, try and give me gas money or offer to teach me how to change a tire and shit, right?”
“Afraid you’re on your own there, son.”
As he’d hoped, the wisecrack broke the tension and a pillow came flying at his face a moment later. Their laughter filled the air and for a moment they were just two goofy best friends cracking jokes and ragging on each other.
Then Ethan sobered again, his expression fierce as he looked up at Dylan. “If you break her heart, we’re done. I mean it, Dyl.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“All right, then.”
Chapter Twenty
Sam
Her Daddy was a sadisticasshole.
