“Oh,” I murmured.
Daddy’s eyes flicked to my face, sharply focused. “That a good ‘oh’?”
I nodded. “Yeah. It feels… nice. Like it pushes back. I like it.”
“Pressure,” he said, more to himself than to me. “Makes sense.”
A woman a few feet away glanced at us—just a passing look, nothing more—but Daddy’s body went rigid. His arm came around my shoulders, drawing me in until my side was flushagainst his chest. He stared back at her until she looked away and hurried down the aisle.
I didn’t even question it.
He was just making sure I was okay. Making sure no one bothered me.
I leaned into him, reassured by the weight of his arm and the thud of his heartbeat. “Thank you for protecting me,” I said.
“Sweet boy, you don’t need to thank me for that,” he answered.
My chest warmed. I squeezed the ball again, then reluctantly placed it back in the bin.
Daddy huffed out an amused breath, picking up the ball I’d just put back and adding it to the basket he was carrying.
“I told you to put the ones you like in here,” he said, shaking his head.
“It’s just… a lot.”
“Baby, are you disobeying me?”
My brows jumped, and I quickly shook my head. “No!”
The corner of his lip turned up just slightly. “Then be good and do what I told you to.”
We moved on to another section, this one with more things that looked like the stuff in Mark’s box.
Daddy patiently let me touch each one, even when I took way too long deciding. When a pair of teenagers came down the aisle laughing loudly, Daddy angled his body to block them from my view, his hand firm on my hip as he guided me away.
I smiled to myself.
He was so attentive. So careful.
I didn’t pretend not to notice the way his jaw stayed clenched, or how his eyes never stopped scanning the store. How everyglance in my direction seemed to irritate him, or how he kept checking his watch like he was counting down the minutes.
All I cared about was that he was here and keeping me safe.
After a while, once I’d filled up the basket to Daddy’s satisfaction, we walked back to the front of the store, where Daddy said he would pay for our things.
As he messed with a screen and bagged our purchase, I saw something vaguely familiar out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to investigate, I realized what it was. Sitting on a set of shelves holding different types of candy and snacks was a pink wrapper I recognized as something one of our young members had once snuck into the Covenant.
I stepped closer, picked it up, and read the label.
It was a chocolate bar.
“Cherub?” Daddy called, making me turn around. He was holding a plastic bag filled with the things I’d picked out. When he saw what I was holding, he asked, “Do you want that?”
“Umm…”
Daddy laughed, then held his hand out. “Let me pay for it, then we can leave.”
My face flushed, and I murmured a shy, “thank you,” as he took it.
