“Okay.”
“Okay, what?” Jared asked firmly.
“Okay, Daddy,” she said.
“That’s my good girl.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” North asked.
She tensed.
“What?” Jared asked, staring over at North.
“To play in here?” North asked. “This is a work and punishment space. I just thought . . . maybe it would be better to have a play space?”
A play space?
“Really?” she breathed out. “Could I have that? I mean, I don’t have to. I don’t spend much time in Little space and I don’t need things. You guys have done so much for me. It’s fine.”
Shoot. She went from excited to anxious in the space of a minute.
She couldn’t believe North was the one to suggest it.
“I think a playroom is a good idea,” Jared said.
“That’s good, since I’ve already started arranging it. Follow me.” North got up and left the room.
Jared stood but instead of putting her on her feet, he set her on his hip.
To her shock, he carried her out of the room and up the stairs.
“Jared! You can’t carry me up the stairs.”
He stilled on the third step. “Excuse me? What do you call me?”
Oh, monkey butts.
“Daddy, you can’t carry me.”
“Why not?” he asked in a low voice.
“B-because I’m too big to be carried up the stairs.”
“You’re not big. You’re a little girl,” he told her as he started moving again. “My little girl.”
God, she loved hearing that.
North led them to what she figured had to be a cupboard. Had he put things in there for her? Or was he turning the cupboard into a play area?
But when he drew the cupboard door open, she saw a set of stairs.
“Good thinking,” Jared said to North.
“I occasionally have a good thought.”
Was he making a joke?
Hmm. It was difficult to tell with North.
