Page 9 of Her Hero Daddy

“I’m fine, honey. I have you on Bluetooth. I’m used to driving while on a call. It’s something I’m trained for.”

She didn’t know how to respond to that. They had made her pull over each time she had talked to them while she’d been driving. Different rules for her, apparently.

He sighed. “It wasn’t safe for you to talk and drive. You were hysterical and hurt. That’s why we made you pull over.”

Shit. Did I say that out loud? Fuck.

“Stop swearing, little one.”

Stop talking out loud, dummy.

“Haylee.” His voice had become a warning.

“Sorry. I… um… I’m kind of out of it.”

“I know. Did you eat?”

“Not yet. It smells good, but my tummy is kind of… in knots.”

Another sigh.

“Okay, put me on speaker, and get the ointment out and find any open wounds. Then apply it to them using the cotton swabs.”

“Oh… uh… okay.”

She put her phone on speaker and set it down on the bed. Grabbing the supplies, she sat back down and applied a healthy amount of ointment to a scrape on her arm. She hissed at the pain as she touched the wound, and she heard Kane let out a string of curse words. When she opened the Band-Aids, she looked through each one to see which princess she wanted.

“I like these Band-Aids. The delivery guy brought me princess ones,” she said absently as she applied one to her arm.

“I know. I told him to pick those. Princess Band-Aids for a princess.”

She smiled at the warmth in his tone. He didn’t even know her. Didn’t even know what a failure and a mess she was. But he was being nice, and she appreciated it.

“I don’t want to put a Band-Aid on my head. It might pull out more hair when I have to take it off.”

Another string of curse words. Okay, so he was allowed to curse the most colorful words, but she wasn’t?

Rude.

“Okay, little one. Just make sure you put a good amount of ointment on it. Do you think you need stitches? I can get hold of a doctor to come to you tonight to stitch it up.”

How would he know a doctor to call that would come to her? She didn’t even know how he got the delivery guy to stop at Walgreens to pick up that stuff for her. She guessed that based on how scary he had sounded earlier in the night that he could easily get people to do what he wanted.

“I don’t think I need stitches. I can’t see it very well, but I don’t think it’s split open that much.”

Silence.

Another sigh.

“Okay. I will look at it in the morning and take you to get stitched up before we leave if we need to. I want you to eat at least one slice of pizza. That way, you can take some medicine before you go to bed without hurting your tummy.”

Ugh. She didn’t think she could eat any pizza.

“It wasn’t a request, Haylee.”

Shit. He’s so bossy.

“Young lady, what did I say about cursing? And yes… I am very bossy. So, it’s best that you follow my directions.”

---