Page 54 of Gene

“Absolutely amazing,” she whispered, snuggling into his chest.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

SAMMI

Someone cleared their throat, giving Sammi a fright. She turned around to see Daddy standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and his eyebrows raised. She immediately pulled her hands to her back and gave Daddy a big smile.

Sammi had been packing a couple of her things into boxes earlier today in preparation for putting her house on the market. It was her one day off and it wasn’t actually a day off. She couldn’t remember the last time she had sat and relaxed when she wasn’t supposed to work.

It had been two weeks since Daddy told her he worked with Deccan. She had gone back to work this past week with Daddy carefully watching over her. And if he wasn’t there, Nolan was since Ezekiel was usually with Daddy.

But he was getting more comfortable with her working even if he didn’t like it. Or that was what she thought. She didn’t know what was going on through Daddy’s mind.

“What are you doing?” Daddy asked, taking a step into the room she was in.

“Nofing.” She looked away.

She had been writing on the boxes so she knew what was in each one. It wasn’t her fault the only markers she had were all different colors. They were just calling her name, and she couldn’t disappoint them. Tinkle even agreed with her.

“Little One.” His voice held a warning.

Sammi didn’t know why she wasn’t telling Daddy what she was doing. It’s not like he would punish her.

“Tinkle made me do it,” she rushed out before she thought through what she was saying. Her eyes went wide as she looked over at her stuffed animal sitting on one of the boxes. “Sorry, Tinkle,” she whispered.

Tinkle didn’t say anything back to her, and she started to worry. Had she hurt his feelings? She was a bad fox mommy. She should be taking care of him, not throwing him under the bus.

“And what did Tinkle make you do?” Daddy knelt in front of her.

“Nofing,” she whispered.

“Sammi.”

She sighed and looked away, not wanting to look into his eyes. She knew if she did, she would spill everything.

“Look at Daddy, right now, Little One.”

She didn’t look up, though.

“Now,” he commanded.

Sammi looked up only to see Daddy’s face hard and emotionless. She should have gazed up before, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Now, you’re going to answer Daddy’s question. What did Tinkle make you do?” Daddy asked once again.

Sammi looked over at Tinkle before looking back at Daddy. She could just feel Tinkle telling her to tell Daddy the truth. Which meant telling Daddy that Tinkle didn’t make her do it, but the markers did.

“It wasn’t Tinkle who made me do it. The markers did. I promise. I was labeling the boxes, and they just called out to my name,” Sammi explained.

“Called out your name,” Daddy corrected her.

She sighed. “They told me to color the boxes, so I did.”

“Show me your hands.”

She slowly brought her hands in front of her and showed him the markers along with her colorful hands. She didn’t know how she had gotten all the lines on her hands, but they were.

“Why did you put them behind you when I walked into the room?” Daddy asked, taking the markers and putting their caps back on.

---