Page 32 of Daddy's Little Worker
Frankie looked so relaxed, sleeping on her bed and holding her stuffed animal close. How long had she been asleep?
Noah looked down at his watch and saw it was seven in the afternoon. He needed to get back to the club and also get dinner, but he couldn’t do that. Everything in him felt like he needed to stay with Frankie and make sure she was okay when she woke up. Would she be scared if he wasn’t there?
Quickly, he pulled out his phone, clicked on a contact, and held it to his ear. “Marco?”
“Hey, man, where are you?” Marco asked.
“I won’t be able to make it in tonight. I’ve got caught up somewhere else and have to stay. I don’t know how long it will take,” Noah explained, looking over at Frankie.
Still sound asleep. Was she okay? This was the second time she was out like a light in front of him, and he was getting a little worried.
“Are you okay? Do you need help?” There was a slight edge to Marco’s tone.
“No, I don’t need anything like that. I’m just fitting on a new lock and waiting for her to wake up. I don’t want to leave her like this.” Noah sighed.
He honestly needed to take a night off as well. When was the last time he didn’t work overtime?
“Would this happen to be for the new hire?” Marco inquired.
“It is.” Noah couldn’t help but smile. He had let it be known that Frankie was his and he wasn’t backing down. “I’ll talk to you later. I have to fix the door and figure out what I can make for dinner for us.”
“Good luck,” Marco said before he hung up.
Noah looked over at Frankie one more time, taking in her sleeping form before he got to work on adding another lock to her door.
“Wh-what are you doing here?”Frankie groggily stuttered as she stared at Noah.
“You’re okay,” he gently soothed. “I was putting up cameras and adding a lock to your door, but you fell asleep. I didn’t want to leave you before you woke up, so I stayed.”
He had finished the door and hooked his computer up to his hotspot, setting up the cameras, but he still had time to kill before she woke up. So he looked in her small kitchen, seeing what she had in. When Frankie offered him water and crackers, he’d found it odd, but it all made sense now.
That wasallshe had in her kitchen.
Had she run out of food, or was this all the food she’d had in for a while? Noah didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but it wasn’t looking good for her. What was he thinking, saying he would only take her out if something dangerous happened? He should have had the health talk with her before he made that deal, so he could move her out right now.
But he didn’t, and now he was living with the consequences of that.
“You stayed?” she whispered, sitting up in her bed.
“I did. I didn’t want you to worry if I left. I was going to wake you up soon, but I wanted you to get a little more sleep. You looked so peaceful, and I didn’t want to disturb you,” he explained.
He had thought about staying all night to make sure she slept all right, but he figured she might not like that.
“Oh. Thank you?” She still held her stuffed animal close to her.
“We need to talk about your food,” he calmly said.
Her eyes went wide as she looked at him. She knew, yet she didn’t say anything.
“You need more than just crackers to eat,” Noah pointed out. “Your job is demanding, and you need to properly fuel your body.”
“I eat at the club.” She smiled. “Trent always gives me a lot of nuggies. Sometimes I can’t finish them, and he lets me take them home for a snack later or dinner.”
Noah was going to have to talk to Trent about giving her more options. While he didn’t want her to eat nuggies all the time, it was better than her only eating crackers.
“And what do you eat when you don’t have any leftovers or don’t have work?” Noah asked.
“Well, I eat crackers, and sometimes I can get something out. I haven’t gotten paid yet, so I have what’s in the cabinets.” Her hands started to shake.
