Page 356 of The Daddy P.I. Casefiles: The Second Collection
“Yeah, a movie sounds good,” I say.
Logan smiles at his subbie. “What’s in the cards today, baby doll?”
“A blanket fort andBrave, Daddy.”
“The movie with the red-haired girl? That’s a good one. Do you want Max and Cynnie to come over and watch with you?”
“No, Daddy. Just me and Bren today.”
Logan draws Emily to him and kisses her forehead. “Good girl. I’ll be home in time for lunch and if I’m going to be later than one, I’ll call.”
“Ta, Daddy.”
Emily waits for another forehead kiss before she’s up out of her chair and dragging me out of mine. I don’t get a foreheadkiss, but, to be fair, Emily moves like a ninja sometimes and I’m dragged along behind her before Mac even has a chance to lift his hand off my leg.
She pulls me upstairs and piles pillows and blankets into my arms. I hear the guys moving around downstairs and then the front door opening and closing as they leave.
Emily swings around with an armful of pink sheets and pins me with a glare. “By the time Queen Elinor turns back from being a bear, you’re going to tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I say, setting my jaw.
“I call bull-pucky.”
“Bull-pucky? Seriously? You just heard him leave.”
“Batman Daddy can hear me swear through ten feet of concrete.” She dumps the pink sheets on the pile I’m holding, grabs some more pillows, and pushes me towards the door. “Master Mac looked like it was his testicle you crushed this morning. What the heck happened?”
That draws a faint snigger out of me. “Nothing.”
“I’m plying you with Disney until you give it up.”
She does and by the time Queen Elinor turns into a bear, I’m sniffling and curled up in the blanket fort we’ve built with Emily’s arms around me and her crazy cat plopped in front of me like a black and white bread loaf, staring at me with his one golden eye and purring like a jackhammer.
“Bren, I’m so sorry,” Emily croons as she strokes my back. “I don’t know what I would have done if Daddy hadn’t said it back. Died, I think.”
I hiccup a little, which makes the cat purr louder. “I’m such a fucking idiot. I should have waited for him to say it first and then I’d never have said it and it wouldn’t fucking matter.”
“Bren.” She rubs harder. “It would still matter. You deserve to be with someone who loves you back.”
I know I do. But after Edz and Ten and Rob and now Mac, it’s beginning to smack of impossibility.
“Is there something wrong with me?” I ask brokenly.
“No. Absolutely not.” She’s rubbing so hard my scars are beginning to ache. “And Master Mac knew going in that you needed something real. I told him up front you wanted to be loved. It’s not fair of him to say he could give you more and then hold those words back. The words are important. It’s not fair.”
“Hon, leave me a little skin back there.”
“Oh, sorry.” The rubbing slows before she debrides my freaking ribs. “I don’t think you should stay with him, Bren. Not if he can’t say he loves you.”
My breath hitches and tears leak because somewhere down in my cloven heart, the same thought’s been percolating.
“We’re still new,” I say, articulating the excuses my head’s been throwing at my heart. “I’m probably the one jumping the gun telling him I love him after knowing him for a couple of weeks.”
“I’d known Daddy for less time and he said it back. Mac’s saying he’llneverbe able to say he loves you. You deserve more than that.”
“I know.” I wipe my eyes, but it doesn’t help with how blurry the movie’s become. It’s all that wild, red hair whipping around the screen. Stupid plasma TV.
“Don’t do what you did with Master Ten.”
