He sat and pulled her back onto his lap, hating the way she was shaking. “You loved it that much, then?”
If she did then he’d do whatever he needed to in order to get it back for her. Hell, he’d buy the diner if that’s what it took. Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea...
“No, I hated it.”
“So why are you upset?”
“Um, I think that’s pretty obvious.”
“You want to watch your tone, unless you want to find yourself being introduced to my paddle. And considering the punishment you have coming; you do not want that right now.”
She grew stiff in his arms and he waited for an explosion. Then she suddenly crumpled in on herself. She curled herself into a ball right there on his lap. Drawing her legs up, she buried her face in her knees and sobbed.
“Baby, what is it? Abby, tell me why you’re so upset? Was it my threat to spank you?”
Fuck, he’d never felt so unsure or out of control of a situation in his life.
“I’m so sorry,” she wailed. “You’re being so wonderful and I just snapped at you. I was such a bitch.”
“Oh, baby. You could never be a bitch.”
He gathered her closer, rubbing her back again. “Hush, now, Abby-girl. You’re going to dehydrate yourself soon.”
“I’ve never cried so much in my life!”
“Come on, now. You’re worrying Daddy.” He stood and carried her into the kitchen, setting her on the counter. She immediately tried to get off. He placed his hands on her thighs.
“Uh-uh, Daddy didn’t say you could get down. You need to learn to stay where you are put.”
Her mouth dropped. “You did not just say that to me.”
“I did.”
“But my bottom is bare! It’s unhygienic.”
He snorted. “That’s why they invented disinfectant cleaning spray.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not the reason it was invented,” she muttered.
He tapped her nose. “Be a good girl and stay there.” He walked to the tissues and grabbed a few then wiped her face clean. “Blow.”
He knew from the red that filled her face that she didn’t appreciate him taking care of her in such an intimate way. Too bad. He wanted to do it. And he was the one in charge. Besides, there were far more intimate things he intended to do with her. He spread her legs and stepped between them. Her eyes widened as he pressed up against her.
“Now that we’ve established that working in the diner isn’t your dream job, you want to tell me what you’d really like to do?”
She started fidgeting.
“Abby? What is it? Or would you rather not work at all?” He knew it made him sound old-fashioned but that would be his preference. He’d keep her by him as much as possible in order to assure her safety.
But he knew he couldn’t make that decision for her. He didn’t want to smother her in his protection.
“I’ve always wanted to write children’s books. I know that’s silly—”
“Why is that silly?”
“I mean, I don’t have any experience. But I took creative writing courses at the community college, I didn’t graduate because I had to leave to come back and take care of Nana. So, I guess I’d like to finish them then try writing. I don’t know if I’ll be that successful, but that’s what I want to do.”
“Then that’s what you’ll do,” he told her. “After we’ve sorted everything out, you can enroll in college again or look into doing courses online perhaps and we’ll go from there.”