Tugging on his hand, she tried to pull him to standing, and he eventually let her. “Get in bed right now, Mister!”
Her Daddy didn’t protest at her bossy words or her stern tone, and she knew it was serious. Picking up the phone, she dialed down to room service. “Hello, this is Daisy Grace in Room 317. I need an order of pancakes with strawberries, chicken soup, Gatorade, and ibuprofen, as soon as possible, please. Thank you. Merry Christmas!”
When that was done, she called the airline, mentally thanking herself for ordering the extra insurance that allowed her to reschedule for the 1st of January. She knew Rett didn’t have to be back to work until the 4th, and that gave him plenty of time to recover.
When she spoke to the airline attendant and rescheduled her flight, that caught Rett’s attention.
Lifting his head off the pillow, he looked at her with concerned confusion. “What are you doing?”
“You, mister, aren’t going anywhere tomorrow, and I’m not having my last day with you be ruined with you being too sick to move, so I am staying behind to take care of you.”
“Can you do that?” Rett croaked. “What about your job?”
Daisy shrugged. “They’ll survive without me for a few more days. I need to be here to take care of my Daddy.”
“It’s my job to take care of you, little one, not the other way around,” Rett argued weakly, his eyes already closing.
“Consider it my Christmas present to you,” Daisy retorted with a wink. “Now you can’t say I didn’t get you anything!”
Epilogue
“Thank you for staying to take care of me, little one,” Rett said, on the morning of their last day together, pulling her naked body close to his.
Daisy shrugged. “It’s not like I wanted to leave anyway.” She wiped at her face and Rett noticed she was crying.
It didn’t surprise him. She had been strong and stoic all week taking care of them both, and now he was better, and their time together was ending. Both of them were flying out late tonight.
“Daddy is going to take care of you all day,” he promised, wiping at the tears that were now falling freely.
“It’s not today that I’m worried about,” Daisy retorted sadly. “It’s tomorrow and the next day, and the day after that. Texas is too far from Florida. I don’t want to be alone again.”
Rett sighed and squeezed her tighter. “I’m not going to let you be alone again, little flower. Come with me tonight.”
She wanted that. More than anything. But it was unrealistic crazy talk. He was just trying to make her feel better.
“But my apartment,” she protested, “and my job and—”
“We will figure everything out later,” Daddy reassured her, tucking her hair behind her ear. “We have time. Your apartment isn’t going anywhere, and you hate your job. Just leave it all and come live with Daddy, where you belong, little flower.”
“What about Charlie?” she asked, in case he had forgotten about her cat. “Can Charlie come?”
Rett opened his mouth to answer, but the ringing of his cell phone interrupted him.
Growling, Rett grabbed it from the nightstand, fully intending to hang up on whoever it was without answering, but Jared’s name flashed across the screen and he knew he had to take it.
Holding up one finger to indicate they would finish their conversation soon, he pushed the button to answer and yanked the phone up to his ear.
“This better be good,” he grunted.
“Ho, Ho, Ho! Is this Everett Hawkins?” Jared boomed loudly in his Santa voice.
Rett was not in the mood. “Cut the crap, you know it is.”
“Well, see, I was just cleaning out my sleigh for the new year, and I found a present with your name on it. If it’s okay with you, I’m going to hitch up the sleigh and the reindeer and deliver it right now. I’ve got a feeling it might be a little time sensitive.”
“What?” Rett was laughing now at his friend’s ridiculousness, and he had no idea what to do other than to agree. “Okay then. See you soon, I guess.”
He was still laughing as he hung up the phone, and Daisy regarded him with suspicion. “Who was that?”
Rett shook his head. “It was Santa. Get dressed. He’s coming over.”
They both barely had enough time to pull on their clothes before a loud banging knock sounded on the door to their room, followed by a booming, “Ho, Ho, Ho!”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Rett grunted as he rushed to the door. He pulled it open, fully intending to put an end to Jared’s little charade. Instead he found his friend standing there, dressed in full Santa gear, holding a bright red manila envelope with his name on it in Erika’s handwriting.
“What’s this?” He all but snatched it from Jared’s hand and flipped the tab, pulling out a pile of documents as Daisy hugged him around the waist, looking on in stunned confusion.
Santa-Jared cleared his throat. “It’s a contract. Beginning in August, we will have an open teaching position, and your cousin would like you to come on as staff.”
“Is this for real?” Rett stared at the papers with his mouth hanging open.
“It is, and if things up here are going the way I assume they are; I’ll have one for Daisy too. If she wants to work, that is. That's up to you two, and like I said, I’m making a lot of assumptions that I hope are correct.”
“They’re correct,” Rett answered, pulling Daisy closer to him. “We haven’t figured out any of the details yet, because you kind of interrupted us, but we’ll figure it out when you leave,” he hinted, shooting Jared-Santa a look that begged him to go.
Jared took the hint, with a grunt. “Yes, well, I’ll leave you to it, then. And there is a little bit of time to consider the offer, of course, but look it over. Give it some thought. We would love to have you on staff, and we would love for you and Little Daisy to make a home here.”
“We’ll definitely talk it over,” he promised, all but shoving Jared out the door.
“Oh, one more thing!” Jared stopped in the doorway, and Rett groaned.
“What is it now?”
Leaning past him to look at Daisy, Santa Jared winked. “Santas and Daddies are the same little girl. We always keep our promises.”
Daisy gasped and her eyes twinkled and as Jared finally left, closing the door behind him, Rett understood.
“Well, what do you say, little one? Do you feel like moving twice this year? First to Texas and then here to the Ranch?”
“Well, I don’t know…” Daisy hesitated and Rett couldn't tell if she was serious or not.
“We never finished what we were talking about.” Her lips formed a pout, and she looked worried.
Okay, she was serious. “Okay where did we leave off? What were we talking about?”
“Charlie,” Daisy reminded him. “Are cats allowed at the Ranch? Can Charlie come?”
“Of course, Charlie can come, silly girl. We will go and get Charlie and anything else you want. I just want you in my arms, in my bed, in my home.”
Daisy squirmed in his lap, wishing it could be as easy as he was making it sound.
In her head, she started to make a new list of things to worry about. Her landlord, and her friend Penny, and... nope. She cut off her own line of thinking and took a deep breath.
“You know, all it will take is three little words and I’ll do whatever you want, Daddy.” Daisy nibbled her lip, hoping he understood her meaning. She needed help making the right decision.
Rett smiled and kissed her lips. “Three little words, huh?” He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in close while a shit-eating grin spread over his face. “How about… I dare you.”
The End
About the Authors
Find Allie here:
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Daring Little Daisy Page 13