Page 5 of Daddy's Treat
“Y-yes,” I stutter.
Am I really, though?
I have no idea.
Kade doesn’t strike me as a creeper. He seems like a standup kind of guy. His roaming hands make me confident that I wasn’t mistaken when I thought he was checking me out. My brain is having a ‘does not compute’ moment.
I should probably remove myself from temptation. There is no way a man like Kade would actually be interested in a girl like me for any kind of long-term thing, and I don’t think I’m a short-term, casual kind of girl. I obviously don’t know for sure, but it feels like I’d not be able to keep casual feelings for anyone I let get close physically.
On the one hand, getting off this piggy-back ride train is probably the smart choice. On the other hand, we are still inside the maze, and Kade is my shield. Kade must sense my trepidation because he casually moves his hands away from the uncomfortably wet gusset of my panties and back to a slightly less inappropriate grip on my bum.
I let out a sigh of relief. Kade chuckles and gives my bottom a little squeeze.
We turn one more corner, and Walt does a fist pump in the air and says ‘yes!’ we’ve finally found the exit. “I told you I could find it, Uncle Kade.”
Kade roughs up Walt’s hair again. “I knew you could do it, kiddo. Good job.”
“Told you I wouldn’t be scared. I’m not a kid anymore.”
“Whatever you say,kiddo.” Kade puts a little extra emphasis on the ‘kiddo,’ and I giggle.
“What are you laughing at? I’m almost as tall as you are,” Walt says indignantly.
I hop down from Kade’s back now that we are several feet away from the exit and straighten out my dress. “That’s not saying much.”
Standing next to Kade, who is well over six feet tall, both of us look like munchkins. If we were orange, we’d be Oompa Loompas.
There is an awkward silence now that Kade and Walt aren’t saving my hide. “Uhm… well, thanks again. I better let you guys go home.Someonehas ice cream to eat.” I smile at Walt.
“We’ll walk you to your car.” Kade doesn’t ask like most guys would. No, he just insists like it’s a given. Maybe it is.
I look around the parking lot for Lucy’s death trap of a car, and even though I scan the lot three times, I don’t see it. Cheese and crackers. It only takes me thirty seconds to realize they left me here. Not just Lucy and Tricia. Everyone in the house left me. Even the other newbies.
Ouch. This is another one of those moments that if I were a crier, I’d be crying. As it is, my eyes are burning a little, and my nose tingles.
“I rode here with my… friends. I guess they got tired of waiting.” I smile brightly at Kade and Walt. “It’s no big deal, I pull my phone out of the hidden pocket in my dress. I’ll just have a car come pick me up.” I flash my screen at him so he can see the car service app my grandma insisted that I download when I moved here.
Kade’s eyes narrow, and I am pretty sure the temperature drops ten degrees. I shiver at the cold anger that he’s radiating. I instinctively know he’s not madatme butforme. “Absolutely not. We’ll give you a ride home.”
I blink up at him in shock. For as smart as I am, I never saw that one coming. Well, in all honesty, I never saw Kade coming either. “Oh, you don’t have to do that. I’ve already taken up too much of your manly bonding time.” I look right at Walt when I say that, and he stands a little straighter, puffing up his chest.
Walt looks from me to Kade then back again. “I agree with Uncle Kade. We should give you a ride home. That way, we can keep you safe like we did in the maze.”
Kade gives Walt an approving look. “Let’s get you home, shortcake.”
I nod my agreement. No sense arguing when I’ll probably lose anyway. Besides, I don’t think I could ever say no to Walt. He’s wise for his young age. I can tell he wants to be just like his uncle. He’s lucky to have a man like Kade for a role model. Hopefully, he won’t turn out like the jerky football players my so-called sisters find so enthralling. Gag me with a spoon.
Walt grabs my hand and leads me over to a fancy SUV. He drops my hand and scurries up into the backseat. Before I get the chance to open the passenger door, Kade is right there doing it for me. I climb—less than gracefully—up into the vehicle. Another negative to being short. Big trucks or in this case, SUVs make it challenging to gracefully enter and exit them. I think back to my little incident with Lucy’s sports car and have to wonder if it’s just a Penny Cooper thing.
Kade starts the car and cranks the heater. The hot air blows on my face, and I realize how cold I am. My fingers and nose are numb—toes too. I shiver as my body slowly warms.
Kade scowls at me. “Where’s your coat?”
“The back of Lucy’s car, I’m guessing. They wanted to show off our costumes for the boys they met here. Well, they wanted to show off their sexy costumes and wanted me to show off this.” I wave my hand up and down the length of my body. “They tricked me. They told me we were supposed to dress up as our favorite childhood cartoon characters.”
Walt leans forward between the seats. “Why’d they do that?”
“Well, I guess because they don’t like me very much.” I shrug like it doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t, not really, but this little joke stings more than most.