Page 21 of Maid for Daddy
“No. I could tell that you could be dangerous if you had to be, but I didn’t think you were a monster. You’re way too handsome to be a monster. Besides, there was something about you that made me feel safe. I was only afraid of one thing when I met you.”
“What was that?”
She bats those blue eyes at me. “Disappointing you.”
“You couldn’t disappoint me. You’re a walking dream.”
She feels like home to me now, and I don’t want to be anywhere else.
I exit the shower first and wrap her in a big, warm towel. She prances to the bedroom and opens one of her little suitcases. She removes three dresses and lays them out on the bed. I look them all over one by one.
There’s a sundress with little blue flowers, a yellow, knee-length cotton one, and a short, black, sleeveless one that ties around her neck. I touch the black one. “This one but only if you have a sweater. The riverfront gets chilly at night.”
“I thought that one too. I have a black sweater to match.”
“Then it’s settled. I told you I was gonna pick the sexiest one.”
“What are you wearing?”
“How about some jeans and a T-shirt?”
“You own jeans? I’ve only ever seen you in dress pants and swim trunks.”
“And naked,” I tease.
She puts on her dress and I tie it for her. She does a little twirl. “How do I look?”
“Like a sexy little doll, baby.”
She goes back to the bathroom to fix her hair while I dress. When she returns, she stops dead in the center of the room and smiles at me.
“What?”
“I like you in jeans and a T-shirt. It shows off your muscles.”
“It’s good to know that my muscles turn you on. Are you ready to go?”
“I can’t wait.” She slips into her shoes.
The drive to Nashua takes us over two covered bridges, and Samantha gets just as excited about the second as she did from the first.
“What’s the city like?”
“Nashua is the second largest city in the northeast, but you wouldn’t know it. It’s very clean with very little crime. It sits right on the river so the views are amazing, and the city center is made up mostly of refurbished textile buildings.”
“It sounds nice.”
“It is nice. It’s changed a lot since I was a kid. It’s funny. At one time, it was a manufacturing town. Now it’s the home of some of the largest tech and financial firms in the country.”
“I guess everything can change, right?”
“In the blink of an eye.”
Just like my life. A week ago, I was a man with a singular purpose. Legitimizing my family business was my only passion. Now, all I can think about is making and raising babies with this beautiful girl. Yeah, everything can change in the blink of an eye.
We arrive at the Peddler’s Daughter, and I help Samantha out of the car. She takes her first real look at Nashua. “This isn’t the kind of city I’m used to. It’s like those towns in the holiday TV movies.”
“I think they’ve made some of those here.”