“No, I certainly do not have cameras in the house,” he replied. “What I do have is a naughty girl who doesn’t do as she’s told and then lies about it. What do you think that I should do with such a naughty Little one?”
“Hmm. Well, if you’re asking for my opinion,” she said. “I think you should give her candy and cuddles. Yep, that’s what I think you should do.”
“Is that right?” he said, hiding his amusement. “Well, that’s not what I’m going to do with such a naughty Little girl. She will end up getting some kisses and cuddles, but only after she gets her bottom spanked for being naughty.”
Sunny gasped, with her hand on her chest. “Daddy, who are you going to spank for being naughty? That’s not very nice.”
“You,” he said sternly. “I’m going to spank you, Little Rebel, for getting up when I told you to stay in bed, and for lying about it when I asked you if there was anything you needed to tell me. Instead, you pretended that you didn’t get out of bed, and that you didn’t disobey me.”
This was serious and she needed to realize that. She had been very, very naughty.
Sunny gulped. “Well, it does sound bad when you put it like that, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, Little Rebel, it does.”
“But, Daddy, you don’t understand,” she cried. “I didn’t have enough icing made. I needed to make more.”
“And it had to be done right this minute?” he asked. “You couldn’t wait until you’d gotten enough rest, then had some breakfast and gotten dressed? The barbecue isn’t till later on this afternoon, remember?”
“I just wanted to get it done, Daddy, and off my to-do list. I didn’t want it hanging over me, weighing me down, worrying about icing shortages. I mean, could you imagine what a catastrophe it would be to have a decorate-your-own-cupcake table, and not enough icing? Terrible. It would ruin the Fourth of July.”
Duke shook his head at her dramatics. “It wouldn’t ruin the Fourth of July. There would’ve been enough icing, and if there wasn’t we could’ve made more together, after you’d rested in bed for a while.”
“But I don’t need to be in bed, Daddy. Daylight hours are burning and why would I waste them lying around in bed?”
“It’s not a waste of time to lie in bed when you’re tired and have dark marks under your eyes. If you don’t get enough rest, Little Rebel, then you’re going to get sick. And Daddy doesn’t want that happening. Understand?”
“Yes, I understand.” She nibbled at her lower lip. “I’m in a lot of trouble, huh?”
“Yes, you’re in a lot of trouble,” he told her. “First of all, you’re getting your bottom spanked for getting out of bed when I told you to stay there and for lying about it. Second of all, you’re going to be spending all of tomorrow in bed resting until those dark marks have disappeared from under your eyes.”
“Daddy, no!” she cried. “The spanking is bad enough, but to stay in bed all day tomorrow? That’s not fair.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Who makes the rules around here, baby girl?”
Sunny sighed. “You do, Daddy.”
“And what does that mean you’re going to do?”
“Spend all of tomorrow in bed, but it will be so boring,” she grumbled.
“We’ll get you some quiet activities that you can do while resting,” he told her.
“I still don’t understand how you knew that I’d gotten out of bed and made icing. I was back in bed by the time you got home.”
“Yes, which was very sneaky of you,” he said. “But you forgot to do a couple of things, like check your face for icing.” He reached up and brushed his thumb over her cheek.
Oh,crap.
She had icing on her cheek the whole time? How had she not felt that? Probably because of the rush of adrenaline she’d gotten from sneaking around.
Sunny wasn’t generally that naughty, but every so often she liked to keep Duke guessing.
“Also, when Hatter greeted me at the door, he’d left red paw prints in his wake.”
Oh, heck. She thought that she’d missed cleaning some icing off the floor. Hatter must have stood in it and then walked with red paws all the way through the house.
“Well, that was a series of unfortunate events,” she said.
