Page 16 of Single Pucking Orc

Charlie’s hiccups slowed. Her fist, which had been clenched against Rognar’s shirt, loosened. Her fingers spread, then curled into the fabric again without any real strength behind them. Her eyes closed. Opened. Closed again. He didn’t move. Neither did she.

When Charlie finally went down all the way, boneless, one small hand still fisted in his shirt, he did not hand her over then either. He sat in the dark holding his daughter and looking at her. He didn’t know Nora was watching, and that’s what did the damage. He wasn’t giving her that charming grin that her body liked way too much and her brain didn’t trust at all.

He was simply looking at Charlie.

His enormous shoulders had curved protectively around her. One hand rested against her back, nearly spanning it, but he didn’t move it. He looked exhausted, completely wrung out, and underneath that, astonished. As though the day had cracked his life open and dropped this tiny person into the middle of it, and despite the terror and the screaming and the fact that he had no idea what tomorrow looked like, he couldn’t quite believe she was his.

Something turned over in her stomach, low and warm and entirely unwelcome.

Oh, absolutely not.

She looked away and took a few deep breaths. When she looked back, he was still watching Charlie.

“You did that,” she said softly, and his eyes lifted to hers.

The grin surfaced, automatic and familiar.

“I had a pretty good⁠—”

“Don’t.”

The grin vanished.

She leaned forward, keeping her voice low. “Don’t make it a joke. You figured out what she needed and got her to sleep. Take the win.”

For a moment he simply looked at her, then he nodded.

“Okay.”

That somehow made it worse.

She stood. “Tea?”

“Yes.”

She escaped to the kitchen. By the time she came back, Charlie hadn’t moved. He accepted the mug with one hand, her perfectly normal mug looking ridiculous in his grip. She sat across from him again, and for a while neither of them spoke.

“Her mother’s name was Valerie,” he said eventually. “Val. We were together for a few months last year. She was here on a contract. We knew it was temporary from the beginning.” His thumb moved slowly over the handle of the mug. “It was good. Easy. When she left, she left. No hard feelings on either side.”

“She didn’t tell you she was pregnant?”

“She didn’t tell me anything at all. She had the baby in Rochester in March.” He studied the mug. “There was a car accident three weeks ago. Charlie was with a sitter.”

“Oh, Rognar.”

“She named me in the will. That’s the part I keep coming back to.” He looked up. “She didn’t tell me for a year. But she wrote down that she wanted me to have her. I can’t put those two things together.”

“You probably don’t have to do that tonight.”

His gaze came back to her.

“No?”

“No.” She tucked one leg beneath herself. “Tonight you have to get Charlie to sleep. Then you have to get some sleep yourself. Tomorrow you can figure out tomorrow. And tomorrow you have to buy actual food, because I’ve seen your recycling and I know what’s in your kitchen.”

He laughed again, quietly, and it changed his whole face.

“You’ve been watching my recycling.”