Page 48 of Her Sensual Protector

“How’d you get here?”

“It’s a long story. How are you feeling?”

“Like someone beat the hell out of me.” His laughter ended in a coughing fit. Daisy raised his bed and grabbed the glass of water by his bed.

“Here, drink slowly.”

He tried to hold the glass in his hands but they were too shaky. She helped him. Four sips later, and he’d stopped coughing.

She saw his eyes well up with tears.

“Dad, it’s going to be all right. You’re safe now.”

His lips tightened, and he nodded.

“Can I get you something? Food maybe? They have a really good grilled cheese and tomato soup.”

“No, just having you here means everything to me.”

His words threatened to open her up so she deflected. “How did this happen? What happened?” she asked.

“Baby, I don’t want to talk about it right now, okay? I have more than enough people asking that. Hell, they want to know my shoe size and I swear to God they’d really like to perform a colonoscopy on me if they could. So no questions about that, okay?”

“Sure, Dad.”

“I like hearing that,” he said softly.

Shit. This emotional shit is a lot to handle.

“Yeah, well…”

“It’s okay, I won’t always expect it. Just hearing it now is enough.”

She nodded.

Damn it, am I tearing up?

“You have some really determined children. They were getting senators involved to pressure the State Department to get you released.”

“But you’re the one over here.” Again he squeezed her hand.

“They just knew I was the ballbuster of the family. They figured if anyone could knock some heads I’d be the one who could do it.”

His lip twitched. “You were like that even at two years old. Your terrible twos were awful. Once you learned the word ‘no’, your mother and I were in hell.”

“Like you were around,” Daisy said. Then she immediately regretted the words.

“Oh, there were a couple of years I was there. You can ask your mother. I knew you would set the world on fire one day, and you have.”

“Look, you don’t have to be handing out the compliments. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

He closed his eyes, then opened them. “Fair enough. Tell me more about Jim, Brian, and Karen.”

“First, are you hungry?”

“I couldn’t keep anything down. I’d just like it if you’d talk.”

Daisy nodded and pulled up the chair.