AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Luke dated pretty much anyone who caught his eye, especially when he was riding the circuit, but—” he cleared his throat. “Basically, I was a dumbass who should have picked up on his signals. I was too afraid to risk upsetting the balance of our friendship.”
“Hey!” I pulled back a little so I could see his face. “Don’t call my daddy a dumbass.”
“I apologize. You’re right.” Elias tapped my nose. “I ignored a lot of very obvious signs, but it doesn’t matter now.”
“Okie doke.” A yucky knot of worry had formed in my belly, but hopefully eating something yummy would dissolve it. Who was I kidding? Only Elias thoroughly punishing my ass would clear the feelings surrounding it. “Can you punish me before lunch?”
“After.”
“Please?”
“You barely touched breakfast this morning. You need food in your system, especially since I have a feeling we’re going to have an intense discussion. You mentioned your ex-boyfriend coming here and kidnapping you in the middle of the night. Considering you don’t have a phone or anything electronic that he could use to find you, I’m extremely concerned that you did something reckless and potentially dangerous.”
“Yeah. I did.”
“Thank you for the verification. It gives me another reason to ensure you’ve properly eaten and are taking care of yourself. I don’t want to interrupt our conversation because your blood sugar dips.”
I wasn’t entirely sure what he was babbling about, but he had a valid point. “Okay, Daddy. Can we eat now? I’ve been upset since last night. I don’t want to put it off much longer.”
“Yes, sweetheart.”
We made our way to the kitchen, but my nerves remained on edge.
Lunch was chicken bacon salad piled on warm sour-dough bread along with a garden salad and apple slices. Everything came out yummy but even good food couldn’t chase away the bitter aftertaste knowing how disappointed I was about to make Elias. He mentioned French hot chocolate, a recipe from one of his grandmas, but I had a lot of gunk trapped in my head. I no longer cared about the fancy dessert drink or anything else he had to say.
“You’re a million miles away, sweetheart.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“I asked if you wanted whipped cream on your hot cocoa, but you seem to be thinking about something more important. Let’s shift gears.” He slid another stack of dishes to me. We had been putting them away from the dishwasher into the cabinets as we talked, but I wasn’t really in the mood yet to open up.
“Okay.” I focused on putting each pretty dish back in the cabinet. “I fucked up. So, I should probably leave.”
Elias cocked an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
“Yeah.” I shifted the bowls to the left side of the cabinet to make more room. “It’s so.”
“What happened yesterday?”
“I drank multiple glasses of wine.”
“There is more to it, but I’ll bite. Why did you drink wine?”
“I wanted to.”
Elias sighed. He had every right to be annoyed with me. My words didn’t match my actions.
“Why won’t you answer a very simple question, Emma?”
“I did answer you.”
“It appears to me like you drank wine intending to get buzzed. That implies you wanted to stop thinking, unless you’re trying to tell me you did it solely for a reaction.”
“Whatever.”
“We are not going to get to the bottom of the issue this way, sweetheart. Fix your reply.”
I stomped my right foot. “Make me.”
