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“I know she isn’t, darlin’. And that’s not what I meant. I just meant the burden of always being the one in charge.” Stepping forward, he pulled her in so her head could rest on his chest. “Because that’s not how you’re built, is it? You don’t want to be the one always making the decisions and being responsible and handing out discipline, do you?”
“I’m not weak.”
“I never said you were. It’s okay to lean on someone else from time to time, Michelle.” But obviously she was too stubborn to come to accept that on her own, so he was just going to have to take the choice away from her. “And that’s what you’re going to do right now. Understood?”
There was a long, heavy pause, and her words were muffled by his shirt when she finally spoke, but he understood her perfectly. “Yes, Sir.”
“That’s my good girl. Let’s go see what our little brat has gotten up to this time.” He pulled away enough to grip her chin and force her gaze up to his. “And after I deal with Allison, you are going to come clean about why you were so nervous earlier, and why you lied to me about it.”
Guilt filled the beautiful blue of her eyes, letting him know she definitely had something to confess. “Yes, Sir,” she whispered, her voice already thick with unshed tears.
Lowering his head, he brushed a kiss across her lips. “It’ll be all right, pet. I promise.”
“I know. I trust you, Sir.”
Bolstered by those words, he took her hand and led her out of the room and down the hall to retrieve their girl.
Chapter 23
Allie
Worst. Day.Ever.
She wasn’t even sure how it had gone so wrong. Sadie’s plan had sounded foolproof. There was a lag between breakfast cleanup and lunch prep when the kitchen was usually pretty deserted, and today had been no exception. The only person left in the kitchen had been Chef Connor, and Hayleigh had distracted him by… well, Allie wasn’t sure on those details, but she’d seemed confident she could keep him busy for a good long while.
All they’d had to do was sneak into the giant walk-in cooler where the cookies were being kept, grab a couple from each tray to dump into the bag Sadie had brought with her, and sneak out again. Easy peasy.
At least, it had seemed easy until one of the other chefs had walked in behind them and caught them red-handed. Angel, she thought his name was. Apparently he was in charge of the desserts, and he’d wanted to check on something. And that was all it had taken for them to find themselves in Master Derek’s office, waiting on their punishment to be handed down.
When Erika poked her head in to announce Nick and Michelle’s arrival, Allie wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. They were never going to let her come back to the Ranch if she couldn’t manage to stay out of trouble for more than five minutes when she was here.
Nick had on his “Daddy” face, his jaw set firmly and a look in his eye that told her she was in big trouble. But surprisingly, Michelle didn’t look mad. If anything she looked… sympathetic.
Well, good. Maybe if she had Michelle on her side, Nick wouldn’t be too hard on her.
“Ah, Nick, Michelle, thank you for joining us. It seems this little group decided to try and pull off the great Christmas Cookie Caper right under Chef Connor’s nose.”
“It was a heist, Daddy, not a caper.” Stationed at the front of the pack with her arms crossed, Sadie huffed. “Caper is a silly word.”
“Do you really think this is the best time to be arguing word choice with me, little girl?”
Sadie’s shoulders drooped a bit, but obviously any sense of self-preservation she’d once had was now long gone. “I’m just sayin’. It was a heist,” she grumbled.
“Whatever you want to call it.” Derek shot Sadie a glare and she wisely didn’t argue. “These naughty Littles were caught trying to sneak some cookies that had been made for the Christmas party tomorrow. I will be dealing with the Littles under my care, but I wanted to give you the choice on how to handle Allison. She can stay and accept a paddling with the rest of the group, or you can discipline her privately, as Chef will be doing with Hayleigh.”
It was, to Allie’s continued surprise, Nick who spoke up. “We’ll take care of it. And Allison will be back later this afternoon to apologize. Chef, do you need help baking any additional cookies?”
“No.” For the first time since they’d been caught, Chef’s stern expression shifted to something like a smile. “I’ve been at Rawhide long enough to know to bake a couple dozen extra in the event of cookie thieves.”
“See, Daddy?” Sadie’s tone was filled with smug triumph. “You don’t even need to punish us. Chef wanted us to steal those cookies!”
Somehow, Allie didn’t think Sadie’s logic was going to fly. And she was right.
“That isn’t the point, and you know it, little girl,” Master Derek said.
Crossing her arms with a huff, Sadie mumbled under her breath. “Not fair.”
Ignoring her, Master Derek turned his head to pin Allie with a look that made her want to run and hide behind her Bigs. “You know what you did was very naughty, Allison?”
