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Relief filledDuke as he sat on the sofa with Sunny in his lap, holding her tight.
“I’m so sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to worry you. I feel really awful.”
“I’m just glad you’re all right.”
Hatter jumped up on them, whining.
“I’m all right, Hatter. Did I worry you too? I’m sorry,” she said.
Hatter settled his head on her lap, and she scratched him behind the ears.
Duke grasped hold of her chin, tilting her face back. “I’m relieved you’re okay, baby. But that could have gone disastrously wrong. What if the Fox hadn’t followed you? What if by the time you’d called one of us, the roads had been closed due to the snow? Or you’d all got too cold?”
She bit her lip, staring up at him with teary eyes. “I’m so sorry, Daddy.”
“I know you are, Little Rebel. But the fact remains, I didn’t know where you were or that you were in trouble. You took away my job from me. I need you to be safe, Sunny.”
“I know. I shouldn’t have lied. It’s just . . .”
“Just what?” he asked.
“Brody called me the other day to tell me that the Fox, well, he’s never really had a family holiday. I mean, before Brody and Autumn he didn’t really have a family at all.”
Duke stilled. He knew that. Though he guessed he hadn’t really thought about it or what it might mean for the other man. “That’s why he was so fired up for us to go on holiday with him a while ago?”
The five of them in an RV or two didn’t sound like a good time to him. But he knew a bit about the Fox’s life growing up. And none of it was good.
And the Fox thought of Sunny as family.
How would it feel to never have been on a family holiday? Duke understood that feeling a bit. He’d lost his family when he was eight. But at least he had a few good memories of when they were alive. Mostly of his mom’s laugh. And then Ink’s family took him in. And they were amazing to him.
What would it be like if he hadn’t had any of that?
Fuck.
“I can’t go away on holiday right now, Sunny.”
“I know. That’s why we thought we could hire a cabin just for a couple of nights close to home and spend Christmas there.”
“Aren’t they all booked?”
“Not this one. It’s a friend of Jonas’s. You know, your client? I saw him in the mall the other day and he hooked me up with his friend who only hires the cabin out sometimes to friends or friends of friends.”
“Jonas hooked you up?” Duke asked in surprise. Jonas was a good client, but he could be a hardass.
“Yep. He likes me.”
Of course he did. Everyone loved Sunny. It was hard not to, with her happy personality. The goodness shone out of her. If she’d been able to thwart an assassin-for-hire’s heart, Jonas was a piece of cake.
“So you want us to all spend the night there? Together?”
“Maybe just Christmas Eve? Or Christmas night?”
Or perhaps both nights. He should be able to do that if it meant so much to his girl.
And to show the man who’d proven again and again that he’d do anything for his ‘sweet girl’ what a family holiday was like.
