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She was going to drop so hard when he left it was going to be physically painful. Maybe she should make an appointment with one of the counselors ahead of time for a couple days after he’d gone. Surely she’d be crying into her hot cocoa by then, especially if he’d left with Callie or one of the other women he’d met.
Wow. Nova thought she was a pretty smart person—and the hackers she defeated every day would probably agree—but accepting that bet from Linc hadn’t been a shining moment of her intellect.
Even thinking about it now made her sad and her eyes began to water. Luckily, she was saved from full-blown crying by a knock on her door. Nova scrubbed the unshed tears with the backs of her fists and then rushed over to answer. When she opened it, she found Linc standing there in jeans that fit him just right and a gray, brown, and blue flannel shirt that hadn’t been worn completely threadbare yet.
“Hi.”
Yeah, there was a reason she hadn’t been on the debate team in Kartoff.
“Hi yourself, shortcake.”
His smile did something to her insides and she was going to miss him so much when he’d gone back to Alaska.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t have time to… anything, really. I have to go up to the Big House soon.”
“For your sleepover, right? You girls are gonna have a great time. I figured I’d walk you over there since I wasn’t going to see you later. That all right?”
That was more than all right; it made her so happy she could wiggle. But it would only make her feel worse when Linc left if she knew he pitied her too—poor little lovesick fool, like she’d ever had a chance.
“Yes, thank you. Let me just grab a couple more things and then I’ll be ready to go.”
After havinga special delivery of Chef Connor’s homemade mac and cheese for dinner, making their own disco balls, eating so many snacks, and a dance party, Derek and Ryder had come into the playroom and directed bedtime including getting all dozen Littles into pajamas and their teeth brushed. Then the men had tucked them and their stuffies in on the plethora of air mattresses they’d blown up.
“I know you girls are going to talk and that’s fine,” Derek told them. “You have an hour until it’s lights out for real.”
“Okay, Daddy! Now bye, Daddy! No Daddies allowed, only Littles!” Sadie singsonged.
Derek shook his head and rolled his eyes but he gamely left the room and closed the door behind him. As soon as the latch caught, Sadie rolled toward Nova and bit her lip.
“Okay, spill. Tell us everything about Linc.”
“There’s not much to say,” Nova hedged.
“Oh please,” Quinn said. “There’s so much to say. Like how you were a giant nerd in high school and he was too cool. And how he kissed you that one time on a bet and now you can’t be sure if he actually loves you or if he’s just being nice.”
Nova was really glad she hadn’t told anyone about their new bet, the one where if she couldn’t find him someone to marry before the week was out that she would have to do it. Having her friends to talk to about this ridiculous bargain would be nice but she wasn’t prepared to deal with Sadie… well, being Sadie.
Instead, she thought about what she could say about Linc. “Well, he’s a little over six feet tall, always wears jean that have had some rough times—”
“And he’s hot,” Sadie chimed in.
“Um, yeah, I guess there’s that too,” Nova agreed. She was grateful that it was dark so no one could see exactly how much she was blushing.
“What does he do when he’s not being a Daddy? Like, what’s his job?” Britt asked.
“Whatever needs to be done? He’s good at a lot of things, and now he lives out on an island in Alaska with a bunch of other guys. Some of them have Littles too. But there’s no grocery store or anything, so they hunt and fish and cut their own firewood and—”
“Your Daddy’s a lumberjack?!” exclaimed Wren.
“Sometimes, I guess?” Nova said, and they all giggled. But she sobered rather quickly. “He’s not really my Daddy anyway. We’ve spent some time together this week, that’s all.”
“Has he kissed you?” Moira asked.
“Well, yes.”
“Has he spanked you?” Sadie demanded, as if that was what was really important. She wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Um, yeah,” she said. Given that her cheeks felt as though they were made out of red hot coals maybe everyone would see them glowing. There was also some squealing, and Nova was doing her best to keep her own squealing on the inside.
