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“I think I need to go get cleaned up. I never even had a shower today.”
“Why don’t you take a bubble bath? That always makes me feel lots better and there’s all kinds of bubbles and bath bombs in your room. There’s a sparkly blueberry one that’s my favorite.”
“Oh! That’s a great idea.”
“Good. I’ll drop by your room later, or you can always pick up the phone and ask for me any time, and if my Daddy doesn’t have me occupied, I’ll come right away and we can go see the horses, or if you want to do that another time we can just watch cartoons or do puzzles, or there’s a crafts room where we can make beads or paint or all kinds of other stuff. It’s up to you, ‘k?”
“Thanks, Sadie.”
She really did appreciate her new friend. Her comfy chatter was almost as good as talking to her sister, especially here, where she was having trouble suppressing her Little side, which made her a lot more vulnerable. But she didn’t have to with Sadie, or with anyone at the Ranch, and it felt good. Maybe she was going to be okay after all.
Brock sat down in the chair Derek gestured to. He was admittedly feeling pretty out of sorts after Kyra had disappeared. Again. He knew she was more upset about Richard than she wanted to admit, and it was hard not to dream about tracking that bastard down and beating him to a pulp for what he’d done to Kyra. Not that he would, of course.
Maybe.
Meanwhile, Derek and everyone at the Ranch seemed like good people, and he was grateful they were willing to help, both personally and to make sure they pulled off Kyra’s July Fourth performance.
“I think we should start with addressing what Kyra is dealing with right now,” Derek said, “if that’s okay with you, before we talk about the show. You are okay talking about the show? With her manager missing, I figure you know more about what she’ll need and how to stage the set for her than anyone.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’ve been touring with her for a while, and to be honest, I handle a lot more on-site than he does. I’m also glad to have someone help me care for her right now. Thanks for sending her to breakfast with your little Sadie. I think it’ll help.”
Derek grinned. “If Sadie can ever stop talking long enough.”
“Kyra will like that, I think. She’s normally the biggest talker in the room, but she’s not herself at the moment.”
“You really do seem to have her best interests at heart.”
“Of course I do. It’s Kyra. This is not just a paid job for me.” He paused. Had he really said that out loud? Must be how riled up he was over seeing Kyra so sad, and how much he wanted to go punch out that dickwad of a now-ex manager and supposed Daddy. What a poser he was! Poser and dickwad. “Uh, that’s not what I meant. I’m absolutely a professional and I’m definitely able to keep things that way–”
“Even if Kyra has different feelings for you?” Derek interrupted
“Why would you… Do you know something I don’t?”
“Call it intuition. I’ve developed a kind of Daddy radar after all my time running the Ranch, and I see a good, solid Daddy in you. Am I wrong?”
“No, not completely wrong. To be honest, I’ve always thought of myself as more of a service Top. I’ve had subs before, but never a Little.”
“Service Top is a darn good place to start.”
“So?”
“Just food for thought, is all,” Derek said with a shrug while keeping his expression blank.
“I really appreciate all you’re doing for Kyra, but she’s still got a Daddy–officially, anyway. I’ll watch out for her because that’s what I do, but anything else? Even if she were officially single, I still work for her. And I refuse to take advantage of a girl with a broken heart. It wouldn’t be ethical, no matter how I might feel about her.”
He stopped and cleared his throat. How had Derek gotten him to open up so much?
“Never thought you would. But it often takes more than time to heal a person’s wounds. Sometimes love and true caring heals better than anything.” Derek paused, a small smile on his face. “Okay, then. Time to talk about putting on the best July Fourth show our Littles have ever seen?”
Brock nodded, knowing they needed to hash the business stuff out, but his mind was still on Kyra. The truth was, it always had been. Kyra was special and it was more than just her talent that he saw in her. A lot more. And as much as her brattiness could irritate the hell out of him, he never forgot that. And if he were being totally honest? The brattiness only made him want to turn her over his knee, spank the hell out of her cute little butt and…
Nope. Not thinking about that.
But whoever she ended up with was going to be one hell of a lucky man.
They’d spent a good hour going over all the details for the show: how Kyra liked her mic placement, both of her acoustic guitars and her electric guitar, plus the rest of the stage setup, the time for the sound check, making sure there were at least three copies of her song list, which she was forever losing so he always kept one in his own pocket, in addition to the one taped to the amp at her feet, plus one more in her dressing room backstage. The Ranch folks seemed to be very organized, and he was confident the event would go off without a hitch. He wasn’t feeling as confident about the other part of his conversation with Derek. Or his response to the things Derek had said.
But he couldn’t think about that right now. He had to make sure the woman in his charge was safe and able to get through this show. And he’d make sure she enjoyed her time here if it was the last thing he did on this trip.
