Page 6 of Little Bits of Daddy (Montana Daddies)

“No, I am not.”

“You can’t do that! I’m a grown woman, Kent.”

He just snorted. “Makes no difference to me. Want your privileges back? Behave yourself.”

What an ass. She crossed her arms over her chest. “This is fucking ridiculous.”

“That’s eight.”

Her eyes widened. Had Jed actually told him? “You are not keeping count of how many times I swear.”

“Jed told me how often you swore at him. Which is something else I’ll be mentioning to Clint. As well as the fact that you called yourself an idiot.”

Well, crap.

He reached out and gently grabbed hold of her chin, tilting her face up. “Do you want to tell me why you broke down in tears just now?”

“No.”

He sighed. “You’ll tell Clint, though, when I call him.” It wasn’t a question.

Clint was going to be so upset with her. She hated disappointing him. She worried that one day he’d work out what everyone else had—that she wasn’t worth the bother.

No. No, that wasn’t right. Clint loved her. Why was she having such problems with this again? She thought she was over this.

“He loves me,” she muttered.

“Of course, he does,” Kent told her. “You’re not doubting how much loves you, are you?”

“I-I… maybe. What if he starts to think I’m more trouble than I’m worth?”

Kent grumbled something under his breath. “That bitch aunt of yours has a lot to answer for. Sure, you messed up and put yourself in danger. But you are never, ever more trouble than you’re worth. Clint wouldn’t be happy if he heard you saying that about yourself, would he?”

She nodded, biting her lip. “No, he wouldn’t.”

“Do you need to have a session with Archer?” he asked with concern.

She shook her head. “No, I’m all right.”

Archer was a psychiatrist. His brother, who everyone just called Doc, was the ranch doctor. Archer had been helping her with her food hoarding, something that had developed from years of her aunt restricting her food.

“All right.” He gave her a doubtful look, but then rose to pick up the phone. “Let’s call Clint.”

4

“Tell me you found her,” Clint demanded as he answered the sat phone.

“We found her. She’s fine. I promise. Tired. A bit emotional. I need to get her home, feed her and get her into bed.”

Thank God. Relief made him a little light-headed. She was all right. Fear gave way to temper. “Did she tell you what the hell she was thinking?”

“She wasn’t thinking, I’d say. She wanted to take some photos of a damn rabbit and wandered off too far and got disorientated.”

Clint frowned. “That doesn’t sound like Charlie. She’s usually more aware of her surroundings.”

“Wait a minute.” There was a muffled noise and then he heard Kent speak. “Charlie, I’m going to talk to Clint in the other office, be back in a second. I’m just on the other side of that door if you need me.”

Why was he going into another room? Had something happened to her that Kent wasn’t telling him? He waited impatiently.

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