Page 41 of Little Bits of Daddy (Montana Daddies)

“Okay, stop, baby. Stop.” He lightly pressed a finger to her lips. “This is my fault.”

She wrinkled her forehead. “What is?”

“You worrying about this. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this. I could tell you that I will always take care of you and I don’t in any way resent supporting you. In fact, I like it.” He pressed a hand to the back of his head. “However, as much as I might enjoy taking care of you in all ways, I don’t want you to feel like you have to ask me for money to buy things you might want or that you’re dependent on me for everything.”

He looked away. “I don’t ever want you to feel like you’re trapped with me because of money.”

She knew he was thinking about his mother. How she’d moved from the US to Australia to be with his father then found herself stuck with an abusive asshole. When she’d finally managed to leave, Penny had helped her financially.

“I would never feel trapped with you,” she said quickly. She reached over and grabbed his hand. “Never.”

He turned back to face her.

“You are not your father,” she told him fiercely.

“I’d never want to be that man. Even though I would never hurt you, I still don’t want you to ever feel that you had to stay with me because you didn’t have the financial means to leave.”

“I wouldn’t. . .Macca, that’s not why I said it.” Shoot. She’d mucked this up. “I was worried you’d get sick of paying for everything, not that I would ever feel stuck here with you. That won’t ever happen.”

He leaned in and kissed her gently. “I know that’s not why you said anything. But it’s still something I should have thought of.” He rubbed his chin. “I’m going to set up a bank account for you and deposit money in it each week.”

She shook her head. “Nope. No way. I don’t want more of your money.”

This conversation wasn’t going how she wanted at all.

“But then you’ll have your own money and you won’t have to ask me for things. It’s something I should have done as soon as we arrived. I was just too busy showing you off.”

She blushed at the idea of him showing her off.

“I don’t want your money, Macca. I won’t use it.”

He gave her a stern look but she wasn’t budging on this. “You won’t use it?”

“Nope.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m putting my foot down about this.”

His eyes narrowed. “Your foot down?”

“Uh-huh. Do not open that account for me. It will be a waste of time.”

He studied her then he sighed. “All right.”

She blinked. Okay. That was easy. Not that she wasn’t grateful, the last thing she wanted to do was argue with him. But it was unexpected. “All right? You agree?”

“Yep. But there’s only one other alternative.”

“Me finding a job? I can try but I’ll have to get paid under the table.” Then there was the whole getting to work part. Driving on the other side of the road with different rules. Yeah, she wasn’t looking forward to that. She didn’t have her Australian driver’s license, even though she could drive.

“You’ll need to sell me half of Nan’s house.”

Her mouth dropped open. Sell him half the house? She couldn’t do that, could she? The house should be his anyway. She still couldn’t believe that Penny had left her the house when she’d died.

“I’ll give you the house,” she told him. “Not sure how it will work?—”

He placed his hands on her shoulders. “Gigi, you’re not giving me the house. Nan wanted you to have it. It’s yours. But you’re letting my cousin live there rent-free when you could be earning an income from that. Or you could have sold it.”

“I don’t want to sell it.” That just felt wrong. That house was the first place she’d ever truly felt safe. Penny had taken her in, given her somewhere to live, she’d been more than a friend. She’d loved her. She wouldn’t sell her house. It was part of her.

“Then will you consider letting me buy half. Or let me pay you some rent on Everly’s behalf.”

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