Page 97 of Wishes and Research

Daddy laughed as he looked back at where he was going. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

Leaning over, he kissed my head and swung my hand as we wandered slowly down the suspiciously vacant main street. Even in the early evening, I’d never seen the town so quiet. “Hopefully they’re not mad any longer. That might be hard to explain too.”

Did Daddy not know how mad they still were?

“Um, Kenzie said they understood but we were still going to get nothing but soup for the next month…and Mr. Kennedy sent me an email that said he was very disappointed in our behavior because they’d already started planning my collaring ceremony and had to cancel their plans.” I’d needed to look up what that meant and couldn’t get the images that had come up out of my head.

“He what?” Daddy paused before we turned the corner to the VFW Hall, actually looking stunned. “When did this happen?”

“Oh, um. Early in the trip. You were talking to those other teachers and I checked my email when I went over to get a drink.” That’d turned out to be a wonderful way to get Daddy’s attention no matter what was going on around us.

Kenzie and Lorne were going to be very proud of me for figuring that out on my own.

Daddy moaned, pulling me into his arms and leaning down to nibble on my neck. “That was when you got the bright pink drink.”

I went the same color as the pink drink just remembering what had happened later, but I giggled too. “You can’t do that here.”

He huffed and started working his way up my neck. “But you’re the one who talked about the pink drink. I have very good memories of that one.”

Because the bartender had clearly made that one too strong.

But Daddy had liked the results of the pink drink.

“I…” Sucking in a breath, I had to close my eyes to focus as his teeth nibbled on my ear. “I have a present for you, Daddy. For our wedding.”

“Hmm…” Daddy made a curious sound before his tongue decided to explore my ear. “You have me very curious.”

His whispered words sent a shiver through me and he chuckled, which made it even harder to think. “What did you get for me? Am I allowed to ask?”

Oh yes.

Shoot.

Teasing him meant I had to be able to talk.

He was so distracting. “I bought us a fancy blender, Daddy.”

Oh.

I managed not to giggle as he straightened and looked at me with wide eyes. “Really?”

And the giggles escaped.

“Yes. That was what was on the porch when we got home earlier.” Going straight from our flight to the reception wasn’t exactly the best planning but I didn’t think anyone could’ve kept it a secret much longer. “And…and I bought a book of drink recipes.”

Heat flashed in Daddy’s eyes and desire filled the bond.

“That’s cheating.” Wiggling away from him, I tugged on my pants. “I can’t be hard when we have our reception.”

My mother would see the pictures eventually.

She was going to be pissed that she hadn’t been invited to the reception, but oh well, it couldn’t be helped.

Daddy snickered, reaching down to squeeze the front of my pants. “Do you need some help rearranging that?”

He was so naughty.

“Come on.” Doing my best to frown at him, I took his hand and pulled on it to get him walking again. “You’re going to get us in trouble and we’re going to be late to go see the new toys for the playdate parties.”

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