Page 34 of Daddy By Design

Nolan was digging out his keys.

“I know him. We’ll be fine.”

He still looked worried, but he nodded and loped off back toward his shop.

Nolan felt his way across to the handle and the truck chirped as he unlocked it. I snatched the keys out of his hand and pushed him inside.

“I’ll be fine.”

“The hell you will. Just get inside the stupid truck. God save me from stubborn, prideful men, I swear.”

He rolled onto his shoulder and unlatched his glove box with shaking hands. I saw a prescription bottle and handed it to him. It took another minute to get him situated correctly in the seat, and I slammed the door before I ran around to the other side.

“Holy shit.” I flipped my soaked hair out of eyes and turned to him. He still couldn’t get the bottle open. I took it from him and struggled with the childproofing myself. “How many?”

“Two,” he said with a growl.

They were tiny and started dissolving between my wet fingers.

He took them and dry swallowed them, then he dragged my hand over to his wet jeans and swiped the pill remnants off my fingers. “Strong stuff.” He hit the button to push his seat back and shut his eyes. “I just need twenty minutes. You can go.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Suit yourself.”

And then he seemed to shut off like a damn light switch. His breathing evened, but the strain on his face remained. I looked down at the bottle in my hand, but I didn’t recognize the name of the medicine.

Without any shame, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked it up.

It was for severe migraines. I shot a worried look at him, then I kept reading.

“Twenty minutes, my ass,” I muttered. It said the oral form of this stuff took an hour to work. There was no way I could leave him, no matter what he’d said. I just wasn’t capable of leaving him in his truck.

Crescent Cove was safe, but I still didn’t feel right about it. I tapped the steering wheel as the rain continued to come down, but already it was letting up compared to five minutes ago.

He turned his face toward the passenger window and his arms were folded over his chest. He was wearing a black T-shirt that was molded to every freaking inch of him.

Okay, don’t creep on an unconscious dude.

But I couldn’t stop looking at him. He was so...big. Not like massive or anything, but he wasn’t like the guys I’d been around lately. Dex was impressive, but he was more of a lean and hot, suited guy type. And while he came around quite a bit with Shelby, it wasn’t like he was a staple in the studio.

Normally, I’d stand by my LITTLE DICK statement on the side of his big truck, but his well over six-foot frame obviously needed the room. And boy, did he take up the room. His long legs were stretched out, ending with big freaking boots.

The cab of the truck was steaming up, probably from me.

I rolled my eyes and turned on the truck. Luckily, the truck had separate seats so I could pull mine forward and reach the damn pedals. I peered down at the street. We were a long way up. I’d driven a truck a few times, but nothing this big.

I glanced at him again, then out the window.

What should I do? Just sit here?

I played with the fans and defoggers until the windshield cleared. At least his fans worked properly, unlike my old Honda. A few minutes later, the sky cleared, and the sun came out blazing once more. Had to love a lakeside town where the weather changed on a dime.

I glanced over at him, and he was still well and truly out.

Fuck it. I was going to bring him home. I could call a share ride if I really needed one to get back to my car. Avery was also working a job fairly close to the lake.

I put the truck into drive and the powerful engine surged us forward. “Holy crap.” I eased out into the street and headed down Main Street toward Lakeside Drive.

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