Page 26 of Guardian Daddy

“Right. Well, that was a blow to my ego,” he joked.

“Oh. I apologize. Sometimes when I tell the truth people take offense. I didn’t mean to insult you.”

“No need to apologize. I was joking.” Sort of. “I’ll have to try to make more of an impression.”

Cate ran her gaze over him. It was more of a clinical look than one of appreciation. But at least she was looking at him.

“I’m sure you usually make an impression.” She sighed as she looked down at the mess. “I need to clean this up.”

“No!” he barked.

Her eyes were wide again.

Shit. He was definitely making an impression. But not a good one.

“You haven’t got any shoes on.” He didn’t mean to sound like he was scolding her. But he couldn’t seem to help it.

“Ahh, no. I haven’t gotten dressed yet.”

He took in her white dressing gown with pink pom-poms along the edges.

It was adorable.

But why wasn’t she wearing slippers?

“You need slippers,” he said abruptly. “I’ll buy you slippers.”

“Why would you do that?” She frowned. “I have slippers.”

“Then why aren’t you wearing them?” he asked.

“Uh, because I woke up and really needed coffee and didn’t want to take the time to put on my slippers.”

“Next time, don’t make that mistake,” he ordered. “Your feet need to be kept warm. Plus, you could step on something sharp and hurt yourself. Now, I’m going to lift you out of that mess.”

She tried to take another step back, away from him. Ethan didn’t like that, and he didn’t want her to step on a sharp piece of the broken mug either.

“Stop,” he said firmly. “Don’t move. You’re going to cut yourself.”

“I’ll be fine.” She attempted to move to a clean patch of floor.

“Cate, stop right now. You’re going to hurt yourself. I’ll just pick you up quickly and set you immediately down again. There’s no other way for you to step out of the mess safely.”

She stared at him, then down at her feet. “Yes, I can see that. I suppose you can lift me, then.”

Before she could change her mind, he grabbed her around her waist. Then he carried her over the mess before he sat her down on the counter.

“What am I doing up here?” she asked.

“I want you to sit there while I clean this all up,” he said firmly. “There might be stray pieces and I don’t want you standing on them.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary. It can’t have gone all the way through the kitchen.”

“You don’t know how far these pieces travel,” he said as he reached into a cupboard to grab a broom and pan.

“Oh, I was going to clean that up,” she told him.

“No. You are going to sit there where it’s safe.”

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