Page 51 of Guardian Daddy

Sitting on the side of the bed, she rubbed at her still-aching head. Shit. Did she have an episode last night?

But Rhodes hadn’t been here. Just her and Ethan. So hopefully not, as that would have been a disaster.

She couldn’t remember anything happening. Not that she ever really remembered one of her episodes. Rhodes had explained to her that sometimes she screamed out in terror from a nightmare and after, would regress quite young. She’d grab Lady and demand ice cream.

Which would be utterly humiliating if she’d done that in front of Ethan.

Getting up, she stumbled into the shower. Washing herself, she didn’t have the energy to do much with her hair. So she just ran a brush through it before dabbing some moisturizer on her face.

When she made her way out into the kitchen, she realized the house was pretty quiet. Was she alone?

Maybe.

It felt like she hadn’t been alone in ages. But it wasn’t like she needed Ethan or Seth to be with her all the time.

When she reached the kitchen, she saw that she wasn’t actually alone.

“Morning, Cate.” Seth was sitting at the island, drinking a coffee and looking at something on his phone.

“Why are you here?”

Jesus, Cate. Could you be any ruder?

He gave her an amused look.

She sighed. “I meant, good morning. I wasn’t expecting to see you this morning.”

Seth studied her with interest. She hadn’t spent much time with the dark-haired man, but she got the impression that his easygoing appearance was an act.

But she was likely wrong.

“You don’t remember us coming home last night?” Seth asked.

Shit. What happened?

“Rhodes came back last night?” she asked.

Surely she hadn’t slid into Little headspace.

Please. Please.

But she might have had a bad dream.

“Uh, yeah. I think Ethan was worried about you, but he didn’t say why.” Seth eyed her curiously. “He talked to Rhodes, and then your brother decided to come home.”

Oh no.

“Rhodes has gone to breakfast with Samantha. Ethan accompanied them.”

Why had Ethan gone with them and not Seth? Was it because he wanted to get away from her? Because she’d done something idiotic last night?

“Right. I’ll talk to Rhodes when he gets home.”

“Can I get you any breakfast?” Seth asked.

“Oh no. I can do it.” She slid a bagel into the toaster and drew out some cream cheese and jam.

No lasagna for her. She needed familiar things. She felt so out-of-sorts. Having Seth here instead of Ethan was enough to make her feel off-balance.

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