Page 54 of His Sassy Little

“Okay, I might have climbedtheshelvestogetit.” She said the whole last part of her confession so fast, it might as well have been one word and so low, it was hardly audible.

“I would suggest you repeat that slower and louder for me, Little Hurricane.” Daddy no longer sounded even a little bit amused.

“I might have climbed to the top shelf to get them.” She forced herself to pronounce each word clearly and at a reasonable volume. She also crossed her legs, clasped her hands as best she could with her load behind her back, twisted her torso back and forth all while batting her lashes at him and wearing the absolute best innocent face she’d ever achieved. It did nothing to stop Daddy’s bellow, though.

“You did what?” Sheesh, did he have to be so loud? He’d wake the neighbors. Heck, he might wake up people in Paris!

“I was super careful, Daddy. There was hardly any danger.”

“Hardly any…” Daddy took a deep breath, probably praying for patience. Then he simply pointed at the door.

The two littles were taking no chances by now, they walked the plank straight into the living room where they had started. Mission failure.

Chapter Forty-Five

Tanner had immediately called Stone and updated him on the girls’ hijinks. Because the boys were in Stone’s care, it was determined that it wasn’t worth waking them up to end the sleepover, but Tanner did move his bedding to the couch to keep a closer eye on the little troublemakers. Both girls appeared to be suitably repentant but they both knew it wasn’t going to save them from punishment.

In the morning, Stone came with the boys and they all had breakfast as planned, though both Sapphire and Arabella seemed more subdued and judging by the glances their Daddies kept aiming their way, they had reason to be.

Once all the guests had left, Tanner turned to his little girl. She kept staring down at the floor, only occasionally sneaking glances up at him. That wouldn’t do.

“Look at me.” Her eyes flew to his and she offered a weak smile.

“I don’t suppose we could just… let last night go?” Tanner snorted.

“You put yourself at risk, you left the house in the middle of the night, you snuck around, stole the candy I had saved as a treat… No, Arabella LeeAnne Wright, we cannot let this go.”

“Oh, no. You used my full name. I’m in the biggest trouble, huh?”

“Yes, Little Hurricane. You’re in pretty big trouble. Go wait for me on the bed while I clean up and we’ll talk about it when I get in there.”

While he was cleaning, Tanner did his best to calm himself from the terror that had gone through his system. The thought of what could have happened if she’d fallen from those shelves terrified him. Tanner got his fear under control by reminding himself at least a dozen times that she wasn’t hurt and there was no reason to panic; then he headed toward their bedroom. He had a naughty girl to take care of.

Tanner found her on the bed, sitting on her hands with a very thoughtful expression on her face. He hoped she was thinking about last night and how it could have gone badly.

“Hello, Little Hurricane. Good girl for doing as I told you.” Tanner sat beside Arabella with his body turned to face hers. She turned her body in the same manner and looked him directly in the eyes.

“I was naughty last night,” she said it in a surprisingly matter-of-fact tone.

“You were. You’re still my good girl, though. You just sometimes do naughty things. That’s why we have punishments, so you can let go of the guilt and we can move on from it.”

Arabella simply nodded, still looking extremely thoughtful and he was wondering what she was thinking so hard about.

“Can you tell me why you are getting a punishment?” He always liked to make sure she understood exactly why.

“Because I put myself in danger by climbing the shelves, and because I stole, and because I left the house knowing how you worry about me. Even though I wasn’t thinking about that at the time, I realized how much that might have upset you as I sat here. How you might have panicked when you didn’t find us in the living room.”

“That wasn’t much of an issue last night since the two of you couldn’t be quiet properly if your lives depended on it. Did you even know how much noise you were making?”

“We were trying to be quiet but we were on an adventure.” Her little voice came peeking through and Tanner had to remind himself that her cute voice didn’t mean she was out of trouble.

“Isn’t much of an adventure today is it, Little Hurricane?”

“No, Daddy.”

“What should your punishment be?”

Tanner had started asking this question during Arabella’s recovery. Just because she was injured didn’t mean she didn’t get into mischief. Tanner had feared hurting her, so he had asked her what her punishment should be. She would answer a punishment that she felt fitting and that wouldn’t harm her healing. Then they’d decided together if it was enough.

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