Page 17 of Learning Little Lizzie

“Fair enough. But at the end of the day what matters is that Master Derek has decided you’re in need of a firmer hand than he’s been able to provide for you. So that’s exactly what I’m going to give you, until you can prove you no longer need me to be so strict.”

“How do I prove that?”

“By following the rules. And by being honest with me about what you want and need. Which also means being honest with me, and yourself, about what your limits really are.”

This again? The man was like a dog with a bone. “I am being honest!”

“No, you aren’t. But we’re going to work on that together. And hopefully someday soon you’ll trust me enough to be completely honest with me. Until then, you’ll be following the same rules I would have for any other Little under my care.”

Crossing her arms again, she slid down in her seat. “Great.”

This couldn’t possibly get any worse.

CHAPTER 7

It got worse.

The rest of dinner wasn’t too bad. They talked about normal things, like their favorite music and movies, and discovered they both had a shared love of all things Nicolas Cage. Samuel—she refused to think of him as “Daddy” although he called himself that multiple times over the course of the evening—even promised her a movie night every Friday if she was a good girl.

Her curiosity had gotten the better of her on their drive back to his apartment, and that was where things started going downhill.

“How will I know if I was good enough to earn a movie night?” she’d asked as he parked the golf cart in front of the building.

“I’ll show you when we get up to the apartment.”

Which was how she found herself staring at two different charts, each with her name written in careful block letters at the top. One was a “Good Girl” chart with the days of the week printed at the top of each column. The rows were mostly empty, but Samuel had already filled in a few with things like “Drank at least 64 ounces of water” and “Completed all homework assignments”.

“Each time you complete a task for the day, you’ll receive a Good Girl magnet.” To demonstrate, he wrote in “Ate a healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner” on the next empty line, then added a glittery pink star with the words “Good Girl” printed in the middle to the Monday box for that line. “Once we have all of your behaviors added to the chart, we’ll add a reward system. Things like a movie night, something from the gift shop, little treats you can earn during the week. You can either trade in for several smaller gifts or you can save up for something big.”

That didn’t sound so bad. Childish, certainly, but being able to actually see how she was doing instead of trying to keep track of what she had or hadn’t done in her head appealed to the part of her that constantly felt overwhelmed by trying to remember everything that needed to be done during the day. “What about that one?”

The second chart had “Naughty Girl” printed just below her name, with a list of “naughty” behaviors. To the right of each behavior were three check boxes.

“Each time you earn a punishment for one of these behaviors, you’ll get a check mark. After three ‘strikes’, you lose a good-girl magnet.”

“So I only have to follow the rules once to earn a Good Girl but I have to be naughty three times to lose one?”

“Exactly. The big difference with the Naughty Girl chart is that it doesn’t reset each week. Each behavior resets after the third strike.”

“That… seems pretty fair, I guess.” More than fair, really. And certainly she could avoid breaking the same rules over and over if she really wanted to. The only reason she was always in trouble with the Ranch employees was because she went out of her way to be a brat.

“Good. If it ever starts to feel unfair, or like you ‘can’t win’, you can always come talk to me and we can reevaluate. The purpose of the charts is to help you grow and do better, not to make you feel like you’re constantly in trouble.”

“When did you even have time to go buy something like this?”

He smiled down at her. “I didn’t just come to Rawhide for a job, little one. I had every intention of finding a Little girl during my time here, so I came prepared. Granted, it happened much more quickly than I expected, so I will need a little more time to get everything set up how I usually prefer it, but this will do for now.”

Guilt twisted her stomach into a knot. “I’m keeping you from your real Little girl.”

Placing a finger beneath her chin, he tilted her head back. And when her eyes met his, the gray was stormy with an intensity she hadn’t seen before. “Eliza. You have no reason to feel guilty. I’m right where I want to be.”

“But what if you meet your perfect Little? She’s not going to like you having someone like me living with you.”

“We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.”

She still felt guilty, but she’d already come to realize that when Samuel Eaton put his mind to something, nothing she said was going to sway him. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m absolutely sure. Now, with that being said, we do have two naughties from dinner to discuss.”

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