“No. There’s no reason to press charges. He wouldn’t have hit me if I hadn’t tried to stop him. Just make sure he sobers up and doesn’t get into any more trouble.”
She relaxed and pushed her face into Daddy’s crook of his neck.
“If you change your mind, let me know. Michael is going to take a picture of your cheek in case you change yourmind,” Baxter said. “If I need anything, I’ll contact you, but we shouldn’t.”
“Thank you, Baxter.”
“All right, let me take a look at your Daddy’s cheek. Could you move to the other side?” a man politely asked.
“Little girl, this is Michael. He is one of the other club owners, but he also owns a Little clinic.”
“The cutest Little clinic you’ll ever see. If you need anything, you come over and see me. In my clinic or at my house. Sometimes, I make house calls but only for a good Little.”
“Sometimes for their Daddy as well,” Daddy chuckled.
Rainey pulled back and looked at Michael. He was giving her a smile.
“I think you met my Little girl earlier today, Monroe. She said how nice you were and wanted to have a play date with you.”
She pointed to herself with a confused look. Monroe wanted to have a playdate with her? She figured after meeting, they were just politely inviting her to things. She didn’t actually think they wanted to hang out with her.
“Yes, you. She said you guys had a lot in common. So, whenever you’re feeling up to it, you just let your Daddy know, and he’ll talk to me.”
Michael started to tend to Daddy’s cheek.
“You don’t need me?—”
“Yes, we do. I need you to look over my cheek and let me know everything is going to be okay. I need you to clean it and inspect it like you would anything else,” Daddy slowly said.
Michael’s eyes flickered to her and found she was intently looking at him. Was he going to continue to look at Daddy? Was everything okay? There were so many questions running through her head as she stared at Michael. She could feel the tears pricking her eyes once again. Was Michael going to say Daddy didn’t need him because he was too far gone?
“All right. Let me just get my cleaning stuff out of my bag. But everything is looking good. There’s no major bleeding. If you ice the bruise when you get home, it shouldn’t bruise too much more. After I clean the laceration, I’ll be able to tell you if it’s serious.”
“I’m okay, sweet girl.” Daddy ran his hand through her hair.
Rainey opened her mouth but quickly closed it. She didn’t really want to talk.
“You’re okay. Daddy is right here, and I’m not going anywhere. Michael is starting to clean my cut and will let us know I’m okay.”
She was probably being over-dramatic, but knowing anything could have happened, and he could have died just set things more into reality for her. She had grown accustomed to him being around and helping her. What if he died? What would have happened? Would she have been able to survive?
“All done. This scratch has been cleaned and taken care of. Nothing is going to happen. You just need to ice your jaw.”
“Thank you, Michael. I really appreciate it.”
Michael turned toward her. “Do you want to help me pick out a bandage for your Daddy?”
She nodded and leaned forward. Daddy’s arms were wrapped around her, holding her in place. Michael pulled out all his bandages, and she couldn’t help but giggle. There were princesses, animals, dinosaurs, hearts, and Barbies, but nothing plain.
“Ohh, I guess your Daddy will just have to wear one of these. I left all my grown-up bandages at home.”
Rainey looked at Daddy. Would he be okay wearing one of those bandages?
“Go ahead, pick one out,” Daddy encouraged her.
She looked back and was trying to decide which one she wanted. It was such a hard decision because she wanted all of them.
“I think your Daddy would probably want the dinosaurs, but I think he would look great with princesses or Barbies on his face.” Michael chuckled.