Page 139 of Daddy's Wild Girl

This time, she was sure she saw his lips twitch. “You’d swing a bat at them?”

“Sure. Nobody should be messing with a baby. So, who are they?”

“All of them.” He waved a hand around. “But I have this. No need for your bat. She’s my baby. Well, mine and Charlie’s.”

“Where is Charlie?”

“You know Charlie?” he asked.

“Uh, no. I’ve just heard about her.”

“From who? Who’d you hear about her from?” he snapped.

Uh-oh.

He was paranoid. That wasn’t good.

“From Corbin,” she said.

“You know Corbin?” he asked.

“Uh-huh. That’s why I’m here. I’m waiting for him. He’s gone to find Kent.”

“Kent,” he spat the word out like it was dirty. “He tried to put something in my coffee, you know.”

“He did?” she asked, alarmed.

“Yeah. To make me sleep. But I can sleep when this one is old enough to drive.”

Ahh. That explained things. He was sleep-deprived and that’s why he was acting so, uh, crazed.

At least, she hoped that was the reason and he wasn’t always like this.

Clint eyed her suspiciously. “Are you going to try and put things in my coffee?”

“Me? No, I wouldn’t dream of it.” She watched him nervously. Was he starting to sway? Would he fall over? Hayes better damn well help her if this behemoth fell on her.

“Good. Don’t try. You don’t want to make an enemy of me.”

“Do you think you’d want to sit down?” she asked.

He grunted and turned, walking off down a hallway. Well, she couldn’t leave him alone like this. So she followed after him, finding him in a living room. She didn’t know if Hayes followed, but she figured it didn’t matter. Clint was sitting on the couch, staring off into nothing.

“Being a new parent must be hard,” she said, sitting as close to him as she dared.

He huffed out a breath.

“Is Charlie doing okay?”

He shot her a look of ire. “Charlie is fine. She’s resting. She needs her sleep. She’s got too much to do, feeding this little one.” He ran his hand gently over the baby’s head. “Got to keep her safe.”

“I wish my dad was as protective of me as you are of your baby.”

“What do you mean? Your dad isn’t protective?” he asked sharply.

“I think he’s trying now. Sometimes.” She’d tried getting hold of him on the way to the airport to tell him what was going on, but he hadn’t answered his phone.

And when she’d tried through his assistant, she’d just given her the run-around.

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