Page 27 of A Little Christmas Wish

Of course it would be.

She wasn’t worried.

Well. She was somewhat worried. But it wasn’t like it was keeping her up at night as she lay in bed with her eyes closed, pretending to sleep while thinking of everything that could go wrong.

All the ways that asshole could get to Zippy and she wouldn’t be able to protect her.

Her breathing grew choppy.

Okay.

Perhaps she was somewhat stressed.

“Baby, just breathe for me,” Ink told her in a low voice. “It’s all right. Deep breath in. Let it out slowly. Good girl. And again for Daddy. Take a breath in. One. Two. Now, let it out again. Three. Four.”

She glanced down at her hand as he removed it from under the water.

“No. Eyes on me,” he said firmly. “I want you to take another breath. In. One. Two. Out. Three. Four. That’s my good girl. You’re doing so well. I’m so proud of you.”

She wasn’t sure why he would be proud of her. “All I’m doing is breathing.”

“No. You’re not.” He cupped her face between his hands. “You’re trusting me to help you through your panic. To help control your breathing. You’re trusting that I know how to take care of you. And I hope you always trust me like that, because it’s the most beautiful fucking thing I’ve ever seen.”

She closed her eyes as he leaned in and kissed her forehead.

The most beautiful thing she’d ever seen was his love for her. The way he always took care of her.

Grasping her around the hips, he lifted her onto the counter. “I’m going to get the First-Aid kit to deal with your hand and then we’re having a talk.”

“Are you sure you can be here?” she asked guiltily. “Don’t you have work to do? I don’t want to take you away from anything important.”

“You’re not,” he said firmly. “Because the most important thing in my life is you and our kids. Understand?”

She nodded, breathing out deeply to help settle herself.

It was strange, but she hadn’t realized exactly how wound up she was until today.

He crouched and grabbed a First-Aid kit out from under the sink. They’d learned to keep First-Aid kits everywhere for the twins who had a habit of hurting themselves.

Well, no. That wasn’t true. Baron had a habit of hurting himself. Royal rarely got harmed.

After putting some cream on the burn and bandaging it, he kissed her bandage gently. “There. A magic Daddy kiss will make everything better.”

“Daddy’s kisses always do,” she told him.

“Good. Now . . . we need to talk about your jumpiness.”

“It’s nothing, Daddy,” she said hastily.

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you allowed to lie to me?”

“It’s not lying, exactly . . .” She glanced down at her fingers which she’d twisted together.

He grasped hold of her chin, tilting her head back. “No? Because it’s easy to see that something is going on. Matthieu said you didn’t want to shop once you got to the mall. That you said you wanted to go home and you’d do it online.”

“I mean . . . that’s easier, right? Pretty much everyone does their shopping online nowadays.”

“Not you. You like to go out and see the lights and the displays.”

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