Page 59 of Sweet Home

“Don’t worry about it,” he chuckled. “I guess I got what was coming to me. Not everyone loves a prank.”

“Good Lord, Lawrence,” an older man said, ambling up. “What have you done?”

“I’m a klutz,” Tripp said. “I just knocked right into it.”

“Dulcie pushed you,” Elizabeth said in her clear, bright voice. “We don’t push each other.”

The old man’s eyebrows shot up.

“I’m so sorry,” Dulcie said again. “I’ll clean everything up.”

“I’ve got it,” Tripp said.

“What’s going on here?” West’s voice was stern, with an edge Dulcie couldn’t identify.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Tripp said right away. “I was trying to prank them, but it sort of went sideways.”

West frowned and helped them right the rack and replace the cards on it. Thankfully, noneseemed to be damaged, and neither Tripp nor the rack was any the worse for wear. But Dulcie could feel West’s disapproval without even looking at him. His faith in her had been damaged, probably beyond repair, and she was mortified.

He grew up in this sweet place,she reminded herself.He doesn’t know what it’s like to have to protect yourself and the people you love.

But she couldn’t help feeling awful, like she had shown her true colors in a way she couldn’t take back. Who would want someone who acted like that around their daughter?

“Why did you do that, Dulcie?” Elizabeth asked. “That wasn’t very nice.”

“We can talk about it when we get home,” West told her quietly, grabbing her hand and leading her over to the dairy case to grab her milk.

“I really didn’t mean to scare you,” Tripp said. His expression was concerned, but Dulcie couldn’t tell if it was because he actually felt bad or just because he thought she was a loose cannon.

“It’s not your fault,” she said, her stomach twisting in knots. “I’m so sorry.”

“You obviously didn’t grow up with brothers,” he said, shaking his head. “See you guys around.”

He disappeared back into the aisle just as West and Elizabeth turned to head back toward her. Elizabeth looked worried, and Dulcie tried to smile to reassure her, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t her best smile.

When her eyes slid up to West’s he had that strange expression on his face again—like he was trying to figure something out.

Probably the best way to fire me…

18

WEST

An hour later, West stood in the kitchen doorway, listening to Dulcie and Elizabeth chat as they peeled the price tags off the big bag of toys they’d collected for the stockings.

The two of them were leaned close together, and they looked and sounded so cozy and happy—his tiny daughter, and the delicate, fairytale princess with the big blue eyes who seemed so gentle and sweet.

If he hadn’t seen it with his own two eyes, he never would have believed she could attack a grown man like his brother in the blink of an eye, sending him crashing to the ground like she was a professional fighter or something.

But he had seen it. And since that moment, a battle had been waging in his head. Because one side of him was honestly impressed and moved that Dulcie had instinctively protected his daughter so fiercely.

And the other side of him knew that it was a shocking overreaction that probably told him more about her pastthan any of the veiled references to her father she had made over the last week.

Her past isn’t her fault,he reminded himself.And look what she’s doing with herself now that she’s here. She’s not even settled herself, and she’s already trying to help others.

Elizabeth had been shaken by the moment with Uncle Tripp, but when Dulcie explained in the car that she hadn’t known who it was and that she was scared, Elizabeth seemed to understand.

Why don’t I understand?

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