Page 248 of Broken Daddy
It was dark out and she quickly checked her watch.
“Eek!”
Oh no.
Thank God Hayes wasn’t home yet. If he had been, she’d be in a world of trouble right now.
Of course, if he had been here then she wouldn’t have been allowed to work through both lunch and dinner.
How was it nearly nine?
Suddenly, her phone started ringing.
Oh no. Oh no.
Even though he would be home in a few hours, he always tried to call to put her to bed.
Yes, she was supposed to be in bed, ready for sleep, by nine-thirty! It was insane.
Whoever heard of such an early bedtime? It was ridiculous and she wasn’t happy when he’d instigated it.
Rushing around, she turned everything off except the main light. Then she turned too fast toward the door and tripped over a wooden crate that she’d forgotten about.
“Eek!”
Arms flailing, she dropped her phone as she protected her weaker arm by taking most of her weight on her knees and other arm. “Ouch.”
That hurt.
Tears filled her eyes as her knees and hand stung.
Shit. She slid onto her ass as tears dripped down her face. Where was her phone? It started to ring again.
Hayes was going to be so upset. She saw her phone light up as he called and she shuffled over to grab it, answering it with shaking fingers. She deliberately didn’t put it on video call which is what they usually did on his nightly check-ins.
“Daddy?”
“What is it? What’s wrong? Why do you sound upset? I’m texting Jed, he’ll be there soon.”
“No! No, it’s fine. I just tripped.”
“Tripped? Over what? Is that why you didn’t answer the phone? Are you hurt? Did you harm your arm? Right, I’m messaging Doc.”
“No!” she cried. The last thing she wanted was Doc turning up. That man was way too bossy. And he liked to stick things in her bottom.
It was a sickness. He needed help.
“Devi, tell me what’s going on.”
She let out a deep breath. “Promise it won’t end up in the naughty book?”
“No, I don’t promise that. And I can pretty much guarantee that it will, considering you just tried to extract that promise.”
“Um, well, I’m still in the workshop.”
There was a beat of silence. “In the workshop?”
“Yes. I had just noticed the time when you called and I was rushing around, turning off everything and I forgot about a crate I’d set down on the floor earlier and tripped over it.”
