Page 142 of Sheriff Daddy (Montana Daddies 10)

That had taken him much longer than he’d expected. Now there was another storm coming in and he had to get in some firewood and get dinner started.

“Georgie-girl, sorry about that,” he said as he walked into the living room.

An empty living room.

He glanced around. The sliding door slightly open. What the hell? Why was the door open? Shit, had someone taken her? No, he would have heard. There was no sign of a fight. And the alarm hadn’t gone off. She had to have turned it off and gone outside. He moved to the sliding door then looked out. The wind was picking up and a dead rose tumbled across the ground in front of him.

Maybe there was a wild rose bush or something somewhere around here. Because that was twice now he’d seen one.

He moved his gaze around the backyard. The water of the lake was starting to chop up. Where was she? The door to the woodshed slammed shut. He always secured that.

Was she in the woodshed?

That brat.

Oh Lord.

She hadn’t really thought this through.

She had no idea if all woodsheds were like this. Dark. Dirty.

Behind her, the door to the woodshed slammed closed, surrounding her in darkness. Oh heck. Oh no. Hastily, she picked up a couple of pieces of wood and then raced towards the door. It opened suddenly. She screamed as she bounced into the huge person looming in the doorway.

They grabbed her arms, stopping her from falling. But the wood fell from her arms, one log slamming into her toes.

“Ow! Owie! Ouch!”

“Shit, Georgie. Did you hurt yourself? Damn it!”

Relief filled her as she realized it was Ed.

“Where are you hurt?” he demanded.

“I’m okay,” she told him. “It just landed on my toes.”

He swooped her up into his arms and she wrapped her arms around his neck, knowing better than to protest.

Once they were inside, he deposited her on the kitchen counter. Silently, he took off her shoes and socks then examined her toes. She tried to bend over to see how bad the injury was. Surely, it was terrible considering how much it hurt.

She leaned forward so far that she would have slid right off the counter if he hadn’t grabbed her.

“Easy. Just stay still. Wiggle your toes.”

She wriggled them, trying not to wince.

“Not broken at least. But they do look red and swollen. I’m going to call Xavier.” He picked up his phone.

“No, wait. They’re not broken. Just a little bruised. There’s no reason to bother Xavier. It’s not like he could do anything, even if they were broken.”

He seemed to be grinding his teeth together. Her own teeth ached in sympathy. Poor Ed, was she increasing his stress levels?

“Daddy, I’m fine,” she said gently.

Thankfully, he set the phone down then went to the freezer and pulled out an ice pack. He wrapped it in a clean towel then moved back around the counter and picked her up, carrying her to the sofa.

Gently, he laid her down. Grabbing a cushion, he put it under her foot then the ice pack on top.

Why wasn’t he saying anything? He was being suspiciously quiet. Shouldn’t he be scolding her?

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