Page 77 of Double Daddies (Dirty Daddies Anthologies #8)

They both move back, and I just stare at the door before looking down at my hands. Two of us, let alone three, are going to fit through the door side by side. How else are we going to get through?

“Follow me,” Daddy whispers.

He walks through the door first, me following, and Papa behind me. I let out the breath I was holding as we make it through the door. I didn’t have to let go of their hands.

“Please, sit.” Scarlett points to the couches.

There are two single armchairs and one loveseat. Unease fills my stomach as I look around. I’m not ready to let go of Daddy and Papa’s hands, but there isn’t a place for us to all sit.

“Please sit. Juniper is sleeping upstairs in her room. You don’t have to worry about being quiet. We soundproofed her room and have a baby monitor.” Thorin sits in the armchair, pulling Scarlett into his lap. “We just put her down for a nap, so she’ll be out for at least an hour.”

“We hope.” Scarlett giggles. “She hasn’t been wanting to sleep during the day. Too attached to Daddy. Can’t blame her. I’m attached to him too.”

Before I can think of anything, Papa sits on the loveseat, placing me in his lap as Daddy sits next to him, still holding my hand. I still but quickly relax into his body.

“I don’t know if they told you, but Juniper is my daughter,” Scarlett explains. “She’s almost a month old.”

“ Our daughter,” Thorin corrects.

“Right, sorry. Sometimes it just feels surreal that you want her as well,” she whispers.

My eyebrows pinch together. Is Juniper not Thorin’s daughter? But I keep quiet, not wanting to ask any questions and stir something up. What if I say the wrong thing, and they both hate me? That is not how I want this to start.

“Scarlett has only been here for a month,” Daddy whispers in my ear.

“Oh!” Scarlett looks at me. “Sorry. I guess not everyone knows. We aren’t keeping it a secret by any means. Juniper isn’t blood-related to my Daddy.”

“H-how—” I clear my throat. “How did you two meet?”

I hold my breath as I wait for her to answer.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to. I just am trying to make conversation because I suck at it, and I don’t want it to be awkward. But I also don’t want to ask the wrong questions, and can someone please silence me,” I beg.

Papa’s arms wrap around me, holding me tight. “Shhh, you’re okay. Take a deep breath. Everything is fine.”

I suck in a breath and look anywhere but at Scarlett and Thorin. I just word-vomited all over them. How embarrassing.

“Oh, I like you,” Scarlett exclaims. “I word-vomited one time, and Daddy didn’t shut me up. He likes it when I do it because I tell him things I normally wouldn’t say.”

“This is the first time for me.” I finally look at her.

My shoulders relax as I see nothing but kindness on her face.

“Lucky you. Maybe you’ll have more success with not doing it.” Scarlett chuckles. “How did we meet? Well, that is a story.”

“Don’t tease her.” Thorin kisses the side of her head.

“Sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to. It’s just so new, and I like telling the story.” Scarlett smiles. “You’re my hero.”

Thorin holds Scarlett close to him and whispers something in her ear. I look away when her cheeks start to turn red. Daddy squeezes my hand, and I give him a smile.

“You doing okay?” he asks.

I nod. “Yeah.”

I don’t know if that’s how Scarlett normally is or if she was matching how I was acting to make me feel better. Either way, I’m grateful.

“How we met. I’m not going to go into a super-detailed story for this.

Well, I was pregnant and with a bad guy.

He wanted to sell the baby if it was a girl or if it was a boy, he was going to raise him to be like him.

I didn’t want that,” Scarlett explains. “So, I had my baby girl, Juniper, and left about twenty-four hours after having her. I drove several hours and came here. I don’t suggest that by the way, and then he caught me as I passed out. The rest is history.”

My mouth hangs open as I stare at her. “You drove several hours after having a baby so soon?”

She shrugs. “I needed to. I couldn’t stay there. It was my only option.”

“I wasn’t.” I took a deep breath. “I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad. I just… My mom talked about how she rested and tried not to do anything for the first couple of days to give her body a break. You must have been in a lot of pain.”

“I was, but when I passed out, I didn’t remember anything. Daddy took care of me and Juniper the whole time. Made sure we had everything we needed and were healing well,” Scarlett kisses Thorin.

The ringing of a phone made me jump.

“Sorry, I need to take this,” Papa says, placing me in Daddy’s lap.

I watch him walk to the front door, answer the phone, and talk in a hushed voice. What could he be talking about? Was it something bad? He doesn’t look pleased, but at the same time, he does.

“How are you liking it here? Have you gotten to explore yet?” Scarlett asks. “I wasn’t able to explore for the longest time since I was on bed rest. Then it was walking for only a couple of minutes a day. I was going cabin-crazy by the time I was able to walk enough to look around a little.”

“I haven’t,” I mumble, looking down at my hands.

“She stepped on some glass the first night she was here, which put her on the couch or bed while her feet healed. But she’s better now,” Daddy explains. “No deep cuts, but Aiden wanted to make sure she was healed before she put a lot of pressure on them.”

“Owie.” Scarlett scrunches up her nose. “That can’t have been fun.”

“It wasn’t. It was absolute torture to be sitting on the couch, not doing anything. They wouldn’t even let me crawl on the ground.” I sigh. “Absolute torture.”

Scarlett giggles.

“Can I talk to you and Thorin?” Papa asks, looking at Daddy behind me.

My whole body locks up as I look at Papa, but he won’t look at me. What’s wrong? Why won’t he look at me?

“We’ll only be a second,” Daddy whispers. “Be a good girl.”

Nerves run through my body as Daddy places me on the couch, walking over to Papa with Thorin. I can’t keep my eyes off them, trying to read lips, but I can’t make anything out.

“Whatever it is, it’s going to be okay,” Scarlett gently says, sitting next to me. “These men will protect us with their lives. You have nothing to be afraid of.”

“What if they are talking about something involving me? What if they don’t want me anymore?” I rush out.

Scarlett grabs one of my hands, giving it a little squeeze. “That’s not true. They absolutely love and adore you. I can see it in the way they look at you and take care of you.”

“You haven’t seen a lot,” I point out.

“I’ve seen enough . I also might have peeked out whenever you guys were standing at the end of the sidewalk.

I don’t know if they’ve told you they love you, but it’s clear by their actions and the way they look and talk to and about you.

” She pats my hand. “Everything is going to be okay. I promise.”

“I hope you’re right,” I whisper, my eyes still on the men talking.

I like Daddy and Papa too much to lose them. What if they found out something about me that they don’t like? What if they throw me to the curb and expect me to figure things out?

All the men turn around and walk toward us. Papa and Daddy are looking at me, and I can’t read their facial expressions. I wrap my hand around my stomach, nerves bubbling inside of me, making me nauseous.

“Nora,” Papa gently says, and I flinch.

“Little bit, it’s nothing bad.” Daddy kneels in front of me.

“Just tell me. Spit it out and get it over with,” I beg. “I can’t do this whole wait a little for suspense. Not unless you want me to puke everywhere and bawl my eyes out. I just can’t.”

“Take a deep breath,” Papa commands, holding my chin in his fingers.

I force myself to do what he says.

“Daddy and I need to go for a couple of hours. We’ll be back tonight, but while we’re gone, you’re going to stay with Thorin and Scarlett.” Papa looks directly into my eyes.

“Yo-you guys are leaving?” I whisper, disbelief in my voice.

“Just for a couple of hours.” Daddy places his hand on my knee. “We’ll be back tonight to snuggle and hold you while we sleep.”

I blink several times, trying to come to terms with what they are saying.

“We aren’t leaving you for good. We’re coming back,” Papa explains. “We just need to go into town for a job. We’ll be back soon.”

“Job?” My eyebrows furrow. “I thought you worked here.”

Daddy nodded. “We do, but almost all the men who work here also work for someone else. When we get back, we’ll explain everything.”

“You’re going to leave me on a cliffhanger? My brain is going to go a hundred miles per minute trying to figure out what it is.” My voice raises.

“It’s nothing bad, and in a couple of minutes, you’re going to have so much fun with Scarlett that you’ll forget about it until we get back.” Papa lets go of my chin. “Be a good girl for Thorin. He has permission to punish you if you break the rules. If it’s okay with you. You just let him know.”

I open and close my mouth, trying to come up with something to say, but I can’t. Who else could they possibly be working for? What type of job are they going on?

“We’ll see you later.” Daddy kisses my lips. “Love you.”

“Be a good girl.” Papa leans down and kisses me. “I love you.”

I watch as they walk out the front door, my eyes focused on the now-closed door. “They love me,” I whisper.