Page 64 of Lawton

"So?"

She opened her eyes and gazed up at me. "So you don't have to carry me."

"Yes, I do." I kept on moving. "You're not wearing shoes."

"Hey, I got this far, didn't I?"

"Uh-huh."

"Seriously, you can put me down."

The idea was laughable. "Uh. No."

By now, we'd made it to my back patio. From there, I had several doors to choose from. One of those doors led to a private wing that had been off-limits to party guests. I nudged us through it, and soon, we were travelling down a short hallway and into my favorite living area.

A keeping room – that's what the realtor had called it. It had oak floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a massive stone fireplace that took up most of the far wall.

With Chloe still cradled against me, I headed toward the largest sofa and started to set her down.

"Wait," she said.

I stopped in mid-motion. "What?"

She gave the sofa a worried glance. "I don’t want to get your couch dirty."

I laughed. "Forget the couch."

"I can't." She looked down at the white upholstery. "What if I ruin it?"

Then I'd replace it. Not a big deal. In the big scheme of things, a couch was nothing – unlike the girl in my arms.

But if it bothered her, I had ways of dealing with it. I turned us around so it was my ass, not hers, that faced the sofa. "Hold on," I said.

"For what?"

"This." Carefully, I fell backward onto the sofa, taking Chloe with me in a safe, tumbled heap.

She was supposed to laugh. She didn't. Instead, she looked past her bare feet to give the white upholstery another worried look. Following her gaze, I saw what she saw – bits of mulch and dark smudges where her feet had touched.

She frowned.

"Stop thinking about it," I said. "You didn't get it dirty. I did."

"Only by a technicality."

"Forget it," I said. "Now c'mon, tell me what happened."

Chapter 30

The room was bright, giving me my first good look at the girl in my arms. Doing a quick scan, I saw no evidence of violence. It was a good sign, but no guarantee. She still hadn't answered my question.What happened?

I waited, refusing to let her off the hook. If someone had hurt her, I needed to know. And then, I'd deal with it one way or another.

She lowered her face, looking up at me through long, dark lashes. "I just got locked out. Okay?"

I gave her a dubious look. "There's more to the story than that."

"Yeah, there is," she said. "And it's called stupidity. Can't we just leave it at that?"