Page 8 of Layla's Daddy
I look at him. “Theo, you’re being way too kind. I don’t know you at all, and I can’t repay you for all this. The reason I was running down the street in the rain is because I got fired this morning, and I was hurrying home to regroup so I could get a new job. I barely have enough money to pay my electric bill next week, let alone my rent.”
Once I start talking, I can’t stop. He needs to know I’m not rainbows and sunshine.
Theo’s brow is furrowed as he reaches over and takes my hand in his. “I’m so sorry, Little one. For the next few days, I want you to just relax and let me take care of you. We’ll get to know each other as we go along. I’ll help you iron out your problems, okay?”
I shake my head, which makes it hurt worse, causing me to wince. “You can’t fix my problems, Theo, and I can’tpossibly take two days to convalesce. I need to find another job immediately.”
He frowns. “Layla, there’s no way you can run all over town applying for jobs with a concussion. It’s out of the question. Give me three days to show you that you’re not alone anymore. Can you do that?”
I stare at his profile. His idea is preposterous. He can’t possibly convince me that I’m somehow his perfect Little girl in three days. No one can do that. This isn’t a cheesy romance movie. It’s real life.
But my head is pounding, and my butt hurts to sit on, and I’m so tired. He’s right about one thing. I might be stubborn, but I can’t possibly go job searching this afternoon. I’m out of commission at least until my head stops hurting. Why shouldn’t I let him Daddy me for a few days?
“Layla?” He glances at me when he stops at a light. “Can you do that, Little one?”
I’ve forgotten he’s asked me a question. “Yes, Sir,” I murmur. I sigh and slink into the seat. He wins this battle because I’m in no shape to fight him any longer.
I close my eyes, and I’m drifting off when the car finally stops, jerking me awake. I sit up taller and look around as Theo jumps down from the driver’s side and comes around to help me.
My eyes nearly bug out of my head, and I clutch the stuffed bear tightly when he lifts me out of the car and turns around so I see his home. “Theo… I thought you were a realtor.”
He’s parked behind the house next to a detached garage with three bays. My eyes were closed, so I haven’t seen the front of the house, but the back is spectacular. There’s an outdoor kitchen, a pool, and a hot tub.
He chuckles as he uses a keypad to open a sliding glass door, which leads into a gleaming stainless-steel kitchen. His home looks like a model home, not a place where a human actuallylives. I’d be afraid to walk on the floors for fear I’d mess up the lines in the carpet or leave footprints on the tile.
“I’m agoodrealtor,” he tells me. “Most of my properties are commercial listings. Not residential.”
I don’t know what that means in terms of income, but apparently in his case a lot.
Theo is very careful to cradle me without touching the abrasions on my butt. He even gently protects my bandaged elbows as he carries me through the house.
I’m breathless. His home is amazing. The living room is as impressive as the kitchen, and when we reach the staircase, I gasp. It’s the kind of stairs that wind up to the top floor in a foyer that looks like a movie set. As we ascend, I look around in shock.
“I’m sorry I don’t have a room fit for a Little girl right now. I’ll start working on one ASAP. In the meantime, you’ll have to settle for my guest room.” He uses his hip to open a door on the second floor, and hurries over to a queen-sized bed to pull back the covers.
I nearly cry as he gently lowers me to sit on the edge of the bed. “This hospital gown and the pants are scratchy material. Let me find you something else to wear. Be right back.”
I can’t move as I watch him hurry from the room, and I’m still dazed when he returns moments later holding up a T-shirt. It’s obviously one of his, and it’s huge. “This will have to work for now. I’ll order you some things online while you nap.”
“You can’t start buying me things, Theo…”
“Sure I can.” He pulls the hospital blanket free and sets it on a chair before squatting down to put us at eye level. He takes both my hands in his. “Layla, my heart has been racing since I met you.”
“That’s because you were afraid I might die of a skull fracture,” I joke, surprised I’m capable of such a witty comeback.
He chuckles. “Nope. It’s because I had the strongest feeling it was not an accident that we collided.”
“You seem to be confused about what happened.Wedid not collide.Iwas rushing down the street self-absorbed, trying not to cry, in the pouring rain, not watching where I was going, and I slammed into your solid wall of manness.”
He chuckles. “Manness?”
“Yes.” I narrow my gaze at him, daring him to argue with me. “So, it was entirely my fault, and you’re being way too kind.”
He strokes my fingers. “I like my version of the story better. Fate put you in front of me, and I’m indebted to Her. It’s okay that you don’t quite believe it yet, but I don’t think it was a coincidence that the prettiest Little girl I’ve ever seen happened to slam into me on the street. Don’t you think it’s weird that we even know the same people? What are the chances you’d be Little and I’d be a Daddy and one of your best friends happens to be in love with one of my best friends?”
That part is pretty strange. He’s right. But still. I refuse to let myself hope something good could happen to me. This would be beyond good. It would be life changing.
“I’m not the sort of person good things happen to, Theo. I’m the sort of person who gets fired for being late to work three times in a month for reasons totally out of my control that don’t sound believable. I’m the sort of person who opens a milk carton to find out it went bad the day before. When I step outside in a blouse, it starts raining. When I get on a city bus, the bus gets a flat tire. When I walk past an alley, I get chased by a dog into a pile of poop.”