Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
She shook her head again.
“Isabelle,” he said warningly. How did he not know her middle name by now? “What’s your middle name?”
Her mouth opened and she drew her thumb free. “It’s Evelyn.”
“Pretty.”
“It was my mom’s name.”
Her mom who died. A wave of sadness filled him. “I’m sorry, baby.”
She shrugged, but he could tell she still felt the pain of that loss.
“Baby, I want you to eat a bit, please? For me. I’m worried about you.”
Isa stared at him in surprise. She’d probably been expecting him to order her to eat. But she needed some softness right now.
To his surprise, she nodded.
He fed her a forkful of chicken, watching her closely as she ate it. She turned her face away, blushing. “Am I chewing too loud?”
“What? No. Why?”
“You’re, um, staring at me.”
“You’re so beautiful. Hard to tear my eyes away.”
She looked at him, her mouth parted in surprise. He took the opportunity to feed her a piece of broccoli. She chewed it without protest.
A Little who ate her veggies without protest?
Surely, that was almost unheard of.
“Is that why you watch me all the time?”
He had to hide a smile. “That’s part of the reason. Yes.”
“Me? You think I’m beautiful.”
Remy frowned. “I don’t like how incredulous you sound.”
“I mean . . . I’m more, like, average. Okay. Nothing memorable. Move on. Three out of five stars.”
“Baby girl, you are pushing my buttons here.” And she was about to find herself with a red bottom.
He wasn’t putting up with this sort of behavior.
First she didn’t think she was cute? Now she didn’t believe she was beautiful?
Ridiculous.
“I am?”
“No putting yourself down. You are incredibly beautiful. And I won’t hear you say otherwise. Open up.”
She shook her head.
“You’ve only had two bites. Open up and I’ll tell you why else I watch you.”
She quickly took the next bite of food. This time, it was a piece of cauliflower.
“Why?” she asked after swallowing.
“Because I want to keep you safe.” He didn’t want to tell her this next part, but he owed it to her since she was eating. He gave her another piece of chicken. “And because I have this feeling that if you’re out of my sight, something will happen to you. And that fucking terrifies me.”
It was also stupid since he couldn’t watch her all the time.
She gaped up at him. Fuck.
“You can pretend I didn’t say that if it scares you. It’s not rational.”
“No. I understand what you mean. My mom . . . I felt like she died because I . . . because I wasn’t there to take care of her.”
“Baby, you know that’s not true, right?” He didn’t actually know what happened to her mom, just that it couldn’t have been Isa’s fault.
“I know that logically. She went to the hospital and she never came home. I don’t even remember her being sick.”
“Was it cancer?”
“A heart attack.”
Fuck. That sort of thing could be hereditary. He’d need to make sure she was getting regular check-ups.
Isa rubbed her chest. He’d noticed her doing that a few times these past couple of weeks. Was it an anxiety thing? Maybe it was due to reflux?
“Baby, are you all right?”
“What?” she asked, looking at him in confusion.
“You’re rubbing your chest.”
“Oh yeah. Sorry. I’m fine.” She dropped her hand, giving him a sheepish smile. “What . . . what were we talking about?”
He eyed her with concern. “If there’s something wrong, you need to tell me.”
“I’m fine.”
“Remember, no lies.”
She bit her lip. “I really think it’s nothing. I’m not ready to talk about it.”
Fuck. He wanted to protest. But he was the one who’d told her that she could tell him if she didn’t want to talk about something.
“You’ll tell me if it becomes a problem. Understand?”
She eyed him. “Yes. I want to go to bed now.”
Yeah, she looked exhausted. But she’d barely eaten anything today.
“One more bite.”
Isa gave him such a sad look that he almost fell for it. But he knew what tricks Littles would use in order to get out of doing something they didn’t want to.
He’d forgotten how much fun it could be to look after a Little. To care for them, feeding and dressing and playing with them. Sure, he might only be seeing a small part of her and she wasn’t fully in Little headspace. But he couldn’t deny how good he felt.
Another piece of chicken that she chewed slowly, clearly flagging. He ate several bites. His stomach felt like it was going to cave in on itself. Remy was a big guy and he needed a lot of fuel.
“Do you . . . do you really think something will happen to me if you’re not there?”
He stared down at her as he finished up. “Rationally, no. But just like some four-year-olds aren’t logical, same can be said for forty-two-year-old men.”