“Pigtails are needed, I think.”
She nodded. Pigtails would be seriously adorable.
He tweaked her nose.
“Hey!” she protested.
“Got your nose!”
“Give that back.”
“Nope. Think I’ll keep it, it’s such a cute nose.” He pretended to stick her nose in his pocket.
“Daddy, give it back, I needs it.”
“Nope. Finders keepers.”
He picked her up and carried her out of the wardrobe and back out into the playroom. Honestly, he was as bad as Wolfe, carrying her everywhere.
“Not finders’ keepers,” she protested as he sat her down on a chair at the white desk. “You stole it.” Were all these pens here yesterday? She couldn’t remember them. The desk was one where the top lifted up and you could store things inside. She peeked in and spotted some painting supplies.
Ooh, that could be fun.
“All right, stealer’s keepers,” he agreed. “Want to do some painting?”
She nodded her head. “But I need my nose.”
“What for?”
“To smell stuff.” Silly Daddy.
“Living with three guys it might be a Godsend not to be able to smell.”
She turned to gape at him then started to giggle. “Daddy!”
He winked back at her. “Fine, I’ll give you back your nose on one condition.”
“What’s that?” she asked suspiciously, turning to look at him.
“I’m low on sugar. I need some refills.”
“And how do I give you sugar?” she asked.
He gasped. “Don’t you know? By giving kisses, of course. Here.” He pointed to his left cheek.
Shyly, she leaned in and kissed his cheek.
“Here.” He pointed to his right cheek.
She kissed it.
“And here.” He pointed at his lips.
With a small smile, she lightly kissed his lips.
“Better, but I seem to be running out of sugar a lot lately. I’m going to need plenty of those kisses.”
She sighed. “Well, if I have to . . .”
“Cheeky monkey.” He reached over to tickle her lightly.
“Daddy!” she protested. “Stop!”
He reached into his pocket and pretended to pull out her nose, placing it back. “There you are. I might need to take it again if you’re being too cute.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Uh-uh, no eye-rolling.” He waggled a finger at her. “Now, I need to do your hair.”
“Only Wolfie does my hair.”
Caleb sighed. “He’ll have to get over it. I need to have a chat with him about that rule. I think there’s an easel around here you can use to paint. We’ll need a cover-up for your clothes and a stool for you to sit on.”
She shifted around on her chair. “I wanna stand.”
“Nope. Not with your ankle still healing.”
“But my bottom is still healing.”
“Like I told you, that’s part of the punishment.”
Well. That just sucked.
“It’s a bird.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Oh, I know. A unicorn. Silly me.”
“It’s not a unicorn, Daddy,” she told him. “It’s so obvious what it is, why can’t you tell? Are you saying I’m not good at painting, Daddy?”
It was very hard to keep a straight face, considering her painting was basically a giant blob of pink and white in the middle surrounded by swirls of blue and green with a bit of black for good measure.
Kind of hard to guess what it was when it wasn’t anything.
But hey, he deserved payback for stealing her nose, right?
“Of course not,” he said, starting to look somewhat panicked. “It’s a beautiful picture.”
She sniffled. “No, it isn’t. It’s terrible. You have no idea what it is.”
He turned his gaze to her, his eyes narrowing. “Are you having—”
The door opened, interrupting him. Which was just as well since she was pretty certain he’d caught on to her ruse.
Whoops.
Wolfe walked in then stopped short, staring at them both. She was sitting on a stool that Caleb had retrieved from the kitchen, in front of the easel, she had a plastic jacket on over her clothes to protect them. Her paints sat alongside her on another stool.
After finishing her hair, Caleb had been doing something on his phone while she worked on her masterpiece. She wasn’t sure if he was working or not. Hopefully, he wasn’t buying her more clothes since it would take her a lifetime to wear out the ones in the wardrobe.
He’d made her stop for some lunch, but then she’d gotten straight back to work on her masterpiece.
“Hi Wolfie. I’m painting a picture. Want to guess what it is?” she said cheerfully.
She ignored the way Caleb shook his head warningly at Wolfe.
He studied her with narrowed eyes. “Who the fuck did your hair?”
“Wolfe, no swearing in the playroom,” Caleb warned.
“Daddy did. Why?” Did it look bad?
Wolfe turned to Caleb. “Her hair is mine.”
“What?” Caleb frowned.
“Mine. Only I do it.”
“Wolfe,” she said uneasily. He had claimed her hair earlier, but she hadn’t thought he was serious. Or that he wouldn’t want anyone else touching it.
“Her hair is yours? Isn’t her hair her own?” Caleb asked. He didn’t sound upset. More curious than anything else.
“Nope. Mine. If she needs something done to it, I do it.”
“Wolfe,” Caleb started to say.
“You can claim something else.”
She expected Caleb to tell Wolfe that he was out of line. Instead, he looked thoughtful. “All right. Maybe I’ll do that.”
Wolfe nodded in satisfaction.
“But if she ever wants to do it herself, you have to let her,” Caleb warned.
Wolfe frowned, obviously not liking that. But then he turned to her. “Fine. I can do that.”
Caleb stood. “Are you okay with Wolfe for a bit, jelly bean?”
Wolfe snorted as she nodded. “Of course, she is. I have to re-do her hair.” He peered at her painting. “And give her painting lessons.”
“Hey!” she protested. “That’s not very nice, Wolfie.”
“Neither is letting someone else do your hair when I claimed it.”
Caleb kissed her forehead. “Back soon.”
Wolfe tugged at a ponytail. “Please tell me you were just fucking around and that’s not actually a picture of something.”
“Now, Wolfie, would I do something like that?”
Caleb walked into the gym, knowing that’s where he’d find Aleki. He might be the most easygoing of all of them, but he also had a bad habit of bottling everything up. Usually working out helped him clear his head. But Caleb thought he might need a push.
Music was blasting as he strode in to find Aleki demolishing the punching bag. He was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Hopefully, he’d tired himself out enough that he would let down his guard.
Moving to the sound system, he turned it down. Aleki kept punching.