They drove into what seemed to be the main business area. People were walking along the street. Most of them men, but then she began to spot the women among them. She just hadn’t noticed them before because they were often surrounded by at least two men.
They pulled up outside a building. It was white like all the other buildings. She couldn’t see in the window properly as there were several people walking past. He turned to her and undid her seat belt. “Right, the rules.”
She barely refrained from rolling her eyes. “Yes?”
“No moving away from my side.” He frowned. “I don’t want a repeat of the other day with Aleki.”
“I won’t leave you,” she reassured him.
“Damn straight you won’t. But I’m going to make sure. If you need to go to the bathroom, tell me. We’ll use a family stall. There’s always one in every bathroom here.”
“Wolfe, don’t you think you’re being a bit overprotective? I’m sure I’ll be fine peeing by myself.”
He frowned and shook his head. “Nope. Not happening. Exit on my side, it’s safer.”
“What are we doing?” she asked, as he guided her to the building in front of her.
“Shopping.”
“Shopping? For what? For you?” They walked into the shop and she was surprised by the rows of toys.
“No. For you.”
She paused and he turned, his eyebrows raised. “Wolfe, I don’t need anything else. You’ve already bought me so much.”
“You haven’t made any changes to the playroom.”
“What?”
“Or used any of the toys, other than the painting and crafting stuff.”
Oh. She hadn’t, had she? But she was just learning about all this. Part of her wasn’t sure she felt comfortable playing with any of those toys. But then, what had she played with as a kid? As much as she could remember, before her mom died, she’d loved getting out in the sandpit and building castles. Or using building blocks to make forts.
Maybe she did want something else to play with. But she also didn’t want to spend any more of his money.
“We need to get you things you want. I got you things I assumed you might want instead of waiting and asking you.”
“I really don’t need any more,” she told him.
“Yes. You do.”
“But all the things you bought. . .”
“We’ll gift them to children in the hospital,” he reassured her.
Oh. That was actually a really nice thought. “We will?”
“If you want to do that.”
“Yes. But I also don’t know about buying any more things for me. You’ve spent too much.”
He gave her a stern look. “Do we need to go to the car and have a chat about this?”
She narrowed her gaze. “And what is your idea of having a chat about this entail?”
“Turning you over my knee and spanking you until you agree with me.”
Her eyes widened. That was even worse than she’d suspected. She figured he’d just scold her until she agreed with him.
“Wolfe! You can’t spank me for not wanting you to buy me things.”
Someone coughed close by and she turned her head to see two men standing close by. They were gorgeous with dark hair and tanned skin. They looked like they could be brothers. One had a short beard. He winked at her. “I don’t know that seems like a good reason to spank you to me.”
They walked past.
Please. Beam her up. Now.
“See? They agree.”
“They’re strangers! You can’t spank me for that,” she hissed, keeping her voice down.
He frowned. “Hmm. I’ll check with Caleb.” He drew out his phone and tapped out a message.
A message beeped back. “Damn. That’s unfortunate. Caleb said no spanking you for not wanting me to spend money on you, but I’m to remind you that we’re family. And we should share everything. If you had more and we had less, wouldn’t you buy us what we needed?”
“Well, yes, but I don’t need . . .” she trailed off at his look.
“All right. But I’m doing all the choosing.” She pointed at him. She knew him. He’d go overboard.
“Of course, you are. Now, where is there a cart?”
Ooh. He was trouble.
40
“But we don’t have a sandpit,” she argued as they looked at a bucket and shovel set that was something you’d normally take to the beach. She’d been telling him about the sandpit she’d had as a child.
She cast a longing look over to the dump truck and digger in the aisle across from them. That seemed like fun. So far, all she’d chosen were some decals for the walls of the playroom. She’d decided on a farm theme. There was a huge barn that would take up most of one wall and then some grass and animal decals for another wall.
Wolfe had actually found these pigs that were attached to string you could hang from the ceiling which were so gorgeous she’d been unable to say no. And he’d also picked out the most adorable stuffed wolf.
“You can take them to the beach.”
“You mean play with them in public?” She wasn’t sure she could do that.
“You’d be surprised by how many Littles are here. Who do you think those men were shopping for?”
“I don’t know, their children?” she asked.
“There’s another toy shop for children two blocks over. This shop is just for Littles.”
It was? Wow. She hadn’t realized. She looked around her. The shop was pretty quiet, but over in the far corner, there was a woman dressed in a bright blue short jumpsuit. She was holding the hand of the man next to her, swinging it back and forth excitedly while another man bent down to pull out one of those toy dogs that barked and walked and ate. The woman reached for it but the man holding it said something to her. She looked down shyly, scuffing her toe against the floor as she replied. Then the man handed her the toy and she squealed.
Okay, so maybe she didn’t have to be that self-conscious.
“And if you want a sandpit, I’ll build you one.”
“You will?” She gave him a surprised look.
He pushed up his glasses. “Well, I’ll get Aleki to.”
Yeah. That’s kind of what she thought.
“I don’t want you guys to—”
He placed his hand over her mouth. Damn it. She was tired of them doing that. Sticking out her tongue, she licked the palm. He gave her a shocked look. “Why did you do that?”
“Because you’re always putting your hand over my mouth.”
He frowned down at her. “Because you are always talking like you expect to be leaving us.”
She gaped at him. What? “No, I don’t.”
“Yes,” he replied calmly. “You do. You’re always saying you don’t want us to spend money on you or to do something like decorate your playroom or make a sandpit because you think you won’t be here long enough to make it worthwhile.”
Was that why she did it? It wasn’t, was it? Maybe partly it was. Now she felt awful.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t even realize I was thinking that. I just didn’t want you spending so much money on me. And I . . . you’re right. I guess I’m acting like none of this is mine. The room. The house. You guys.” She rubbed at her forehead.