Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Edie was giving him the stink-eye.

She wasn’t doing it constantly. But every so often, he would glance over to find her watching him through narrowed eyes. Every time he caught her, she simply raised a brow and shifted her attention to whatever conversation was going on around them.

But she was definitely giving him the stink-eye. He just had no clue why .

“Daddy!” Taylor’s excited shriek pulled his attention away from Edie’s odd behavior as his babygirl came running into the kitchen, her eyes bright with excitement.

“No running in the house,” Edie scolded, giving him another one of those looks.

“Whoops.” Skidding to a stop, Taylor blushed prettily and ducked her head. “Sorry, Edie.”

“Thank you for listening, Taylor.”

Was it his imagination or was there some kind of undercurrent in Edie’s voice? Judging by the way Grant frowned down at her, he wasn’t imagining it. He still just had no clue what he’d done to deserve it.

Forcing his attention to his babygirl, who was now hopping from foot to foot in front of him, Ian grinned. “Ants in your pants, Tayter Tot?”

“I’m too excited to stand still, Daddy!”

“Oh, yeah?” Instinct told him that whatever it was that had her so worked up, it was bound to end in some kind of mischief. But there was no harm in hearing her out, right? “What are you so excited about, baby?”

“We’re gonna put on a Christmas pageant!” Still bouncing, she clapped her hands together and squealed excitedly.

Well, that didn’t sound too bad. They couldn’t get into that much trouble planning a pageant, could they? “That sounds like fun. Do you need help?”

“Um, actually, that’s what I came to ask.” Now her smile turned sheepish, the way it did when she was gearing up to ask for something she knew she shouldn’t have. “We really, really want it to be a surprise for all of you so we were hoping we could go outside to practice without the grownups.”

“I don’t see why not. As long as you stay in the front yard where we can see you.”

Her bottom lip pushed out. “Okay, but only if you promise not to spy on us.”

Jesus, she was cute when she was this deep in her Little space. “We can’t promise not to check on you, but we promise not to spoil the surprise.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Matt’s eyebrows wing up toward his hairline. Even Dom and Rex, the least strict of their group, exchanged a meaningful look.

But it was difficult to care about any of that when his Little girl was positively beaming at him. “Thank you, Daddy!”

“I have some stipulations,” Matt said, stepping forward and pinning Taylor with a stern glare that had her eyes going wide.

“Sir?”

“All of you are to stay in the front yard, as your Daddy said. No tools, and especially no power tools. If you need something that even requires a hammer, you are to come inside and ask a grownup for help. Do not involve Edie’s animals in any way, shape, or form, without Edie’s explicit permission. Am I clear, Taylor Grace?”

Another blush stained her cheeks as she nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

“Good girl. I will be holding you personally accountable for making sure your friends are aware of these rules, so if any of the Littles breaks a single rule, you will be getting a spanking from me on top of whatever punishment your Daddy decides to give you.”

A knot of unease twisted in Ian’s gut. Matt laying down rules and threatening punishments for all the Littles was nothing new, and it wasn’t like he was being unreasonable. Using any kind of tools when they were deep in Little space was a recipe for disaster.

But a protective instinct welled up inside Ian, and he very nearly opened his mouth to tell Matt he could handle his babygirl’s discipline if it came to that.

Taylor nodded before he had a chance to step in, however. “I understand, Matty. We’ll be good, I promise.”

Matt’s eyes narrowed, as if he could discern whatever naughtiness they might have up their sleeve through sheer force of will. “All right. Have fun, sweetheart.”

Taylor paused long enough to throw her arms around Ian’s neck and squeeze. “Love you!”

“Love you, too, Tayter Tot. Be good!” he called after her retreating form as she hurried back to the living room.

“So who actually buys that bullshit?” Leaning back against the counter, a smirk on his face, Rex looked every bit the bad boy he was known to be. “And what do you think they’re actually up to?”

“Who knows, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on them,” Matt grumbled before looking over and glaring at Ian. “What the hell has gotten into you?”

Irritation ran up Ian’s spine. “Me? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that the Daddy Ian I know never would have sent his babygirl on her way without the third degree. Look, dude, if you don’t want to be Taylor’s Daddy anymore, then you need to tell her that instead of stringing her along like this.”

He wasn’t sure he could have been more shocked if Matt had straight-up slapped him across the face. “What the fuck are you talking about? I love being Taylor’s Daddy. I love Taylor . I’m not stringing her along.”

From the opposite side of the kitchen, Edie snorted. “Really? Is that why you’re completely disregarding her need for discipline?”

“Edie, that isn’t any of your business.” Grant’s tone held a note of warning that was pure Daddy, but Edie merely rolled her eyes in response.

“It is my business when he’s not doing his job and he lets one of my girls get away with doing dangerous shit.”

Silence, heavy and oppressive fell over the kitchen, and Ian was aware of five sets of eyes watching him. Judging him. “I didn’t let her get away with anything.”

“That’s not how I heard it.” Fire flashing in her eyes, Edie crossed her arms, her chin jerking up. “She did something dangerous, you promised her a spanking. Did you spank her?”

Now it was embarrassment creeping up his spine. “Like Grant said, that’s not any of your business. I handled it the way I felt was most appropriate at the time.”

“Okay, guys, I think everyone needs to take a deep breath.” Hands held up in a ‘time out’ gesture, Dom stepped to the middle of the room. “How Ian chooses to deal with his Little girl isn’t any more our business than how any of us choose to deal with our Littles is anyone else’s business. If their relationship has evolved to a place where Taylor is in less need of discipline, then we should honor that.”

He should have known Dom, of all people, would understand. “Thanks, man.”

“But they?—”

Edie’s protest was cut off by a large hand covering her mouth. “That’s quite enough, little pixie. Unless you’d like a trip upstairs.”

Even with Grant’s hand covering half her face, it was easy to see the red flooding her cheeks as she glared up at him.

“Are you going to behave yourself when I pull my hand away?” Grant asked, amusement tingeing his tone.

Behind his hand, Edie huffed, but nodded and Grant slowly pulled his hand away. When she kept her lips pressed together, he leaned down to press a kiss to her hair. “Good girl.”

The silence between them grew thicker and heavier with every passing second until Dom finally clapped his hands and grinned. “So. What’s Santa bringing for all our Little girls tonight?”

“I can’t believe you got them to agree!” Jesse whispered excitedly as she and Taylor snuck around the back of the house toward Edie’s shed. “We’re sending you to do all of the talking with the grownups from now on.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t quite as easy as I expected.” Butterflies were already doing somersaults in Taylor’s tummy at the memory of how stern Matt had looked. “Carly’s Daddy said he’d spank me if he caught anyone breaking the rules about not using any tools.”

“That’s a tough one,” Jesse agreed, her expression turning sympathetic as she opened the doors to the shed. “But maybe we can get the lights hung without actually using any tools. There’s probably nails or something up there already from where Edie has decorated in the past.”

“Maybe.” Hopefully. Because while her Daddy might be willing to let her off with a lecture, she had no doubt Matt would follow through on his promise to spank her. And Matt spanked harder than all the Daddies. Well, she wasn’t sure about Rex because he was the only one who had never spanked her, but he definitely spanked harder than Dom and her own Daddy.

Shoving those worries aside, she stepped into the dark interior of the shed and looked around. “There! Those storage bins in the corner there. One of those should definitely have lights.”

Jesse pulled down the first bin for them to open, but it turned out to be mostly garland and other decorations for the windows and stuff. Putting the lid back on, the set the box aside and opened the next one.

They didn’t hit the jackpot until the third bin, but when they hit it, they hit it big. More boxes of lights than Taylor remembered Edie having before filled the large storage bin to the top.

“Yes!” Jesse cheered quietly, pumping her fists in the air. “Christmas house, here we come!”

It took both of them to carry the box back to the front of the house, and they were just about to turn the corner when they heard Carly’s voice.

“We aren’t being naughty, Daddy, promise!”

“Where is Taylor? And Jesse?”

Crap. Of all the Daddies to come outside and check on them, it had to be Matt.

Taylor nodded at the ground to signal they should put the bin down, then pressed a finger to her lips. Silently, they crept around the corner, peeking around to make sure they weren’t seen.

Thankfully, Matt was too busy glaring at his Little girl to look around. Taylor and Jesse tiptoed forward, until they were hidden beside the front porch.

“We should jump out and pretend to be monsters, like we were hiding to try and scare him,” Jesse whispered, curling her hands into claws like a dinosaur.

“Oh, perfect! Count of three?”

“Yup.”

Holding up three fingers, Taylor counted down silently. Three… Two… One!

“ RAWR !” she and Jesse yelled together as they popped out from beside the porch like they’d been hiding there the whole time.

On the porch, Matt actually jumped, slapping a hand over his chest as he turned to glare at him. “You two brats gave me a heart attack! Have you been there the whole time?”

“Yes, Sir.” If Taylor hadn’t known Jesse was lying, she never would have been able to tell.

Being a big-time actress came in handy for other things, apparently.

“Hmm.” Matt didn’t sound convinced, and Taylor had to fight not to squirm as he studied them with that narrow-eyed stare. But eventually he nodded. “All right. Stay in the front yard where we can see you.”

“Yes, Sir,” she and Jesse replied in unison.

They didn’t breathe easily again until the storm door slammed shut behind him, at which point they slumped against each other with matching sighs of relief.

“That was a close one,” Carly said, her eyes glittering with the thrill of nearly getting caught.

“Too close.” Running a shaky hand through her hair, Jesse let out a nervous laugh. “We need to work fast if we want to get these decorations up before we get caught.”

“Agreed.” Noelle stood back from the porch, frowning up at the house. “One question. How the hell are we supposed to get the lights up there without a ladder?”

Crap. Noelle was right. There was no possible way to hang the lights without actually climbing up to the gutters.

“The grownups will murder us if they come out here and find us on a ladder,” Jesse said with a groan.

“Well… maybe there is one of us who wouldn’t get murdered…” Ginny turned to look at Taylor, the corners of her lips slowly curling upward.

She wasn’t entirely convinced Ian wouldn’t break his no-spanking streak if she did something that dangerous again. But out of all of them, she had the best chance. And Jesse looked so dang sad she couldn’t bring herself to say no.

“All right. I think Edie keeps her ladder in the shed.”