Daddy’s Gift (The Daddy Guard #5)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Samantha Mayfield wearily climbed the steps to her second-floor garage apartment and sighed.

The soft wood bent beneath her feet. She hoped the stairs’ decay wasn’t about to rot completely through. That would be just her luck!

She wasn’t very high up. From this distance, the fall would most likely just break her legs. Maybe an arm.

More bad luck.

She didn’t have health insurance. And there was no way she could afford those medical bills.

With that in mind, she gripped the railing tighter. The ancient wood was loose and flakey. She felt a splinter shoot into her palm.

“Ouch!”

Making a mental note to complain yet again to the company that managed her property, she took the next four steps two at a time, just eager to reach the top.

Of course, there was no guarantee that her actual apartment wouldn’t cave in. She’d felt a few weak spots on the floor. Part of her suspected termite damage. But it might have been years of neglect, too.

She’d just have to add that to the list of problems the landlords chose to ignore.

“It’s okay,” she whispered to herself as she put the key in the lock, turned it, and opened the door. “Things won’t be like this forever.”

Samantha hoped that was the case, at least. Perhaps if she repeated that to herself enough times it would one day come true. Like she could manifest that positivity into reality or something.

She hoped.

Stepping inside and closing the door behind her—and quickly locking it—she found a tidy space.

It was easy to keep clean. There wasn’t much stuff. What she did have, she kept in a neat and tidy order.

After washing her hands, she opened the cabinets in the kitchen—which was also the living room and her bedroom—and clicked her tongue as she surveyed the options.

Like her apartment’s furnishings, there wasn’t much.

A few cans of veggies. Some fruit cups. Granola bars. Half a loaf of bread. Peanut butter.

“Better than nothing,” she reminded herself.

When she reached into the fridge to grab some grape jelly, she saw the options weren’t much better in there. But there was still some milk left. Score!

Milk made every PB&J sandwich better.

Once she’d poured a glass and finished making her dinner, she put the sandwich on a paper plate, carried it to the couch, and plopped down. Out of habit, she nearly reached for the television remote but then remembered the wall in front of her was now bare.

The TV was pawned two days ago.

It hadn’t even netted her much money. Televisions just didn’t cost a lot these days. But when you’re in a pinch, forty dollars is better than nothing.

She was eating that forty dollars now. Had the TV still been there, she wouldn’t have been able to afford the stuff to make a sandwich.

Suddenly, Samantha wanted to cry.

“It won’t always be this way,” she reminded herself. But her voice—and the words it carried—weren’t very convincing.

“One day…”

The statement wasn’t finished, because she didn’t know what would happen one day.

One day she’d find a Daddy? She’d get a job that paid great and could move up in the world? Or perhaps she’d make friends. Real friends. Other Littles. Maybe she could even be a part of a family like Iris and the other girls that hung out at Auntie Athena’s West Hollywood Nursery…

Samantha sighed. If wishes were dollars, she’d be a millionaire.

But as it was, she was still confined to her tiny box of an apartment, eating a measly peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

It could be worse, she reminded herself. I could be in an actual box. She’d overheard one of the girls at the Nursery talking. She was new. Only been coming around since Thanksgiving.

What was her name?

Annika! That’s right. Annika. She hung out with Iris and the other girls who lived at the Daddy Guard’s mansion.

Anyway, she’d lived on the streets. Thankfully, Samantha had never been that hard up. Not yet.

Things just might come to that, though. If her luck didn’t change soon.

There wasn’t anything she could do about it one way or another right then. She needed to eat and then head across town to her shift at the all-night diner.

“Think about happier things,” she told herself.

As she ate, thoughts of him ran through her mind.

Kendrick.

Mmm. He was positively yummy.

She loved how big and strong he was. How protected she felt when he was around.

Everything about him was perfect. Especially those green eyes. They were positively mesmerizing!

And his mocha-tinged skin? She suspected he was of mixed ancestry. Probably half Black, half white. He could have been a model. But he was a former cop and now a member of the Daddy Guard.

That’s probably why she felt so safe around him. He just gave off all those vibes.

As far as she knew, he was single.

Not that he’d ever want her…

“Don’t think negatively,” she reminded herself. “We’re going to manifest our own destiny. Shoot for the moon.”

So, as she finished her sandwich, she continued to think about Kendrick.

And what it would be like to call him Daddy…