Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
“Are you sure I’m not keeping you up too late?”
The question barely registered to Kendrick. He was lost admiring Samantha’s beauty as she appeared at top of the staircase that led to her garage apartment.
She’d actually gotten off from the diner a bit early as there hadn’t been many customers. He figured it had to suck as far as the tips went. But he was glad they were able to start their late-night date a bit earlier.
As it turned out, he’d occupied the booth for hours, long after his pie had finished, chatting with Samantha in between her customers and waiting for her to get off work.
He hadn’t minded one bit. It was already clear to him that the more time he spent with her the better.
After she’d gotten off, he’d driven her to her place so she could change and freshen up. It made him happy that she trusted him enough to not only accept his offer of a ride but let him know where she lived.
He’d stayed downstairs, though, giving her some privacy. He assumed it was a one-bedroom setup based on the size of the boxy building. The apartment was over a detached garage that itself rested behind an old house that had seen better days.
He also assumed that she was embarrassed about her apartment, though she needn’t be. No one should ever be ashamed of where they came from or where they were at now, he opined.
Mental snapshots played across his mind like a slideshow. He saw his grandma’s old house in the Tennessee hills. The wooden siding had long ago faded and was no longer white, the gray of the decaying wood showing through in more places than not.
As a teenager and then as a young man, he’d offered to paint it for her. Kendrick would have done anything for his grandma. But she’d declined the help. He later realized it was because none of them could even afford the paint.
He had been able to patch up the holes in her porch, though, using old scrap wood and boards he’d found in piles of discards around various construction sites.
At least then she could safely make it to her rocking chair and watch the sunset or hope a neighbor passed by for a chat.
No more avoiding the gaping holes that littered the porch’s floor.
He’d also fixed a few other things around that place. But no one would ever accuse a rich person of living there.
In fact, there were times growing up, when had it not been for the food pantry at a mountain church, she, Kendrick, and the rest of their family would have gone hungry. He hadn’t always lived in a mansion. That was for damn sure.
So yeah, he thought, as he watched Samantha descend the stairs and walk toward him, there was no reason at all for her to be embarrassed by her situation.
“You all good? Or are you hurt?”
He could tell she was thinking about the meaning of his question, so he elaborated.
“Coming down the stairs, you kind of stopped a few times. Did you hurt yourself or anything?”
“Oh. The awkward walk,” she said with a chuckle, her cheeks flashing a hint of humiliated red for a moment. “Just… some weak spots I have to avoid on the stairs.”
“Won’t be a problem come tomorrow. I’ll fix them.”
She looked surprised but also happy. Still, she said, “You don’t have to do that.”
“I can’t have you falling. And it’s too dangerous to keep going up and down these things without reinforcing them.” He walked past her to the stairs and examined them from the front before walking behind them and looking up. It was obvious where the weak spots were.
“Let me guess—landlord doesn’t seem to care.”
“How did you know?”
“Typical. Sometimes these big companies buy up property and they own so much that they can’t tend to it all.
Half the time they’re out-of-state operations.
You can’t even get to the top people. Other times it’s just absentee landlords who couldn’t give a rat’s ass about their tenants. ” He winced. “Excuse my language.”
Her genuine laughter was one of the sweetest sounds he’d ever heard. “You’re such a Daddy. Worried about the stairs. Worried about your language. I love it.”
What the heck? Kendrick wondered as he stepped around from behind the stairs and assessed the beautiful woman. “How did you know I’m a Daddy?”
Her face was as white as a sheet. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or if it was really a bead of sweat he noticed forming along her brow.
Either way, she was clearly shaken up.
Where had he met her before? He was more convinced they’d encountered each other, now more than ever. She just knew too much about him and even Isaiah for such not to be the case.
“Uh. How did I know?” she asked while shifting from one foot to the other in labored movements.
“Yep. That’s what I’m asking.”
He made a mental note to watch his tone. This wasn’t an interrogation. He didn’t want her to be intimidated by him.
She never needed to be afraid of Daddy.
“Well, you, uh, just give off those vibes. I… uh… can I confess something to you?”
“Anything.”
Here it comes, he thought. The truth was finally going to be revealed.
“I know about Auntie Athena’s because I’m… well… I’m a Little. And I’ve never been there, really. Not in the traditional way. But… I’ve snuck up on the back fence to watch.”
Kendrick couldn’t believe it. What were the odds that he’d found his sweet princess out in the wild like that?
But her explanation made sense. It wasn’t very long ago at all that Little Annika had been discovered doing the same exact thing.
Isaiah had literally caught her as she fell off the tall fence.
How many Littles in the area spied on the place?
The thought broke his heart. They didn’t need money. Auntie would never turn them away.
That was a problem for later. Right now, he was just thrilled to know that his Daddy instincts were right.
Samantha was a Little.
And something told him she was his Little.
Forever.