Chapter 37
37
Her hair was a fucking disaster.
Reuben stared down at the mess of curls, moving around to stand in front of her. His stomach dropped as he saw tears in her eyes.
“Baby, fuck. Did I hurt you?”
He’d tried brushing the curls . . . but he swore they looked worse than when he’d started.
She shook her head. Her thumb was still in her mouth.
“Then what’s wrong?” He slid her thumb out of her mouth. “I need you to talk to me for a moment. You can go back to being nonverbal after. Okay?”
“O-tay,” she whispered in a cute voice. Oh, she was fully in Little headspace, wasn’t she? Mispronouncing okay was adorable. But that made her tears even more worrying.
“Why are you crying, Little Blossom? Did Daddy hurt your head?”
“Little bit.”
“I’m sorry. You should have said something. I haven’t done anyone’s hair in a long time.”
“That’s not . . . that’s not why I’m tearful, Daddy.”
He cupped her face between his hands. “Then what is it?”
“It’s just that it’s been a long time since someone took care of me,” she revealed.
They hadn’t talked about former partners. Mainly because he didn’t want to know about any asshole that had touched his girl.
But he assumed she’d had a Daddy at some point.
“It’s been a while since you had a Daddy, then?” It was probably difficult to adjust to having a Daddy again in her life.
Mind you, most Daddy Doms likely weren’t as full-on as he was. Some of them probably allowed their Littles more freedom.
That wasn’t going to be their relationship.
“Um, no, I had one not that long ago.”
He tensed.
Do not react. Do not.
Do not give in to the rage filling you.
“I broke up with my old Daddy before I moved here.”
“I’m gonna kill the bastard.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Daddy, no!”
“He was a jerk to you, so I’m gonna kill him.”
“He wasn’t a jerk to me! It was my fault.”
Reuben eyed her for a long moment. “Nope. Nice try. I’m gonna kill him. Name.”
“Daddy! I’m telling the truth. I broke up with him because I . . . ” she sighed, looking sad. “The truth is that I had a business. It was a floral shop. But it also had some pretty knickknacks and homeware. Matt ran it with me.”
“What happened? Did you break up with him and he took half? I’m gonna kill the bastard.”
“Daddy!”
To his shock, her lips twitched.
He narrowed his gaze at her. “You think this is funny?”
“It’s a little funny how you keep saying you’re gonna murder him.”
Oh. She thought he was joking.
Well, she’d find out the truth once he turned up dead.
“He didn’t take half my business. I . . . I ended up having to close the shop. I thought we were doing okay. I didn’t even know anything was wrong. Matt said he kept it from me, so I didn’t worry. And by the time he told me, the business was bankrupt and I was a failure.”
Fuck.
Reuben actually felt that old, dead, shriveled-up organ in his chest crack a bit.
His poor baby. He could only imagine how awful she felt.
“I had to lay off the lady I had working for me. Matt hadn’t wanted to hire her, but I was getting so busy and tired. He was right though. I shouldn’t have hired her. She gave up a job to come work for me, then she couldn’t find another job for ages. I gave her as much money as I could gather to help tide her over.”
“Baby.”
“I hate being a failure. I hate that everyone knows I’m a failure. I let them all down, Reuben.”
“Hey, that’s not true. Owning a business is risky and hard. It wasn’t your fault.”
“I lost all their money, though.” Her confession was filled with pain and self-loathing.
He’d do anything he could to take that away. To make everything better for her.
“Their money?” he asked.
“My parents and my three brothers . . . they all invested in the business to help me get started. My dad even let me use some of his land to grow flowers. Land he could have profited from by growing corn on it. I lost it all.”
“They wouldn’t have given you money that they weren’t prepared to lose.”
“I don’t know if that’s true. After the business failed, I heard my mom and dad talking about how tight things on the farm were going to be and how they were probably going to have to postpone retirement.” She sniffled.
“Oh, baby.”
Fuck. He hated that she felt like this. Why the fuck hadn’t her parents made certain that she couldn’t hear them?
“I’m going to make it all better.”
She reared back, her eyes wide. “No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am.” This was an easy fix. He’d just pay off her debts. Done.
“Reuben, you can’t.”
“I can. All I need is their details and how much you owe them.”
“I’m not giving you that.”
He narrowed his gaze at her. “You won one argument today, baby. Do not push your luck.”
“I . . . what? I didn’t win any arguments? It’s impossible to win arguments with you. You are so stubborn.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment, Daddy!” She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a pouting look.
She was so gorgeous, even when she was grouchy at him.
All he wanted was to tuck her into his pocket and keep her with him always.
“I don’t like that look in your eyes,” she told him.
“What look?”
“The one that says you’re plotting to overthrow the world.”
Not the world. Just one cute Little.
“Ahh. That look. I know it well.”
“Fudge knuckles,” she muttered. “Daddy, I don’t want you to pay them back because I want to do it. And I’m actually getting somewhere now that I work for you and can send more money home.”
“Wait . . . you’ve been sending money home to your family?”
“Not all of it. I give some to Cammie for rent and utilities.”
What about food? Did she actually eat anything when he didn’t basically force her to? Because she seemed to be getting thinner.
And you barely fed her any breakfast.
He’d have to remedy that.
“But, yeah, I’ve been splitting it between my parents and my brothers. And Matt.”
“Matt? Why the fuck are you giving him anything? I’m gonna kill him!”
“You can’t keep saying that.” She waggled her finger in front of his face.
Leaning forward, he caught her finger in his mouth and nipped it. “Don’t use that finger on me, Little Blossom.”
“Daddy! No biting.”
“But you like when I bite you.”
She blushed, looking away.
Yeah. So damn cute he could hardly stand it.
“I need to do this myself.”
“You owe that bastard money?”
“Well, not exactly. It’s just, when the business failed, he was out of a paycheck, so I felt bad.”
“Wait . . . you’ve been sending him money because you felt bad that a business you were both running failed?”
He was really going to kill the bastard now.
“No, only since I started working for you.”
Oh no. Nope. This wasn’t happening.
“You’re not going to tell me what you owe them, are you?” he asked, pacing.
He didn’t like her denying him. The urge to take her over his knee and smack her ass was strong when she shook her head.
Stopping in front of her, he crossed his arms over his chest and scowled down at her.
“This bastard must have another job, right?”
“Um. I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“Your family hasn’t said anything to you about him?” Maybe they didn’t like the bastard either.
“I don’t . . . I haven’t really talked to my family since I moved here.”
“Why not? Were they mean to you?” He was going to teach them not to hurt his baby.
“What? No!” she cried. “My family loves me. And I love them. It’s just . . . I feel so ashamed.”
Her head was lowered as she stared down at her feet.
His poor baby. He dropped to his knees before her, placing two fingers under her chin so he could tilt her face up.
“Listen to me. You shouldn’t feel ashamed. And if your family loves you, then they won’t hold anything against you. I bet they miss you.”
She sniffled, nodding. “I guess so.”
He wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Would you like to go see them?”
“I can’t afford that.”
He let out a low growl. “I didn’t say you’d be paying for it.”
A sad smile crossed her face. “You’re such a good man. I just . . . I do and I don’t. Maybe I’m not quite ready.”
“When you are ready, I will take you.” And he’d pay this Matt a visit. How dare that bastard take his girl’s money?
“Thank you.”
“I want a promise from you, though,” he told her. “I won’t pay off your debts if you stop sending money to Matt. He’s a grown man. He can get a job. And he’s had enough from you.”
She bit her lip. “You won’t try to pay off my debt to my family?”
“I won’t. I promise.”
She seemed to think about that for a moment. “All right. Deal.”
Leaning in, he sealed it with a kiss. “You know, if you moved in here you’d have more money to send them.”
“Daddy!” she cried.
“You’ve got that diabolical look back in your face,” she said.
“I do feel rather tyrannical.”
She groaned, but there was a small smile playing on her face. Reuben sighed, knowing he had to give her some bad news.
“I have something to confess.”
“What is it?”
“I’m not used to failing at something. But I’ve done an absolutely shit job of doing your hair.”
Her eyes widened.
“Seriously. It looks a thousand times worse than before.”
To his shock, she burst into giggles.
Falling forward, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on as she continued to laugh.
Was she all right? Maybe she’d lost her mind.
“Daddy, you’re the bestest.”
Well.
Of course he was.
But it was still good to hear.