“Go ahead and eat,” Carri encouraged.
He watched as she carefully tore the crusts off her bread and put them back into the plastic bag before nibbling on what was left.
Once she finished her sandwich, he took the bag of chips from her lap and handed her the apple instead.
“Eat your apple. You can have the chips for dessert,” he said when she looked at him with a frown.
“But we have cookies for dessert,” she pointed out as Lottie pulled out a plastic box full of the sweet treats she had made two days before.
“Then you can save the chips for your afternoon snack, but the apple gets eaten before anything else.”
Carri made a low grumbly growl of disagreement before taking a bite out of her apple. Once she chewed and swallowed, she frowned at him. “Why don’t you have to eat an apple?”
“Because I ate my apple about two and a half hours ago,” he said with a smile as he picked two cookies out of the box Tilly offered him. He leaned in so his lips were an inch from her ear. “I will never ask you to do or eat or drink something I haven’t done or ate or drank myself. I’ll probably even have twice as much since I’m the Daddy.”
Carri giggled and said, “All right, but you’d better make them save me some cookies,” before taking a second bite of her apple.
Nodding, Rooker plucked two more cookies out of the container and slid them into the plastic bag his sandwich had come out of. “There you go, two cookies saved just for you, little artist.”
“Thank you, Da… um, Rooker.” Carri stumbled over her words as she tried to decide what to call him.
That meant another comment whispered in her ear, so he did not embarrass her in front of her sisters. “I have no problem with you calling me Daddy anytime you want, but I’ll wait until you’re ready to share our relationship with your sisters. Okay?”
“Okay, Daddy,” she whispered back with a grin.
“Good girl.”
He smiled when Carri shivered in response to his praise. Yes, she was definitely his Little girl. Now to battle through whatever gauntlets her sisters would throw up before giving him their blessings.
Leaning back in his chair, he looked from Tilly to Lottie. “All right, ladies, what else do you want to know about me?”
Chapter Eight
Carri wondered if she should push the boxes out of the way to crawl under her table or run far and fast as first Lottie, and then Tilly, began quizzing Roker. Personal, invasive, embarrassing questions.
What shocked her most was that Rooker did not appear offended by them. Instead, he answered each question with a small smile on his face. He almost appeared amused by her sisters.
After each woman asked a half-dozen questions, they shared a look. Carri could almost hear them talking via their sister bond about whether or not to allow Rooker into their tight-knit circle. They then turned to face her.
Tilly spoke first. “He seems like a good guy. I approve.”
Then Lottie said, “You can date him, but I’ll be doing a background check on him Monday to make sure he’s not hiding anything.”
Carri dropped her head into her hands, groaning as her cheeks burned even brighter. She was afraid to look at Rooker. At least he had not disappeared when Lottie boldly asked about his past sexual exploits—as a Daddy and otherwise —as she put it.
He shared that he had been married for a year and a half shortly after graduating from medical school. His wife had not been Little and had left him when he tried to Daddy her through a bout of the flu. Since then, his focus had been on his work except for two long-term, yet somewhat-casual relationships with Little girls. His last relationship had ended more than three years before by mutual agreement and with no ill will between them.
Could Rooker St. Clair be the faceless man who filled her dreams nearly every night and who she wished for each dawn? A real Daddy-man, not just a man pretending to be a Daddy Dom until he got bored with her or decided she was too much trouble to deal with.
Even though she had known him for less than a day, she liked him. She liked him a lot. She was also afraid that if he disappeared after Sunday afternoon, her heart might shatter, and she would give up on men forever.
Carri would have crawled under her table to hide from her sisters, except there was no room under there with all the boxes tucked away. Taking a deep breath, she ordered herself to be brave as she dropped her hands and looked at Rooker. He did not look offended. He did not look angry. He looked more amused than put upon by her sisters.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her face burning with embarrassment.
He smiled at her as he gently brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “I’m not. I’m glad you have sisters who care enough about you to put me through such an inquisition. I just hope my answers didn’t scare you off.”
“They didn’t,” she assured him quickly.
