“And I won’t see the man I’ve met and fallen in love with,” Tilly added, earning a shocked look from both her sisters. “For the next week, we’ll go back to being the three Smith sisters while we purge and pack the house.”
Lottie slowly nodded. “All right. I guess if Carri can do it, so can I.”
Tilly then turned to her. “What do you say, Carri?”
Carri thought it over and looked at Rooker who gave her a smile and nod. “We can do this, babygirl. It’s only seven days and then we’ll have the rest of our lives together.”
With that assurance, Carri turned to her sisters. Looking from Lottie to Tilly she nodded. “I’m in. But I reserve the right to be grumpy without getting harassed for it.”
Tilly giggled. “I have a feeling we’ll all be grumpy by the end of the week.”
Rooker helped the women pack everything into their SUV, surprised everything, including their cart, fit with just enough room in the back seat for Tilly to sit. Once they finished packing, he returned to the ballroom for Carri.
Lifting her onto one hip, he hugged her tight.
She hugged him back as she nuzzled his neck. “I’m sorry,” she said again.
“Don’t be, little artist. Your sisters care about you and don’t want you hurt. I totally understand. But it will be the longestweek of my life, and I might get a little grumpy myself without you there to pump sunshine into my life every day.”
“One hundred and sixty-one hours until nine o’clock Sunday morning,” she whispered as she kissed her way up the side of his neck.
“One hundred and sixty-one hours. No problem,” he said with a rough chuckle as they left the building and headed for the SUV where her sisters were hugging and kissing the men they had met during the convention.
Rooker settled her in the front seat and then secured the safety belt around her. “Behave and know that I’ll be thinking of you. And no playing with your pussy. That’s Daddy’s now and you can only get off with Daddy from now on.”
Carri wrinkled her nose at him before she grumped. “That’s just plain mean, Daddy. But I’ll behave. I love you.”
“I love you, too, my sweet babygirl.”
He gave her one last kiss before backing up and closing the door. Then he stood and watched as Lottie drove them out of the parking lot and out of sight.
“It’s going to be a long week,” the security guard who had been kissing Tilly said.
“You said it,” Lottie’s man agreed before they each turned and went their own way. Rooker returned to the ballroom for one last check to make sure Laura and Sam had gotten everything from their booth.
When he walked past where Carri had been set up, he saw the box of critters she had left for him. Picking it up, he headed out, his heart already hurting from being away from his Little girl for only a few minutes. How was he ever going to survive a whole week without her?
“One hundred and sixty hours and fifty-five minutes,” he said as he set the box in the back seat of his car and climbed in the driver’s seat.
Chapter Seventeen
Though she tried not to watch the clock tick down the hours until she would see Rooker again, it was a challenge. Daytime was easier because her job kept her busy, but evenings were difficult and the nights were nearly impossible.
One task she’d taken on during the evenings was to sort, purge, and begin to pack her belongings. By Wednesday evening, she had determined that no matter what her sisters thought, she would be moving in with Rooker instead of moving to the apartment.
During the long nights, she ended up spending hours making new critters instead of sleeping. Lying in bed alone without her big, warm Daddy beside her was too difficult. While reading would take her mind off her current situation, it did not keep her busy enough. Working a new, difficult pattern for a fox kept both her hands and her mind busy.
Despite being grumpy because of what Lottie was making them all go through, she tried to keep things civil with her sisters. The last thing she wanted was to start an argument with them. She loved them and they were the only family they had left. She did not want to lose them, even if she was beginning to think that Lottie was a class-A bitch for demanding they goa week with communicating with their men. Instead of hanging out with them in the living room, she spent more and more time in her bedroom, alone.
When Sunday morning finally rolled around, she could not wait for nine o’clock. The only problem was they had not determined whether Rooker would come out to the house, or if they would meet somewhere else. She did not want him to have to go through the sister gauntlet again.
She was dressed and pacing the living room when a car pulled into the driveway. She smiled when the driver climbed out and stood looking around. Since the eviction, they had not been taking care of the yard and gardens and suddenly she was embarrassed that he was seeing the house with the yard in such disarray.
Carri wanted to race out to him, but a look at her sisters who were sitting in the living room watching for their men to show up, she knew that would not go over well. Instead, she moved to the hall and stood there with one hand on the front door.
She waited until she heard his footsteps on the porch before opening the door and stepping out. She grinned widely as she threw herself at him, knowing he would catch her.
And he did.
