Daddy's Sweet Girl (Montana Daddies 3)

“Ow!” She pouted as she reached back to rub her throbbing cheek. “That hurt.”

“It was meant to.” He moved to her closet and chose another onesie. “Need to move your stuff into my room.” He crouched before her. “Hold onto Daddy.”

She held onto his shoulders while she put first one foot then another into each leg of the onesie. This one was pink and had cats wearing tiaras on it. “Come on, I left your hairbrush and other stuff downstairs.”

“My hairbrush is in the bathroom,” she told him. It was one of the few things that had survived the destruction of her house.

“I bought you a new one today, remember?”

Yes, and unlike her lightweight plastic thing, the one he’d bought had been a heavy, wooden one.

He led her downstairs and put a cushion on the floor in front of the sofa. “Sit here, baby.” He grabbed the big bag of stuff he’d brought and set out the nail polish, hairbrush, a notebook, colored pencils and stickers. “Here, you can draw Daddy a picture while I do your hair.”

“You’re gonna brush my hair?” She turned in surprise as he settled on the sofa behind her.

“I sure am.” He grabbed the hairbrush and started combing her hair. She glanced at the notebook with a shrug. Might as well give it a go. It wasn’t long until she was completely occupied with drawing a picture of the beach, the rhythmic feel of the brush going through her hair relaxing her.

“That’s a really good picture, baby girl. You’re quite talented.”

Happiness filled her even though she knew he’d say that if she’d drawn something utterly awful. “Thanks, Daddy.”

“I’m going to put it on the fridge next to your rules.”

She screwed up her nose at the reminder but carefully ripped out the piece of paper and handed it to him.

“Why don’t you sit on the sofa now,” he suggested.

She realized her hair was practically dry as she climbed onto the sofa. Kent returned quickly and searched through Netflix for Tangled. Then he moved to sit on the coffee table and pulled her foot up onto his lap.

“Daddy? What are you doing?”

“Painting your toes.”

“But daddies don’t paint toes.”

“This daddy does.”

She watched him for a moment, certain he was going to muck up and spread nail polish everywhere or only paint half her nail. But she was surprised to see him perfectly paint each individual nail.

“You’re really good at that.”

“Of course, I am. I’m the daddy of a little girl, aren’t I?”

“Have you painted a lot of nails before?” she asked, surprised.

“No, but I painted Eden’s after her accident when she was in the hospital for a long time.”

Eden had been partially paralyzed from the accident that killed both his parents. It was so sweet to think of him painting his younger sister’s nails.

He moved to her other foot and she turned her attention to Tangled. When he finished with her feet, he moved to her fingers, painting those as well. She started to yawn and he sat down next to her, arranging her so her head was on his lap. She tried to stay awake through to the end of the movie, but her eyelids just grew heavier and heavier until finally darkness swamped her.

KENT GLANCED UP AS the door opened. Only one person had a key besides himself so he knew who it was. When his brother stepped inside, he held a finger to his lips, gesturing down to Abby who was fast asleep, her head resting on his thigh.

“Well now, that’s a cute sight,” Clint said in a soft voice, sitting in an armchair next to the sofa. He glanced at the T.V. with a smirk. “Never saw you as a Tangled fan.”

Kent raised his middle finger at him. “You knew what it was straight away.”

“One of Charlie’s favorites. They’d probably like to watch it together.”