Page 67 of Tessa

“No, Sir. Like I told you, Tessa snuck out at the crack of dawn before Dax and I were even awake. She—”

The next word he’d been going to say was “misunderstood,” but Baze was off again, jumping to conclusions.

“Why did she sneak out? What, she wanted to leave and you wouldn’t let her?”

Beau was done. He respected Baze, not only as his boss and as Tessa’s House Daddy, but also as a person. Still, he could only take so much.

“That’s enough,” he roared across the empty casino, stopping Baze in his tracks. “I’m not going to sit here and have you ask me a bunch of accusatory questions like I’m some kind of common criminal then cut me off with another round of bullshit before I even get a chance to answer. Now, I respect you very much, and I was kind of hoping to get your opinion on a few things, but to be honest, I have two upset Littles to deal with and I don’t have time for this. So we can sit down and have a conversation, or I’m going to leave and I’ll get my advice from someone else.”

That seemed to shut Baze up as he gestured to one of the small tables on the casino floor and waited for Beau to take a seat.

As soon as he did, Baze seemed to calm down. “Look, I’m sorry, man. It’s just I care about my girls an awful lot, and I’ve seen each of them upset before but never like this. And Jilly is beside herself, certain that something horrific has happened and I just got… pissed.”

“I get it. And I’m thankful she has you because I know she always will have some place to go and a soft place to land, but I’m certain that what happened with Tessa was nothing more than a simple misunderstanding.”

“Then why aren’t you upstairs trying to fix it, or blowing up her phone at the very least?”

Beau rubbed a hand across the lower half of his face. “I want to be and I will be, but there is stuff I have to figure out and take care of first.”

“I don’t understand. What could be more important than your Little girl?” Baze looked genuinely confused.

“Nothing is more important; I promise you that, but some things take priority because when I talk to Tessa, I’m going to need actions to back up my words and I need to make sure Dax and I are on the same page as well.”

“Where is Dax?” Beau questioned with a frown as if for the first time, he’d just noticed the other man’s absence.

“He’s upstairs. Grounded to the room.”

Beau’s eyebrows shot up. “Interesting. Go on.”

And so Beau did, telling the whole sordid story, the only detail he left out was what Tessa and Dax had done to get themselves into so much trouble, because honestly, he didn’t know how Baze would react and he figured it wasn’t any of his business. This was between him and Tessa. And Dax.

“So I’ve got a Little who thinks we are moving too slow and we are using her, oh and she apparently feels claustrophobic in our room as well, and a co-Daddy-slash-Little who is struggling to find balance in his new role, and I don’t know what to do about any of it.”

Beau nodded sagely. “It does sound like you fell into a whole pile of problems all at once. The good news is they are all fixable; assuming you want to fix them.”

“ I do. I do. I just haven’t even had a minute to sit down and try to work out how.”

“I get that. And I have suggestions, and solutions if you want them.”

“Yes! Sure! I mean, I’ll do anything!”

“Okay, well then. Here’s what you need to do.”

Baze leaned forward, conspiratorially and lowered his voice to a whisper. Beau leaned closer, until their foreheads were nearly pressed together.

Together, they almost made a whole plan.

Tessa

“Tessa?” Baze knocked lightly, entering when she didn’t answer and knelt on the floor next to the bed. “Tessa, Daddy Beau is here to see you.”

A mere couple of hours ago, the news would have made her ecstatic, but now it just made her angry. She’d been crying her eyes out in bed for hours, all day actually, and he was just now getting to check on her?

Great way to make her feel wanted when she literally felt like she was last place in a race of losers.

“I don’t wanna talk,” she mumbled from inside the cocoon she’d formed from her bed covers. “Tell him to go away.”

“Tessa honey? If you want me to do that I will, but I really think you should just hear him out. Sometimes things are not exactly as they seem.”