Page 36 of Street

He made the story sound as if she were the heroine who saved the day. “I didn’t do that much.”

“Did you drive my motorcycle?”

“Only because I had a friend who taught me on a whim.”

“Male friend?” he asked, drawing the blanket under her chin. Rosa was tickled to hear the jealousy in his voice as she wiggled to a comfortable position. Watching a movie sounded fun, but spending quiet time with her Daddy in bed was a treat.

“Yeah, but he was in love with someone else.” When Street’s brow creased with worry, she quickly added, “He was kind and funny. No romantic feelings from either of us.”

“Okay. I owe him my thanks then for teaching you.”

“Maybe not. I crashed Tony’s bike the last time he let me ride.” Rosa couldn’t stop the laughter from spilling out of her at the horror on his face at the thought that she’d driven his pride and joy. “His bike was a piece of shit. The front tire got wobbly.”

“Anyone would go down in that case,” Street assured her.

“Exactly.” A yawn widened her mouth. “Oops, sorry.”

“How about if you close your eyes, Dinorosa, and I tell you the story of my first ride on a motorcycle?” Street relaxed onto his pillow and tugged Rosa and Inky to his side.

How did he know her eyes were tired? She snuggled close and followed his directions. The sound of his rumbling voice surrounded her as he described rebelling against his mother’s rules to take lessons. The instructor had shared a wide variety of boring information that Rosa tuned out as sleep reclaimed her.

When the alarm went off the next morning, Street diligently inserted the medicine Razor had prescribed before helping her into the pull-up style diaper the doctor had suggested. Thank goodness, he’d only sent medicine for two days. Rosa was sure her cheeks would stay pink permanently if she had to go bottom-up longer than that.

“The guys at the warehouse are going to get the idea that I get off on watching them work if I keep going in with a complete hard-on, Little girl,” Street said, smoothing her hair away from her blushing face. “I enjoy taking care of you. I think Razor creates vitamins for the other Little girls. He’ll see what your blood work requires when he gives you a physical for birth control.”

“No, Daddy. I can swallow pills.”

Street kissed her forehead. “I’ll leave you some breakfast in the refrigerator. No cutting pipe for seven days, remember? Your hands need to heal.”

“But I can work with Fury next week?” she asked.

“Of course. The lazy bastard told me he wouldn’t work on the piping until you could help him. He sent me a list of training videos. I’ll pull them up on the TV for you if you’re interested when you get up.”

Some books are best found by accident.

Take a slow look through Lokepub and see what stands out.

“Can I join you for breakfast? And watch the videos this morning?”

“Of course. If you are still interested after checking a few out, we’ll research some local intensive programs.”

“I don’t have any money to pay for them, Daddy. I can learn a lot from checking out those videos and working with Fury.”

“Are you against taking classes? We’ll have to find one where you can be safe.”

“I’d love to have a skill that could travel with me. Something other than working at a dive bar or restaurant.”

“Then we make that happen. You don’t need money to stay with me here, of course. But, if you’d like to be independent, I could check to see what positions are open at the warehouse or at Inferno,” Street offered.

“I’d love that. Would you do that? I could get cleaned up and come to fill out an application.”

“Let me talk to a few people this morning. I’ll have a good idea of what’s available tonight when I come home.”

“Thanks, Daddy. I’ll learn as much as I can today.” She could jot down a few key points she picked up on paper towels if she couldn’t find scrap paper somewhere. Should she ask him for some?

“No stressing, Little girl. Don’t hurt your hand taking notes. You won’t be able to do anything until your blisters heal,” he reminded her.

Rosa nodded as she wondered how he always knew what she was planning. Her hand needed to get better quickly.