Page 8 of Daddy’s Fortitude

And he never thought anything was cute. Honey was always showing him videos of kittens and puppies. He found none of them cute.

Honey thought she’d eventually find something he’d deem adorable one day, but he doubted it.

Ammo just wasn’t built like that. He was built to fight and defend. Not look at something and think it was adorable.

Maybe it was the breakfast sandwich. It had made him ill. That had to be it, right?

What she’d just done hadn’t been cute at all. It had been utterly idiotic. She was a walking liability. She’d stepped off a curb without looking and nearly got run over. When she’d seen that truck coming toward her, she’d froze. Without him, she’d now be on her way to the hospital, or worse.

So no, he definitely did not find her cute.

“You’re saying that was my fault?” she said with outrage. “That nearly getting run over was my problem, and not due to that crazy truck driver, who, I might add, didn’t even stop to make sure I was all right.”

“Yeah, he should’ve stopped,” he agreed.

“Right, it was a dick move,” she said, frowning at where the truck had been.

“It was also a dick move to try and cross the road without looking where you were going or if any traffic was coming. There’s a pedestrian crossing twenty feet away.”

She just stared at him again. He was starting to wonder if she wasn’t taking in everything he was saying. It seemed to be taking her a while to process things.

Maybe she was in shock after what had just happened, but she should take a long, hard look at herself.

She needed to be more careful, and if she couldn’t do that, then someone ought to be watching her.

“Who’s supposed to be watching you?” he asked.

“What?” she said, looking confused. “Someone’s watching me?” She stared around worriedly. Was she searching for the person who was supposed to be looking after her?

Whoever it was, they were doing a shit job.

“Look, whoever’s meant to be looking after you needs to make sure that you don’t do dumb things, like try to cross the road without looking. “

“Who are you? You don’t live here.”

He sighed, “No, that’s been well established. I don’t live here. Thank God.”

“Thank God?” she repeated. “Did you really just say ‘thank God’?”

“Yep. Thank God. Are you having problems with your hearing?”

“I think I’m having problems with everything today. I think I woke up this morning and entered the Twilight Zone.”

“Well, step back out of the Twilight Zone and into reality,” he told her. “You nearly got run over because you weren’t watching what you were doing. You were too busy on your phone. Next time you go to cross the street, put the phone away first. You could have died.”

“I think you’re being a bit dramatic. I would have moved out of the way.”

Yeah, he didn’t think so. She’d just stood there, frozen.

“Just pay attention to your surroundings.”

“Do you always just bark out orders at strangers?” she asked curiously.

He shrugged. “I do when I’ve just saved their life.”

“And have you saved many people’s lives?” she scoffed.

“Yes, I have. Usually because they were being an idiot.” He leaned in close. “Don’t be an idiot again.”