Page 99 of Daddy’s Fortitude

Ammo sighed. “Fine. Get her the flavors she wants with whipped cream and a cherry.”

“Two cherries,” she said, holding up her fingers.

The girl told them that she’d bring the ice cream over, along with Ammo’s black cup of coffee that he’d ordered. Ugh, who came to an ice cream parlor and ordered coffee?

And black coffee? Even worse.

The ice cream and coffee soon arrived, and she stared at his coffee in dismay.

“Are you sure you don’t want something else in there? Maybe some caramel creamer? Perhaps a bit of hazelnut creamer, something to sweeten it up?”

“Do you think I need sweetening up?” he asked.

“Of course not. I’d never say that,” she told him, attempting to keep a straight face.

He most definitely needed some sweetening up. He took life a bit too seriously at times. Sometimes you just had to eat the ice cream. It was ages since she’d come here. Mostly she’d eaten ice cream at home, sitting on the couch all by herself, wondering when Charlie was going to come home and what he was up to.

Okay, she didn’t want to think about that right now.

Charlie was gone, and she had to move on with her life, starting with somewhere to move to.

“Where do you think I should move to?” she said. “I grew up in Boston, but I’m uncertain about going back there. There’s nothing for me there, and I just feel like it’s moving backward rather than forward. What do you think about San Diego? Or New Orleans? I’ve been to New Orleans a few times, and I did like it.”

He just grunted and sipped his coffee. What did that mean? Did he not approve of New Orleans? Did he not like the idea of her moving there?

Although she probably wouldn’t be able to afford the rent prices. She really needed to think of what she wanted to do for a job. Suddenly, everything started to overwhelm her, and she put the spoon down.

“I should really be sorting this out instead of eating ice cream, shouldn’t I?”

He probably thought she was ridiculous. She needed lollipops and bribes of ice cream to get a blood test taken. It was something every other adult in the world probably did easily.

He eyed her for a long moment. “Eat the ice cream. Decisions will still be there afterward.”

“Yeah?” she asked. “You don’t think it’s silly that I needed ice cream to get a blood test?”

Ammo shrugged his wide shoulders. “Maybe everyone who doesn’t need ice cream after a blood test is in the wrong.”

She sent him a shy smile. “Maybe you’re right.” She took a bite of her ice cream. “Mmm, delicious.” She licked the spoon clean “This is the best-tasting ice cream I’ve ever had. You want to try some?”

“No.”

Well, there was no reason to be rude about it. She wasn’t going to force him to try her ice cream after all.

Ammo was dying, completely and utterly dead. How the hell did he have an erection in an ice cream parlor in the middle of the day?

He couldn’t remember the last time this had happened to him. In fact, he was fairly certain this had never happened to him. Maybe as a teenager he’d been unable to control his cock. But he now prided himself on his control.

Control that she seemed to wear away so easily. But did she have to lick her ice cream off her spoon like that?

So sexually.

So suggestively.

And the thing was, he didn’t think that she even knew what she was doing. He was pretty certain she was just doing something she did often, which made him want to growl and push her behind him so that no one else could see her eating ice cream like this. Luckily, there was no one else here to stare at them.

“Are you really certain?” She held out a spoonful of ice cream to him, moving it from side to side and back and forth.

“Are you sure that you don’t want just a little bit of this ice cream?” As she moved it back and forth, the ice cream flew off the end of the spoon and landed, plop, right on his nose.