Page 197 of Cowboy Daddies

“Me?” he asked. “I keep getting you into trouble, little girl?”

“How many times do I have to tell you that I am perfectly formed? I am not little.”

“Maybe I wasn’t talking about your size,” he murmured.

Before she could figure out what the heck he meant he drew her foot out from under the freezing cold water.

Casey breathed out a sigh of relief, that water was freezing cold.

“Then what were you talking about?” she snapped.

“That’s a conversation for another day. Keep still, stop wriggling around. I need to check your foot. It still looks red and sore. We’re going to the medical center.”

It was just a small burn. He was completely overreacting.

“I don’t need a doctor,” Casey told him.

Also, she couldn’t afford a doctor. But she definitely wasn’t going to tell him that. The last thing she wanted was a lecture about how much trouble she got into.

“I still think it’s your fault that I’ve gotten into so much trouble lately,” she said. “You got me arrested!”

“No, I called Happy to move you along. You got arrested because you were sleeping in your car in a public park. Something that we need to have a discussion about.”

No, they most certainly did not have to have a discussion about that.

“Wait . . . how did you know that I got arrested for sleeping in my car?”

“This is a small town and there isn’t much that I don’t know.”

Sheesh, arrogant much?

“Right, come on, enough procrastinating. I’m taking you to the medical center to get checked out.”

“I’m not going to see a doctor!”

He lifted her into his arms and she started to fight him until she felt a slap against her ass and froze.

He didn’t! He wouldn’t!

Jeb started walking out of the room.

“Did you just spank me?” she asked. “After our conversation about consent? Which I did not give?”

“I can’t believe you’re wearing shorts and sandals in this weather,” he grumbled. “You should be dressing in warmer clothes. You’ll get a cold.”

“Jeb Wilder! Are you listening to yourself? You spanked me!”

Suddenly, she realized that they were in the middle of the diner.

Holy heck.

She didn’t know it was possible for her cheeks to get this hot.

“Jeb!” someone called out. “You spanked the poor little thing? Doesn’t look like she could hurt a fly.”

“He didn’t say she hurt no one, Eb,” someone else said. “Maybe she got all sassy. Or put herself in danger.”

“Ahh, if she put herself in danger, then he was right to turn her over his knee,” another person added.