Family Camp (Daddy Dearest, #1)(31)

Geo laughed and raised his arms in triumph. “Yeah, baby! Great job, Jayden! Home run, whoo!”

Then he realized everyone was watching them. On the sidelines, there were a dozen cameras raised, filming.

Oh. Er. Hmm. Geo wiped his face, feeling sheepish.

That’s when a piercing scream rent the air.





Chapter 14




Geo would know that high-pitched shriek anywhere. Lucy.

His head whipped around to look at the sidelines. He spotted Van. Lucy had been with her. But Van was looking around too, her face stark, and then running for….

The bleachers. Oh God. Please don’t let it be bad. I’ll do anything. Please.

Geo sprinted. He flew across the field, pushed past bodies, and found his little girl. She was sitting on the ground next to the bleachers, screaming. Her face was purple with anguish and she held her hands palms up. One was an angry red and the other was bloody. Both knees were scraped too, one badly, blood 4pouring down her leg. Geo felt his head go woozy.

“It’s just blood,” he muttered to himself. “Juuust a little blood.”

Van was checking Lucy over. “Honey do you hurt anywhere besides your knees? Are your arms okay?” She was feeling around, checking for broken bones.

Lucy just wailed.

Geo sank down next to his little girl. “Lucy, sweetie, it’s okay.”

It was so not okay.

Van looked up at him guiltily. “I was watching her, Geo. I swear. Ten seconds ago, she was right beside me.”

“Not your fault.” Geo began his own pat-down of Lucy. But it appeared her scraped hand and knees were the main issue.

“She fell from here,” said a little boy helpfully, pointing at the third row of the bleachers.

Oh God. It wasn’t terribly far. It could have been worse, but it was still bad enough. Geo felt so guilty.

“Thank you, Aston,” Cindy said, coming up alongside Geo. “It’s okay, everyone! Geo, let’s take Lucy to the nurse’s office to get her cleaned up.”

“Yeah.” Geo felt nauseous. He hated seeing Lucy hurt. He normally wasn’t a wuss about blood but seeing it on his own kids was a brand-new level of disturbing. She’ll be fine, he told himself. Buck up, man. She needs you.

“Here are your dolls, Lucy,” Jayden said nicely. He put Lucy’s pink backpack down next to her and patted her arm. “I put them all in your bag, okay?”

“Aw, thanks, Jayden,” said Geo. Lucy kept screaming at the top of her lungs, but she clutched the backpack with the hand that wasn’t bleeding.

“Okay. Let’s go. Come here, honey.” Cindy held her arms out to Lucy.

But Lucy’s gaze went to Geo and she held up her arms to him, crying so hard her chest shook.

Oh. Oh God. Wasn’t that a kick in the feels.

“Yeah, baby, Daddy will take you.” Geo gathered Lucy up, holding her fully in his arms for the first time. Her bloody knees went to either side of his ribs. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his shoulder. Her little body was hot and sweaty, her cries were deafening next to his ear, and she was probably bleeding on his best T-shirt. But he wouldn’t have put her down for the world.

Geo started to stand and felt a strong hand help him to his feet. He looked up into Travis’s eyes. His sunglasses had been pushed up onto his head and his blue eyes looked stricken and damp with unshed tears.

“You okay?”

Geo made a face, rubbing Lucy’s back. “I will be if she is. Better let the nurse check her out.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll come along.”

Geo started to walk, not sure where he was going. He was in a kind of daze. Travis, still holding his arm, turned him and steered him towards the lodge. But Cindy stepped in.

“I’ll take them,” she told Travis.

“I got this.”

“No, you need to finish this game, Trav,” Cindy said pointedly.

Travis blinked. He gave Geo an apologetic look. “Yeah, I’d better do that. I’ll come find you later.”

“’Kay.” Geo wanted to lean on Travis. With Lucy hurt, he wanted to lean right into those strong arms and have someone to share this with—the worry and the love both. But that was dumb. Travis wasn’t his to lean on. He wasn’t part of this family.

Without looking back, Geo followed Cindy across the lawn toward the lodge.

The nurse checked Lucy out on a paper-covered exam table in the nurse’s office. She’d banged her hip and elbow. Bruises were already forming. But nothing was broken, and she didn’t seem to have hit her head. Geo held Lucy’s arm while the nurse cleaned the skinned areas and put on antibiotic ointment and Band-Aids. He got Lucy’s dolls out of her backpack and gave them funny voices as he bounced them over her, asking about her “owies” and making up a silly argument about the camp’s name.

Lucy stopped screaming. She even gave him a little smile.

After the wounds were dressed, the nurse tutted at Geo’s pallor and shaking hands and made him sit in a chair and brought him orange juice—which, you know, made him feel like a complete idiot. But the accident honestly had shaken him, so he sat still and held Lucy in his lap. She conked out against his chest. She smelled of sunshine and antibiotic cream and a slightly funky little-girl smell that told Geo he really needed to give her a bath that night. He put his nose in her hair and breathed her in, thanked God she was all right.