Page 23 of Margo

Margo looked from them to Knox, her eyes also wide as she realized what he was saying. “I was right, wasn’t I? I told you so! It was an ambush!”

“Just read, little one.” He pushed the pile of journals toward her and didn’t dismiss the others, preferring to let them squirm.

Margo dived into the pile, reading in the same order he had, starting with Mariah and ending with Jilly. When she finished, she closed the last book with a little too much force and frowned.

“How do you feel, little one?”

“A little sad and a little mad, and mostly glad.”

“I feel the same,” he admitted. “You know what’s bothering me, though?”

“What’s that, Daddy?”

“It’s bothering me that you’ve been punished, and your friends haven’t.”

“Oh.” She twisted her lips into a frown. “That’s not bothering me.”

“It’s not?” He wasn’t the only one in the room surprised by her admission. All of the other girls were watching her with shocked expressions.

Margo shook her head. “Not really. They did it because they love me. And they could see what was best for me even when I couldn’t.”

“True. But the way they went about it was very naughty.” He spoke more for their benefit than Margo’s, but he was talking to Margo more than to them. “And you were punished first because I thought for sure you were to blame. Not a single person piped up to correct that assumption either,” he said pointedly.

“It’s okay.”

“It’s really not. Not in the least. Not in any way, shape or form. We all owe you an apology, starting with me.”

“You?” Margo repeated dumbly.

“Yes. I was quick to blame without getting the full story, and I jumped to conclusions. It’s unfair that you were the first one punished while your friends went down for a nap, getting off practically scot-free, so I’m sorry.”

Margo turned to face him and placed a hand on each of his cheeks. “Wow,” she said. “You’re really going hard for that Daddy of the year award aren’t you?”

“I beg your pardon?”

Margo giggled. “I appreciate the apology. So, so much. But don’t rewrite the story to expand your own guilt. I did participate, and I did refuse to tell you what I knew. If I had, you’d have gotten a pretty clear picture of what went down. You did the best you could with what you had, and when you got more information, you apologized. You get an A plus on the Daddy report card.”

He chuckled and saw the other Littles nodding their heads vigorously in agreement.

“We’re sorry too, Margo,” Mariah piped up. “Well, we’re sorry we set you up and threw you under the bus. We’re not sorry about the end result.” Jade, Jilly, Tessa and Ellie echoed the sentiment.

“You’re all still getting spankings tonight,” Knox informed them.

A collective sigh rumbled through the group. “Yes, Mister Knox.”

“All right. Go back to cleaning while I fix dinner. We got caught up in naughties and skipped lunch, so we’ll eat early tonight. Margo, it’s not your night for kitchen duty, but I think your friends need to handle this mess on their own for a while. So you can help me make spaghetti while your friends try to sort out game and puzzle pieces.”

“Yay, s’getti!” Margo cheered from her spot on his lap.

Knox laughed at her antics, feeling much better about everything. The girls would pay the price for their actions, Margo wasn’t harboring any hard feelings, and he finally had a Little girl of his own, at least for the next seven days. The trick was going to be convincing her to extend seven days into forever.

“Daddy?” Margo asked, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “Do we hafta have vegetables with our s’getti?”

“Vegetables are good for you,” Knox answered rotely even though he wasn’t big on vegetables himself. He was much more a meat and potatoes guy.

“Vegetables are yucky.”

“I don’t disagree but we’re going to have one anyway and you’re all gonna eat them. You have a choice between carrots, green beans, and corn. Pick one.”