“Did he hurt you?”
The blunt question knocked Hayleigh back a step. “What? No!” Glancing around, she lowered her voice and leaned in conspiratorially. “He got a little rough but not in a bad way, if you know what I mean.”
Sadie’s eyes went wide, and a giggle burst out of her before she clamped her hands over her mouth. “You and I are going to have a girls’ night soon, as grownups, so you can tell me all about it. For now, why do you think something’s wrong?”
“He seemed upset, but he wouldn’t tell me why. When I asked, he flat out lied and said it was nothing. It’s not like him. Something big must have happened.”
“What do you think it could be?”
“I don’t know, but we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
As she’d expected, Sadie’s eyes lit up with excitement. “We can be detectives!”
“Exactly. Let’s go.”
“No.” Sadie shook her head. “We have to be undercover. So, we have to pretend like everything is okay, for right now. We’ll have to find a way to get ourselves put on kitchen duty for dinner or breakfast.”
“Oh geez. Not another prank.” Connor would kill her if she got caught up in another Sadie scheme so soon after the last one.
“No, not another prank,” Sadie assured her. “I’ll think of something. For now, we just have to act like everything is perfectly normal.”
“I know what to do,” Sadie whispered at dinner, dropping into the chair beside Hayleigh.
“I have a feeling I’m going to regret this,” Hayleigh replied with a moan. The more she’d thought about it during the day, the less prudent it seemed to let Sadie come up with a plan all on her own.
“Probably. But it’ll be worth it to find out what’s wrong with your Daddy.”
“I hope you’re right.” Hayleigh sighed. “What’s the plan?”
“Just follow my lead.”
“Oh, no. Not again, Sadie. My Daddy specifically told me not to go along with any more of your plans unless I know what they are upfront. I’m already going to be in enough trouble if I know you.”
Sadie leaned in and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “We need to start a food fight.”
It was a horrible idea. Not only would Master Derek lose his mind, Connor would be furious. There was no doubt in Hayleigh’s mind that she would be on the receiving end of her Daddy’s belt later that night if she went along with this crazy plan of Sadie’s.
But, it just might work. Master Derek would probably give them kitchen duty for a week, and they could use that time to figure out what was going on with Connor.
Without giving herself time to talk either of them out of it, Hayleigh scooped up a handful of mashed potatoes and flung them straight at Sadie’s face. The other Littles at the table went completely silent for a moment and Hayleigh could have sworn they were holding their breath waiting to see what would happen.
With a handful of green beans, Sadie climbed up on her chair, thrust her fist in the air, and screamed “Food fight!” at the top of her lungs.
Chaos erupted around them. It started with their fellow Littles, who were screaming and laughing as they flung everything from mashed potatoes to vanilla pudding at each other, but in no time at all, the pandemonium spread to other tables.
“Sadie Hawkins!”
Master Derek’s booming voice brought the food fight to a screeching halt and every single person in the restaurant turned to face him.
“Front and center, little girl. Now!”
Sadie wasted no time scrambling down from her chair and hurrying over to her Daddy. “What is going on here, Sadie Marie? You better have a good explanation for this.”
“I, um, I…” Sadie stammered.
“It was my fault, sir.” Hayleigh rushed over and stood next to Sadie. “I just thought it would be fun and I threw the mashed potatoes at Sadie. It wasn’t her fault.”
For the first time since she’d moved to the Ranch, Master Derek looked like he was at a loss for words. Then his eyes narrowed, and he pinned his wife with a stern glare. “Is that true, little girl?”