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The boiler had been replaced and I was able to look forward to hot showers on demand. That was a win, especially when it came to getting paint all over myself and having to wait for the water to warm.

And the big day came. It seemed the entire town of Pineberry Falls was stampeding toward us.

Daddy Bear had prepared small bites of food to eat, reminiscent of the picnics we took during the nicer afternoons. And I’d prepared with his help, of course, some peach tea. The first event I attended had stuck with me. I wanted to compete in the future, even if my sweetened tea was just a little too sweet, and that was coming from me, who absolutely loved sugary foods.

It was overwhelming at first. Daddy Bear hugged me for as long as I needed it, and I absolutely needed it. His touch was a necessity. I required as much physical contact as he could give me. I never enjoyed being the center of attention, which I’d been subject to a lot during exhibition and gallery openings, and insome ways, this was no different to that because I’d put several of my paintings up on the walls. All that was missing was a bidding section and some small red sold dots.

Gladys seemed to seek me out as people walked in and around the house. “It’s gorgeous,” she said. “I brought this by for you as well.” From her tote bag dangling off an arm, she pulled out a small bottle of champagne.

“Thank you,” I said, going in for hug and she surprised me with the force at which she squeezed me.

“Now you’ve invested all this time into the house and to Elijah, you can’t leave,” she said, and if she hadn’t been laughing, it might’ve sounded like a threat. Gladys was someone who I could never quite tell what she was thinking. “Anyway, I’m off, my show is about to start and I don’t know how to do that recording thing.”

“Ok, well, thank you for this, and your kind words,” I said.

As she passed by, I noticed she’d filled quite a bit of her tote bag with food, all within the blue floral napkins I’d set out in the kitchen. At least the food wasn’t going to go to waste.

I found Daddy Bear and showed him Gladys’ gift. He was standing in the yard with Oliver and his husband, Mason. They were talking about my ideas for a greenhouse out here since I couldn’t paint in that room all the time. I needed the natural light, and somewhere with a roof.

Life was easy here, I slipped right into it. The only time I had to think hard about anything recently was about which onesie or teddy I wanted in the evening. Although I knew that it wouldn’t all be possible without Elijah in the role of Daddy Bear, he really allowed me to slip into my role with ease, and it’s all I’d ever wanted. With the savings I’d amassed, I didn’t need to sell another painting until at least Christmastime.

Pulling him away from everything, we went upstairs together and into the bedroom.

“Baby, we have guests downstairs,” he said. “Let’s not start something they might here, or—”

Planting the bottle of champagne on the dresser, I opened up the first drawer where all my socks were. Folding inside two socks, I pulled out a key.

“I want you to move in with me,” I said, presenting the key to him.

He pulled me into his arms with such a force that the leg of the bed snapped clean off, slanting the bed and forcing us on the floor with a thud.

“Of course, I will,” he said in a break from all the laughter and rolling around. “But only if you let me make you a proper bed. Please.”

I kissed him. “I’m thinking four posts like a princess bed with nets around it, you know, like royalty.”

He kissed me back, tickling me belly. “Deal.”

Lifting ourselves up off the floor, I used the bedframe and the thud came again from how lopsided it had become. “Oops.”

“We should go downstairs and tell them what happened,” he said. “Unless you want them to think we’ve done something up here.” His big bushy brows wiggled at me.

“If we did, it might’ve broken a record.”

“Whoa, I last longer than that.”

“Do you?”

“Don’t make me give you a spanking, Malcolm.”

I gasped and pushed out my bottom lip to pout. “Maybe I like that.”

He pulled me into his arms. “You know what I like?” he asked. “Scrap that, love.”

Shaking my head, “nope, what?”

“You, silly.” He kissed my neck. “I love you.”

It was still summer, and I had melted at those words, like Jell-O left outside, I was a liquid mess, and I probably needed to get changed. “I love you too.”

This was my forever. I could feel it in my bones, well, in that and the puckering off my butthole. He did something nobody else ever had before, he gave it a pulse like a heart beating. That had to mean love. I was sure of it.

Pineberry Falls welcomes all, those in love, those looking for love, and those who forgot what love is…