Page 26 of Daddy’s Little Duckling (Ivory Mountain Daddies #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

RAELYN

A couple weeks have passed and it’s finally the Saturday of the company party. Rae had been not so patiently waiting for this day. She had been slowly dropping hints to Miles about this Little that Rae wanted to introduce him to.

Not enough to give away that she was the mystery woman he has been thinking about and looking for since the last encounter, but just enough to keep him interested in meeting this woman. Rae couldn’t wait to see his reaction to Olivia being there.

Over the past few weeks, Rae kept asking Emmett about Miles and how he was as a Daddy. She wanted to make sure that he would be a good Daddy for Olivia.

No one would hurt her best friend and if she could keep that from occurring then that’s exactly what she planned to do. Emmett kept giving her strange looks everytime that she asks another question or mentions something else about Miles being lonely.

He seems like he is slowly catching on to her plan to play cupid, but he didn’t mention it to her and she wasn’t going to bring it up at all. She didn’t want the punishment that she knew would follow, so the longer that she was able to postpone that the better she would be.

When planning the company party, there had been many different options of places to host the party, but eventually they settled on the local park.

There were plenty of areas to break off and mingle in small groups and all the kids that they knew would be there would have somewhere to go and play.

Rae and Olivia were of course excited to have the chance to play on the playground, as well. It wasn’t often that they got to play together out in public without getting looks and hate for it.

Apparently grown adults playing on a playground is frowned upon and Rae believed that it was really because those people were just jealous.

There was no reason to not enjoy playing on the playground, even as an adult. Everyone should be able to do that no matter their age.

Having the company party at the park meant that Rae had a couple different places that she could get Miles and Olivia together.

Originally, she thought about just introducing them together, but that didn’t seem like it was grand enough!

Rae wanted it to be special and so she continued to plot. Finally settling on a plan, Rae just had to put it into action.

“Raelyn, it's almost time to go! Are you ready?”

Spinning around one more time in the mirror, she smoothed down the dress that she was wearing. Daddy had surprised her with it earlier this week.

It was a pretty peach colored sundress with ruffles along the bottom.

It fit perfectly and was a soft cotton material.

It seemed like forever ago that they had the conversation about her processing disorder, but it still surprised her everytime Daddy took the extra time to find something that wouldn’t harm her.

He always went the extra mile for her and she appreciated it so much. Rae always reminded him every chance that she could that she loved how he took care of her and didn’t belittle the struggles she faced.

“I’m coming, Daddy! Just one second!”

Rae dashed into their bedroom and slipped into the closet to find her white converse. Jamming her feet into them as quickly as she could, she took off out of the room before remembering the last time that she ran in the house.

Not wanting a repeat of the last spanking she had gotten, Rae slowed her steps and met Daddy at the door.

“Okay Daddy, I’m ready now! I can’t wait to meet everyone and spend some more time with Olivia.”

Emmett grinned down at her and gave her a quick kiss before slipping a light cardigan on her shoulders. It was the beginning of fall and they were finally having fall temperatures.

Rae loved it! Her favorite time of year was fall. She loved watching the leaves change colors and of course everything pumpkin spice would finally be back into season.

They headed towards the park where a catering company had worked overtime to set everything up for them. Rae couldn’t wait to see it all come together.

Emmett made sure to introduce her to everyone they spoke to. For once Rae felt important and like she belonged somewhere.

Everyone was so kind and made her feel welcome and she loved that. She kept looking around for Olivia’s car. She had texted earlier and said that she was running late.

“Hey there, Little bit” she heard from behind her before she felt a ruffle on her head.

“Uncle M! Don’t do that. Daddy worked hard on my hair today and you are gonna ruin it.” she growled at him.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry, Little bit. I’ll remember that for next time.”

Rae gave him one last look before grinning, sweeping in, and giving him a big hug. No matter how much he annoyed her sometimes, she would never turn down one of his hugs. They were nothing like Daddy’s hugs, but they were a close second.

“The party looks great, man. Everyone seems to be having a great time.”

“Thanks! I couldn’t have done it without Rae and her best friend, Olivia. They did most of the planning for it.”

At the mention of Olivia’s name Rae looked around again. Something didn’t seem right since Rae knew that Olivia didn’t live very far from here.

Checking her phone again for a message, she tried to push aside the nagging thoughts that something was wrong. There was no need to panic until she had a reason to.

“Daddy, can we plleeaassseeee go on the swings now? I’ve been waiting so patiently.”

“Yes, Little girl, we can go on the swings.”

Rae took off running towards the swings and could hear the sound of Daddy’s laughter following behind her. Grabbing the first one she came to, Rae not so patiently waited for Emmett to finally step up behind her and start to push.

“Higher Daddy! I wanna touch the sky!”

“This is high enough. Wouldn’t want you to fall out and get hurt.”

Rae groaned. Sometimes he took this whole health and safety thing too far. There was no way that she was going to fall and get hurt with him right beside her.

He would never let that happen, but she wasn’t going to push the issue and risk getting lines or a time out .

She learned a few weeks ago that lines were not fun to do after getting a spanking after she got caught lying to Daddy about taking her nap one afternoon when she was off and he was in the office. The darn baby monitor gave her away and she was still plotting how to get rid of it.

The ringing of her cell phone caught her off guard. Everyone she knew that would have called her was here, except for Olivia.

Dread set in her stomach and she waited for Daddy to slow the swing down enough for her to get off and look at her phone. Olivia’s name flashed across the screen before it hung up. Quickly dialing her back, Rae tried to push back the thoughts in her mind.

“Hey Olivia! What’s going on?”

“Rae, I have a problem. Is there any way your Daddy can come help me change my tire?”

“Change your tire? What happened?”

“I was driving down Second Avenue when I heard a loud popping sound. I was able to guide my car into a parking lot, but of course I have no way of changing this tire by myself.”

“Okay, don’t worry. We will figure out a plan to get to you. Just hang tight.”

Telling Olivia bye, Rae turned to Daddy who had been patiently waiting on her to explain what was going on.

“Daddy, Olivia is stuck in a random parking lot with a blown tire. She wants you to come and help change it.”

“I can’t go help her myself since I can’t really leave the party, but Miles would be the perfect substitute. He worked in a mechanic shop throughout college and would be better suited to help her do that.”

Rae fought back the grin that was trying to sneak across her face. This wasn’t the way that she wanted them to meet, but it would have to do .

They headed over to where Miles was standing talking to another gentleman that Rae was introduced to but couldn’t remember his name.

“Hey man, there’s a slight problem that could use your expertise. Rae just got a call from her best friend, Olivia, that she’s stranded in a parking lot with a blown tire. Is there any way you can take Rae and go meet her and get the tire changed?”

“Of course. I would be happy to help.”

Daddy leaned down and pressed a kiss on her cheek.

“Come on, squirt, let's go help your friend.”

Rae grabbed Miles’ hand and skipped alongside him towards his truck. His truck was just as big as Daddy’s was and he had to help her into it. After buckling, Rae dug out her phone to shoot Olivia a quick text letting her know what was going on.

Raelyn: Hey, so Daddy couldn’t come, but Miles and I are headed your way to help.

Olivia: Okay, I’m sitting in my car waiting for you. See you soon!

Pulling up her location on her phone, Rae gave Miles directions toward where Olivia was at. They were less than 10 minutes away from her, so it wouldn’t take long.

As they were pulling up, Rae directed Miles to where Olivia’s car was parked. She heard a growl come from the seat beside her, but decided to ignore it.

Rae knew that Olivia didn’t have the best car and it probably deserved to go to the junkyard, but Rae’s car isn’t much better so she didn’t feel right commenting on it.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and went to open the door before the clearing of a throat stopped her. She waited until Miles opened her door before giving him a look of exasperation. Jumping down, they walked over to Olivia’s car just as she was getting out.

“You…it’s you.” Olivia whispered

“Well, hi again, Little girl. I hoped that one day I would get to run into you again. I have been beating myself up for weeks for not getting your name and number.”

Olivia continued to stare at Miles. She had been struck speechless and Rae tried not to giggle at her expense. Rae pulled Olivia to the side while Miles got to work on changing her tire.

“How do you know my mystery man?” Olivia whisper-shouted at Rae.

“Ummm, well you see, he is Emmett’s best friend.”

“What! You didn’t say anything!”

“After our first conversation at the coffee shop, I had a suspicion that he was the guy you ran into, but I couldn’t prove it. It wasn’t until I dragged hints out of him that I put it all together.”

“You still never said anything.”

“That’s ‘cause I was planning on putting y’all together at the party. I had this whole scheme planned out, but I guess it isn’t needed now. Seems like the universe decided it wanted to play matchmaker instead.”

Rae searched for any look of hurt on Olivia’s face. She didn’t want to hurt her friend and was worried that she might have by keeping this all a secret. She didn’t see any and was grateful for that.

“Alright ladies, tire is all changed and we are ready to head back to the party.”

Olivia looked like she was ready to bolt. Rae refused to let that happen.

“Okay, Uncle M! I’ll just ride back with Olivia. ”

“I’ll allow it only because I will be following right behind you. Don’t think that I didn’t hear your conversation though. We will be having a talk with your Daddy about all of this. I’m sure he would love to know exactly what his Little girl has been up to the past few weeks.”

Groaning, Rae turned and headed to get into the car. Just as she was closing the door she heard a low mummer from Miles.

“Go ahead and get in the car, Little Bunny. I’ll be right behind you and we will have plenty of time to talk later.”

Olivia slid into the driver seat and Rae watched the blush creep across her face. She didn’t plan for this to be the great matchmaking scheme, but she wasn’t upset about it either.

The greatest two people she knew in the world, besides Daddy of course, finally met again and she got to be front row seat to it all.

Totally worth the punishment she had coming after Miles told Daddy about what she had tried to do. Grinning, Rae settled back into the seat as they took off towards the party.