Page 2 of Kay (Daddies Ink #5)

Kay

I sat at my station cleaning up from my last client.

I couldn’t stop playing Lennon’s words over and over in my head.

She was obviously hurting and the Daddy in me couldn’t let it go.

I was also shocked by her admittance of having feelings toward me.

I’d had feelings for the curly- haired beauty since I’d seen her dance the first night at The Thirsty Turtle, but it never seemed that she felt the same, so I hadn’t even tried to get romantically involved with her.

“Hi, Auntie Kay.” Eliose said as she came skipping into my station.

“Good afternoon, sweet girl,” I answered.

“Thank you again for painting the walls so pretty in the playroom.”

Smiling, at her sweet manners, I said, “You’re welcome, honey.”

“I made you something,” she said, pulling a card from the front of her dress pocket. She handed it to me and the adorable drawing on the front made my heart swell in appreciation. It was me and the four Little girls. We were holding hands and standing under a rainbow.

“I love this, Eliose. Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome,” she answered.

“Are you helping Daddy out at the shop today?” I asked her. She and Allyson worked at Daddies Ink part time while they were in college.

“Yas, ma’am. Until lunch time. Then I hasta go to class,” she said, frowning.

“Are you not excited about class today?” I tilted my head in surprise. Both Littles usually loved going to school.

“Allyson is still sick and she’s not gonna be there.”

“But you’re going to still have a good day,” Blade said, coming and wrapping his arms around her. He rested his chin on her shoulder and pressed a kiss to her neck.

“Maybe,” she grumbled.

“Go work on your homework, baby. I need to talk to Auntie Kay,” he said, sending her off with a pat to her booty.

“Oh no. Am I in trouble?” I teased.

He chuckled. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright. You’ve been off for a few days.”

“It’s that obvious, huh?”

“Eh, Rogue shot you the bird yesterday and you didn’t even call her on it,” he said with a sheepish shrug.

“She did what? ”

Blade laughed.

“I haven’t been feeling like myself. I’m sorry,” I said feeling guilty.

“Don’t apologize, talk to me. You’re always there for us, let us be there for you.”

His words soothed some of the hurt in my spirit. “Shut the door,” I told him while I pinned Eliose’s card to the wall.

He did before planting his big ass on the side of my desk. Normally I’d fuss, but he was being very genuine, so I let it slide.

“At the risk of sounding like a complete bitch, I’m feeling discouraged about being the only one in the group that doesn’t have a Little one.” I didn’t mention Lennon due to fear of violating her privacy.

He crossed his thick arms, and studied me. “I’m sorry. That must be really hard, Kay.”

“It is and maybe I’m taking it harder than I should because I’m a female Daddy and am projecting my fears about being unwanted onto a current situation.”

“You’re worried because you’re female, you might not find a Little one?”

“I worry most Little ones who want a Daddy want a male one. Maybe they have an idea of what a Daddy should be and I need to be realistic that maybe they’re not picturing a woman,” I admitted.

The words tasted gross in my mouth, but I had been really concerned that was possibly what Lennon was feeling.

Blade chuckled. “We really are our own worst enemies, aren’t we?”

I cocked my eyebrow, waiting on him to continue.

“I have seen you beautifully counsel people who are concerned about their dynamics, people who are worried because they’re not the traditional caregiver type and every time you have assured them that there is someone in the world for them.

You tell them it may require a little extra time to find them, but you always assure them that being their genuine self is better than pretending to be someone they're not.”

The urge to smack him was strong. He was right, though.

“You’re a Daddy, Kay. You know that, I know that. And being a Daddy isn’t dependent on what gender you are. Being a Daddy requires you to have a dominant heart, not a dick.”

At his last words, I picked up a pen and hurled it at his head. He dodged it easily, but laughed as he did.

“Stop being so hard on yourself. Your Little one is trying to find their way to you. Just be patient.”

He left my office without saying anything else, but no more words were needed.

He was right. Being a woman didn’t make me any less of a Daddy Dom and soon I would have my Little one in my arms. Until then I would have to carry them in my heart even though I was pretty sure I knew exactly who she was.

***

Lennon

“Hey!” Blade said, meeting me with a big smile. “I didn’t realize you had an appointment today.”

“I don’t. I was actually hoping to talk to Kay.”

“She’s in her office. I can show you the way,” Eliose said, standing up from the bench she was sitting on.

“Is she busy?” I asked, hating the idea of interrupting her. I was already nervous enough, I didn’t want to disrupt her and make her angry.

“No. She’s got her door open and that means we can go in without getting in trouble.”

I nodded and followed the energetic Little girl back to Kay’s office. I wondered if Eloise ever felt like she was a round peg in a world full of square holes. Probably not. She probably never struggled with finding her place in the world.

“Auntie Kay?”

Kay looked up from her desk and smiled at Eloise. It made everything inside of me hurt. I longed for someone to look at me with that kind of acceptance.

“Well hello, Little ones,” Kay said, standing and walking to her door.

“Lennon wanted to see you. I was just helping her find you,” Eliose explained.

“Thank you, honey,” Kay said with a warm smile that I was sure was aimed at the other Little girl and not at me.

“Have a good day!” She skipped off, probably back to her Daddy.

“Hey, darlin’, come on in,” Kay said, motioning for me to take a seat.

Dragging my feet, I crossed the carpeted area and sat in the closest chair.

She laughed, and despite my mood it brought a smile to my face.

Kay’s laugh was probably the thing I loved most about her.

It was the best—joyful and uplifting. Deep and loud, throaty, but with a warmth and familiarity that wrapped around you like a soft blanket.

Her laugh made you feel like you weren’t facing your monsters alone anymore.

The amount of times it had brought me comfort while I was waiting backstage to dance at The Thirsty Turtle were innumerable.

It wasn’t just her laugh that I adored, though.

She was a genuinely good person and sponsored several charities, plus she volunteered at the local animal shelter twice a month.

Kay was also funny and inviting, and so damn beautiful.

I was obsessed with her hair, it was dark brown and glossy and she changed the colored streaks in it routinely.

I enjoyed how playful that made her seem.

Her body was soft and thick and I often found myself longing to explore it, even though I’d never been with a woman sexually.

Kay had a beautiful way of making you feel heard and seen.

“Lennon, honey?”

Shaking my head, I realized I’d been daydreaming. Heat rushed to my face and I was embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I was lost in thought.”

“That’s okay,” she said, smiling again. “You just looked like you were coming in facing death. Are you okay?”

“I actually came by because I wanted to apologize. I was rude to you last week and I’m sorry. You were just trying to help and I snapped at you.”

Kay sat on her desk and folded her hands in her lap. “Well, thank you for your apology, but it isn’t needed, darlin’. We all have hard days.”

“I did something wrong, something bad and someone was upset with me about it and I took it really hard and then you were just the first person I saw after it happened and I wanted you to stay and watch the movie with me and for some reason that just made me panic because I’m never gonna get it right, but I’m really sorry.

That didn’t give me the right to talk to you that way. ”

“Oh, honey, those are a lot of feelings. No wonder you were so stressed out,” she said, kneeling in front of me.

“I know, but it wasn’t your fault and I shouldn’t have told you or taken it out on you.”

“I’m glad you told me, you silly goose. Nobody deserves to carry unnecessary weight. Tell me what you did that you think was bad.” She rubbed my knee softly.

“It was bad.”

“I have a feeling it wasn’t. How about you tell me and then I can decide, darlin’.”

“My accountant lost her grandmother and I video chatted her to ask how she was doing,” I explained. Shame climbed its way up my spine like a choking weed.

Kay studied me sharply. “And?”

“And?” I repeated, not understanding.

“And then what happened, honey?”

“Oh. Then she told me we weren’t friends and I shouldn’t have called her.”

“I’m sorry. What?” Kay asked, looking very angry.

“She works for me and I shouldn’t have reached out about something so personal,” I explained, but already feeling better because if Kay didn’t understand that what I had done wasn’t okay, then at least I hadn’t been a complete idiot.

Sasha wasn’t a cuddly type of person and I shouldn’t have bothered her.

I just admired her. She worked really hard and was a single mom to twin teenagers.

“No, darlin’. You absolutely did the right thing.

That was very kind of you and it doesn’t matter if the person you reached out to check on was your accountant, your publicist, or your boss.

You were being a good person and it sounds like they are the ones who did something bad.

It sounds like maybe they didn’t appreciate you, to be honest.”

Her blunt words made hope bubble like a spring in my gut.

“Really?”

“Darlin’, the world sucks and people can be so mean. The fact you were being so sweet to someone who could have used the encouragement shows that you are not the problem. I’m so sorry that person was unkind to you, but it was most definitely a them problem and not a you problem, sweet girl.”

“It’s really hard,” I admitted, finally working up the courage to look at her. Her beautiful face was distorted due to my unshed tears.

“What’s hard, baby?”

“Feeling like I don’t have a place to belong. I don’t always understand people or social situations and I’m just really lonely.”

Kay reached up and cupped my chin in her hand. “Do you want to know a secret?”

I nodded.

“That’s how the original Daddies Ink came to exist. We all knew each other, were tired of being left out from other social groups, and we kinda just created our own family.

It grew so large that we opened the second Daddies Ink in Strickland a few years later.

You’re not the only one who feels this way, but you don’t have to feel like this anymore.

” She stepped back from me and opened her arms in a wide, welcome gesture.

“Welcome to the family, darlin’.”