Page 12 of Lakeside Little (Pineberry Falls: Summer Daddies #2)

Technically, Jack was my first boyfriend by title.

I’d engaged in relationships, but I’d never been anyone’s boyfriend before, again, not officially, maybe I had, but I couldn’t recall.

I think the closest to relationship I’d had was fling, and never worked from that stage, probably because of my own issues.

Losing my job might’ve been the best thing to have ever happened to me. It cut all the nasty stuff around my identity away and left me with a new form I was happy to take on. Someone who didn’t have to fit in with the straight guys who talked constantly about their wives, or divorces.

Jack was a beacon. Jack was sweetness boiled down to a single droplet I could take on my tongue and reel in the bliss he provided me.

We sat at the dining table and ate the homemade pizzas. After asking him to be my boyfriend, I think he’d forgotten about the goat’s cheese on the pizza because he devoured half of the teddy bear head before squeezing the life out of a juice box into his mouth.

“Is it good?”

“Amazing. You can fix thing and make food, I’m ready to make you two bracelets,” he said.

“I’ll be happy with one, but sure.”

“Well, the first would say Jack’s and the second would say, Daddy , so when they’re together, people know you’re already claimed,” he said, taking deep breathes after inhaling both food and drink.

I could accept that, and in fact, I really liked the idea. “And you’ve got to have one as well,” I told him. “But maybe mine would be best suited as a necklace. I want mine to say property of Daddy on it.”

“I’m not sure if I have all those letter beads, or the bead kit, but I can—” He pushed out of his chair.

“Finish the pizza first. You worked hard on this. You gotta eat it.”

He nodded. “You’re right. My stomach even thinks yours looks good, and I know it’s not.”

I had a little regret about adding the pineapple to mine, especially since it was heart-shaped and it would’ve been cute to share with him.

After pizza, it turned out, he did have his bead kit with him.

It was a small plastic chest of small compartments full of neon colors and white letter beads.

We cleaned away the mess and plates, a condition of being a good boy meant Jack needed to help, and while part of me wondered if I was just being a nag, I saw the glitter of joy there when he was commanded to do something with his cute, pouty smile saying. “Yes, Daddy.”

He made my bracelets, two of them as he said, and I got to work on a necklace for him.

And while, I had a great many skills under my belt, I was not equipped to deal with how finicky threading the wire through the holes in the beads.

This was one of those times when an instruction wasn’t going to help, and it wasn’t even needed. It was simple.

“Maybe my petite hands can help,” he giggled, although they were only a touch smaller than mine. “Also, I think you’ve got to add more beads in to make it symmetrical.”

“But I want to make it for you.”

“You made the pizzas, let me make this for you, for me,” he said. “Plus, I want it to have staying power. I don’t want it to break. That would be a very bad sign.”

“What would it mean?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t want to say because I don’t want to manifest it.”

It was sweet. I knew exactly what it would’ve been a sign of, and he wasn’t the only person in my life that was superstitious of stuff like that.

I grew up in a family full of superstitious people, and even now, I still threw a small pinch of salt over my shoulder and avoided cracks in sidewalk paving slabs.

We laid around together, enjoying the company we got to keep in this gorgeous town.

The rushing realization that it wasn’t going to be this way forever had me trying my best to think about anything else, but it was becoming more and more difficult to do that when life was about to get very real the moment, I left this place.

“I think one of the beauties of my work is that I’m my own boss and I can come visit you whenever I want,” Jack said laid on my chest while he dressed his doll in different clothes.

They had more selection of clothes than me, but I don’t think I would’ve fit into the glittery skirt, let alone fit on my finger.

“And I’ll visit you,” I said. “I’ve got to.”

“Yeah, you do. I need my doll castle built.”

“And it will be done.”

“Are you going to create a catalogue like my cousin’s husband?”

It was an idea, and I’d been confident about it at the time, but now, that confidence waned, and I wondered if I should’ve just recouped and found another job.

I didn’t want to worry about consistent pay or work, especially since there was so much good now happening in my life.

“Maybe part-time,” I said, combing my fingers through his hair.

“It’ll take a while for it to get set up and businesses aren’t always—”

“Don’t say that,” he said, swinging into motion. He turned and practically sat on my chest. “You’re going to have so much business, like, right away. And that’s just from me; you’ll have even more when I tell all my followers about you.”

I could never ask him to do that for me. I didn’t want it to be a case of me using him, because that’s what it felt like when I was reasoning with it in my mind. And then that voice was slapped away with one of his kisses.

“That’s one of the things about older guys, you always feel like you’ve got to be hard at work on something,” he said, giving me another kiss. “And you can give yourself permission to relax and even play with me.”

Cradling his face in my hands, I loved the idea of relaxing with him and playing, but he was right, I felt an overwhelming sense to be doing something.

“Sometimes, it feels like I’m sitting on my hands while the world crumbles,” he said.

“And now, my hands are on you, and everything is right in the world.”

“As they should be,” he said, rubbing his cheek into my palm. “Plus, I don’t want your hands to get all hard and horrible again. And these ones smell like—” he inhaled. I couldn’t place the fragrance. “Flowers.”

“Yeah, you think?”

“And vanilla.”

“I don’t smell either of those things. Just smells like cream.”

He applied his weight on top of me. I could’ve easily lifted him if I’d wanted, he was a human-sized weighted blanket.

And I embraced it, every little bit of him laid on me was squeezing all the negative thoughts right out of me.

“You need to open up your imagination and then you’ll be able to smell them,” he said, wiggling his entire body on mine as if he was burrowing.

We actually fell asleep in that position. I never napped, so it was unusual for me, and yet for the second time since I was around Jack, I found myself waking in the dark to someone banging around.

Shooting upright, I caught a solitary light above the oven. Jack was giggling away as he whisked something in a metal bowl. He turned to see me roll my head a little, hoping the nap on the floor hadn’t done permanent damage to my back or neck.

“Did I wake you?” he asked.

“I—” My words interrupted by a large yawn. “What are you doing?”

On the counter, three of his dolls were in a seated position with his phone camera propped up by a mug. “Nory invited her friends over and I saw a video of someone making these tiny pancakes, and they made tiny pancake cereal. It gave me an idea.”

“You’re making pancake batter?” I asked, approaching him to see the mess hiding in the dark parts of the kitchen. I took a finger and wiped some of the floor. “Ok, well, I hope you got more flour in there than you did out here.”

“I didn’t want to wake you,” he said. “You looked so cute. I took a picture.” He placed the bowl on the counter and grabbed his phone.

“Ok, so these are for my eyes only. But look at how cute you are.” He flicked through the burst of pictures he’d taken, almost like a motion picture with the way he flicked through them.

“I like those best,” I said, seeing the pictures he’d taken of us together. “But my mouth is wide open. I look like I’m about to start snoring.”

He giggled. “You kinda did.”

“I don’t snore.”

“Just a little.”

“No way, I’ve never snored.”

Jack continued to giggle as he pulled up a video, and he was right.

I snored. It was quiet, but as plain as day, I was snoring.

I stared at it and nodded slowly. “I’ve never snored before then,” I said, and was quickly shown another two videos, those both shot in complete darkness where my snoring was akin to a car starting up, and in the background, Jack’s soft chuckles were heard.

“It’s ok,” he said. “I really don’t mind it. I sleep right through usually, or I will wiggle against you a little bit and you go quiet again.”

I dotted the flour from my finger on his nose. “I think that’s a sign we’re comfortable together.”

“You’re not mad I took videos and pictures, are you Daddy?”

“Are you kidding? I think that’s hella cute, and I know you’re all about taking pictures of your dolls and such, I might’ve been a bit offended if I wasn’t in your photo album.”

“Well, you kinda already were in it,” he said. “From that first day.”

“Right. I—” A smirk burned away at my cheeks, so warm on my skin. “I forgot about that.”

He pressed the tip of his nose to mine. “Did you really just come over that day for me to take a picture of you? Or did you just see me and think, damn, he’s so cute, I want a piece of that .”

I kissed him. “Can it be both?”

“Both what?”

“Both that I wanted a picture, people needed to know I was out here relaxing and not going crazy, and because I saw you, alone, and thought it would be nice to know my neighbor.”

“And I’m glad you did, because if I’d seen you first, I might’ve been a little intimidated with your whole fishing and fish grilling thing you have going on,” he said, poking his tongue out a little. “Straight men are high-key intimidating, so I might’ve assumed.”

“It’s a good job I came over as well, otherwise your dolls wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep, and I know Nory would’ve chewed your ear off with her nagging.”

He scoffed. “You have no idea how much you saved me with that.”

“Let me save you again because that pancake batter looks—questionable.” I glanced into the water mess where it was beginning to separate. “We might have to start again. Assuming you want pancakes as a late-night snack, with Daddy’s permission.” I winked at him.

“Yes, please. I’m not the best at making food, which isn’t the biggest deal when it’s just for the dolls, but if I can eat it instead, then one million percent, yes.”

“And the magic word?”

“Pweese, Daddy.”

I was always going to help him making the miniature pancakes, and I knew the video he was talking about.

While I might not have been attached to my phone as often as him, I was definitely aware of certain trends that crossed the internet.

I could sometimes get sucked down a hole looking at videos of what people were able to do with their carpentry skills and that often led me down rabbit holes of people cooking.

We both knew our time together was coming to an end. It wasn’t the absolute end, we were in control of what we did once the cabin rentals were up, but it was that in between; the distance both of us knew would soon be between us.

There were phones, cars, and so many other things that made the inevitable change about to hit our lives a whole lot easier, and of course, the doll house.

The one I was excited to make for him—although scared because his plans were grand, and I was no architect, but how hard could building a doll kingdom for him truly be?