Page 8 of Lakeside Little (Pineberry Falls: Summer Daddies #2)

There was a sweetness to the air the following morning, and the subsequent mornings afterwards, which we experienced at his cabin because my bed was no adequate for the princess treatment he was so deserving of, and I agreed.

We didn’t spend much time at mine once we were physically intimate, and that didn’t bother me at all because I knew how much he needed to be around his dolls and his space. It didn’t mean I wasn’t at my cabin on the odd occasion when he was filming content.

I’d formed a quick habit of making him breakfast in bed, and after a search of the online forums and blogs, I’d discovered plenty of things I could do to give him that little space treatment that had him behaving like a good boy without any warning of his sass.

Saturday morning, I’d woke early, made the fluffiest pancakes ever, which were decorated to look like faces with blueberries for the mouth, local honey as the hair, sliced bananas as the nose and eyes.

I made myself an identical plate and a very strong coffee, today, we were headed out to the craft fair they were holding in town.

The smell of the coffee alone had Jack coming out of the bedroom, rubbing his eyes and yawning as he dragged a small blue rag of a blanket with him. That was something else I’d learned about too late, and another reason his night of sleep at my cabin was awful.

“I’m still so -eepy,” he said in a yawn as he slouched into the seat at the table. “Did you make me a coffee?” He asked, looking at the two place settings and cups of coffee.

I was busy at the fridge, shaking the whipped cream can. “Yep, yours is the one with creamer, mine is black, no sugar, don’t taste it, it’ll take all your sweetness away.” I squirted a little taster shot of cream in my mouth. “This one is full.” I brought it over to the table.

“Mhm, I’ll have some please.” He turned his plate around. “More hair.”

“You want me to turn it into a lion?”

He perked up. “Please!”

I was getting much better at making pancakes now.

The first one still had to be trashed, but other than that, the rest of them were edible, and even when they were a little burned on the bottoms, Jack gave me compliments.

It felt like we’d known each other for years and been together for just as long.

“I think today will be fun,” he said.

“Me too.”

“It might give you an idea of things to make that you can sell,” he said.

We’d talked about the potential of myself going into business and selling furniture, going off the idea the guys had thrown to me.

I knew neither of them would’ve offered me work, especially since they were both more than capable, but I really didn’t want to leave this place, at least not while the sun continued to shine and the fish were plenty.

“Alternatively, I think my idea was a good one,” he added.

“But I don’t know if there’s a market for it,” I said.

“People want doll houses, and not those plastic bullshit ones.”

“Language,” I said, it was something that came about naturally, pulling him on his word choice, especially when we were playing our roles, and while he was still in his dinosaur covered pajamas, we were in our roles.

He giggled. “Sowee. But the plastic words are poop.”

Tilting my head, I nodded. “An acceptable word choice,” I laughed. “And yes, they are awful. Once they break, it’s basically the death of them.”

Jack gestured with a fork to his doll house in the center of the cabin, residue of whipped cream flung off.

“Oops. But you see what we were able to do,” he said.

“We fixed mine. And that’s only my travel one.

The one I have at home.” He puffed out his cheeks.

“That one cost a lot. It’s huge. All custom. ”

“And you think I could do that?” It was the first time I’d ever taken part in creating a doll house before, and even then, I was fixing what was already supposed to be there.

“I know you could,” he said, gesturing once again. “And there are so many people who would buy them.”

There was an intoxicating wave of inspiration every time Jack suggested something, like he was able to speak down to a part of me that was so easily convinced and talked into things.

But this one, this made sense to me. I could make them, I could sell them, and I would be my own boss technically, except taking orders from littles and people who wanted them.

“It’s a big market,” he said. “And you don’t have to decide what you’re going to do for the rest of your life right now.”

“I should be telling you that. I’m the Daddy.”

He pouted. “Yes, Daddy, I’ll support whatever you want to do. As long as it means you’re able to keep seeing me, and not like, move a million miles away.”

The truth was, I lived in Philadelphia, and he lived in New York City. It wasn’t that crazy, but it probably meant we wouldn’t be living in each other’s pockets. Although, I was very much excited to see how he lived, and this so-called mega house he had in a specific room.

“I’ll give it a go,” I told him. “It sounds like a lot of fun, actually. And I know just who to speak to about it.”

“Oh. Who?”

“You, silly. You’re the target audience.”

He giggled. “Well, in that case, I have a lot of ideas because I would love to get some nice houses built, especially for Nory so she can have her alone time with the guys that are courting her.”

I would do anything for him. All he had to do was ask, I was already on board, in fact, I was the number one fan of the Jack supporter group. I was about to get the t-shirt and the mug, bigger than this one because I was desperate for more coffee.

We finished out our morning routine together before getting dressed and ready for the day in town. I’d looked for places to rent here online and there was a real housing crisis because there was not a lot for sale, and even fewer to rent unless.

Pineberry Falls boasted being the proudest city on the east coast, self-titled, but I couldn’t only see that they were full of pride, I could feel it. They had all number of pride flags flying as we headed into town, but everyone was so friendly, waving at us and smiling.

Parking in a designated community lot, I grabbed sunscreen from my glovebox and took Jack’s arm, spreading it over him. “You need it more than me,” I told him, as we playfully transferred the sunscreen from him to me and back again.

“Just because you’ve got Latin heritage, it doesn’t mean you can’t burn,” he said, which was very fair, and I had burned once in the past, but never again. He giggled. “But I already put some on my face with my moisturizer, it has SPF.”

“I believe you,” I said, giving him a kiss. “And the—” I licked my lips. “Chapstick.”

“Mhm, yep. Strawberry,” he said, reaching into his pocket. “I know you want some. It’s made with beeswax, ethically sourced too.” He immediately began pressing the ChapStick to my mouth coating my lips and then some.

Holding Jack’s hand in public gave me anxiety for a split second, and then I saw other gay couples holding hands, and nobody was even bothering to look at us.

It was strange, oddly surreal not to be stared at, or even harassed, but that added to Pineberry’s charm, and I would even support their bid for safest town too.

At the town square, tables were lined up across from each other with the large center free for people to walk around.

Small gazebo shelters and awnings shaded over the stands and brought people to each of them to stay out of the direct sunlight.

I knew that, because it was one of the reasons we rushed from stand to stand.

Mason had a stall with whittled animals for sale. Some of them were intricately detailed like the deer with its antlers. I didn’t know how long it took him to create them all, but they were incredible to look at. He also had a catalogue of things he could create with prices.

“I told you,” he said as I scanned his catalogue. “You could do something like this back home. I’ve always got business. People buy the staying power of real handmade stuff. Trust me on that.”

And Jack nodded at my side as if I wasn’t already convinced of the direction going forward.

We passed by another stall; a guy stood in full cowboy get up. At first, I thought it was a costume, but he was a cowboy, at least.

“I’m Jace, my family own the ranch just outside of town,” he said, tipping his hat.

“All this is grown on the ranch, we collect the alpaca fibers, get them all cleaned up, and then we spin it, and create these skeins. We mostly offer them free of dyes, but if you’re into crochet or knitting, we can dye them specific colors. ”

Jack stroked a hand over the socks and other clothing items made from the alpaca fur. “And you made this?”

“No, my mom crochets and knits, I’ve tried but my fingers and thumbs just do not work like that,” he laughed.

“What else do you have on the ranch?”

“Goats, plenty of goats, an old mare of a horse, plenty of chickens, and alpacas. It’s open as a petting zoo on occasion, and we’re growing again after a period where our livestock was cut in half because of the economy,” he tutted, shaking his head.

He spoke like he was in his forties, but the lack of wrinkles told me he was probably around Jack’s age.

Jack looked at me. “A petting zoo, can we?”

“Open daily every afternoon, and usually all day on the weekends, but not today since I’m here, and—my mom is over there,” he said, nodding to a woman with the largest rimmed sunhat—much larger than the one Jack had worn.

“We’d love to visit, and we’ll try before I have to leave,” I said, seeming to wipe the big smile from Jack’s face.

It was the sad reality for both of us that we weren’t going to be living in this moment for the rest of our lives, like Groundhog Day, I’m sure we wished we could live this day over and over again, and if not this day, then yesterday when we stayed at the cabin enjoying each other’s company.

We explored the other stalls, seeing Elijah there with a similar book to Mason.

Jack continued to nudge at me and whisper ideas about how I could do something similar.

I had to bottle this inspiration up so that it would never leave.

The closest I could possibly thing to doing that would be to having Jack right by my side.

Oliver caught up with us as we gorged on popsicles under the canopy of a tree.“So, what do you think?” he asked.

“I love these events, you need to tell me which ones are happening before I come next time,” Jack said. “I remember the food one last time, and oh my god. It was heaven.”

“Oh, you just missed that one.”

“What food?”

“The pineberry peach tea and tartlet fair,” Oliver said, and even though I was stuffing my face with a popsicle, my belly grumbled. “It’s actually my favorite of all the summer events we have going on. Mostly because of all the iced tea being served under this blistering heat.”

“You can say that again,” Jack said, pulling himself away from the popsicle. “I think Nory might start melting.”

Oliver looked around. “Where is she?”

She was under Jack’s t-shirt, which I told him I was jealous about. He pushed her up over the collar, letting her arms rest over the side, pinning herself in place. “She’s not made for the heat; she’s made for air-conditioned rooms.”

He laughed.

“We see Mason’s stand,” I said. “How long did it take him to create all that stuff in his catalogue?” I knew I should’ve asked him, but I was in awe of the man, and in ways, we were peers. I didn’t want to seem like I wasn’t on the same level.

Oliver shrugged. “He’s been doing it since he was in high school. The hardware store was passed down to him from his folks, and now they’re on some live-in cruise that just goes on a voyage around the world for like, eternity, or something.”

“Oh god,” Jack let out. “I could not do a cruise.”

“Yeah, I don’t think a cruise is ever for you,” I said. “But that’s ok, because I’m also not into cruising.”

Oliver and Jack giggled.

“Cruising,” Oliver snorted. “I hope not.”

“Well, you can be into whatever you want,” Jack added. “But I’m monogamous, just putting that out there.” He fanned himself with his hand before going back to deepthroating the popsicle.

It took me a moment to realize, putting the word together and my gay education not being what it should be. “Oh. No, I’m not into that,” I said. “That’s like glory holes and stuff right.”

They both laughed harder. “Come on, Diego, you should know better than to talk about such things in public, especially around the ears of the innocent,” Oliver said.

Quickly looking around, I didn’t see anyone but the two of them. My jaw gnashed together, fearing the worst. “Who?” I asked.

“Us,” Jack laughed, rolling around under the tree, covering himself in leaves and dirt.

“We’re innocent,” Oliver chimed in.

“I can’t speak to you, but I know you’re not so innocent,” I said to Jack, now in on the joke and smiling. “But I’ll pretend for you, my sweet angel.”

“And what about me?” Oliver asked.

Nodding over to Mason. “I’ll have to check with him, but I’ll leave it with a no comment.”

We stayed at the event for a little while longer, walking around in the safety of this small-town holding hands and snuggling up together, even if the weather was determined to keep us apart from how humid and sweaty the sun was making skin-on-skin contact.

We had lunch at a soup spot and embraced the air conditioning before we left in the exhaustion of being around so many people—I didn’t know if Jack felt the same as me but seeing him fall asleep in the car on the drive back told me he was tuckered, which was pretty much just how I felt.