Page 9 of Lakeside Little (Pineberry Falls: Summer Daddies #2)

More adults needed to co-opt napping as a whole.

It wasn’t right that it belonged in the activates reserved for toddlers.

But as a little, I was well within my rights to nap whenever I pleased, and often, I would nap right away lunch, but since being at the cabin and spending so much time and excitement over discovering something new with Jack, I hadn’t had much time to really nap.

The magic of napping as a child was always that you would wake up somewhere completely different, usually in bed. And this time was no different. I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I recall waking up in bed with my scrap of blanket scrunched in a fist.

It was eight in the evening. I woke to my shorts taken off, but my t-shirt still on in bed. It was just as well because I absolutely hated how sleeping with a belt on made my belly feel.

Diego was in the living room sat by my doll house. I watched from the bedroom doorway for a little while until I saw what he was doing, and I let out a coo. He turned to see me with two pieces of wood in hand as he was fixing them together.“Hi,” he said. “You were a little sleepyhead in the car.”

“But I’m awake now,” I said, tugging the front of my t-shirt down over my crotch. “What are you making?” I stepped over on my tippy toes as if I had to be quiet.

“I’m trying to see if I’m able to make something for your house,” he said. “It’s supposed to be an extra room coming off this wall here. But I’m not sure if these scraps of wood will work.”

I shook my head. “You don’t have to,” I said. “If you want to, you should do something completely yours. Because this one is kinda trash, it always breaks, and it’s mostly made of that wood that crumbles.”

“Thin plywood,” he said. “I noticed because the one I got was thicker.”

“Not the only thing you’ve got that’s thicker.”

“Oh, feeling a little naughty?”

I giggled, it was impossible not to giggle post-nap and have a hot, handsome Daddy flirt with me, and yes, I considered him trying to build something for me flirting. “I’m just trying to say thank you for being so sweet and kind.”

“Well, if there’s ever anyone, I wanted to be sweet and kind to, it’s definitely you,” he said, cupping my chin and cheek with his now soft hand. “I hope you’ll want to keep seeing me once all this is over.”

“I don’t think you have much choice in the matter,” I said, wiggling my head around in his hand. “You kinda promised me a doll house, and I’m not sure about you, but when someone says they’re going to do something like that, it’s almost a commitment to see them again.”

“There’s one thing about me, I’m committed, maybe too committed, you know, because of the whole job thing, twenty-five years and—well, I’m ready to think about anything but that now.” He kissed me. “So, what type of house do you want?”

I puffed out a raspberry in a guffaw. “How much time do you have to listen to me?”

He looked to his wrist, pretending there was a watch on it. “I guess until the end of time,” he said. “I’ll never tire of hearing what you’ve got to say.”

“Well, then, let me tell you about Horatio Lovebite, he was the first action figure doll I ever owned, and started out as like an army guy, anyway—”

“Love bite?” he asked.

“Let me tell the story.” It didn’t just come back to me randomly.

Diego reminded me of him, maybe because of the muscles and the black hair and way Horatio’s drawn on body hair looked like that of Daddy Diego’s, but the story itself came to me because of the love bite he’d left me near my nipple.

Horatio never managed to do anything like that.

“So, I was practicing hickeys on my arm, and my mom caught me, so I blamed them on Horatio.”

“Not where I thought that was going,” he said. “What happened to him?”

“She told me to put a muzzle on him.”

“Did you?”

I shrugged. The details after the core memory were a little hazy. “But yeah, you’re my Horatio Lovebite now, and I’m not going to lose you.” As I said it, it sounded more permanent and like a promise than I’d expected, but I truly meant it from the top and little of my heart.

“Does that mean you’re going to air tag me or something?” he asked, tickling my side.

“I might. But I think it would be you air tagging me.”

“So, tell me about this dream house you want built.”

That was right, before the distraction, I was about to tell him. “It’s not a house, firstly.”

“Ok. And what would you call it?”

Gesturing with both hands like it was text flashing in front of his face and covered in sparkles.

“Castle,” I said. “Wait. No, it would be a kingdom, and it would probably have to be built within the room because I would want it going from wall to wall.” I directed his eyes with a hand pointing left then right, up then down.

“Floor to ceiling. It would take up the entire room, and in the middle, I would be able to nap.”

Daddy nodded his head for a moment, rubbing at his chin and pushing his tongue between his teeth so cute. “I think I know what you want, and I think it’s doable. I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but I think it’s definitely in my wheelhouse.”

I looked at the two pieces of wood he’d stuck together. “Is it?”

He whacked the wood away. “You said it yourself, what I need is a project of my own, start to finish. All mine, or, well, all yours.”

It was play pretend in my mind, to think of this grand room in my apartment that could open up and transport me to another world, and yet, Daddy told me he would be able to do it. And I believed him, because why wouldn’t I, he was good with his hands, and he would never to me.

“It’ll take a long time,” he added. “But I really want to do this for you.”

“Really?” I offered back in a whisper.

“Really. I’ll have to create some plans and ideas, but I don’t see why not. I’ve made huge houses; I can make a small castle.”

On the spot, I burst into tears right before him. I didn’t expect to be a blubbering mess, but I was. I had just woken up from a nap and didn’t immediately seek out a snack, so that probably didn’t help.

Daddy pulled me into his arms and hugged me. “I promise,” he whispered as my sobs grew gentler. “I’m also still learning how to be better at this, so if you have feedback for me, I would like it. I don’t want to say something wrong.”

“No, no,” I sobbed. “It’s not bad. I’m happy, just overwhelmed happy. I’m sorta going through everything in my head and I’m so lucky to have found someone like you. It’s not every day.” I sniffled. “You know, you’re making dreams come true.”

“You’re making my dreams come true,” he told me.

“You’ve blown me out of the water, quite literally with everything you stand for.

I feel like there’s been a blanket over my face that I’ve been trying to fight through my entire life, and you’ve just swiped it away like it’s nothing, but it’s everything to me. ”

Daddy’s eyes grew pink in the corners, tearing up, which only made me sob again.

I never liked the feeling that something big was changing, and all the time we’d spent together was a big deal to me.

We’d have to go our separate ways soon, even if that just meant driving to the same place in different cars, I didn’t know if I was going to be ok with that.

“I think the sun has turned it both into mush,” he said, wiping my face with the sleeve of his shirt. “You should get something in you, and I mean food.” He chuckled; it was a much better emotion to present than the tear we both had in our eyes.

I laughed along, knowing I absolutely needed food in my stomach, it’s always what was responsible for making me feel a little cranky, and those tears were a sure-fire sign of it.

We ate sandwiches at the table together as I scribbled down all my amazing ideas for this castle.

It was not to scale, because I didn’t know the measurements of the room it was going in.

I scribbled in different colors to indicate different areas, trying to make sure that certain dolls were kept away from each other, and of course, the prison for the dolls that misbehaved.

“What’s that area?” Daddy asked, pointed to a blank square.

“That’s where the confessionals will take place,” I told him. “We’ll need a backdrop for it, but the dolls film Real Housewives style confessionals.”

“Ok, now that I do understand, but I’ve never watched it,” he said.

“They have taglines and catchphrases to,” I said, pulling Nory up into a seated position. “Nory’s tagline is, I’m no zookeeper, but I know bitch when I see one. ”

Daddy coughed and laughed. “Wow. Ok. I suppose I’ll let you get away with that cussword.”

“Obviously, because it was Nory that said it.”

“As long as it was her,” he said. “But I would like her to not swear so much. And I hope she doesn’t attack me in the night. I’ve seen the way she stares at me.”

I turned her head around. “She’s harmless, and I’ll let her know she’s got to do it in her quiet voice.”

Having a strict Daddy at times was thrilling, sometimes the urge to seek punishment was strong, but I was a bit of a wuss and definitely preferred the softer princess treatment side of life, it was much more made for me.

As I finished scribbling all my ideas down, Daddy was calculating the distance between where we lived, and how feasible it was going to be. He was really going to town the calculate app on his phone, I don’t think I’d seen anyone use it so much since I was back in high school.

“I’m not going to be immediately looking for work when I’m back, I got an ok redundancy package, but I can see you on the weekend, start stuff then, and we can see where this goes from there,” he said.

“If this is something you want to continue, I don’t know if feelings will change when you get back. ”

“The only feeling that will change will be not having to be on the lookout for all the bugs,” I said.

“I obviously want to see you, and I work for myself, so—” I paused, gnawing on my lip like it was about to be taken away.

“You know, you can stay over whenever, and I guess there’s stuff to do in Philadelphia too. ”

“Hey, you’ll love it there.”

I snickered and snorted. “I know I will, because that’s where you’re from.”

“And I own my house,” he added. “If that sweetens any type of deal for you to spend time with me. Plenty of rooms. All used for storage right now, and one is a half-decorated gym that I always say I’ll use but end up just using the CrossFit machine to hang laundry from.”

“Whoa. That’s—that’s genius, because it has all those things coming off it, right?”

“Ok, but you would come to my place too, right?”

“Of course, new locations are always important for the social media stories.”

He reached across the table to take my hand. “And what about for you?”

“Important for me too, as long as you’re there.”

“I’ve only got a couple days left until I’m leaving here, I don’t want to go back to reality.”

I squeezed his hand. “We don’t have to,” I said. “We can make our own reality. It’s what I do, and I’m very happy.”

He leaned in and kissed my hand. “You are the cutest, I’ll try and take that on board, but one of us has to have our feet planted in the earth.”

“Then you should definitely take on that role,” I said. “Because I would like to be in the clouds, flying high with the imagination fairies, and all my dolls who have their own unique and distinctive voices, even if at sometimes a little annoying.”

He kissed my hand again before rubbing his stubble against me. “Also, I’m going to keep leaving little love bites on you, if that’s ok.”

“I figured you were marking me, your Daddy mark.”

“Exactly. It’s so I can differentiate you from a sea of littles.”

“Good, because once they all smell the Daddy on you, they will try and get you.”

“And how will they?” he asked.

My brows came together as I looked at him in slight concern. “We’ve just been talking about it,” I said. “You’re going to start making doll houses and littles aka most of my audience are going to be going crazy for their own custom castle.”

Daddy sat back in his chair, nodding slightly. “Ok, well, let’s not too ahead of ourselves. Yours is first, just to make sure it’s something I can do.”

I had no doubt he could, and I would need to mark him as well. This Daddy was mine.