Page 15 of Hearing Little Hadley

Hadley rushed to him and threw her arms around him. He rubbed her back gently. “If you need me, Nanny J will call me and I will come get you, okay? You don’t have to tough it out.”

She nodded into his neck and then surprised him by kissing his cheek.

Thank you.She tapped the card twice.

“You’re welcome, Peeps. I love you.”

Her three taps to his chest made him smile.

Once he was out of the room, he couldn’t resist peeking in the door. Hadley was sitting at the table with Nate, coloring.

“She’ll be fine,” Nanny J assured him. He knew she would be, but what about him? He hadn’t realized leaving her would be quite so hard.

Finn looked over the list of 101 classes. He’d signed up to take a few over their stay, so he wasn’t sure why he was looking at them again. Probably to distract himself from the desire to go get Hadley from the Caterpillars Room. She’d been there less than an hour. Closing his laptop, he decided to go down to the gift shop and look at the furniture catalogs they had.

It wasn’t too crowded when he reached the shop. Smiling, at the woman who approached him, he shook her outstretched hand.

“Hello, my name is Becky. Can I help you with anything?”

“Yes, Master Derek told me you could help me purchase some furniture for my L… for my friend.” Finn couldn’t believe he’d almost slipped and called Hadley his Little one.

“Of course, come this way,” she said, leading him toward a desk in the back.

“What kind were you looking for?”

“She really liked the ones in the attached nursery of our suite, but I think maybe in white instead. The trim in her playroom at home is white.”

“Oh, perfect, the man who makes our furniture does offer it in white and will ship it anywhere in the United States.”

“Great. Could you help me pick the pieces that are already in the room?”

“Yes, so the highchair,” she said flipping papers, “is here.”

“Perfect. Let’s order that.”

“Okay,” she said, picking up a tablet and hitting a few buttons.

“And this is the crib and matching changing table we have in the rooms.”

“Perfect. Let’s add those as well.”

“Anything else?” she asked once that was done.

“Do you have any type of playpen?”

“Absolutely! We don’t have one that would match exactly, but we do have a white wooden one with etching on the sides.”

“She’d look precious in that.” He nodded. “Let’s order that too.”

“Do you think you’ll need bedding for her crib? Any twin size will fit, but we do have some beautiful prints here and we can ship them if you want to keep your purchases a surprise.”

He thought it over. “Yes, let’s look at bedding as well.”

“Your friend sure is a lucky Little girl.” Becky beamed at him.

Finn waited until she turned her back to roll his eyes. Yeah, yeah, he got it. He was in love with his best friend.

Chapter Seven

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