Page 7 of A Little More Love

“You’re right. We don’t signfuck,” I agreed, chuckling, wondering where her mind was going.

“Dallas signedfuck.” Ah. I sighed. Dallas, one of our Little friends and Tinsley’s playmate, was sometimes a bad influence on our baby. She was like the naughty older cousin who taught the other Littles naughty things, though recently she’d begun to act out even more, leaving us puzzled as to what was going on in her head.

“That wasn’t nice, was it?” Elliot said, wiping her hands with a baby wipe before throwing it away and going back to unpacking our bags.

“Unka Pike made her stand in da corner for a zillions minutes,” she said.

“Oh no,” I said, dramatically. “Azillionsminutes?”

“Yas, huh. So many!” Another hard nod sent her hair flying out of the clip we’d put it in after brushing out all her car nap knots.

Laughing, I unclipped it. “Crazy haired baby.”

“What do?” she asked, swinging her feet back and forth. She was sitting in a chair much too big for her short stature.

“What are we doing tonight?” I asked for clarification.

“Yas, huh.”

“I think that maybe we will stay in and snuggle, maybe rest a bit from the drive,” Elliot answered.

“Fire?” she asked.

“Fire?” Elliot deadpanned. “I didn’t have any plans for fire.” I laughed at his expression, but I was lost too.

“Fire ‘side, please?”

“You want to ‘fire outside’?” I asked. I mean she was adorable and used wonderful manners but we were not supporting any newly developed pyromania traits.

She giggled, light and carefree and not for the first time I found myself a bit envious of her. Sometimes I wished I could be that untroubled.

“Fire, sign!” she said, sliding from the chair and running to the dresser. She grabbed a flyer and handed it to Elliot before climbing back in the chair.

“Oh, there’s a big bonfire tonight with live music.”

“Yas. Fire ‘side,” she said in a veryduhtone. Tinsley very rarely left Little space so sometimes it took us a bit to translate things.

This time Elliot and I laughed. “Yes, that sounds like a great idea, what do you think, Tyler? Do you feel up to that or would you rather stay in? It’s up to you.”

I mulled it over for a second before nodding. “Yeah, we could do it. Does that sound good to you?”

“I love to be anywhere that you two are,” he answered. Picking Tinsley up from her chair, I walked over to where Elliot was sitting, organizing our clothes, and sat beside him. He stopped, moved the clothes, and wrapped his arm around us. My heart was so full.

Pressing a kiss first to Tinsley’s forehead and then mine, he asked, “You doing okay, baby?”

He had already talked to Tifton and rescheduled for tomorrow night. He’d ordered my favorite foods, talked to the event planners for me, and laid out my favorite pajama pants. I knew the next week would be so hard, but for the first time, I didn’t feel like I was drowning in panic.

“I’m doing good.” I could answer honestly for the first time in days. “I’m nervous, but I’ll get through the next few days because of your love and support.”

Chapter Three

Tinsley

Papa was fidgety. Not in ways that were super noticeable to most people, but I could tell. He’d bounced his knee throughout the night, his middle finger was bleeding because he’d picked the skin around it, and he’d twisted his dog tags around his fingers several times. He really only played with them when he was thinking about his service. His discomfort was growing the more the night went on. He’d been doing well until he received a text from the people hosting the fundraiser asking if he’d be up for an interview with the local radio station the next morning. From there his anxiety had grown until I was really worried about him.

Squeezing Daddy’s knee, I got his attention and he looked over to me. Our eyes met and we had a minute of silent communication. He knew. He’d noticed too.

“Tyler, baby,” Daddy said, getting his attention even though he was sitting beside us.

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