Page 45 of Lucky Sucker

“What’s that?” I asked, staring away from the teddies inside the overnight bag.

“I think it’s a White Claw, I told them I didn’t want it, but they insisted, so I said I was coming to check on you.”

“It’s not illegal for you to drink,” I said,

“I’ve never been a big drinker,” he said. “I’ve seen the first-hand effects of what can happen to people who get out of hand with drinking, so I rarely drink. I’ll take a wine at a fancy restaurant though, don’t get me wrong.”

I jumped up from my bed and wrapped my arms around him. “I don’t know what to pack.” I pressed my hand into his chest and inhaled him. “Where’s your duffle bag? Maybe I should just throw my things in there instead.”

“Oh no, that’s in the hallway, it’s got clothes that need washing in them,” he said. “I know you didn’t smell them in the diner, but trust me, you don’t want to add your clean clothes into that.”

Except, I kinda did. There was something naughty about the way he smelled when he was sweaty, his natural musk had me in a chokehold. “Fine, but I need help picking what to wear.”

“How about one of those cute onesies?” he nodded to the floordrobe; a pile of clean clothes I hadn’t sorted out yet. They were in desperate need of going into my closet, but if they went int there, I’d forget they were there. I had a real bad case of object permanence sometimes.

“Can you pick one out for me, please, Daddy?”

He gave my neck a little nuzzle, humming slightly to have the hairs on my nape stand at the ticklish vibrations. “Of course, baby.”

I sat on my bed again and watched as Luke went through my things, telling me how cute I’d look in the items he picked out. I knew I looked cute in all of them, but I couldn’t decide which ones he wanted to see me in. There were favorites among them because some had tails, hoods, and large pouches where I could store my yarn while I was crocheting, or better, all my stuffed crochet animals.

“This one!” he said, yanking a blue onesie, it was a dragon with a tail and ears. “You wanna be a dragon?”

“A good dragon,” I answered.

“Always a good dragon, but if you were a bad dragon, then—”

I giggled. “Bad dragon.”

He was confused and Daddy was adorable when he was confused. I liked to see it on his face sometimes, but only because it meant I got to teach him something. And tonight, I got to teach him about the wonderful world of sex toys, namely the fantasy ones on the website he’d said the name of.

“You have any of them?”

“No, no, no, they would rip me open.”

Daddy bit his lips. I didn’t know what that meant, but maybe he liked the idea. “I’d never let that happen to you. But I still want to see you in this one.” He threw it across to me, and I caught it like a professional, folding it in my arms and dunking it into the duffle bag.

We’d spent long enough in my room now, there was already question about when Luke was going to show up at the house. I still felt slightly awful for keeping him away from his party, but it was supposed to be a surprise, or there was going to be one there. He was sometimes hard to understand when he kept eye contact with me for so long, he could erase my memory it seemed.

The night was cool, but warm enough for us to walk up to the sports village where all the college team sport players lived after freshmen year. Daddy had my arm hooked around his and we kept a slow pace, mostly from the occasional stop to stare at the night sky where he would make up fake facts about the night.

“That constellation up there is shaped like a heart,” he said, directing my view and drawing with finger to show me the supposed heart. “Apparently, when you see it with your—boyfriend or girlfriend, it means you’ve got to kiss them, or else seven years bad luck.”

I’d never heard of that before, but I also wasn’t going to get seven years bad luck.

Swinging my duffle on my arm, nearly knocking myself out with the momentum of it, I kissed Luke hard on his lips. He steadied me, anchored in place with the heft of his own bag. He kissed me back, holding me still with both hands.

There was a moment of stillness and quiet. I had thought for a second, he might’ve said something else, but he didn’t, and we continued walking until we were at the Icehouse, where people were spilling out of the front door.

As soon as people noticed Luke, they raced inside where they prepared some form of celebration. And as we waited on the lawn, concerned with what it could be, one of the players waved us inside, telling Luke to come in alone.

At first, I was a little annoyed, but the moment Luke stepped over the threshold into the house, a large white cream pie smashed into his face. And everyone erupted into a frenzy of cheers and laughter.

Maybe they did like me, because they were nice enough to keep me from receiving a pie to the face. Luke turned to me and he was hit with another pie to the face. I didn’t get it, but it seemed to be all in good fun.

20. LUKE

I should’ve seen it coming, I’d taken part in it three times before with past captains. I didn’t get where the tradition started, usually it was after the first game of the season, the captain would be walloped by paper plates of cream, sometimes whipped, other times shaving, but they also mixed it up with actual pie crust filled with custard and cream.

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