Page 79 of Their Perfect Daddy

“HEY!” He shouts the words before pausing and nodding. “Ok, fair.”

Monty and Danny giggle from beside me. I smile at them, shaking my head at how they’ve managed to find a blanket to bury themselves under. The only visible part of them now is the tops of their heads.

“Oh no! Where did they go?” Dewey’s voice comes out all playful.

Snow chuckles. “I’m not sure, bro. They’ve got to be around here somewhere. Brats and princesses don’t disappear.”

Rayne snaps his fingers. “I think we should build a search party. Maybe get the neighbors to help us canvas the area.”

“I can get dispatch on the line too. Tell them it’s an emergency.” Storm delivers the words in the most even tone imaginable.

The boys giggle and drop the blanket. “Ta-Da! We’re right here, silly peoples,” Danny says.

He’s slipping into Little space, which is both good and bad. I’m happy to know he’s comfortable enough to do so with my siblings around. It says a lot about them that he’s trusting them.

The bad part comes with the truth of why they’re here. It’s not the best time to be managing my boy’s needs while also interrogating Gale.

“Is someone finally going to tell me the real reason you’re all here?” I ask to the room at large.

Gale raises his hands in a defensive gesture. “Don’t bite my head off. I’ll tell you everything.” He turns to Monty. “Mind if we stay for a while? This is a bit of a long story.”

My boy nods slowly, then pats his stomach. “You can stay as long as you want so long as we order some breakfast. I’m starving!”

Everyone laughs at his dramatic delivery. Taking out my phone, I pull up an app.

“I’ll order the food. You get to talking. Time to fess up, Gale.”

“God, this is like back when we were kids,” Rayne mutters. “At least it’s Gale in the hotseat and not us.”

“As I was saying,” Gale interrupts. “There’s been a few big changes lately. I’ll start from the beginning…”

CHAPTER 25

SKYE

Iwatch as my princess carefully tears the page from the coloring book. He’s moving at a snail’s pace to prevent any damage from befalling the artwork.

The gorgeous forest piece is done in shades of greens and brown. He’s managed to bring it to life in a beautiful and haunting way. And while there’s a lot to be said about it, I still see bits of his Little self in the image.

Coloring outside of the lines.

Overlapping shades when he picked up the wrong color.

His wiggly signature in the bottom corner.

It all adds up to make the image so uniquely Danny. My heart soars for how safe he feels to express himself this way.

“Here, Daddy!” He holds the page out to me, his smile making his face light up.

“Thank you, Princess. I love this one.”

“More than the others?”

“Not more. Just as much. They’re all perfect.”

He huffs, as if my answer is both good and bad. Rather than argue with me further, he hunts for the next image he wants to complete.

Leaving him to it, I take the drawing with me over to the bed where Monty is propped up with his Game Boy. As soon as I drop down beside him, he leans over to look at the picture.

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