Page 24 of Their Little Helper

“That cabinet by the door.” Pokey sighed again, pointing to what my mother would’ve called a wardrobe. “He made me think the closet was too far from the door.”

Hanson was good.

I was going to have to take lessons on how to manipulate Pokey…and make sure I was the only one who got to manipulate Pokey going forward.

Even Harley forgot he’d been nervous about Pokey’s money. “Do you like the cabinet?”

The fact that Pokey didn’t even seem to know a fancy name for it made me question that too. But his frown as he looked at it gave me even more things I was curious about. “I don’t know. I thought I had to have it.”

His housekeeper was good…but Pokey was mine so he was going to have to find someone of his own to fuck with.

“We’ll figure out how to handle it once you know how you feel about it.” Yep, Pokey needed me. Rich people weren’t always good at setting boundaries. Luckily for Pokey, I’d gotten very good at getting around other people’s, so I could protect his. “I like shopping and Harley will be good to take with me so no one robs me again.”

Some people had sticky fingers and others had no common sense.

“I’m getting really tired of having to deal with the police. They’re starting to think I’m setting people up.”

A lot of people had no common sense…and some people were just very suspicious.

Like Pokey.

He’d stopped frowning at the furniture and started glaring at me. “What did you do?”

“Nothing.” Not even shrugging made that sound more believable to Pokey. “One officer said I look helpless and easily distracted.”

I was going to ignore how rude it was for both of them to start nodding at the same time.

“I’ll go shopping with you, Daddy.” Harley looked down at himself and shrugged. “No one robs me.”

“That’s good. It’s very inconvenient to have to keep calling an ambulance for them.” Looking helpless and being helpless were two very different things. “Some thieves have terrible radar for who to steal from. It’s like being gay and trying to date with no gaydar at all…you just end up with a lot of drama on your hands.”

Harley and Pokey were both looking very confused, but I wasn’t sure about what, and Harley didn’t help the situation. “Papa, I have questions.”

“Me too but you know as well as I do that the answers aren’t going to make any sense.” Pokey seemed to think that made sense because he shook his head. “I’m glad you’re going to take Harley with you shopping but one more robbery and you’re getting twenty-four-seven security. Got it?”

Rich people were so dramatic.

“Taking care of what belongs to you. Got it.” He was going to be a pain in the butt about that. “We need to make sure our boy has eaten before we get into threats and forceful caretaking.”

Pokey knew I was distracting him, but he couldn’t help the temptation as he turned to Harley. “You didn’t have a drink at the meetup this time. What would you like? Juice? Water? It’s too late in the day for anything caffeinated.”

“I couldn’t decide what to pick this time.” Harley’s quiet tone made it clear he was thirsty. “They had lots of options.”

Because the meetups were starting to get lots of littles and they needed choices so they didn’t get bratty.

“Well, I have orange juice, water, or herbal teas.” Pokey sighed as his frown deepened. “Teas that I really don’t enjoy drinking.”

Clearly his housekeeper thought they were important, though. “We’ll come back to that too.”

Maybe they were for his digestive tract?

Did they help stress poops?

“Can I have a little bit of orange juice…and…” Harley blushed so much he nearly went purple. “Um, water later if we…get dehydrated?”

Oh.

“I’m voting for very dehydrated.” Being subtle would not get me what I wanted. “That was our boy giving consent to me gettingseverelydehydrated.”

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