Page 36 of Daddies' Little Cubs

She didn’t deny that butterflies would settle in her stomach when he kissed her, but nothing like Jessa said happened. Deciding to push those thoughts to the back of her mind before she sent herself into a spiral, Destiny took another bite of pizza and settled in for a lovely lunch with Jackson.

“Could you use some help, Jackson?”Des asked a while later. She had finished her book, played a few games on her iPad, and got bored of the art that she brought. Papa wasn’t kidding when he explained that this would be a long afternoon. She just didn’t expect it to take this long.

“Hey, Little Wolf. Got bored did you?” Destiny nodded her head. “Sure, I would love some help. I promise we won’t be here much longer.”

“Okay, what can I do?”

“See those stickers over there?” Jackson said, pointing to the stack of stickers to her right. “Take those and put them on the bottom of the spine, overlapping them across the sides. Then we can slide them into the clear protective sleeve.”

Destiny picked up the sticker and found the matching book settling into the chair to get to work. The repetitive task gave her something to do with her hands, but sadly didn’t quiet the thoughts that were running around in her mind again.

She still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong with her. Destiny knew she should probably talk to Jessa about it all, but she was embarrassed to voice that there was something broken with her.

No no no, she would keep this to herself. No need to mention it to anyone. It would only make things awkward and she already did that enough. Instead she would research it on her own. Maybe if she could figure it out on her own, she could fix it without anyone needing to find out.

Before Destiny knew it, all the stickers had been applied to the books. The stack of books sat beside Jackson and Des heldback her sigh. She didn’t know how much longer she would last sitting here.

“Are you ready to go, Little Wolf?”

Destiny perked up at his question. “Wait, it’s time to go? But what about the rest of the books? Don’t they need to be put on the shelves?”

“That can wait until another day or one of the other staff members can handle that. I have a little girl who has been more than patient while I worked.”

Guess she didn’t hide the boredom that well from Jackson. She smiled sweetly at him before quickly walking over to pack up her things to go. Sliding her hand into his, they walked back out to the car and slid inside. Jackson explained to her when she asked about the car earlier that it was Eli’s car. The fancy car was a dream to sit in and Destiny enjoyed how smooth it drove.

Not paying attention to where they were going, she was surprised when they made a stop. Looking out the window, Destiny was confused. They were sitting outside the ice cream shop that was on main street. “What are we doing here, Jackson?”

“Well since I had such a great helper who didn’t complain about how long she had to sit and wait for us to be done, I figured that you earned a little treat.”

Destiny bounced in the seat unable to contain her excitement. Ice cream was her favorite sweet treat and she hadn’t been able to come to this shop yet. After making their way inside, Des stood there and debated the options in front of her. There were so many, however would she choose?

“Do you know what you want yet, baby girl?” She shook her head. Becoming quickly overwhelmed with the choice she needs to make, Destiny turned to Jackson for help. “Would you like me to just pick something for you?” Quickly nodding her head, Jackson gave her a kiss and stepped up to place their order.

“Let’s go sit down while we wait.”

It didn’t take long for the teenager who was working to place their ice cream on the table. Mummering a thank you, Jackson slid the cup in front of her that held rainbow looking ice cream. Dipping the spoon in for a small bite, Destiny’s anxiety eased. Papa had ordered her plain vanilla ice cream that had been dyed fun colors.

“Did I make a good choice? If you don’t like it, we can order you something else.”

“No! It’s perfect! Thank you for helping me.”

“It’s my pleasure. Plus that’s what Papas are for.”

Destiny and Jessa had started referring to the guys by their new names, but had yet to call them that. She wanted it to be at the perfect time, but she didn’t know if that moment would ever come.

Tossing their trash away, Jackson once again helped her into the car and turned the direction back to Rae’s house. It didn’t take long for them to get there and Destiny was sad their time together was coming to an end.

“I had fun today, Little Wolf. I know that it was boring, but it made my heart swell to look over and see you sitting there engrossed in the book you were reading. It gave me motivation to work faster so I could spend more time with you.”

“I really liked being with you today Jackson, even though you’re right. It was totally boring. But you made up for it with ice cream so that gives you a gold star in my book.”

“Well, maybe this will help me earn another one,” Jackson said before she felt his lips press against hers. She felt his hands slip into her hair as he angled her mouth to deepen the kiss. What seemed like hours, but was only seconds, Jackson pulled away, pressed a quick kiss against her forehead, said a sweet goodbye, and turned and walked back to the car.

Destiny headed back inside the house, drifting towards the room she shared with Jessa feeling more confused than ever. She really needed to figure out what was wrong with her.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

JESSA

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