Page 2 of Daddy's Little Duckling

She was very mindful of her sensitivities with food, so when she found things she could handle, it usually quickly became a favorite for her. The list wasn’t a very long one, but she tried to add to it when she could.

Having SPD, Rae had struggled her whole life with food aversions. Something would be fine for a while, and then it could quickly flip and she would be back to square one with it. She had learned a long time ago to try and keep her safe foods list small.

Gathering her oatmeal and Bruce, Rae moved into the living room to build her fort that she would spend most of her day in.

This was one of her favorite things to do in Littlespace. She also planned on having a tea party later with her dolls, if they could behave and play nice together, while watching a movie.

She pulled out all the spare blankets she kept under her bed and dragged the furniture around to help structure her fort. Every single piece of fabric that Rae owned was fabric that her sensitivities could handle or she took the time to modify them to fit her needs.

This included the blankets she used for the forts since she had to touch them to build it and there was always the chance that once in Littlespace she would brush against them.

Rae learned that her SPD usually was worse when she was deep in Littlespace than it was when she wasn’t. She was surethat if she talked to her old therapist about it, they would give her a long explanation of why that was the case, but she tried not to think about it too much.

After she had the fort set like she wanted it, Rae went and set up the T.V. and put the movie in that she wanted to watch today.

She often looked over the movie aisle at the consignment shops for different DVDs of movies and shows she used to watch growing up.

Rae had managed to find a DVD player one weekend at a second-hand store, so she went without dinner one night to make up for buying it.

She couldn’t resist purchasing it since she knew that she would probably never be able to afford a new one and this one was such a good deal.

As lunchtime approached Raelyn's phone started to play the special ringtone she had set for when her job was calling her. She giggled for a moment at the sound of the Imperial March playing out of the speakers.

It always brought a small smile to her face before she remembered who was calling her. Grudgingly she picked up and tried to sound cheerful as she spoke to her scheduler, Amanda, on the other side.

“Raelyn, we had a call out tonight and we need you to come in,” stated Amanda before Rae could even say hello.

“But I work tomorrow morning.” she tried to explain.

Nevertheless, the voice on the other side of the line bulldozed right over her words and took her response as a yes. After hanging up, Rae grabbed Bruce and hugged him tight.

“It will be okay. I can handle working tonight and then going in tomorrow morning.”

Bruce didn’t look convinced and honestly, Raelyn wasn’t too convinced herself. Cleaning up her mess from earlier shegot dressed in her favorite hunter-green scrubs, pulled her hair back into one long braid and left the white sparkly bow from earlier in it and headed in for her shift trying to remember that this would be an extra day on her paycheck and that it was worth it.

CHAPTER TWO

EMMETT

Emmett didn’t usually come to the nursing home to visit his grandma on Thursday evenings. He just had this feeling that he needed to go tonight and he didn’t make it a habit to ignore his gut.

It had never led him wrong before and he didn’t think that today was going to be the day that it might start.

He tried to save his visits for when he knew the cute aide who sometimes took care of his sweet Nannie Jean would be working. He had noticed her before, but she never seemed to be aware of her surroundings.

That always concerned him because Little girls needed to know what was going on around them, but there was nothing that he could do about that until she became his.

The last time he laid eyes on her was when she ran right into him. Little did she know he purposely stepped into her way just for a chance to talk to her.

He didn’t think he could ever get her to speak to him under any other condition. She just seemed shy and reserved andEmmett would never want to do anything to make her uncomfortable.

Arriving at Ivory Mountain, Emmett made his way into Nan's room; she suffered from dementia and most of the time believed he was his dad.

She had no clue that her son had passed away four years ago, and it broke his heart a little each time she referred to him by his father's name.

The first few times that it happened Emmett had corrected her and reminded her that his father was gone, but as more time passed it became apparent that she wasn’t ever going to remember and he accepted that.

He was proud of who his father was, so it wasn’t horrible to be referred to as him and accepted the name as an honor.

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