Page 31 of Deciding for Little Dallas
“I love you too, Little girl.”
“Stay right here for just a second, Bitty,” Pike said, setting Dallas down beside a wooden chair in the room with the indoor pool. He set her backpack in a chair before digging through and finding his phone. “Daddy wants to take a picture of you being a mermaid to send to the group chat.”
She giggled. “Okay, Daddy.”
Dallas did several poses with the large, Olympic-size pool behind her before Daddy finally claimed he had enough. After he sent the pictures, he took Teefs from her and set the zombie in the chair with the bag to “keep watch” although Dallas wasn’t sure Teefs would be a good security zombie.
“Hold my hand, Bitty.”
Dallas obediently took his hand and followed him to the entrance of the large pool.? He helped her down the stairs into the water. Dallas couldn’t help but notice he was even moreprotective when she was in a younger headspace. She’d admit that she liked the extra attention.
The pool wasn’t crowded either day they’d visited the indoor pool, maybe because Montana was already chilly. There was a Little girl playing with her mommy on the slides, but that was it. Maybe not everyone liked the pool as much as she did.? She’d decided it was her favorite place to be at the Ranch.
The water was heated, thanks to the cooler weather. There were small water slides that would drop you into the deeper end of the pool, but Daddy wouldn’t let her play in the deeper water because he said she was too little. Dallas was surprised to find that it didn’t bother her when Daddy said things like that to her, it only made her feel more cherished. Logically, they both knew the on-duty lifeguard wouldn’t let anything happen to her, but it was a nice headspace to be in.
“Alright, my little mermaid, swim away, but make sure you stay on the shallow end of the pool. Daddy’s right here,” he said, propping up on one side of the pool.
The pool was huge and even when she swam all the way to the wall across from Daddy, it still took her several minutes.
She wondered if Daddy would eventually get bored, but every time she swam back to him, he was smiling at her.
“You’re a great swimmer, Bitty. Daddy’s so proud of you.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks. “Thank you, Daddy.”
“When you get done swimming, Daddy put some water toys in your bag. You can get them out and play with them.”
“Water toys!” Dallas exclaimed.
“I saw them today and thought my best girl might like them for a surprise. The mermaid is weighted, and she will swim to the bottom of the pool.”
“Thank you, Daddy!”
“Do you want to get them now?”
“Yas, huh!”
Pike took her hand and led her back to the steps of the pool. “Use your walking feet and go get them out of your bag.”
The area around the pool was non-slip, but Dallas knew Daddy didn’t care. He still wanted her to be safe. She climbed the stairs and slowly walked over to the chair holding her bag.
“Good girl, Bitty Baby.”
Joy bubbled in her heart when she located the mermaid, fishie, octopus, starfish, and treasure chest.
“I love them, Daddy!”
“I’m glad, babygirl. The pouch they’re in?is water safe, so you can bring it all into the water.”
Dallas held the toys proudly. She gave Teefs a kiss before turning to walk back toward Daddy.
A Little boy ran screaming into the room. Dallas recognized him from the playroom yesterday. He and his friend had both been running and kept getting in trouble for it. It looked like maybe their consequences hadn’t stuck.?
Dallas walked back to Daddy, the boy’s yelling made her nervous and she wanted to be back in her safe place.
“Boo!” The Little boy grabbed a towel and ran around with it over his head. He couldn’t see where he was going and before Dallas?could even cry out, he slammed into her, knocking her to her side.
Her head smacked hard on the floor and Dallas cried out in pain before grabbing her face.? “Ouchie! Ouchie!” Her pretty new mermaid had hit her just above the corner of her eye when she fell down.
