Page 137 of Monster Daddies
So this was the room for his toys? His Little stuff?
“Come, Daddy.” Going behind me, he nudged and steered me back into the hallway and toward my bedroom.
It seemed like grown-up clothes went in there, which made sense once I thought about it. “How about right here?”
My IQ went up in his estimation as I set the suitcase down on the bench at the end of the bed, but down again when I held up his work bag. “And this one?”
He frowned, clearly worried he’d somehow managed to get the stupid Daddy when we were being handed out by the fates. “Table.”
The kitchen table?
More steering and polite shoving had us back in the living room where he had me put his stuff on a small desk in the cornerthat my mother had said I had to have. “There we go. You’ve got a table.”
“Mine?” Little Roo perked up like I’d promised him the moon.
“Yes, yours.” Kissing his forehead got a giggle and he did a happy dance. “Are we all set?”
“Toons!” He tugged me excitedly toward the chair before abruptly changing direction. “Milk.”
Hmm.
It wasn’t technically late, but I was pretty sure I knew where his headspace would end up if I got out a bottle.
“Jammies first.” The fact that I only got a tiny sigh and pout as I brought us to a halt said I was right. “Then cuddles and a bottle and cartoons.”
And then Daddy would stop expecting him to respond with words.
“Bath?” Little Roo looked down at himself before doing his sniff test again. “Stink?”
“You don’t stink but how about a bubble bath to make sure you’re all clean?” Since he’d brought it up, I wasn’t going to shoot down the idea right off the bat. “We can do it in the morning if that’s what we decide.”
What were Little Roo’s thoughts on being naked in front of Daddy?
He did another cute round of sniffs before looking up at me and shrugging. “Bubbles.”
“Okay.” Lifting him up to get more giggles from him, I carried him back through the house and decided he was lighter than whatever he’d packed in his luggage. “Off we go to get a bath.”
With a truck stop being his last shower, it seemed like a good idea even if he didn’t technically stink. A bit of earthy man smell was not unpleasant but he’d played hard and could probably use the relaxing time.
“Oh.” As we passed the guestroom that was now Little Roo’s room, he made gimmie fingers and down wiggles. “Mine.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant the room or the stuff inside it, but either way I nodded. “Detour time.”
Getting his pajamas was a good idea, but with as much as he’d packed, I wasn’t sure what else we’d be grabbing. “What do we need? Jammies?”
Setting him down by the bed, I watched as he did a happy wiggle and opened his suitcase. Everything was neatly packed, I’d give him that, but it was stuffed with everything from toys to pajamas to… oh… diapers.
As he dug like a Little mole, he made an excited sound as he found his binkie. “Mine.”
Once he’d popped it in place, his gaze went fuzzy and his entire body relaxed. Oral fixation or had he just taught himself that binkie time meant relaxing time?
“That’s good.” Kissing the top of his head, I looked into his suitcase. “Which jammies do you want to wear?”
There seemed to be two pairs, but it didn’t take him long to pick out a set with ice cream cones all over them. “Perfect. Do we need undies or a diaper?”
That was where decision-making slowed down. He rocked back and forth as he looked at his options and finally shrugged. He’d have looked less questionable if he hadn’t been glancing between me and the suitcase like it held a bomb I was supposed to be defusing, but I could understand why he was nervous.
“Then Daddy picks.” I made an exaggerated thinking face and sighed. “I get to pick, so no teasing me. I get what I want since it’s my choice. I’m the Daddy.”
