“I knew it was a bad idea to buy all this sweet stuff.” But then Caden leaned down and kissed my nose. “Come on, Cupcake. Let’s go upstairs.”
Nodding, I beamed at Daddy and mentally jumped up and down and did a happy dance. He brought me sweets and called me Cupcake. Now I officially had a cute nickname along with Little Boy. Yes!!! Caden must have really missed me.
While I carried the grocery bag into the kitchen, Caden walked into my bedroom. I got distracted by all the goodies he bought. There were cupcakes, fruit loops, chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs, and smiley shaped fries. But there were also fruits and vegetables. I scrunched up my nose when I saw the broccoli. I put everything away but left the cupcakes out. They were my favorite: white chocolate with a raspberry filling. I turned around to ask Daddy if I could have one but stopped dead in my tracks.
Caden had taken off his jacket, loosened his tie, and he rolled his sleeves up to his elbow. Man, no wonder people had arm fetishes. Hottest Daddy ever. While I watched him, he had something that looked like a stuffed fish in his hand. Looking around the apartment, he shook it a couple of times, and I could see his lips calling out for Charlie. After a few seconds, Charlie came strolling over from behind the couch and sniffed the air…and went bonkers. Laughing, Caden threw the fish, and Charlie immediately jumped in the air and caught it. He landed, bit into the toy, and shoved it around the floor. Charlie had never acted like that before, and when I looked back to Caden, he grinned and shrugged.
“Catnip. Cats love it.”
“I see that.”
My Daddy brought Charlie a gift, a catnip fish. For me he brought dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets and cupcakes. Then he showed up early because he missed me. How did I get so lucky to find someone like Caden? Logically I knew that it was because Ava had pushed me to go to the Rainbow Room. But emotionally, I had a hard time figuring it out. Caden must have sensed that something was on my mind because he walked over to me and gently touched my chin.
“What’s wrong, Cupcake?”
“I just…I just realized that you are here. I mean, you are really here.”
“I am, and I intend to stay the weekend unless you’ve changed your mind?”
“No.” Caden flinched. My voice was probably too loud, so I switched to sign language. “I want you to stay for the whole weekend.”
“Good. Because I want to stay, too.” Caden leaned down and kissed me. It was a sweet kiss, yet it had me wiggling until Caden pulled back and smiled at me. “Do you want to spend some adult time together, or are you ready to be Little?”
“Your Little Boy, please, Daddy.”
“You have your safeword in case you change your mind.” I nodded, and that earned me another of those nose kisses I had already loved. “Then how about this, Cupcake. Daddy is going to dress you in some cute jammies, and then we cuddle a while before it’s time for dinner.”
Instead of answering, I clapped my hands and turned to run to the bedroom to get changed. But Daddy held me back and carefully pulled at my arm, so I faced him again. Confused, I looked up at Daddy, but he only smiled.
“Slow down, Cupcake. We have all weekend.” He walked me into the bedroom and pointed to a bag on the floor by my closet. “Why don’t you have a look in that black duffel bag? I brought some cute jammies for you.”
“Okay, Daddy.” Caden let go, and I rushed over to his bags. Instinctively I knew Caden was probably telling me to slow down, but I ignored it and dropped to my knees beside the bag. I opened the zipper and pulled out…a fuzzy blanket? Then another, and another. Confused, I dug in deeper and pulled out one blanket after another. Sitting in the middle of a pile of soft cotton, I turned around to look at Daddy and signed, “There are no jammies in here, Daddy.”
“Oh, my mistake. I must have mixed up the bags then.” The small smile on Caden’s face grew into a full-face grin. “Those are for the blanket fort we’re going to build.”
My mouth dropped open—a blanket fort. I never had one of those before, but I always wanted to have one. “Can we build it now?” I started to fill my arms with blankets until I saw Daddy had his head back and mouth open.
He was laughing, so he signed, “Yes, but first, you need jammies. Dig into the other bag, Cupcake.”
Daddy didn’t need to tell me twice, and I walked on my knees over to the other duffle bag and whipped open the zipper. On top of everything was my brand-new jammies. They were dark blue with cute kangaroos on it. The fabric was so soft as I ran my hand over them. I pulled them out and realized that they were footie pajamas. They were perfect and so cute. I spun around on my knees to face Daddy, holding them in the air.
“Daddy, change,” I squealed since I had my hands full of my new jammies.
Caden came over and held his hand out. Taking it, I let him help me off the floor. He led me over to my bed. Before I could lie down, Caden gently turned me towards him and tapped my chin to make me look him in the eyes.
“Thank you for trusting me to take care of you.”
“Thank you for taking care of me.”
“Always, Cupcake.” Caden smiled at me, and then he bent down
