Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
But I liked my bear…and my new bookmark…and he had bought the book for me.
“No, Daddy. I can do it.” I got up on my knees again because that was easy, but I got distracted by my bottle in his hand and almost tipped over as I tried to stand up all the way. “Oops.”
Daddy was fast and grabbed my arm to keep me steady. “There we go.”
A tiny voice in the back of my head that sounded a lot like Kenzie pointed out that the whole situation was very little and Daddy. But he might not be right, so I ignored him. It was much nicer to focus on my stuffed animal and all the goodies Daddy had bought for me.
It’d been a long time since anyone had given me a real present.
Daddy hadn’t even put cash in an envelope and told me to buy myself a bottle…and I didn’t think that was because I wouldn’t know where to buy it. He knew I was smart. He’d just done it himself to surprise me.
Maybe Kenzie was right about how nice it was to have a Daddy.
“I don’t need you to cook meals for me, but if you like buying me presents, I think that would make you a very good Daddy.” Yes, reading books and buying me stuff sounded like wonderful things for a Daddy to do.
“I think cuddling with me and letting me take care of you in silly ways would make you the best little ever. So as long as we both remember what makes us the best, we won’t have any problems.” Daddy sat down in his big chair and tugged my hand.
“Come here. Tushy on that side and then legs across my lap.” He had it all planned out and he was right; we both fit. “Perfect.”
Probably because he seemed very tall when he sat down. But he had a very good chair too. It was even beside an end table where he set my bottle and my binkie. “See? You were made to cuddle on my lap.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but we fit without my legs having to be too curled up or hang over the side. “I think you just bought a big chair, Daddy.”
He chuckled, taking my book and snuggling me against him. “Nope. You were made to be mine. I’m a dragon and that means I’m right.”
Based on what I’d seen around town, I was pretty sure the mages thought they were always right too, but I didn’t point that out to Daddy since he was going to read me a book. “Should I have my binkie?”
I wasn’t sure I’d meant to ask that question when I’d opened my mouth—it had kind of just popped out—but it didn’t take me long to realize it was a good question.
“Yes. But if you get thirsty, we’ll switch to the bottle.” Daddy made that sound so normal. He seemed so confident about it. “If you can’t use your words or don’t want to, just make gimme fingers at it and you don’t have to talk.”
I wouldn’t have to talk?
“Let’s practice.” He kissed my head, making me want to wiggle for some reason. “Pretend you don’t want to talk but you want the binkie. How would you show me what you wanted?”
As I wondered if the mages could fix it so he just knew what I wanted, I reached one hand out and then opened and closed my fist several times.
“Good job.” Part of me said that should’ve sounded silly, but the Kenzie voice in the back of my head was very proud of making Daddy happy. “Good boy.”
Yeah, I kind of liked that too.
But I still held my breath as he picked it up and brought it closer to me. Not having to actually do anything but open my mouth made the whole thing easier to process, though. One character I’d read about said that he couldn’t be embarrassed about something if it’d been his Daddy’s idea to begin with, and I was starting to understand his logic better.
Daddy did it, so I couldn’t be blamed if it all went sideways.
“Open.” Daddy kissed my head again as he slipped the binkie in my mouth and I instinctively started sucking. “Good boy.”
It was kind of like my applesauce packs but there was no applesauce.
But sucking wasn’t that weird.
And it had Daddy giving me another hug and head kiss.
“We’re just going to leave it in for a few minutes as I read and after a few pages or so, we’ll see what you think. You still won’t have to say anything, though.” The way he immediately said that made me reconsider the reading minds thing again.
Maybe it was more common than he thought?
“I’ll give it a teasing tug and if you want to keep it, then just keep sucking. If you don’t like the feel of the binkie or if sucking isn’t relaxing, let me take it from you.” He sighed dramatically. “I almost said let me have it but that definitely wasn’t what I’d have meant.”