Fair, I guess, since I was wearing his shirt, after all, and with his arms still squeezed so tightly around the two of us, it wasn’t like he had a hand free to wipe it with anything else.
He looked up at Daddy with a cheeky grin. “I have a very important question, Mr. G.”
“Ask away,” Daddy said, grinning right back at him.
Sam finally let go, then grabbed onto my arm and tugged, flapping his free hand in the direction of the tea party that was still going on near us. “Can I play with your dolly? I think we should celebrate with some tea and playtime!”
Daddy’s eyebrows shot up, and my stomach got a little squirrelly with nerves. But not necessarily bad nerves. Especially because Daddy didn’t look like he minded that I’d told Sam about that. He just looked… thoughtful.
He ran his hand over my hair, looking into my eyes like he was trying to see right inside me, and my stomach calmed right down when he gave me a slow, private-feeling smile that made everything inside me relax all at once.
“Would you like that, Rene?”
I looked at Sam, enthusiastic and happy and bouncing on his toes.
He was so loud and confident. He looked ready to sweep through the room of toys like a tornado.But he was also my friend. He knew I wasn’t like him like that, so if we played, he wouldn’t just… justoverwhelmme, right?
I didn’t think so, but the problem was that I still didn’t knowhowto play, and suddenly my stomach was twisting into a knot again as I tried to find the right answer to Daddy’s question.
I didn’t know what that was, though.
I didn’t know atall.
19
Rene
“Sweetheart?”Daddy prompted quietly, somehow making it seem like it was just the two of us for a moment. Making my stomach settle all over again, because it was okay that I didn’t know.Hewould know. “The only right answer is the truth,” he said, smiling gently. “Do you want me to let Sam play with you?”
All I had to do was answer him.
All he wanted from me was the truth.
“I don’t know, Daddy,” I said, because thatwasthe truth.
Except, was it? I kind of did want to be a part of the playdate happening all around us, I just didn’t know how.
“Okay,” he said, not seeming to mind that answer at all.
But before he could decide or fix things or tell me what would happen next, I blurted, s“Um, what would I… what would I have to do? If I played?”
I felt silly as soon as I’d asked. Edward was thebestDaddy, but he hadn’t actually been a Daddy to a Little before, if I even qualified as that, so I doubted he knew how to do kid things.
Before I could take it back, though, he just smiled, petting my hair again as he gave the room a slow sweep with his eyes, then leaning in to whisper, “You could try the blocks? Or join the tea party if you want to.”
My stomach sank. Sam had said the same thing, but…
“I don’t know how to do those things.” And Daddy had wanted my real answer, so I added quietly, “And… And I don’t think I’d like them, either.”
Little-space, the freedom of regression, was supposed torelaxyou. But the stress of trying to figure out how to build all the things Sam wanted with the blocks, or what to say and how to act at a tea party, when I’d never done that before…
“Rene,” Daddy said firmly, his voice instantly more relaxing than the thought ofanyof that. “You are my perfect boy. My beautiful dollbaby. And Samdidask to play with my dolly. Would you like to join in that way?”
I blinked. “Um, what does that mean?”
Daddy smiled, his gold-flecked eyes reminding me of the warmest, sweetest syrup. “You aremypretty doll. If I let Sam play with you, he might bring you to join the other dolls at the tea party.”
I whipped around to look, but then saw what Daddy meant. A few of the other Littles had real dolls. Toy dolls. And one had a stuffy that looked as worn out as Teddy was. The toys each had a chair of their own, and a small saucer and cup in front of them.
