“Daddy might vomit if he tries it.”
“What? I only dipped it in ranch, silly Daddy. Not a combination and I promise I didn’t lick it first.” Oh shoot. “Are you allergic?” I forgot to ask.
“No, I’m not allergic. Not a big fan, but for you, I’ll try.” Daddy took a bite and got a surprised look on his face. “Wow, that’s not too bad.”
“Wanna try the mustard?” Everyone groaned. I crossed my arms and got angry. “That’s not nice. Grandma always said if you don’t have something nice to say don’t say anything at all.”
“You’re right, Jamie,” Henry’s Daddy Mitchell said. “I apologize. I just don’t care for mustard but that didn’t give me the right to yuck your yum. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry, Jamie.” Henry wrapped his arms around me and nearly fell out of his chair.
Much better, but I didn’t say that out loud. They were the daddies, and I didn’t want to get in trouble and not be allowed to come back. Henry was my only friend, and I really liked him. When I got hyper and silly, Henry didn’t get mad, he laughed and danced with me. Most people thought I was too much, but not Henry.
“Daddies, done!” Henry announced and threw his arms up to be washed so I did the same. Daddy T, err, Daddy smiled and wiped me clean then bopped my nose.
Daddy Jensen cleared our plates away. “Why don’t you boys go play while the daddies clean up.”
“Okay, Daddy.” That got Henry a cheek kiss. “Come on, Jamie. Let’s color our daddies new pictures for their fridges.”
Henry picked a book of unicorns, no surprise, and I picked a zoo book that looked brand new. “I want to go to a zoo someday.”
“Yeah, that would be fun. I wonder why we don’t have one here.”
I shrugged though he didn’t see me. “I dunno. I bet my Daddy has been to one. He’s so lucky, he gets to play animals all day.”
“I wonder if he’s ever seen a unicorn.”
“You’re silly, Henry. You know they’re pretend.” Henry was funny, but he had so many unicorns.
Henry whined. “I wanna see a real one.”
My turn to roll my eyes, though he didn’t see it. I found a page with puppies on it ‘cause this book didn’t have any sloths or koalas. Whatever grown-up made this book knew nothing about favorite kinds of animals.
“Why are you huffing?” Henry glanced up from his book. “Don’t you want to color?”
“I do but I can’t find any sloths or koalas and they’re my favorites.” I wonder if my Daddy would buy me new coloring books with them in them. When I was done, the puppies were mostly colored inline. Daddy will like it, I’m sure. Henry’s books had easy tear pages, which was great. But before I tore it out, I wroteTo Daddy, Love Jamieon it for him first.
“There, all done.” I was proud of it and had to give it to Daddy right away.
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” I sung out as I ran down the hall and straight into a wall and down on my bum. “Ouch.”
“Jamie!” Daddy crouched down beside me. “Are you okay? Why were you running?”
My bottom lip puffed out, and my eyes filled with tears that spilled over. “I. Made. You. Ah-ah. Picture.” I burst into tears as I shoved the picture at him. Crying was more embarrassing than anything, but Daddy scooped me up and carried me to the couch and cradled me on his lap.
“Sweet boy, I love the picture but why were you running in the house again?” At this point, Henry and both his daddies stood nearby watching us.You are such an idiot, Jamie.
“I-I,” I wiped my face, kind of on his shirt but I didn’t mean to. “Sorry Daddy.”
“That’s alright, shirts will wash but broken boys are hard to fix. Are you all right? Does anything hurt?”
Just my pride, but I left that out.
“No Daddy, I’m okay.” Just as I was about to ask if he was mad, he cuddled me against his chest and rocked us back and forth.
“Please don’t do that again, Jamie. You shaved ten years off my life.” Henry and his daddies went in the other room and left us alone. “You scared me to death. You hit that wall pretty hard.”
When I touched the top of my head where it hit, it hurt. “Ouch, that hurts.”
