“You could even make egg-shaped sporrans for the daddies with penguins,” Raleigh added, pushing himself back up in his seat slowly.
He took a few slow, deep breaths before he stood, while Daddy groaned and let out another long belch.
“It says something about how full I am that I’m not rushing to grab a pen right now because those are some amazing ideas,” Daddy said. “I can already picture the gear taking shape in my head.”
“You’ve got your living room sketchbook,” I pointed out.
“You’re right. I do,” Daddy said. “Guess I’d better pry myself out of this chair so I can write everything down before you two start firing more wonderful ideas.”
“Like hats to match their suits?” Raleigh said as he paused, leaning against the back of his chair.
“Just like that,” Daddy said.
“All kinds of hats,” Raleigh added, starting to get that far away look in his eyes he always got when he was dreaming something up. “I’d love to see a penguin in a beanie, or even a long toboggan hat that trailed down his back. And he’d have to have a top hat too for special occasions. And those bowl-shaped hats that gangsters always wear in old movies. What were they called….oh yeah, bowlers, duh, they’ve gotta have one of those. And a pimp hat with a jaunty feather, maybe one that looks like it comes from their own tails.”
Being around Daddy was triggering that to happen a lot lately and I loved that for him.
“Definitely need my notebook,” Daddy groaned.
When Daddy stood, I decided to give it a try myself so I wouldn’t be the only one left at the table. Because we’d used paper for everything today, we didn’t have to worry about loading the dishwasher, but it did shock me that Daddy just left everything there and followed Raleigh, who was definitely waddling.
Raleigh stretched out to his full length on one side of the giant pit couch we usually snuggled up to Daddy on, so I took the opposite side, leaving the middle for Daddy to sprawl out on while he wrote his notes.
I loved how wide and deep it was and the way the pieces were moveable, so we could configure it however we wanted, even like a bed. Not that any of us were even thinking about moving it now so we could lay closer together. It had taken every ounce of willpower I’d had to shamble over to the couch without groaning the whole twenty steps into the living room.
“The hats could be an accessory line in and of themselves,” Daddy murmured as he started making notes while Raleigh flipped through the channels.
When he lingered too long on the preview forIron Chef,I chucked a couch cushion at him and instantly regretted it when the motion made the contents of my stomach feel like they were sloshing around inside of me.
“No food, Raleigh! Don’t make me come over there.”
“You couldn’t if you tried,” Raleigh replied as he stuck his tongue out at me instead of returning fire, but at least he changed the channel.
Right toBob’s Burgers.
“Okay, you’re fucking with me now, aren’t you?” I said as I felt around for another throw pillow to toss.
“I can’t help what’s on the channels,” he protested.
“Sure, the least you can do is pretend you aren’t enjoying yourself at my expense.”
“I’m too full to pretend,” Raleigh said. “All the pressure from the food is starting to smother my imagination.”
“Then hit the button marked ‘guide,’ and we can flip through the channels that way,” I suggested. “Or better still, toss me theremote, and I’ll do it before you land us onThe Great British Bake Off.”
“Works for me,” Raleigh said and launched the remote, which I bobbled, of course.
It landed on my stomach with a smack that I retaliated for by flipping him off while he snickered at me.
“You can’t make this shit up,” Daddy muttered, shaking his head at us while he continued making notes about the penguin gear.
“SpongeBobis on,” I declared.
For some reason, that just made Raleigh giggle harder.
It literally took clicking on the show to see SpongeBob standing in front of the grill, flipping krabby patties in the kitchen of the Krusty Krab for me to realize exactly what he was laughing about.
“Fuck me!” I groaned and hit the guide button again.
