“What? Go get her. I’ll wait.”
I jumped out of bed and sprinted to the closet, grabbed her out of her hiding place, then zoomed back to the bed, landing with a bounce. “Okay, Daddy. Got her.”
“Good boy. I’m going to read you a bedtime story. Then you’re going to sleep. So, turn your light off.”
I grunted and jumped out of bed to hit the light before crawling back in. “Okay. Ready.”
“Good. Here we go.”
“Wait.”
“What is it?”
“I want my binky too. Is that okay?” Since he was reading to me before I went to sleep, I felt like it would be okay.
“No problem at all, sweetie. Go get it.”
I ran back to the closet, found my binky, then double-checked that my door was locked before climbing back in bed. I got comfortable then put the phone to my ear. “I’m ready now, Daddy.”
“Good boy. This one is called.Ellie the Elephant Goes to the Park.”
“Yay! I can’t believe you got an Ellie book.”
Daddy chuckled, his deep voice doing all kinds of crazy things to my insides. He was so sweet and handsome. “Of course I got an Ellie book. What kind of Daddy do you think I am?”
“Perfect. A perfect Daddy.”
“Eh…Don’t know about that, but you bet I’m going to try. Now shush, angel, and let me read.”
The book was so fun and sweet, all about Ellie going to the park and playing with her friends, Gerry Giraffe and Lilly Lion. They blew bubbles and danced and sang. But I didn’t make it to the end ‘cause I fell asleep. I woke up sometime later and checked to see if Daddy Nate had hung up the phone, and he had. I put it on the table and rolled over, clutching my Ellie and sucking on my binky.
This all seemed too good to be true.
8
NATE
Everything was going well for me at work and at home, more specifically with Gilly. Not only did he not have a problem with the lactating, but he wanted to nurse, and it was amazing. I scored big points for buying that Ellie the Elephant book and reading it to him, something I definitely would do more of. My little one fell asleep before we got three quarters in. He was tired for sure. My only regret was I wished I had him in my arms and nursing at the time. It did us both wonders, and we slept like lambs afterwards.
After packing up for the day, I headed out to City Social, the bar where the Lactin Brotherhood had a meeting tonight. I needed to do a sanity check with my brothers, and City Social was one of my favorite meeting locations they frequented. It was a nice bar with private rooms we rented. Tonight’s room was the Sports Social themed one where the walls were brick and television sets hung in the corners. I loved sports, which made it my favorite room. Plus, it had a bar, complete with a bartender, so we didn’t have to keep going in and out and clogging up the main restaurant, or rather, having the general public slow down our service. It was a comfortable, fun atmosphere, and Preston wassure to be there. It would be great to catch up with him and maybe set something up with his boy again. Gilly had enjoyed that a lot and so had I.
I got a drink and snagged a seat across from Joel Hardy, another one of my long-time friends. “Joel. How’s it going?”
“Great. Good to see you, Nate. Cheers.” He lifted his glass to me, and I clinked mine against it.
After taking a sip, I placed my beer on the coaster. “It’s been a while. What’s new with you?”
“Same old, same old. Still chasing after boys that run away…” He rolled his eyes like it was no big deal, but I knew better. He was lonely and never able to find the right companion.
“Maybe stop chasing.”
“Is that what happened to you? You seem pretty chipper tonight.”
“Something like that.”
“Oh-ho! So you do have a boy now.”
I shrugged. “It’s still new.”
