“I’ll be right back,” I excused myself to go to the restroom. I needed the break. Talking about the pancakes and my grandfather had me emotional. If we’d been back at the cabin, I wouldn’t have minded, but here in public, it felt too exposed.
When I came back, it was to a tall glass of chocolate milk. They made the kind with syrup, and I could see where it wasn’t quite mixed up.
“I thought you could use this.”
“I really can.” I stirred it up, scraping every last bit of syrup off the side of the glass. “This is the best kind of chocolate milk.”
“I’m glad you approve.”
He started telling me about the fishing trip, and we barely got past their arrival when our pancakes came.
Daddy’s were nice round cakes and mine…teddy bears.
“You remembered, Martha. Thank you.” My voice cracked.
“I had someone remind me.” She winked. “Enjoy them.”
“You did this?”
He nodded. “Sometimes we need to keep the things we love, even if we are too big.”
Chapter Eight
Will
I gave Sammy my contact information, but I never heard back from him. After spending the day with him up at the cabin, I’d rejoined my friends for the fishing trip and seen him a few times, in passing, but he’d been busy working on the cabin and hadn’t wanted me to give up any more of my vacation.
Truly, I had a great time with him. It hardly seemed like work when we were doing things together. We’d even found a sketchbook tucked away that had his eyes filling with tears. “It would have been a present for me. He encouraged my drawing, everything I did, really.”
When I got home, I knew I could have tried to reach him through our friends in common, but I chose not to push. If he wanted to call, he could. And we both belonged to Chained but somehow never were there on the same night. My schedule had not gotten any lighter, but I did go when I could on the off chance…
On this particular night, I had managed the trick of getting out of the office not only early enough to go to the club but to go home first and grab a shower and change, a real triumph in my scheduling in the past few years. My short fishing vacation had reminded me how important it was to take the time to refresh myself, and Summit, an attorney with a busy practice, had nudged me as well. He knew what it was like to put business ahead of life.
Chained was always a good time, even if I didn’t scene. An evening with friends who understood my mind and how it worked was like a cool breeze on a hot day, and as soon as I arrived and passed through into the conversation area, I spotted several daddies and littles who were enjoying snacks andbeverages. The littles were seated either in their daddies’ laps or on the floor at their feet, pushing around a fleet of little cars. Makingvroom vroomsounds.
“Will, come sit and visit. Unless you’re going right to the little room.” Bridger moved over on one of the sofas to make room. “I hear they have some great games tonight.”
I plopped down next to him with a sigh. “Maybe later. For now, I’m just glad to be here and relax.”
“Busy day at work?”
“It was, but it’s over now until tomorrow. How are all of you doing?”
I got the usual chorus of fine and great and other platitudes, and a server came over to take my order. I rarely drank if I was going to play, but one was fine, and I didn’t plan on it anyway. As long as there were people sitting here to socialize, I was all about it.
Bridger was crocheting, as usual. A pattern designer, he was almost always working on a new design and this one caught my eye.
He glanced over and saw me watching. “What do you think?”
“Love the colors. Is it a peacock?”
He held up the partially completed yarn. “It is. I had a request, actually a couple, and I thought how fun. I want to do that.”
“I can’t wait to see when it’s done. Sometimes I wonder if I should learn to crochet.”
“You should.” Hudson poked his head up from where he’d been playing with the cars. “Daddy show you.”
“That’s right, Will.” Bridger chuckled. “I’d be glad to teach you if you ever find time.”
