Page 24 of Tessa

“Thank you.” She blushed. “Do you wanna… keep it?”

“I would be honored. As soon as Daddy Dax gets out of the bathroom, you can show it to him, and then it’s going straight on the fridge.”

Tessa looked at the fridge with a worried frown. “Um… do you have magnets?”

“You’re right! We don’t. We’ll have to get some. I’ll add it to the list.” He dutifully wrote it at the bottom of the page he’d been writing on for the past fifteen minutes and for the first time, Tessa thought to ask what he was writing.

“Are you doing work?” she asked, worried that he’d added “buy magnets” in the middle of something important.

“No, not work. It’s a shopping list.”

Tessa peered over at the list that ran all the way down the page.

“That’s a long list,” she said with a worried frown. She still didn’t like the idea of Beau spending money on her, but she was trying to listen to Daddy Dax’s advice and not argue.

Before Beau could answer, Dax came out of the bathroom with a smile on his face.

“So, what’s the plan?”

“Well, it’s still a little early for a nap,” Beau said. “But Tessa finished her picture, and I realized we didn’t have any magnets to hang it on the fridge, so I figured we could go shopping, maybe have lunch out first, and then come back here and take a nap together once we are tired from walking and our bellies are full.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Dax agreed jovially. “Let me see this picture.”

Tessa handed it to him and he gasped, throwing his hand over his mouth with exaggerated shock. “Tessa!” he exclaimed, “this is amazing! You’re a regular little artist.”

Tessa giggled. “That’s what Daddy Beau said!”

“Well he’s right. We need magnets right away! It is a total travesty for a picture as beautiful as this one to not be on display!”

She squealed with laughter and rolled her eyes. “We can go get magnets, but we really don’t need all that other stuff.”

Daddy Beau raised his brows, shooting her a look that shut her right up. “Okay okay, sorry. Geesh.”

Beau shook his head. “Daddy Dax, why don’t you take Tessa to go potty and then we will head out.”

“I can go potty by myself! I don’t need help!” Tessa protested.

“Nonsense. You’re our Little girl now and when you are with us it’s our job to take care of you in all the ways we are able.”

Beau’s tone brooked no argument and Tessa sighed deeply. It wasn’t that she hated the idea of being cared for in that way, it was just new to her, and a little embarrassing.

But Daddy Dax took her hand and led her into the bathroom.

When the door closed behind them, Tessa stood awkwardly, still clinging to Dax’s hand, unsure what she was supposed to do.

But Dax seemed to know. Dropping her hand, he knelt in front of her and reached under her dress, tugging down the diaper cover that matched her dress and went over her pull up, and then pulled down her pull up, all the way down to her feet.

Then he picked her up by the waist, and lifted her out of it, carrying her across the room and setting her down in front of the toilet, holding her dress out of the way.

That was weird and more than she had really expected. It was going to be hard enough to go potty with someone in the room with her but with them that close, there wasn’t even a chance.

“I can hold my own dress,” she whined.

“I know you can. I’m just waiting for you to take it.”

“Oh.” Tessa blushed, feeling silly, and grabbed at her dress to hold it up with one hand. As soon as she did that, Dax backed off to sit on the edge of the tub and she sat down on the toilet.

Tessa looked at him with unease. When was the last time she had used the toilet in front of anyone who wasn’t her twin sister Ellie?