Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“Once we’re all done here, we’ll wait one day to get organized and packed and then we’ll start driving.” He was doing his best to give us a plan and while I appreciated it, I realized I needed to work on not overplanning everything.
After the portal apocalypse, though.
Overplanning was still necessary until that was handled.
“One day, Daddy.” Squeezing my hand, he looked adorably serious as he slid deeper into his little side. “You’ll have to plan a lot to make sure we’re ready to go.”
I had the best mate ever.
Returning his serious expression, I nodded. “I will do my best to make sure we’re ready to go with stops planned along the way.”
Perking up, Merritt did a little bounce as we stopped by the door, most of his grown-up side gone for the time being. “Stops. Yes. Food and stuff to see and museums and silly things.”
Silly things usually meant adult things, so I gave him a questioning look. “Silly things?”
He snickered like a cartoon villain. “There are stores by the road, Daddy. Silly stores.”
He wanted to hit up every adult store between North Carolina and Texas?
“Some of the silly stores.” Stopping at all of them would bankrupt us. There were just that many and his wicked grin said he knew it too. “I can’t decide if you’re teasing Daddy or not.”
He just giggled again and was saved from answering by Wren popping out of his door. “You’re being naughty.”
That did not help Merritt’s giggling problem, but he didn’t mind and nodded excitedly. “We’re planning. Daddy likes that.”
“He does.” Bouncing and smiling even wider, Wren gave a happy wiggle. “He can plan lots of stuff to be happy. You can ask him about helping you plan big-big vacations like when we get old I want to…that kind of stuff. Oh, and you can help him plan meals for the week and how to organize things. That’ll make him happy too.”
For fuck’s sake.
“Oh, those are good ideas. Thank you.” Merritt looked like he was ready to start bouncing but he held his excitement in check. “Daddy likes to plan, but I was running out of ideas.”
Dragons above.
They didn’t need to work at giving me things to do just to keep me happy.
Wren nodded, clearly commiserating with how hard it was to tend to me. “He doesn’t like not knowing what you’re going to do next. You can talk to him about that too. Like, scene stuff or spankings or naked stuff or anything like that.”
His being helpful was going to give two people a heart attack… me and whoever he had in his room because that guy sounded very confused.
“That’s a good idea too.” Merritt lit up and looked like he thought Wren was brilliant. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Doing another happy wiggle, he inched back into his room. “I’m…I’m going to go play toys now. Have fun doing stuff.”
Sure. He was going to go play toys.
Rolling my eyes got a giggle from Merritt but he waved at Wren. “Have fun playing toys. Say hi to your toy for us.”
Wren snickered and hopped back from the door, shutting it and locking it quickly. “Hi, toy.”
His singsong tone was clearly meant for us to hear and got more laughter from Merritt. “He said hi to his toy.”
I hoped his toy wasn’t offended by that description, but from the whispered words I was catching, his reaction had made Wren laugh too. So when it all seemed fine, I did my best to tune them out and focused on my giggly boy as we went inside our room. “Silly goose.”
That had him laughing even louder and he collapsed on the bed, dumping everything he’d been holding on the ground and splaying his arms and legs out. “Silly little mage, Daddy.”
“Yes, you’re definitely my silly little mage.” Locking the door, I stretched out on the bed beside him and kissed his nose. “And possibly a sneaky little mage or maybe a naughty one. You were getting ideas from Wren.”
The family had clearly been managing me for years based on how many random calls and conversations I’d gotten into about planning future luxury vacations and playing what-if about all kinds of random things.
Merritt wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against him in a big hug. “I like happy Daddy. You weren’t happy.”
How could I be frustrated with that explanation?
“I will admit to being more relaxed when I can predict what’s coming next. I don’t need to have everything planned out in minute detail, but the whatever comes next plan makes me…uncomfortable.” How could I take care of him if there wasn’t a plan?
Looking adorable and thoughtful, Merritt gave me the cutest thinky frown and made several hums that I knew were supposed to indicate how hard his brain was working. After a few seconds, he hopped off the bed and gave me a light bulb over his head smile as he started organizing his loot. “We can pick out places and plan that, Daddy.”