Page 21 of Lane's Lost Kitten

“Are you kidding?” I covered the phone. “Lane, do you have any objections to the ladies helping with moving?”

“Objections?” He picked up Cat-terine and spun around. “No objections.”

I uncovered the phone. “Maria? If you’re serious, we’ll give you time and a half for the whole thing.”

“See you in a half hour.” She hung up, and Lane and I danced in a circle.

“They will probably just send us out because we’re in the way,” he exulted. “Where shall we go?”

They did not send us away, but they did take the project to a whole new and organized level where we were done with moving things out of the apartment by the original three o’clock time, and they could move forward with the cleaning. They were incredible, and the old service had done us a favor by being incompetent.

Once Maria and Jolene were in Lane’s old place with their cleaning products and vacuum and brooms, Lane and I sank onto the sofa. Not only had they helped us pack and carry, they’d supervised us unpacking, and we were sitting in a neat and tidy space that I suspected they’d actually done some cleaning in as well.

My eyes were closing when Lane rested his head on my shoulder. “Good job, Daddy.”

“What?” I turned to face him. “I nearly had us going under for the third time.” Not very Daddy in my books.

“You recognized a situation and took steps to resolve it. You saw that I was starting to panic and Cat-terine was freaking out and you brought in help. Look around. There’s no way we could have made this work without that help, not in our tight schedule. And now, we are moved in and settled and the only thing left to do is…”

We beamed at one another. “Back to bed?” I suggested.

“That sounds good.”

“Maybe a tubby?”

He visibly relaxed. “Yes, please, Daddy.”

“Okay, you go get your basket of toys for the tubby and bring it in while I start the water running. Want bubbles?”

“I love you this much, Daddy.” His arms could not spread wider when he spread them to show me how much.

With Cat-terine once again in her pool of sunlight, all was right with the world, and I went in to run a bath for a certain little who needed to relax and play with toys. It was as settling for me as it was for him, and when he came in with the basket, I showed him where we would keep them on a shelf for convenience. “Now, let Daddy undress you and you can play for a few minutes before it will be time to suds you up and get you ready for bed. A certain good boy has had a long day.”

I took off his clothes and helped him to step into the tub. He sank into the bubbles and rested his head against the back. “I’m tired.” His voice was just a little sigh.

I put a couple of boats in the tub and soaped up a washcloth. “Wash up time.”

He never even protested that he wanted to play. And after I got him all scrubbed up and cleaned, I rubbed shampoo into his hair, worked up a lather, and rinsed it away. Then I went into the bedroom and came back with a set of footie pajamas. “Time to get out, Lane. Daddy is going to tuck you in bed and read you a story.”

Chapter Seventeen

Lane

“I can’t help it! I’m so excited.”

Tonight was the first time we’re going to Chained, just us. Tonight wasn’t connected to some sort of event fostering daddy/little dynamics, and I couldn’t wait to throw my backpack on and race there. I wasn’t patient. Good thing Daddy was here. He had enough patience for both of us.

I handed it to my pack to him for inspection. He wasn’t one to micromanage my life, but I’d asked him to make sure I was ready for tonight. It would take a lot for me to move past missing something important, and I didn’t trust myself not to. Not when I was this filled with anticipation.

“Do you have everything you need?” he asked.

I shrugged.

“We’ll make sure,” Daddy assured me in the exact way I needed him to.

“Thank you, Daddy.”

He opened my bag, took everything out, and laid it on my bed. He made sure I had my favorite jams, worn and well-loved. He double checked that Bunny Love, the stuffed rabbit was there. It looked exactly like the one that I drew for him that first night, right down to the outfit. He found someone on the internet who handmade stuffies using pictures you sent them, and it was absolutely perfect. One by one, everything from my socks to my spare paci were spread out for inventory.

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