Page 24 of Lilly's Little Labor Day

“Yes, safe friends.”

“Not posers who call themselves Daddies?” he asked, his voice having a slight growl.

Despite vowing to never mention Blake again, that question had slipped. As a real Daddy, guys like Blake infuriated him.

“That was my first time,” she said. Her voice was calm and Edward didn’t think she’d taken offense.

“Just be careful. You’re too young to hang out at bars.”

She laughed again, grabbed his arm, and led him toward the castle. “Okay, we can do this instead. But you have to jump with me.”

“Nope. Not my thing.”

She got in front of him, turning to face him, and tugging forward on both of his arms. “Please? Pretty please? Don’t be a sourpuss.”

He grunted.

“You can’t just stand around and wait on me. This day is supposed to be fun.”

“Watching you is fun,” he said.

He wasn’t lying. He could watch that cutie all day.

She let go of his hands and clasped hers together, as if praying. “Please. Please. Please. Pl—”

“Alright,” he said with a groan. “Let’s get this over with.”

Five minutes later, though, he was enjoying himself. True, most of his joy came from watching sweet Lilly, but he was even having fun bouncing up and down. They weren’t the only adults in there, so no one looked at them strangely.

“There’s a secret room back there,” Lilly said, pointing behind a wall that acted as a patrician, separating the two areas of the bouncy castle.

“If it’s a secret, how do you know about it?” he asked.

She giggled. “You know what I mean. Come on.”

She grabbed his hand and held it as they awkwardly walked on the uneven surface. They almost fell three times but managed to stay upright. They finally reached their destination, both laughing.

Once behind the wall, she said, “Hey! No one is back here. We have the whole place to ourselves.”

Worry flooded Edward’s mind.

He was struggling to contain himself around Lilly, but having others around helped. Now, with no one to see, would he be able to restrain his desire?

True, it wasn’t like he would tear her clothes off in public or do something inappropriate in front of others. But stealing a kiss here and there? Yeah. He wanted to do that.

And bad.

“Let’s see how high we can jump!” she said.

He was thankful when she separated from him a bit, moving to the middle of the section, and turning her full attention to bouncing.

Well, bouncing and looking adorable, it seemed.

He briefly wondered if he should have made her wear a diaper. Littles have accidents sometimes, especially the way she was jumping around.

Just stop. Don’t even think about it. I’m not her Daddy. The sooner I embrace that the easier this will be.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

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