Page 75 of Daddy P.I. 3.0

The doorbell rings and I abandon my pacing to answer it. Sable’s there before me, weaving back and forth on the welcome mat and sniffing. I know it’s not Daddy. Manny only picked upeveryone in Jersey twenty minutes ago, so they’ll be a while. But there are lots of other people coming to this meeting, so I’m not sure who will arrive first.

I check the door cam and disable the security when I see Mistress Maude. She walks through; a young man a few inches taller than Maude follows her closely. He’s wearing a gray hoodie pulled up around his face under a big overcoat and loose sweatpants. That tells me he’s wearing his fursuit today.

I hold my hands out for his outer-wear. Georgie kisses me on the cheek and peels off his coat, hoodie, and sweatpants carefully. He’s been really generous about letting me inspect his fursuit. I know other fursons are not cool with having their fursuits handled. Georgie’s mouse-suit is the softest, finest synthetic fur. He says it’s durable but I’ve noticed he’s careful with it, particularly when he’s putting clothes on over it or taking them off.

He straightens his hood, lining up the ears, takes his paws out of his coat pocket and puts them on. He leaves his mouse-face off.

“I don’t want to scare the baby,” he says.

Mistress Maude strokes his shoulder. “There’s nothing scary about your mouse-face, darling. Livvy will be enchanted.”

Georgie’s eyes search mine. “Do you think so?”

I think babies are adaptable. “Put it on and let’s see,” I suggest.

Sable chooses that moment to start winding around Georgie’s ankles and purring like a motorboat. Georgie shakes his head. “Not today. I’m going to eat anyway. Better not to eat with my mouse-face on.”

Mistress Maude sighs softly and strokes Georgie’s nape. She slips off her high-heeled boots and they follow me through to the kitchen.

I’ve set up a buffet with breakfasty foods, including bacon, sausage links, scrambled eggs, and waffles. The waffles were a special request in Daddy’s text this morning telling me to expect about a dozen people for brunch, which is odd because he usually prefers crepes but it’s no trouble to make waffles. Everything’s covered to keep it warm, and the eggs and meat are on the small hot plate I brought from Syracuse. But I think I’ll ask Daddy to add some of those big food warmers that are heated with paraffin burners to our budget. We’re entertaining so often now that he’s recovered, it makes sense to have bigger warmers.

I start to make tea for Mistress Maude but Georgie gently brushes me aside after I get out a cup and teabag. He takes a small bag of loose tea and one of those pretty silver tea balls out of Maude’s bag. The resulting black tea smellsheavenly.

“What is that?” I ask after I make cups of green tea for me and Georgie.

“It’s called Panda Dung but I promise there’s no poo in it,” Georgie says.

I giggle at the name.

As we’re carrying the tea to the table, the front door opens. Bren’s voice follows the sound of the heavy door closing. “Hey-ho the house,” she calls. “It’s just me.”

“We’re in the kitchen, just me,” Maude calls back.

Brenna’s grinning as she rounds the corner from the hallway. She went to the shop this morning to do a tattoo but Master Mac asked her to come back to meet with Joker’s B. The house is warm, although we’re all keeping our clothes on with Joker’s B coming, she’s stripped down to a T-shirt and her oxblood leather pants, her dreadlocks unbound and flowing over her shoulders. For the first time since I’ve known her, Bren looks her age. She’s only twenty-seven, five years younger than me but she’s beenso down while I’ve known her that people always assume she’s older than me.

Today, she looks a carefree twenty-something. She walks lightly through the great room, holding open her arms. “Baby time!”

I unhook the harness and hand Livvy to Bren. Livvy kicks and coos as I pass her over, then grabs at the blue peonies tattooed on Bren’s neck. Bren lifts her up and blows a huge raspberry against Livvy’s cheek, which has the baby squealing.

“Where’s Daddy Lo and Sir?” Bren asks me as she cradles Livvy against her chest.

“Still probably fifteen or twenty minutes away, depending on the traffic.”

Bren nods. “Didn’t seem too bad as I walked over but no idea what the tunnel’s like.” She smooches Livvy’s soft head, then turns to Mistress Maude and dips her a little curtsey. “Mistress. Georgie. Good morning.”

“Good morning, dear. Georgie would like to stop by and look at your designs. I think a set of chains around his ankles would be delicious. Shall I bring him by over the weekend?”

Brenna nods. “I’m in both mornings. Georgie, if I can get a sample of your fursuit, I’ll find some ink so I can tattoo your fursuit as well as your skin, if that’s something you’d like?”

Georgie’s naturally-hooded eyes go wide. “Yes, please.”

Bren smiles at him. “I’m used to tattooing scar tissue. I do a lot of mastectomy pieces. I think it will be similar. I can try doing both your fursuit and your skin at the same time but I think it would be better if we did them separately to avoid the ink bleeding through the layers.”

“Whatever you think’s best.”

The doorbell rings again and since Bren’s got the baby, I patter off to answer it. Master Theo leans against the door frame.His expression is sour and there are deep shadows under his eyes.

“Hi, Master Theo.”

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