Page 5 of Poppy's Place

Her whole body froze again, and she slowly looked at me over her shoulder. “Yes, sir. I will.”

I watched her walk to the curb and then turn to look at me through the window. She might have noticed my eyebrow raise when she turned from the edge of the street and went to the crosswalk and waited for the light to change.Good girl.

She was definitely submissive if not fully a Little, but I was pretty sure that private playroom of hers was exactly that. A playroom for her and her Little friends. What did she call them?

The Little Lovelies.

I definitely needed to learn more.

“Carter?” Kylie leaned over the counter closest to me. “Can I interrupt you for a moment?”

“Absolutely.” I pulled my attention away from the window and walked over to the counter. “What’s up?”

“Is it okay if I take the pastries we don’t sell tonight? My friend is having a party, and I promised to bring snacks.”

“Of course.” I glanced in the display case and back at her. “Is there enough? I can order cookies or cupcakes to be delivered.”

She smiled and cocked her head. “Aww, that’s so sweet, Carter. But we’ll be fine. There will only be eight or nine of us, so whatever we have left over here will be fine. And maybe a box of coffee?”

“Yeah, take whatever you want, Kylie.” I slipped my hands into my pockets and looked back over my shoulder. “This is for Poppy’s Place?”

She looked surprised by that. “Yeah, you know Poppy?”

I shrugged and tried to come across as less thirsty than I was. “We met last night. She seems really sweet.”

“She’s awesome.” Kylie looked me over, probably trying to determine what I meant by that. “And single.”

I chuckled. “She mentioned that.”

“She did!” Kylie relaxed right before my eyes, and if I wasn’t looking for it, I might have missed her Little tendencies too. “Yay! She’s the best. And she bought that whole building for our little club to meet in. I mean, she’s living upstairs, so it’s also her house, but she’s just so amazing.”

“And very pretty.” I smiled, making sure Kylie knew I was attracted to her friend.

She nodded and practically swooned right before my eyes. “I’ll tell her you said so.”

Chapter 5

Poppy

The cork wall was a last-minute addition I put in on Friday morning, and I was so glad I did. It was a hit, and within the first hour of our playdate, there was a beautiful collage of art covering it. Everything from coloring pages, hand-drawn pictures, and flower cutouts were the final decorations my friends and I created to make the playroom really ours.

Kylie not only brought a box full of muffins, Danishes, and banana bread from Bean Box, but she also brought Daddy Troy. Even if he wasn’t the right fit for her, he was a good guy, and having a caretaker to supervise the playdate made it easier for the rest of us to really get into the headspace of being Little.

Cassie, Briana, and Willa all came together in a rideshare. They could be bratty, and it was sometimes harder for them to get back out of their Little attitude at the end of a playdate, so it was better for them to not be driving. Jasmine, Hannah, and Devyn drove themselves. As soon as everyone arrived, we broke into the snacks and started our art.

Most of us were in pretty babydoll dresses. It was our signature Little Lovelies “look.” But since we were in a private space thatwe didn’t have to clean up, we also had all our costumes and Little clothes in the closet.

Briana immediately changed into a pink onesie, and Willa took off her dress and played in a purple tank top and shorts pajama set. By the end of the night, she would probably be in just her shorts because she was a bit of a nudist when she was allowed to be free. Troy was the only Daddy present, and he was used to helping get Willa back into big girl clothes after playing so she could go home.

I wouldn’t ever tell Kylie this, but Troy seemed to be the perfect kind of Daddy for someone like Willa. She needed a lot more discipline and structure than Kylie did and was constantly pushing limits without anyone around to enforce them. But Kylie and Troy were discovering their needs and would figure it out on their own.

For now, I was just so happy to have my friends around me as we had a tea party with the stuffies and read books and giggled. A lot. Eventually, we moved all the pillows and beanbags into the middle of the room, turned off the lights, and watched a cartoon.

We always took turns choosing, and it was Hannah’s turn. She chose Beauty and the Beast, one of my favorites. I loved that Belle had her prince so close, even though she didn’t know it. And when she finally figured it out, he wasn’t really a beast at all. He was her perfect partner. Someday, I hoped to find someone perfect too. A perfect Daddy who would appreciate me for who I was when I was Big but also loved taking care of me when I was Little.

It was almost midnight when we finally said goodbye and everybody headed home. The best part of saying goodbye was not having to clean up anything and being able to go up into myapartment while Troy made sure everyone was able to get home safely.

When I got upstairs, I thought I’d be sleepy and ready to pass out, but I was so excited by how great the first official Little Lovelies playdate in Poppy’s Place had been that I was totally wired. Instead of trying to sleep, I turned on all the lights and started unpacking the rest of my boxes.

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