Page 33 of Cherishing Little Charlee

“I think they’ll taste extra yummy.” He dismounted as well, then strode to my side. “We can eat at one of the tables, unless you’re cold, babygirl?”

“I’m warm enough! Let’s go!” I tugged on his hand impatiently as we walked to the collection of tables. We sat down but our privacy was short lived. Haven and Colton were walking hand in hand and spotted us. They sat down across from us.

“We were just talking about you,” Pierce said musing.

“Were you? Good things I hope,” Colton answered playfully.

I offered Haven some of my sandwich and we shared it. “Well, mostly good things. My Daddy told me he may have had a very interesting cup of coffee the other day at your house.”

Haven’s eyes widened. She looked at Colt then darted her gaze to Pierce. “Whoops. Sometimes the sugar bowl and the salt container feel exactly the same.” She shrugged.

“Mmmhmm. Well, Charlee admitted that the two of you may have been talking about pranks,” Pierce handed the other half of his sandwich to Colt.

“Pranks?” Colton raised an eyebrow as he bit into the roll. “What’s this about?”

“Not really a prank exactly. Charlee asked me if I knew what would happen if some of the shenanigans involved Pierce. I couldn’t answer truthfully without testing a theory.” Haven said sweetly.

“She’s right,” Pierce agreed laughing as he ate. “But that doesn’t mean I like all the secrecy. I’d rather have a conversation instead.”

“I hope you and Charlee sorted it out for research purposes,” Colt nodded.

“We absolutely did. I hope my punishment sticks in her mind. Let me clarify. I wasn’t punishing Charlee for Haven’s theory. But when I asked her about it, she did not tell me the whole truth.”

Pierce kissed my temple. The gesture made me feel much better about the whole mess. “I should have asked you instead of the elaborate way around it, Daddy,” I said around the yummy food.

“Yes, babygirl. You should have,” he agreed.

“This is the best sandwich I’ve ever tasted,” Colton marveled. “Smoked bacon adds something really special to it.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying my lunch. I got the idea this morning when the bacon came out perfectly crispy.”

“You should come over after the dress rehearsal tonight. Neither one of you are going to feel like cooking. I’ll order from our favorite Chinese food place.” Colton sweetened the invitation.

“Sure, thing. I’ll bring Haven home then since she’s attending all the rehearsals in case we need extra hands,” Pierce said, nodding.

Haven kicked my shin gently causing me to focus on her. She held out a cookie from the cafeteria. “We got a half dozen to bring home. They are my favorite kind.”

Grinning, I thanked her and accepted the cookie. “I’m sorry if you got in trouble with our Daddies.”

“I accept your apology but it wasn’t like that. I knew what I was getting myself into,” she said as she offered a cookie to Pierce and Colton before taking one for herself.

“Still, I heard you got punished in front of my Daddy,” I fretted again as I had earlier that morning. I couldn’t fathom what that would be like and it had made me spiral a bit.

“Yeah. Not my brightest move. At least your Daddy didn’t spank me.”

“So, you’re not upset and mad at me forever?”

“No, Charlee. I’m not mad. I chose to act the way I did. No worries. Let’s talk about something more fun.” Haven grinned. “Do you wanna watch a movie tonight? If you fall asleep you can stay over. Or your Daddy can carry you home and put you to bed.”

The dress rehearsal wasn’t that late but dinner and then a movie after all the planning and stress from the months building up to that point might exhaust me. “Actually, that sounds really fun. Today has been so much better than I thought it was going to be. Even after I was blowing bubbles without a wand.”

“Yuck. That’s not a great way to start the day. I’ll ask my Daddy right now.”

The four of us stood up, cleaning up the crumbs and napkins and such while Pierce and Colton talked about logistics for tonight. Everything sounded good and I didn’t have to overthink anything. There was nothing to worry about because we had three practices before opening night, and it would go off without a hitch.

Parting ways, we waved to our friends before heading back to the truck. I gave Pierce’s hand two squeezes.

“What’s up, babygirl? Something on your mind?”

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