Page 8 of Daddy's Little Chaos Gremlin

“Would you prefer continuous motion or me to pause between each move?” I asked.

“Continuous, please. Oh my goddess, you can do that?”

“Yes. I know you have a limited window, so I’ll give it my all and you signal me when you want the really creative techniques, and I’ll crank it up another notch.”

Tristan squeezed and pressed his fingers to his lips, then rushed forward to hug me. “Thank you.”

It felt so good to be hugged, especially by the man who would be my big brother if I managed to earn the contract. I’d always wanted a big brother. Paulie and I had been the same age, and I’d always felt like I needed to act as a buffer between him and his folks so he didn’t get dragged into their arguing. Every time that happened, one of them tried to force him to pick a side and he’d wind up in tears when they both turned on him, hollering about him being disloyal when he tried to point out the ways they were both at fault. In the end, I’d wished for someone to be a buffer between us and them, because it had all just gotten exhausting.

Right now, I was excited and hugged Tristan back before turning him loose so he could finish setting up. The moment the first rays of light drifted into the courtyard, he nodded at me to begin. He’d meticulously mapped out the path the light carved through the space with spray-painted lines to show me the area he needed me to stay in. The bright pink was impossible to miss, and I was grateful for that, because they were an easy cue to see against the shadowy grass. I quickly lost myself in the warm glow that fell over me as I flipped and spun.

The clicking from Tristan’s camera was like a rapid-fire drumbeat, and each time he moved, I caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye. As I kicked my heels over my head and flipped backward, I realized that the lines weren’t only about the light. He’d created zones so neither of us would get hurt while we did our parts to bring his vision to life. I suddenly felt safe and protected, knowing that he’d had the foresight to safeguard us both. We’d already established the yellow flag signal, a bright, waving sign for me to kick things into high gear. In deference to the neighbors, the only music I had was in my ear buds, and it was all high octane. The moment I saw that brilliant canary bandana waving over his head, I did a double handspring into a backward summersault, then hit the ground in a forward roll, springing to my feet only to leap into a twisting summersault. There was a stone wall in my zone, so I ran up it, using it as a springboard to propel me into a backflip followed by a trio of twisting backflips the moment my feet touched the ground.

I could flip, twist and turn with the best of them and ran my way through some of my favorite tricks until he waved the flag again, signaling that it was time for the finale. I might not have been able to see it, but I could feel by the way my body snapped into each rotation that the snatchcannon I pulled off was one of my best. I landed in that superhero crouch he’d applauded the day before, my eyes seeking his as he kept snapping away with the camera until he was just a few steps away.

That’s when he dropped to his knees, threw his arms around me, and nearly squished out what little breath I had left. Gasping, I leaned into his embrace as he peppered my sweaty face with kisses and fervently praised me for my performance. Time seemed to melt into that golden sunrise as we clung to one another, but had I really given him everything he’d needed?It was all a blur now, every performance was when it was over, unless I’d botched something, which I hadn’t even come close to doing this time.

I’d come to accept that mistakes happened and that sometimes they were extremely painful ones, but I was proud of the fact that nothing like that had happened today. Still, I was anxious to see the results of the shoot.

Only, when I went to stand, the world tilted a little. Tristan immediately steadied me as I blinked and waited for my vision to level out. It was almost there when I was swept off my feet and clutched against the strong chest I’d gotten intimately familiar with the night before.

“I’m okay,” I murmured. “Prolly should have had a protein shake first, though.”

“No more morning sessions without food first,” Mr. Rowan declared with the kind of finality that I knew better than to argue with.

He’d have probably been upset if I’d tried to explain that a protein shake in the morning was all I usually had, at least until landing at Honey Hearth, with all of the wonderful food Brenner and Bruce prepared.

“I’ll be back to help you bring your equipment in as soon as I have him settled,” Mr. Rowan called over his shoulder as he carried me inside.

“It’s okay, Daddy, I can get it.”

“What did I just say?” Mr. Rowan growled, the rumbly vibration making me shiver, or maybe it was just the rapidly cooling sweat drying on my skin.

When a hard wind blew, I was grateful for his body heat and that his much larger stature was acting as a wind screen as he carried me into the apartment. When he placed me on the couch, he tucked a pillow behind my back and draped a blanket over me, smoothing it down my arms despite the fact that I was sticky and gross. I never sat on furniture after performing, not until I’d had a shower first. But he told me not to move before he hurried back to the courtyard to help Tristan, so I stayed where he placed me and hugged the blanket to my chest, hoping I wasn’t in any trouble.

The longer I sat there, the more the fear set in. I was convinced I’d fucked everything up royally. Curling my knees to my chest, I hunched forward to rest my head on them and struggled to hold back the tears. Where the morning had once felt so promising, now there was only despair and a growing desire to flee into my room, gather my things, and go back to Honey Hearth before Tristan and Mr. Rowan asked me to.

The voice I could never quite bring myself to trust kept hollering that I was getting ahead of myself and getting all worked up for no reason, but I couldn’t slow my breathing down. It was almost as bad as at the end of my performance, only that had been sheer exhilaration, where this just felt like a panic attack coming on.

Yes, and you know what to do when that happens.

There was that voice again. I could hear it loud and clear, but I couldn’t make myself listen. Not when another part of my brain picked that moment to remind me that my time in this town had already been running out when I’d auditioned, and I still hadn’t heard back from any of the places I’d put in applications at.

Tristan’s voice reached me first, but instead of the excitement I’d heard in it outside, there was worry and rambled apologies.

“Are you okay?” he asked, hands sliding up my arms moments later.

Hiccupping, I shook my head no. “I-I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to mess everything up.”

The last thing I expected was forhimto burst into tears. He was holding me so tight I couldn’t hold him and now I was really worried, ‘cause I had no idea how Mr. Rowan was going to react to me being the cause of his boy’s tears. I tensed when I felt his arms wrap around us, but that just made him hug us tighter. Then I heard his voice beside my ear.

“You’ve done nothing to apologize for,” he murmured as he stroked the sweaty hair back from the side of my face and neck.

I could feel his lips against my earlobe, his breath a warm woosh as he continued to speak.

“There’s nothing to be worried about, nothing at all. I should have insisted upon you having something in your belly when you went out there, but I wasn’t sure what to suggest or how long you’d need to wait before performing. I promise that I’ll educate myself better going forward,” Mr. Rowan said.

“Y-you’re not mad?” I stammered, stunned that the voice had been right, again, despite my refusal to listen to it.

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