Page 21 of Lance & Clayton

He knew just the right thing to say. There were things I would never believe, but anything out of Daddy's mouth had to be true. How could they be not when he loved me so much? After all, there was no one else left in the world who truly cared about me apart from him and Julia.

"Oh, wow," I said when he stopped before a house. "They live in such a big mansion? Just the two of them?"

"Yes, them and Michael's toys." He got out and walked over to the other side of the car before opening the car door. "He has a lot of them. They work from home, so they have their offices in there too."

When he stuck his arms out towards me, I took a moment to realize how good life had been to me. Just a few weeks ago, I'd been fretting over spending the rest of my life alone, and then Lance had come into my life and changed it. The universe had given me what I desperately needed, a Daddy to call my own.

"What is it, bright eyes?" he asked, his arms still out.

"Nothing, Daddy." I shook my head and climbed into his lap. He took me in his arms, my legs tightly wrapped around his waist. "Just how lucky I am to have you in my life."

"I'm the lucky one, sweetheart." Kissing me on the head, he carried me over to the porch and leaned a little so I could ring the doorbell.

John opened the door and smiled at us, sticking his hand out at me. I stuck my head in Daddy's shirt and closed my eyes.

"It's alright, sweetheart." Daddy stroked my hair. "You don't have to be shy around John. He's your uncle after all. You don't want him to think you're rude, do you?"

"No," I said into his shirt before turning towards John. "You're my uncle?"

"Only if you want to," John said, still holding his hand out, which I finally shook.

"I want to." I wiggled in Daddy's arms. "I've never had an uncle before."

"Nice to finally meet you, Clayton," John said to me. "I've heard a lot about you. Your Daddy talks about you all the time. This is my boy, Michael."

Stepping aside, he revealed Michael crawling towards us on all fours. When he stopped next to the couch, Daddy put me onto the floor.

Watching another boy crawl instantly made me get down on all fours. With Dino still in my hand, I crawled towards him while our Daddies followed me.

I stopped before Michael and sat cross-legged. "Hi, I'm Clayton and I love dinosaurs."

"I'm Michael," he said as the grownups sat on the couch. "Everybody loves dinosaurs. They're pretty cool. I love wolves the most, though. I keep asking Daddy to get me a wolf puppy but he says they're dangerous."

I giggled and shook my head. "Daddies think all animals are dangerous. I find them cute. They want hugs and cuddles, just like us. I told Daddy I want to pet a bear but he won't let me."

It was his turn to giggle. "I would totally pet a bear if I met one, even if my Daddy won't let me."

Uncle John gave him a look, which meant there was no way he would let that happen. Then Daddy started a conversation with uncle John and let us boys get to know each other.

"I've never had a Little friend before," Michael said when he turned to me. "Will you be my first friend?"

"Your friend?" My eyes widened and I wiggled on the floor. "I've never had a Little friend too. But you'd really want to be my friend?"

We didn't know each other yet, but it was so nice of him to offer friendship so early on. But such were Little boys. They did what they wanted to do without caring about social conventions.

"Of course, silly." He put a hand around my neck. "You're just like me. You love animals, toys, and your Daddy. I think we'll get along just fine. Now, do you want to see my wolf figurine collection? They're my favorite. I call them my wolf army."

When he took out of the box one wolf figurine after another, Ioohedandaahedat how cool they looked.

I looked up at Daddy and waited for him to finish what he was saying before pulling on his jeans and joining my hands. "Can I have an army of dinosaurs, Daddy? I want to have a collection of dinosaur figurines like Michael does with wolves. I promise I'll do everything you ask. Pretty please?"

"Sure thing, bright eyes." He leaned over and patted my head. "How could I say no to such a good boy?"

When Michael lent me his figurines of big cats to fight his wolf army, I couldn't believe how nice he was being. If Daddy was to be believed, Michael wouldn't even let his Daddy touch his toys. Boys were possessive about their toys, and him sharing his with me showed how friendly he was being to me.

Then he crawled into his nursery and returned with a train set, which I helped him assemble. We watched as the train went round and round around us, feeling dizzy each time we turned our heads. Later we built a tower of blocks with our Daddies' help and sucker-punched it as Michael taught us. After being fed lunch in highchairs, we returned to the living room to play some more, but uncle John stopped us.

"Why don't you take a bath before you go back to playing, darling?" John was saying to Michael. "Clayton here can watch some cartoons until you return."

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