Page 22 of Wrecked for the Holidays

“No playing doctor?”

“I’m afraid not,” he confirmed with a crooked grin. “I have a question and a confession for you though.”

“Oh, a confession. Let’s hear that one first.”

“I was snooping the tiniest bit in your room when I got your pajamas. I didn’t open anything, but I took a look around. It’s your room, and I shouldn’t have done it.”

“What were you looking for?”

“I was looking for a clue on what kind of little items you liked.”

“Oh, that one is easy. I hardly have any.”

“Pardon?” Papa only stared at me with obvious confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Well, wait, that’s not true. I have a couple sets of pajamas, my onesie, and one pair of training pants.” It was unclear what I was supposed to say at this point because Papa kept looking at me with wide-eyed disbelief. “They’re really cute. You’ve seen a couple of them,” I said warily.

“You don’t work Saturdays in the lab, do you?”

“Not usually. We mostly keep regular hours.”

When Papa let loose a shout of triumph, I was even more lost. Weekends off were great, but I didn’t think they were that exciting.

“We, sweet boy, are going shopping tomorrow. We are going to rectify your situation.”

“What situation do I have that needs to be rectified?”

“You’ll see.”

#

“Mercer City? What are we doing out here?” I asked when we crossed through the city limits.

“We’re almost there.”

After our evening of snacks and surveys, Papa had bounced out of bed early this morning with a declaration that we had a lot of stops to make. He refused, however, to tell me where any of those stops would be. With a gentle push, he’d gotten me out of bed, ready to go, and out the door quick.

I was born and raised in Mercer City, and I didn’t tell Papa, but we passed by the entrance to my parents’ neighborhood. It was an interesting factoid, but I felt no pull toward going home. To be truthful, it had never felt like home anyway. When I left, I thought I would miss my folks, but I hadn’t thought of them much. At some point, I likely would, but I wasn’t there yet. As for my brothers, they were still in the vault. Eventually, my family would need to be dealt with, but there was no point in it right now.

Papa’s home felt like mine. As much as I might ignore it or pretend otherwise, I knew Papa might not fall for me like I’d already fallen for him. I knew he’d tell me there was plenty of time to figure things out or that I might want to explore and experiment, but I knew me. I was already in. I knew what I wanted. My matrix plot points were clear. He was right about all those things. I just wanted to do them with him.

My daydreams had distracted me enough that I didn’t realize we’d parked until Papa opened my door. He had already unbuckled me and was patiently waiting for me to get my bearings. Because he’s the best, Papa helped me down from the high truck bench and waited while I straightened my clothes and retied my shoes, which I hadn’t tied tight enough in the rush to get out the door. All of those things were mercifully easier with my hand practically back to normal. When I looked around, I recognized we were at the shopping center in the downtown business district.

A few years ago, they’d demolished several rundown warehouses and replaced them with a shopping center. Parking was along the edges, and the shops were set up as a pedestrian zone. The stores were designed to have a Victorian vibe with red brick and window arches. I’d never had a reason to shop here, but now that I was here, I was excited to see what shops they had.

“Papa! I’ve always wanted to stop and see what they had here. Where are we going?” I immediately forged ahead, but Papa grabbed my hand to drag me back to him. He laced our fingers together and kept me close to his side.

“Have you driven by here a lot?”

“Uh, I mean, yeah. We passed the neighborhood my parents live in on the way.”

“You’re from Mercer City?”

“Yeah, born and raised. My parents bought a house here when they married. When I decided to move out, I looked at a place near here but decided that if I was going, I wanted to make a clean break. My goal was to find someplace totally new for me, and that’s worked out pretty well.” Papa and I exchangeda look, and my tummy flipped.

My feeling of contentment grew every time I was around him, and I’d barely scratched the surface of what being a little looked like for me. There was so much I hadn’t experienced, and this man had offered to hold my hand and stand by my side while I learned. It wasn’t a giving-up-Christmas-cookies level of sacrifice on his part, but it was still huge. Operation Get Papa for Christmas had become so important that I refused to consider what it would look like if he changed his mind. Devastated wasn’t a big enough word.

Those thoughts were too monumental and consequential for a Saturday morning though. Instead, I would concentrate on the warmth of Papa’s hand, where he held mine in his strong grip. We passed by a few clothing stores, a home décor shop, and a super-cute pet supply boutique and finally stopped in front of a store with a wooden sign that readPièce aux Épices. The arched windows framed a Christmas tree surrounded by half-opened presents with lacy bits peeking out.

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