Page 42 of Tommy

“I need your help now,” Tommy called out.

A large ball of snow was knee high on him. He patted more snow onto it and then attempted to move it with his feet and groaned.

“Come on now, you’ve got more strength than that,” I told him.

“But my legs still hurt.”

“You weren’t saying that this morning,” I said. “And I’m not rolling that thing all the way back to the house.”

He pushed out his lip into a pout. I was a sucker for his facial expressions. “But what if I asked really nicely?”

“Ask really nicely and we’ll both see.”

“Pretty please will you—”

“No.”

He scoffed with a little sniffle. “That’s actually really mean. I’ve never build a snowman before.”

“Fine, I’ll help you roll it, but stop adding snow,” I said. “It’ll collect more when it’s being rolled. And we’ve still got to check on the horses.”

I wouldn’t have said Tommy was demanding, but he definitely loved getting his own way. It was difficult for me because I had a schedule I followed and I rarely deviated from it. Tommy was full of deviations. I wasn’t going to complain about it though—not outwardly anyway.

The horses were more vocal than usual, which was to be expected since they’d probably heard the winds rattle the doors and thought someone was coming in. I gave them all some reassurance with head pats and sugar cubes. Tommy went into full conversation with them, acting like they were responding to him. It had been so long since I’d been around someone who was so happy to play pretend like he did. Littles were truly a blessing to a Daddy mentality.

“What else do you want to do today?” I asked, giving Scout a nose pat.

“What would you usually be doing?”

I hummed. “If you weren’t here.”

“Actually let me guess. You would be talking a long walk around the ranch and then you’d go back to the house, drink your tea, and read one of those books you told me weren’t yours.”

“I never said they weren’t mine.”

“Are they?” he asked, biting his bottom lip a little.

“Not all of them,” I said. “Some of them belong to people who’ve stayed here before, books they’ve left behind.”

“Oh, and I just thought you were a big romantic.”

“Who said I’m not?”

He giggled. “I just wanted you to admit it.”

It wasn’t like this information was getting out to anyone. I didn’t have to be the image of a stoic cowboy around him. It was nice to keep up the appearance because I knew I was the first cowboy he’d ever met, and even that seemed like something as make-believe like Santa.

Tommy continued to playfully tease me on the books that were int eh house, and I enjoyed them. It was a secret of mine nobody else noticed about me, even June and Sully who’d seen those books so many times, even some left on the counter from where I’d been reading.

Once I was sure the horses were happy, we went to the garage shed. I’d made several comments about Christmas decorations being left in storage, and that was where all storage went. I rarely went inside because of how poorly kept it was. People just shoved what they weren’t using in here, and Sully never arranged it. The only things I went in there for were for the occasional shovel, and those had long since been with me from the first dropping of snow.

“Is there a sign on the boxes?” Tommy asked.

“Nope. You’ll have to check them all,” I told him, hoping it would keep us occupied for a little while.

The second box he looked inside, he found all the colorful tinsels, and boxed up lights.

“I guess now the tree has to happen,” I commented, although it was a certainty at this point. I was actually excited myself to have a tree, even if it was just to see Tommy’s face light up, or the way he’d look to repay me with his own affection.

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