Page 22 of Lakeside Little
I looked at the two pieces of wood he’d stuck together. “Is it?”
He whacked the wood away. “You said it yourself, what I need is a project of my own, start to finish. All mine, or, well, all yours.”
It was play pretend in my mind, to think of this grand room in my apartment that could open up and transport me to another world, and yet, Daddy told me he would be able to do it. And I believed him, because why wouldn’t I, he was good with his hands, and he would never to me.
“It’ll take a long time,” he added. “But I really want to do this for you.”
“Really?” I offered back in a whisper.
“Really. I’ll have to create some plans and ideas, but I don’t see why not. I’ve made huge houses; I can make a small castle.”
On the spot, I burst into tears right before him. I didn’t expect to be a blubbering mess, but I was. I had just woken up from a nap and didn’t immediately seek out a snack, so that probably didn’t help.
Daddy pulled me into his arms and hugged me. “I promise,” he whispered as my sobs grew gentler. “I’m also still learning how to be better at this, so if you have feedback for me, I would like it. I don’t want to say something wrong.”
“No, no,” I sobbed. “It’s not bad. I’m happy, just overwhelmed happy. I’m sorta going through everything in my head and I’m so lucky to have found someone like you. It’s not every day.” I sniffled. “You know, you’re making dreams come true.”
“You’re making my dreams come true,” he told me. “You’ve blown me out of the water, quite literally with everything you stand for. I feel like there’s been a blanket over my face that I’ve been trying to fight through my entire life, andyou’ve just swiped it away like it’s nothing, but it’s everything to me.”
Daddy’s eyes grew pink in the corners, tearing up, which only made me sob again. I never liked the feeling that something big was changing, and all the time we’d spent together was a big deal to me. We’d have to go our separate ways soon, even if that just meant driving to the same place in different cars, I didn’t know if I was going to be ok with that.
“I think the sun has turned it both into mush,” he said, wiping my face with the sleeve of his shirt. “You should get something in you, and I mean food.” He chuckled; it was a much better emotion to present than the tear we both had in our eyes.
I laughed along, knowing I absolutely needed food in my stomach, it’s always what was responsible for making me feel a little cranky, and those tears were a sure-fire sign of it.
We ate sandwiches at the table together as I scribbled down all my amazing ideas for this castle. It was not to scale, because I didn’t know the measurements of the room it was going in. I scribbled in different colors to indicate different areas, trying to make sure that certain dolls were kept away from each other, and of course, the prison for the dolls that misbehaved.
“What’s that area?” Daddy asked, pointed to a blank square.
“That’s where the confessionals will take place,” I told him. “We’ll need a backdrop for it, but the dolls filmReal Housewivesstyle confessionals.”
“Ok, now that I do understand, but I’ve never watched it,” he said.
“They have taglines and catchphrases to,” I said, pulling Nory up into a seated position. “Nory’s tagline is,I’m no zookeeper, but I know bitch when I see one.”
Daddy coughed and laughed. “Wow. Ok. I suppose I’ll let you get away with that cussword.”
“Obviously, because it was Nory that said it.”
“As long as it was her,” he said. “But I would like her to not swear so much. And I hope she doesn’t attack me in the night. I’ve seen the way she stares at me.”
I turned her head around. “She’s harmless, and I’ll let her know she’s got to do it in her quiet voice.”
Having a strict Daddy at times was thrilling, sometimes the urge to seek punishment was strong, but I was a bit of a wuss and definitely preferred the softer princess treatment side of life, it was much more made for me.
As I finished scribbling all my ideas down, Daddy was calculating the distance between where we lived, and how feasible it was going to be. He was really going to town the calculate app on his phone, I don’t think I’d seen anyone use it so much since I was back in high school.
“I’m not going to be immediately looking for work when I’m back, I got an ok redundancy package, but I can see you on the weekend, start stuff then, and we can see where this goes from there,” he said. “If this is something you want to continue, I don’t know if feelings will change when you get back.”
“The only feeling that will change will be not having to be on the lookout for all the bugs,” I said. “I obviously want to see you, and I work for myself, so—” I paused, gnawing on my lip like it was about to be taken away. “You know, you can stay over whenever, and I guess there’s stuff to do in Philadelphia too.”
“Hey, you’ll love it there.”
I snickered and snorted. “I know I will, because that’s where you’re from.”
“And I own my house,” he added. “If that sweetens any type of deal for you to spend time with me. Plenty of rooms. All used for storage right now, and one is a half-decorated gym thatI always say I’ll use but end up just using the CrossFit machine to hang laundry from.”
“Whoa. That’s—that’s genius, because it has all those things coming off it, right?”
