Page 6 of Lakeside Little
Diego looked to me and then to Mason, almost like he wanted to know if he could tell people. So, I beat him to it. “My doll house. It’s not the one in my house, but a travel one I keep in the spare room.”
“You mean the place you send your dolls when they’ve been bad?” he asked.
At that point, I knew Diego had so many questions, his mouth flapped open like he didn’t know what to do with it.
I nodded. “The room Oli stayed in when he came to visit. Did he show you all the dolls in there?”
Mason scoffed. “And I thought he was a collector, you know I had to build a second row of shelves for his collectables. I thought the plasterboard was going to come away from the wall with the weight of them.”
“Now I’m more intrigued,” Diego finally said. “I feel like I’ve got to see this doll prison room you’ve got, and however many collectables you’ve got that nearly had a wall come away from its fitting.”
“If you want to go look for what you need, I’ll give Oliver a call and he can show you the pictures.”
Diego puffed out his cheeks as we walked around the hardware store. “I’m impressed,” he said in a whisper. “A room dedicated to your play stuff, that’s incredible.”
“It’s actually, more than just a room,” I told him. “My entire apartment is dedicated to it. Remind me to show you pictures later. And not the pictures I post online either. Those are of small spaces in my place.”
We searched the shelves for pieces of plywood and items that we could use for the house. I also searched for small paint pots because the last thing I needed was unpainted wood. I shuddered at the thought of having something like that on my social media picture grid.
This was also a good photo op for Nory. I armed her with a small paintbrush, tucked under his doll arm and placed her near the small paint pots. She was beside pink, purple, and peach colors.
“What’s that for?” he asked.
“I’m making a poll. I want to see what viewers want to see Nory’s new wall color,” I told him. “Although I know they’re going to swipe up and tell me black. It’s Nory’s signature color, but she’s not the only one living in the house.”
After five minutes, the poll was as expected, people sending me the wordblackin capitals and hearts. It was just in time for Oliver to arrive. He walked right up to me, pulling his sunglasses away from his face in a dramatic fashion and gasped. “You know it has to be black,” he said. “Nory wouldn’t—well, maybe a mauve, or dark purple, but come on, you can’t give her such a light color.”
“Get in line, Oli,” I laughed. “The doll house isn’t just for her; she has her castle of darkness back home anyway.”
It was shortly after that; I decided which color from the poll she was getting for the house. The peach, it complemented the rest of the doll house nicely.
“You didn’t say you were bringing a man by?” Oliver said seeing Diego by my side, looking through the small bag of wood and glue I’d bought.
“Didn’t Mason tell you,” I said.
He looked him up and down, humming. “I thought you were still single. I was gonna try and set you up,” he said, although the last time he’d tried setting me up, it was with another little and while some might’ve been into that type of relationship dynamic, I wasn’t. “How long—”
“Oh no, no,” I said before Diego could say anything, although that sun kissed redness on his skin seemed to suggest he was too polite to say anything bad anyway. “He’s in the cabin next to mine. And he’s going to help me fix my doll house.”
Oliver sighed. “Hi,” he said. “I’m the town mayor, Jack’s cousin, and Mason’s husband.”
He waved over at him as he picked his whittle back up to chip away at more wood.“Don’t look, I’m busy making something. It’s a surprise.”
“I know what it is,” Oliver whispered to me. “They’re little birds to go on top of the bird house. Anyway, Deigo, tell me more about you. What brings you to this lovely little town?”
Diego puffed out, almost deflating those big muscles he had going on around his neck and shoulders. “Honestly, there was a Groupon for the cabin when I booked, and it was right by the lake. I couldn’t turn it down. Besides, I was desperate to get away from Philly. I—I just lost my job, so I needed somewhere to recoup myself and get back on the horse, so to speak.” There was a sadness in his eyes, it made me want to wrap him in a deep embrace and squeeze all the sadness right out of him.
“Pineberry is the perfect place for that,” Oliver said. “And Jack will definitely keep you busy, especially if you’re good with your hands.”
He laughed, raising his hands. “And I’ve got the callouses to proof it.”
“Yeah, he really does,” I said.
Oliver cooed. “Ok, well, I should get back to whatever I was doing, and you two should go and—you know,bond.” He winked right at me, and Diego definitely saw it. “Oh, and don’t forget, this weekend the town is hosting a craft fair, so if you really are good with your hands and want to show off, you might want to grab a table.”
I looked at Diego, trying to figure him out. He shook his head. “I wouldn’t know where to start,” he said. “But I’ll definitely come by. Is that what—” he nodded to Mason, “he’s doing over there?”
“Oh no, that’s supposed to be a surprise for me,” Oliver whispered. “He’s already crafted a couple of trinkets. Speaking of, if you’re looking for someone to help build you a new doll house, you could call on him.”
