Page 18 of Their Little House Tristan
“You brought Dutterpup and Elsie!” I went to my knees to hug the pair. They had been King’s buddies at the rescue, and the only reason they were still there was they were Ray and Georgie’s actual pets. Others came and went, but when I showed up to volunteer, I had to bring King and let him play in the guys’ kitchen while I scooped the poop or made dog food or whatever they needed me to do. “How are you cuties?”
“Where’s King?” Ray ruffled Dutterpup’s ears. “I thought you’d bring him.”
“I wish I had, but nobody told me it was allowed. If he finds out his friends were here, he’s going to be angry with me.”
“I won’t tell,” Georgie said, “but I cannot promise about Elsie. She’s a gossip.”
I walked with them to the function room, where everything was set up for today’s activities. Is this your first visit?” I asked them. “I know it’s not your thing in general to be in a crowd, but a lot of people just come to pass the time of day and visit with like-minded folks. At least part of the time.”
“It is the first time, but who knows. Maybe in the future, we’ll get a visitor’s pass. Truthfully, we don’t get out much with all the dogs to care for.”
“If you ever want a date night, I’m your sitter,” I avowed. “King and I will be right over to take care of the doodles. They like us.”
“They sure do. Now, where do we set up our display?” Georgie, the little, was not little tonight, rather all business, but he still managed to be adorable. I didn’t know how; a skill I guessed.
Miss Lily sailed over at that moment and took each of them by the arm. “Come and see what we did with all your posters and brochures and things. We’ve been talking you up every day, and I want to show you the silent auction items. World travel, paintings, a sailboat if you can believe it. And all the little competitions tonight? We’re calling it a fun day, but it’s kind of the little world games.”
Having not seen most of this myself, I was trailing along behind when I spotted the two littles who’d been kissing that night. After meeting Tristan here and not hearing back from him, I’d begun to think they weren’t at all interested, but when I stood nearby, Tristan caught sight of me.
“Bell, it’s the daddy from that night. I told you I saw him here one other time as well. When we were having the wedding and I helped with it.”
“James,” I said. “Nice to meet you.”
“I remember.” Bell smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back. At both of them. They were in mix-and-match little ensembles covered with the most adorable bunnies and puppies, and even their knee-high socks carried on the theme. “Nice to meet you too.”
We stood and talked a little bit. They weren’t fully in little headspace yet, but that didn’t do anything to negate the cuteness overload.
They were so excited, and I wasn’t sure if it was to see me or because of the fun contests planned, but five minutes later, they each grabbed my arm and towed me over to where the competitions were all set up. They put their heads together and whispered, then Tristan said, “Will you be our daddy for the day? Play with us?”
“It would be my honor. What would you like to do first?”
I was only grateful that the daddy’s job in the “athletic” competitions was that of cheerleader and waterboy. Because the obstacle course, zip line, and other games looked pretty tough to me. Tristan and Bell, on the other hand, were fearless. They did the baby-crawl race and came in second and third. “How many times can you go down the slide in a minute” they didn’t win but loved. Several other races, corn hole, ring toss…I lost count, but by the second hour, while the silent auction was being announced, every little boy and girl was wearing multiple medals around their necks, and they were starting to look kind of sweaty and ragged. But happy. So many smiles.
I found some paper towels and mopped their foreheads, presenting them with their third bottles of water and asked if they wanted to take a little rest.
Bell shook his head hard. “We haven’t even played the best part,” he insisted. “It’s over here. So sparkly.”
“Sparkly?” I was starting to get a bad feeling. And I was right. Of course, management knew the littles would overdo and need to sit down. But they wouldn’t want to just sit quietly, so art project. But why…glitter.
And then I saw the models they were working from and had to laugh. Dutterpup and Elsie sat in front of the art table, posing with sparkly accessories like scarves and hats on, and the littles were vying with one another to make their drawing just as sparkly as the goldens. I took comfort in the fact that we weren’t at the point where I would be shampooing the glitter out of anyone’s hair and sat down on the sidelines to watch.
When they finished, Tristan and Bell raced over to show me their work. A trail of glitter littered the floor behind them, but it didn’t stop me from admiring their work. “Does Elsie have on sparkly shoes?” I asked Georgie.
“No, but she wants to.”
Made perfect sense to me.
So much money was raised for the rescue, and we finished off our fun time having refreshments before heading back toward the front. They had mentioned having a dressing room and I almost offered to go in and help them change, but then I didn’t. It was up to them if they wanted, but we’d had an incredible time together, and it was enough. Not enough…but enough. I left them at the dressing room door with a kiss on the cheek and their agreement to go out with me.
Best event ever.
Chapter Thirteen
Tristan
Tonight was my first solo date with James, and I was excited—but also nervous. It was one thing for him to like spending time with the two of us together, but would he still like me, just me, on my own? And if I messed it up, well, notmessed upexactly, but if it just didn’t click, what would that mean for the three of us? For him and Bellamy? This was meant to be a low-key night of getting to know each other, but it felt like so much more than that.
It was safe to say I was putting too much pressure on myself. But I couldn’t help it. I wanted it to work so badly. I’d never thought of myself as poly in any sense. I’d always dreamed of meeting a nice man, settling down, and growing old together. Of course, as I discovered my little side, I added that man being my daddy to the equation, but it had always beenone plus one equals couple.
