Page 29 of Santa’s Little Faker
“Now presents?” Attention turning on a dime, he focused his manipulative grin on me again. “Shoes?”
His language had definitely gotten simpler, which made me think he was going to like my goodies. “Yes, just for you, Trippy.”
Giggling, he grabbed my hand and dragged me back through the house. “Help.”
Shoes.
Help with his shoes.
I’d guessed that but I was glad to see I was right when he planted us at the side of the couch and pointed. “Oops.”
My sigh was slightly dramatic but it made him giggle again. “At some point I’m going to ask how your shoes ended up hiding back there.”
He made an exaggerated shrug and waved his arms as he let my hand go. “Oops.”
Yeah, oops.
Oops didn’t help move the couch, but I didn’t have to chase him down to get his shoes on and he was happy as we did it. That was mostly because he’d decided to make a game of guessing what I had…and doing it badly.
“Puppy?” My snort as we finally made our way across the yard had his giggles starting again.
“No.” He was technically dressed like a grown-up but we probably looked suspicious as hell walking hand in hand across the yards. “Unless you want to be a puppy?”
I shouldn’t have said it but he was so cute when he laughed.
“No tails.” Chest jerking with silent laughter as he tried to look serious, he shook his head. “No tail toys.”
I had questions about that but I was going to wait until…well…there would never be an appropriate time to ask him about that.
“Fine, no tails, so no puppies.” Had he accidentally come across them online or had he deliberately searched for them?
What was I thinking? Terrence probably talked about them.
“Cookies?”
He’d gone back to that one several times, making me finally take it seriously as we walked in the front door of my house…hopefully before every neighbor over eighty had gotten an eyeful.
“Are you hungry?” I wasn’t surprised when he started with a shake of his head but ended with a shrug.
He’d eaten plenty, but it seemed like he had a snack-shaped hole in his stomach somewhere.
“I have a surprise you might like.” It wasn’t technically something I’d call a snack but I thought he might be curious to try it at the very least.
“Nuggets?” His guess came with an innocent expression that wasn’t believable because it only lasted about three seconds before his delight started all over again. “Nuggets.”
He thought he was hilarious which actually was funny and ended up making me laugh. “Silly goose.”
That was funny too but not enough to distract him because as soon as we made it to my living room, he looked around like a bloodhound that had caught a good scent. “Where?”
Ah.
“My room. Is it okay if we go there?” I wasn’t sure how careful to be with him, but it couldn’t hurt to keep checking in. “What color is going to my room?”
His eyes lit up and he rubbed his hands together like he was a greedy little pirate. “Green.”
I wasn’t sure laughter was appropriate but it was hard to hold back completely. “Then let’s go because I’m green too.”
“Yes.” Doing an excited little hop, he looked like he was ready to run to the bedroom. “Colors too.”
