Chapter 18

Zale

Kendry lay on my chest, fingertips making circles on the skin.

"I saw the moon," he said.

"Me, too."

He lifted his head. "Really?"

"Yep."

"I called you Daddy."

I laughed.

"It just slipped out."

"Honey, I told you I was okay with it."

"I know. But?—"

"As long as you didn't call out ‘Albert' or ‘Tom'."

He put his hand over my mouth. "Take that back. I would never! I know exactly who you are."

I opened my mouth, stuck out my tongue and licked at his fingers.

He giggled, petting my mouth and chin. We lay in a golden aftermath, cuddling and dozing before getting up to clean up before sleep.

I held him in my arms all night. Usually, that was an uncomfortable position for me to sleep in, but not with Kendry. This was utter perfection.

Kendry movedinto my house the next day. We had both taken the day off work. We got his essentials and would move the rest over the next week.

He danced around my house, touching everything, exclaiming about how he loved everything.

"You can make it yours as well," I said. "Put any of your stuff wherever you want."

"Thank you for having me."

I took him into my arms. "Thank you for saying yes."

I had been thinking on and off all day about Kendry calling me Daddy during our most intimate sexual moment last night. It actually spurred me on, made me feel like a king. And so loved by him that my system could barely contain it. He had thought it might make me upset. The opposite had happened. I loved that he felt free enough to say it. That with all his heart he had showed me who he was. His need was not demanding, but I responded. My body responded. My mind joined his.

Kendry was everything to me. I wanted to know more. I craved it.

I led him to the couch. "Sit with me. I want to talk to you."

Kendry was rarely able to just sit. He climbed. On me. He was a lap boy.

When he was settled with his rump on my thigh, leaning against my chest, I put my hand under his chin and lifted it so he would look at me.

"I want to discuss something with you."

"Sure." His eyes were languid, full of love.

I wanted to kiss him, but I needed to concentrate.

"I want to know you, all of you. Inside and out. I want to hear what makes you happy. I don't want to ignore any parts of you, and that includes the emotional and spiritual parts."

"I can tell you anything you want to know."

"Well, I'll tell you what I know. I know you're a little. I know you enjoy that aspect of your life from books to toys to what you wear. I support all of it. What I want to know is how I can help enhance that pleasure for you."

"You enhance it by being here for me," Kendry said.

"But I also want to know what you need. From me."

Kendry looked puzzled.

"It's like learning what foods you like or dislike. Then I can make sure I have on hand the things that make your life better and easier."

Kendry ticked off a list using his fingers. "I like chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, ice cream, hamburgers and French fries, pizza and spaghetti."

I laughed. "I know all that by now. And I like all those things, too. Comfort foods that cause me to have to work out more or I feel guilty."

Kendry tilted his head. "Well, I didn't mean we should eat them all at once."

I hugged him to me. "I know. What I'm talking about is your little tendencies. The things you like in that manner. What makes you happy and what can I, as your not-daddy but the person who really wants to learn what daddies do and know, do for you."

He rubbed his cheek against my shirt. "Hmm. Such as?"

"Well, for example, do you like diapers?"

"Nope. I told you I'm six most of the time."

"So no pacifiers, either?"

He puffed out his chest. "I a big boy."

"See? That's exactly what I want to know."

"I can show you all my things. Like my toys. You've seen my books, but when you came over I had a lot of my toys put away."

"See? We're getting somewhere. I don't want you to have to hide your toys around me. Not ever. I want to know what your favorite ones are. And what you might be wanting that you don't already have."

"Okay."

"I don't want you to ever hide anything around me. We need to be open and honest with each other. I want this to work long-term, honey."

"Me, too."

"Good. What else would you maybe like?"

"You have a bathtub in the master bath, but we've never used it. I love baths."

"See? Right there. There's something I need to know."

"Do you take baths?" he asked.

"I confess, I've never used that tub."

Kendry smiled softly. "I figured that's why it looked a little dusty."

"Ha. I'm caught out ignoring my tub."

"I can show you how to take the best bath."

I squeezed him tighter. "Honey, I want you to show me everything."

The next day,Kendry brought over more of his things, including a couple of boxes of toys. I helped him unpack them and let him place them all over the house wherever he wanted them. He was so excited he couldn't stop bouncing around from room to room.

He took a smaller box and rushed into the master bath. I followed.

Inside the box were a set of rubber duckies, a big one and seven little ones, all classic yellow. He had little red sailboats and whales and a pink, plastic pig.

"Do pigs swim?" I asked.

"Of course!"

I was okay with that.

He looked up at me. "Can we have a bath now?"

"We?"

"Yes! You're going to join me, right?"

I was here to learn. "Show me how it works for you. What you like."

"It's easy. And fun. It takes away all my stress. It will for you, too."

"Okay, then. Let's have a bath together." It was late in the day, but not yet time for dinner. We had plenty of time.

"I'll show you how." He became very much the little teacher in that moment. "First, we need to wipe all the dust off the rim."

I laughed, grabbed some towels and wetted them in the sink.

Kendry put his hands on his hips and shook his head. "The tub has a faucet, you know."

"Oh. Of course." I grinned.

Together, we gave the entire tub a good wipe down.

"Turn on the water now," Kendry said.

On my knees, I drew the bath awkwardly. I didn't plug the drain until I realized the water was all running out. And I didn't test the temperature enough, so a lot of hot water was going in. Not my fault. Kendry hadn't told me any of that.

He was a very patient teacher, showing me how to test the water, how to plug the drain. He grabbed a large plastic bottle from his box.

"This is bubble bath. You can't have a real bath without bubbles," he informed me.

"I see."

He handed me the bottle. "Click it open and squirt the soap in the water."

I poured in a little bubble bath. Only a few bubbles formed. Disappointing.

Kendry took the bottle from me and gently spoke. "Here. Like this." He showed me how much to put in. It was a generous amount. Thousands of bubbles started forming, turning the surface fluffy and white in seconds.

Then, Kendry adjusted the water again himself until it wasn't too hot or too cool. He smiled at me. "Next come the toys."

He began tossing in the boats and duckies. Everything went in and started floating among the thick white bubbles.

"I like the water deep," he said.

"Not too deep," I countered. "I'm going to displace a lot of it."

"Oh, that's right." He looked me up and down. "You'll take up a lot of space."

"Always have been since my senior year in high school."

He touched my hand. "Now, while we're waiting for the water to fill up, we get undressed."

Together, we peeled off our clothes and set them aside.

Kendry tested the water again and again. "It's nice and hot, but not burning hot."

"Good."

"The bubble consistency is important. They must be thick enough to make bubble beards on the chin."

"Oh, is that how you test it?"

"I call it the bubble beard test."

Now I was sure this was going to be fun. Everything with Kendry was fun. I reached out and scooped up a bunch of bubbles. Then I smeared them on Kendry's chin.

He screeched. "Hey! You have to wait until you're in the tub or you'll make a mess."

"Oh really?" I bent and scooped up some more bubbles and started to decorate his whole body.

"Zale! Save them for the bath." When he put his hands on his hips naked, he didn't look quite as stern.

I laughed. "Isn't it ready yet?"

He bent delicately and tested the water. "Yes. I think so. I'd make it deeper for me, but we're doing this together."

I reached out and turned off the tap.

We both stepped over the edge at the same time. When my foot hit the water, the warmth sucked at it, making me shiver.

"It's perfect," Kendry said.

Before I could lift my other foot over the edge, Kendry was already in and sinking down into the white frothiness.

He watched me step in. I let out a happy groan as I sank into the bubbles.

True to my prediction, the water level rose until we were both chest deep in suds.

Kendry said, "Now we play."

He picked up his sailboats and pushed them across the foam. All the rubber duckies were wobbling and bobbling about.

I made a bubble beard. "This is going to have to become a tradition."

"I love it." Kendry swatted his pig around. It was funny to see it bobbing about.

I found out the hard way the whale squirted when Kendry got me right in the middle of my forehead.

"That's his spout," he explained.

"Yeah, I noticed. The ducks are cute. Do they squeak?" I asked.

"Nope. But it would be cute if they did."

We gathered handfuls of bubbles and blew them at each other. When they began to fade and pop, I got sad.

As if reading my mind, Kendry said, "Turn on the hot water to heat it up again. Pull the drain for a minute. We can add more."

"Sure. Let's stay in until our fingers wrinkle."

Kendry reached around me and poured more bubble soap in right where the water was hitting the surface. When it got hot again, I turned it off.

"Second act," I commented.

"Yay!" Kendry gathered bubbles and blew them up into the air.

After a while of relaxing and playing, I had to admit this was heaven. Every muscle in my body had relaxed. I felt clean through and through.

"Bath time is a hit with me," I said.

"I'm glad you like it."

When we were ready to get out, I pulled the drain plug and as we dried off we watched the water whirl away. The toys got caught in the tide and spun in circles.

What a wonderful lesson. One more thing being with Kendry had taught me that I'd been missing from my life. Bath time.