Chapter Twelve

Gray

We slept in on the day after the conference ended. I had arranged for us to keep the room an extra night and gotten London to arrange his schedule at the office as well so we could just relax and maybe do a little shopping or sightseeing. He'd hesitated, but I pointed out that everyone deserves a day off occasionally, and then I might have kissed him until he gave in.

We all used the skills we had, and London claimed kissing was one of mine. I happened to feel the same way about him, so it worked.

When the sun was high enough in the sky that a beam fell across our bed and warmed my cheek, I woke up and glanced at the clock. Relieved, I fell back onto the pillows. Whew. We still had plenty of time for my plans for the day. I rolled over and propped up on an elbow to enjoy one of my favorite sights. A sleeping London. He lay on his back, lips slightly parted, eyelids moving as he dreamed. After the other night, when he had come to me for daddy time, there was a new openness between us. I had been ready to step into the role then and whenever he needed me to in the future.

I hated to wake him, but we needed to shower and dress if we were going to have time to get to our first stop. "London?" I kissed his forehead and cheeks and nose. "It's time to get up."

"Nooo." He rolled away from me. "It's not a school day."

I chuckled. "No, it's a fun day. We're on vacation and I have a special breakfast planned for us. Aren't you hungry?" I nuzzled the back of his neck and he gave a little shiver and rolled to face me.

"Are you breakfast?" he asked, eyes popping open. "Or am I?"

Regretfully I shook my head. "I don't think there's time." But then his hand crept under the covers and I noticed the tent. "Well, maybe just for you, if you promise to be quick."

"I promise." He pushed the blanket down, revealing his other hand fisted around hard morning wood. "It's all ready for you, Daddy." He was not little right now, but the name still nailed me.

"Mmm. I see that." Scooting down in the bed, I prepared to give him the fastest mind-blowing orgasm ever. He was hot and firm and salty in my mouth, far tastier to me than what we were going out for, but I'd made a lot of plans. We weren't likely to get to this town often, and I was determined to show London the best time ever.

Showered and dressed, we went in the elevator, but when he turned toward the hotel coffee shop, I steered him toward the elevator to the parking garage. "But what about breakfast? Why are we in such a rush?"

"Because we have breakfast plans elsewhere. They're supposed to have good pancakes."

His eyes sparkled. "Yum. This hotel is very fancy but their pancakes are just…okay."

"Exactly. I thought we could do better." If he thought I'd set this up after his disappointing hot cakes the first morning, that was fine. But when Somer helped me set up the train ride, I'd mentioned that my boyfriend was a big rail fan, and they had recommended a very special diner. "Hope you're hungry. I hear the pancakes are as big as your head."

"Hurry, then!" He grabbed my hand and punched the elevator button three times. "I wonder what kinds they have?"

Every kind. I'd check out their menu and reviews online, and if there was a kind of pancake they did not serve, I did not know what it could be. But while they were reputed to be delicious, that was not why we were heading to the edge of town. When we pulled into the parking lot, I thought London was going to lose his mind. He was grabbing at his seat belt before I turned off the engine and hopped out before I could come around and open his door.

"It's a real caboose. The restaurant we went to before was an amazing recreation, but this one is legit." He moved back and forth, examining the outside of the car converted into a diner. "I've never seen a caboose on an actual train or in person at all. They stopped using them in the 1980s because the railroads negotiated them out. My grandpa said when he'd go watch the trains go by, the conductor would sometimes wave to him.

"I've heard of rail cars being converted into restaurants and motels, but this is a caboose!"

"Ready to go inside and eat?"

"In a minute." He walked all the way around the retired car, me following. London took a couple of dozen pictures at least with his phone before returning to the front of the restaurant. "Oh my goodness. To think I tried to keep you in bed longer when you were taking me to a caboose restaurant. What if we'd missed it?"

"It wasn't going anywhere, so we wouldn't have missed it, but I wanted us to have plenty of time to explore."

"Yes to exploring!" Now that he'd completed his trip around the diner, he grabbed my hand and towed me to the door. "Was it true about the pancakes? Really as big as my head?"

We stepped inside just as a server passed with an order of pancakes on her tray. "What do you think?"

"I think I'm having blueberry." He licked his lips and smiled at me.

We were approached by a youngish hostess who said, "Don't be so hasty." We followed the hostess to our table and accepted the menus she held out. "We have over 100 varieties, and that doesn't include things like crepes." She winked at London. "I'll give you a few minutes."

When she returned, I was still deciding between praline crepes and Swedish pancakes, but London said, "Blueberry please."

The coffee was almost as good as the pancakes, and the bill was remarkably low for the quality and quantity served, and then we were on our way to the bigger surprise of the day.

"What's next?" London asked. "I mean, if all we do is sightsee it's still the best day ever, but you look sneaky."

"Sneaky? That's a terrible thing to say." But I wasn't mad. Just sneaky. He had it right. "Reach into the back seat for a clue."

He lifted as much as his seat belt allowed and patted around. "I feel something. Wait. Got it."

London lifted his vest over the seat. "My conductor's vest. Are we going to see a train?"

"Not exactly." I continued to drive. "I brought your train too, but I wasn't sure you'd want to bring it with us. See what I did though."

More fishing over the seat, but this time he came back with not just his train. "Is it in a holster? Look at the loop at the top…goes over my belt?"

"Yes, and yes. The train will fasten inside so it can't get lost unless you unsnap the strap holding it in place."

"This is so cool." He examined the smooth leather. "Is this handmade?"

"It is. One of the other daddies is a leather worker. I'd have done it myself, but then you wouldn't be able to show it to anyone. He tried to help me and it looked very bad."

"I would have loved it. But this is good, too."

He was so busy examining his train holster, he didn't notice me pulling into the museum parking lot. We were right on time, and the train was in the mini station, steam or smoke pluming from the engine. London would know which. There were a few cars behind it, but to my delight, at the end was something even better.

"London?"

"Did you see how he joined this? It's so smooth…"

I waited.

"Is that a caboose on that train?" He was no longer examining his holster. "Does it…does it run?"

"Not only does that train run, but you are the official assistant conductor for the next three hours."

"Oh my god." He let his holster slide to the floor and threw his arms around me. "You are the bestest daddy in the entire world. I never saw a real caboose in person…now two in one day. And I get to work in it."

I had learned that cabooses never were attached to passenger trains, but this wasn't an ordinary train, and I'd never been happier for history to be set aside.

The rest of the day went by in a happy blur. Wearing his conductor's vest and holstered train, London toured the caboose and saw it set up just as it would have been several decades ago when it was the workroom for the crew. The engineer showed him around the engine and explained a lot of things that went right over my head but had my little conductor nodding and asking questions that also went over my head but seemed to impress the engineer. He assisted the conductor as the train made its rounds to the zoo and back, and generally glowed with happiness. They dropped us off at the zoo at the end of his shift, where we wandered around and looked at the animals for a while then had lunch while watching the exotic bird show. Then back on the train where he chatted with the person who was currently assistant conducting, like two old coworkers on the rail lines, and finally ended up at the museum where I mostly sat on a bench while he darted from exhibit to exhibit, his smile never faltering.

Back at the hotel, I gave him a relaxing tubby and tucked him into bed, still smiling. But then so was I.