Chapter Nine

London

Waking up with Gray's arms wrapped around me was officially my new favorite thing. It wasn't like the first night I fell asleep with him by my side, but it was the first I woke up with him that way and a thousand times better.

I snuggled in close, enjoying his warm breath on my neck, listening to his breathing, wanting to stay like this forever. My bladder disagreed with my forever plan. It was barely a handful of minutes later when I called uncle and attempted to extract myself from his embrace without waking him up. I failed miserably.

"Good morning, little conductor." His voice was still full of sleep but also as sexy I remembered.

"I gotta go potty." Something about the way he called me his little conductor had me slipping into little space. "Is that okay?" I asked, wanting to be sure he was fine with my tone. "Not the bathroom, but…you know." I hoped he did because I wasn't sure I was making any sense.

"You can be however you want to be, my sweet boy."

"Okay, Daddy." I finished climbing out of bed and raced to the bathroom. A couple of minutes later, there was a knock at the door.

"When you're done, let me know, and I'll run you a tubby."

"Okay, Daddy." I was getting a tubby! Daddy was giving me a tubby! I couldn't remember the last time I had someone give me a bath. I wasn't even sure if I had any bubble bath for it. But whether I did or not, it didn't matter. I was going to love it—love the way he was going to take care of me.

When I opened the door, he had his boxers on, which was sad. I'd much prefer him naked.

"I'm really dirty, Daddy. I'm gonna need a good tubby with lots of scrubbies." I stepped to the side and out of his way in invitation.

"Well then, I'll get it set up. Did you want to pick out your favorite clothes for today while I take care of things here?"

I nodded.

"After tubby time, Daddy will make you breakfast."

"And then?" I wanted to know everything.

"And then we can watch cartoons together."

"Ones about trains?"

"Absolutely, ones about trains." He kissed my cheek. "And maybe, another time, you can show me where you keep your little things and, next time, Daddy can get them out for you."

Next time. He was already talking about next time.

"Hurry along. We have a fun day planned."

"Okay, Daddy." I ran to the other room and found my favorite pajamas, the ones with a little engine on them, and a pair of underwear covered with trains. When I returned, I found Daddy squatting down, the tub already filling up. He had even managed to find some bubbles.

"You need some more toys." He held up my lonely boat.

"They got yucky." I'd made the mistake of getting the ones where you could squirt water out of them, and, unfortunately, they got moldy on the inside. I hated tossing them all away, but I hated mold more. And since taking a bath wasn't something I treated myself to very often, I hadn't bothered to replace them yet.

"No worries. Daddy will pick some up for you."

Gods, I loved the sound of that.

He helped me ease into the warm water. And just as I asked, he did lots of scrubbies. He started with my hair, rinsing it with a large cup he found in the kitchen. From there, he washed me from head to toe, paying extra attention to the places that made me squirm. The man knew what he was doing.

A little could get used to this.

When the water started to chill, Daddy helped me out, dried me all over, and dressed me in my pajamas. I felt so cared for…so cherished.

"Why don't you wait on the bed while Daddy takes a quick shower? And then you can help me figure out what you want for breakie."

Part of me wanted to join him in the shower, but, if I did, little time would be over. Every single thing I wanted to do in there was big. Instead, I opted to do as he suggested.

"Okay, Daddy." I bounded back into the bedroom and jumped on my bed.

I grabbed my favorite engines, driving them around the bed, stopping at all the stations, and calling, "All aboard," before they took off again. I was so lost in my fun, it felt like only a minute or two before Gray joined me. His hair was damp, and he had his clothes from the day before on. I didn't love him being clothed.

"Are you ready to eat?"

"Hungry, Daddy." I grabbed my trains and scurried into the kitchen.

"I'll take that as a yes." He chuckled and followed behind me.

I didn't have a lot in the way of breakfast foods. Mostly, I just ate oatmeal in the morning. It was quick and easy and kept me full until lunch. It wasn't, however, guest food.

Daddy insisted that he could whip up something good with what I had on hand. He had me sit down at the table with my train coloring book and crayons. I did my very best coloring, wanting him to be proud of my work.

I was only about halfway done coloring my picture when he came out with eggs that were shaped like a train.

"How did you do that?" I'd never seen anything like it.

"You had a cookie cutter." He set it in front of me. "And I saw on YouTube that you could fry eggs with them as molds. I wasn't sure it would work."

"It did work." I'd forgotten about the cookie cutter. It was one I'd picked up thinking I would bake for Christmas one year. That didn't happen. This was better. "Train eggies!"

I didn't even love fried eggs, but when they were shaped like trains, they were the best things ever.

"Did you want milk or juice?" he asked.

Normally, when I woke up, I had coffee, but I didn't want to be big like that. Not this morning. Not when we were going to have a relaxing daddy/little day. Coffee was a nope.

"Milk, please. I have my new sippy cup. The one from our train ride." It wasn't the best design as far as sippies went. It was challenging to suck and taking it apart to clean was no joke, but it reminded me of that day, and that gave it a special place in my heart.

"You were holding it when we met."

"Uh-huh. It's my favorite now."

"It is adorable, and so are you." He ruffled my hair affectionately and went back into the kitchen, coming back with my milk.

"I put two ice cubes in there. That way, you don't need to drink it all at once."

"How did you know?"

"Because I saw you on the train. You gulped down your milk but then took your time with your juice. I guessed maybe it was because when the temperature changes, so does the taste."

He was the best daddy ever.

"It tastes yucky sometimes, Daddy." I always either chugged it when out or put ice cubes in my milk to keep it uniform in temperature when I was home. Most people thought it was weird, so I tended to never use ice cubes in public.

I loved that Daddy noticed the little things like that and even before we met.

"You did a great job coloring. It's the same colors as the one we met on."

"It's not the same kind, but it's close." I'd have loved it if it were. It would make the picture extra special.

We ate our breakfast then I finished coloring while Daddy cleaned up.

"Are you ready for snuggles and cartoons?"

"Yes!" I jumped out of my seat and ran to the couch. There was no holding back how I felt anymore. We both had agreed that wasn't how we wanted our relationship to be.

We ended up not watching a train cartoon. Instead, we stumbled upon a documentary that followed someone traveling by rail all across the country. It was fascinating to watch and had me dreaming of a day when maybe I might be able to take that much time off work and travel.

It was nice sitting at home, being lazy, snuggled in the arms of my daddy. There was a peacefulness about it that wrapped around me like a hug.

"Daddy." I looked up at him.

"Yes, my little conductor?"

"I'm glad I called you the other day. I was scared, but I did it anyway. I was brave."

"You were, my sweet conductor. You were very brave. And Daddy is very proud of you."