Chapter Fourteen

Kevin

After the evening at the club, and our first night together, it felt like the world had opened up before us. Reid's plan to leave in a couple of weeks had stretched out longer, but I still tried to remain aware of the fact that he had a home to go to and hadn't made any plans to stay. Why would he? Sure, we were having fun together, but Reid's life back where he came from was only on pause. And his employer was not going to let him work from home every day forever. He'd explained that while he worked remotely some days, they did have requirements for everyone to be in the office a certain amount of the time.

We were getting along like a house on fire, but was that because we knew our relationship had an expiration date? No. I refused to believe that. But every time, I circled back around to enjoying ourselves while we could. I'd never been good at long-term relationships, but maybe that would be the answer for us. My firm didn't have a remote program at all, so unless I was meeting a client elsewhere, I worked in the office every day. And at home some evenings…but that technically didn't count.

On salary, commissions, and bonuses, I didn't exactly punch a time clock, but I was expected in every morning at nine. If things got serious, and Reid still wanted to sell his uncle's house and move back, it would be pretty hard for me to start all over in my line of work. It had taken me a long time to get where I was.

Reid made me happy though. Every day, I woke up looking forward to speaking to him at some point, even if we didn't get together. But every minute I spent worrying about the future pulled me right out of the present. Which was a pretty darn good time of my life.

Especially this weekend.

While we'd played at the club, but we hadn't done an "at home" daddy/little time, and that was on schedule for tonight. Provided of course nothing happened to make us change our plans like our first night at the club. I'd been helping Reid with the house, and we'd fixed a lot of things before they could break, so I was feeling pretty good about our chances of our night happening.

I went into the bedroom and looked at the items laid out on the bed in anticipation of our daddy/little time. A couple of outfits, three diapers, a hooded towel…a few toys and some other things. Overall, not a lot. April's nursery in our old house had been a designer's dream. Everything a baby could want or need, if their parents were wealthy, just sized up. It was one of many reasons why I had only been able to afford the fixer upper I now occupied. She'd had silver-spoon tastes and, for most of our time together, a salary that did not match her expenditures. That house cost more than either of us should have spent on it even without the nursery. And I'd had no problem signing it over to her when I left.

But I wished I had more to offer Reid in terms of atmosphere for our play. Unlike some who demanded things, he asked for nothing, but I wanted to give him everything. I ran over the things we might do tonight and made sure I had what we needed before folding it all neatly and tucking it into a box so it wasn't just all over the place. We were meeting after dinnertime so I wasn't cooking a meal, but we would do a bath, playtime, snack, and bedtime with a story. That was what we'd decided together. Now all I needed was a certain little to complete the picture.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see Reid's name. For a second, I thought something had come up, but the cheerful voice I heard when I answered washed away all those worries. "I'm just leaving the house. See you in a few minutes!"

I waited by the door, ready to open it when I heard his car pull up. I met him in the driveway with a big hug and kiss, and we walked up to the door arm in arm. We talked a little along the way about our day. Inside, I took his backpack from him and when he turned back to me, I saw the difference immediately.

"I am ready to play!"

"Good because we are going to have such a fun time together. I thought since it's so late"—

nearly sunset—"that maybe you'd like to have a tubby and get into comfy jammies before we play? Unless you're hungry?"

"Tubby!" He gave a little bounce. "Are there bubbles?"

"You'll have to come and see!" I took his hand and led him into the bedroom. "Now, let's take this hooded towel with us and see what's in the bathroom." Not quite everything I'd bought was in the box.

Waiting on the side of the tub was a teddy-bear-shaped bottle of bubbles and a flotilla of submarines—at least that was what I thought a group of them was called. Reid squealed and reached for them, but I grabbed his hand. "First, we have to get the water filling up and you undressed. I turned on the taps and adjusted the water. "Would you like to help add the bubbles?"

He did. And then I undressed him, leaving whatever little bit of big behind as he climbed into the tub and took command of his submarines. After an undersea battle that had me laying a few extra towels down on the floor to soak up the overflow, I washed him from head to toe and carefully shampooed his hair then stood and held out the hooded towel. Then I led him into the bedroom where I laid him on the bed to get dressed. I didn't have a changing table or anything, but he didn't seem to mind when I produced the diapers I'd ordered. "Just for me?"

"Yes. Do you like the little tigers or the doggies?" There was also a plainer one, but I had a feeling he'd go for the animals, and he reached right for the tigers, growling playfully. "I need to put some cream on you, or you might get chafed."

"Okay." He lay quietly while I coated him, but his stiffness told another story. "I don't think it's going to fit in my new diaper."

"Oh, yes, maybe rubbies would help?"

He bobbed his head up and down. "Rubbies yes."

I added a little more cream and then stroked him until he spilled then I cleaned him with wipes and tucked him into his tiger diaper.

"All better," he said, peering down. "It fits now."

The brand-new footie pajamas were a big hit, as were the animal cookies I served while we played with some blocks before I declared it bedtime and went back into the bathroom with him to brush his teeth.

"Are you very sleepy, or would you like a story?" Sure, we'd already agreed to it, but his eyelids were noticeably heavy. "We can read it in the morning if you're too tired."

"I'm not tired." He stood very straight and lifted his chin, opening his eyes wide. "See?"

"I see, yes. But I'm a little tired, so if you don't mind, I would like to crawl onto the bed and sit all plumped up on pillows and read a story."

"You are tired?" He cocked his head and looked at me closely.

"Yes. I am, and I was going to make you a bottle to suck on while I read. Unless you don't want one?"

He did want one, and soon, I had him under the covers, sucking on his bottle of warm milk, while I read a story about a little boy who was just a little bit of a mischief maker. Reid fell asleep with the bottle hanging from his mouth, and I gently removed it before kissing him on the forehead and going to change for bed myself.