Page 36 of Hunting Little Hope
It was too much. Too fast.
I reached out, calm and steady, and rested my hand over Perry’s thigh. “Easy, little nuggie.”
They both froze.
Hope blinked at me like she’d forgotten where she was. Hair messy, lips swollen, eyes hazy. Perry’s pout was immediate and spectacular, lower lip sticking out as he peered up at me like I’d just canceled Christmas.
“Daddy,” he whined softly.
Fuck, he was beautiful.
I brushed my thumb over his knee. “We haven’t talked about rules yet,” I said gently. “And we’re out in the open. Picnic blanket, remember?”
Hope’s cheeks went pink in a way that made my chest ache. She looked mortified and relieved all at once.
“I… sorry,” she mumbled.
“Nothing to be sorry for, sweetheart,” Lee said quietly, hand warm on her back. “You two were enjoying yourselves. That’s allowed.”
Perry huffed, but he nodded, because my good boy always listened even when he didn’t want to. Hope slid off his lap, tucking herself beside him like she needed somewhere safe. And the fact that she foundmyLittle to be her safe haven only served to make me feel even more for her.
And it did the same thing to Perry if the puffed up chest he was sporting was anything to go by.
I watched them for a second, letting all my own feelings settle before coming up with a distraction for them, and me.
Then I pointed up at the sky.
“Hey,” I said. “How about you two do some cloud-watching?”
Perry’s pout softened immediately. “Oh I haven’t done that in ages!”
Hope let out a shaky laugh. “You’re serious?”
“Dead serious,” I responded, before looking up at the sky and picking a cloud at random. “That one looks like a dinosaur. And if you two can’t see it, I’m confiscating dessert.”
Perry grabbed Hope’s hand and dragged her down beside him, already chattering about dragons and rabbits and suspiciously cupcake-shaped clouds. Hope giggled, still pink, still a little dazed, but lighter.
Lee leaned into me, voice low. “Good call.”
I watched my Littles lying shoulder to shoulder in the sun, fingers laced together, pointing at nothing and everything.
My chest ached in the best way. Thinking of Hope as my anything was probably asking for heartbreak, but at this point, I didn’t think there was any chance of us not getting attached, so I might as well just go with the flow.
“That one’s a dragon,” Perry announced, pointing at a drifting cloud with absolute authority.
Hope squinted. “That is not a dragon.”
“It has wings.”
“That’s a smudge.”
“It’s a dragon-shaped smudge.”
I lay back on the other side of her, propping one arm behind my head. Lee settled near her feet, long and lazy, stretched out on the blanket.
Perry reached across her stomach to point again, his fingers resting there absentmindedly. She didn’t tense. Didn’t overthink it. She just laughed when he insisted another cloud looked like a cupcake wearing a crown.
And slowly, inch by inch, I watched her stop thinking so darned hard.
