Page 19 of Tessa

Chapter Six

Tessa

Just be yourself.

Her twin sister Ellie’s advice hummed through her brain as Tessa anxiously made her way to Dax and Beau’s room.

She reached their room, one floor down at the far end of the hall from Knox and Margo’s room and rapped on the door with the side of her fist.

As soon as Beau pulled it open, the pressing question that had been weighing on her mind tumbled out. “Why do you live at Utopia if you are planning to stay in Vegas?”

Beau raised his eyebrows and took a step backward, gesturing for her to enter. “Well, hello to you too.”

Horrified, Tessa covered her mouth with her hand as she realized she’d done it again. She’d come at them full steam ahead without stopping to say hello, just like at lunch. “Sorry!” she squeaked. “Hello! I’m excited for our playdate.”

“But you have pressing questions, first?” Dax teased.

“Well, yeah, I guess.”

“I’m gonna get a complex if you keep grilling us without bothering to say hello.” Beau’s tone wasn’t impatient or unkind, but it wasn’t teasing either. She couldn’t get a read on him.

Dax rolled his eyes. “Daddy Beau is a bit grumpy today. I don’t think he had enough coffee. How about we color for a while, and you can ask us questions while we color? Later when it cools down, we can go out and ride the gondolas.”

Tessa could feel her face flushing with embarrassment. Beau was still silent and she was sure she’d messed everything up. She stared down at the carpet wondering if she’d messed up badly enough that she should just tuck her tail between her legs and head home, accepting that she wasn’t a good enough girl to have one Daddy much less two.

She looked up just in time to see Dax sidle up beside Beau and nudge him in the ribs. Hard.

Her eyes widened, but instead of Beau chastising Dax like she’d expected, he turned and grabbed a bag from the top of the dresser.

It was a plain bag, from a pharmacy chain that had locations all up and down the strip, and she couldn’t help but wonder what kinds of naughty things it might hold.

When Beau opened the bag and withdrew three coloring books, and brand new boxes of crayons and colored pencils, understanding dawned.

“Why don’t we each pick a picture to color and we can talk while we do that?”

Heaving a deep sigh of relief, Tessa grabbed one of the coloring books he’d offered and thumbed through it, searching for a picture that matched her mood before settling on a photo of three bears sitting on a blanket in the grass, having a picnic. The bears represented her, Beau, and Dax on a playdate, she decided.

She pointed to it, and Beau carefully ripped out the page, handing the book to Dax who shook his head and scrunched up his nose at it. “No, Daddy. I want the Transformers one.” His voice had a stubborn lilt to it, and Tessa frowned. Dax had said he wasn’t really a Little, but sometimes he sure acted like one. She wondered if he only did it to put her at ease or if he just hadn’t come to terms with that side of himself yet.

But Beau handed him a different coloring book, and Dax opened it, ripping out the first page with half the precision and care Beau had shown.

“I’ll do a Transformer too,” Beau said, taking it from Dax and ripping out the next page in the book.

Tessa followed him with her eyes as he took the crayons and pencils along with his chosen page and sat down at the small kitchenette table.

For the first time, she noticed that their table had three chairs instead of the normal two and wondered if they had done that in anticipation of her visit or if it had always been that way because of their propensity for sharing women. She was super curious, but didn’t want to ask, so she just followed Beau’s lead and sat down in the middle chair, waiting for Dax to join them.

When he sat, he immediately reached for a yellow colored pencil. When he set the box down, she grabbed the brown one. Beau went last, selecting red.

“I don’t really color,” he said dumbly, repeating the same statement he’d made the day before at lunch.

“It’s okay, Daddy Beau. We won’t judge you.”

She was still feeling guilty about bombarding him with more questions the second he opened the door, but when she glanced up, he was smiling, which made her feel a tiny bit better.

“So, little one, you had more questions for us?” he prompted as soon as she started coloring in the fur of the smallest bear. That one was her.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t hafta.”