Page 20 of Tessa

“Tessa.” Dad dropped his pencil on the table and grabbed her hand. The move surprised her and she jerked her head around to look at him. “It’s okay to have questions. Just next time, maybe try to say hello first.”

“Okay.” Tessa blew out a huff of breath that ruffled her bangs. “Why do you live at Utopia?”

“Timing mostly. It was offered to us. The lease was up on my place and Dax just sublet his for a while. By the time we got this job, we could kind of see that things were kind of changing between us and this was a safe, no-commitment way to explore living together.”

It made sense, and that made her feel better. She nodded sagely. “Do you like it? Living together?”

“We do,” Beau answered, leaning across her to place his hand on Dax’s. “We’ve been talking about buying a house together. Maybe you could help us look.”

His eyes locked on hers, and she shivered at the implication she saw there. It made her tummy jump even while her brain screamed at her to slow down.

As if he could sense her hesitation, Beau changed the subject. “Now, little one, I have a question for you.”

“Hmmm?” Tessa hummed, concentrating on drawing a yellow bow atop the head of the smallest bear.

“Have you been a good girl since we saw you last?”

Jerking her head up to meet his gaze, Tessa blinked. Remembering the rule they had made, she kind of wished she could say no, just so she could see what would happen. But saying no would be lying. With only her and Jilly not matched up, the opportunities for fun trouble had greatly diminished, and getting in trouble for not doing chores or for going to bed late was boring.

Regretfully, she nodded.

“Use your words,” Dax prompted her, even though Beau had been the one to ask the question.

“Sorry. Yes, Daddies, I’ve been good.”

“Good girl,” Dax purred at the same time Beau said, “That’s too bad.”

Again he surprised her, and she looked up at him with wide eyes. Her mouth fell open.

“I…” She didn’t know what to say. She kind of thought it was too bad too. But could she admit that? “I know, right?” she finally answered, quickly turning her attention back to her picture.

Dax clicked his tongue. “Don’t stop now, you two! It was just getting good.”

“Do you have any more questions for us?” Beau changed the subject again and disappointment squeezed her gut.

But like the good girl she didn’t really want to be, she racked her brain for anything she didn’t yet know that she should know and came up blank. She shook her head.

“That’s okay. I will come up with some for you.”

“Okay.” She liked that he was taking the pressure off her while still keeping the conversation going. “Shoot.”

“How old is your Little?”

That was an easy one. “Three or four,” she answered. “Same as Jilly.”

“Do you wear diapers?”

“Pull-ups. So I can change myself.”

“Little girls should not have to do that,” Dax tsked. “That’s a Daddy’s job.”

Tessa bristled. It felt like they were criticizing Baze and she didn’t like that. “I don’t have a Daddy!” she hollered, slamming her palm down on the table. The box of crayons jumped. “Mister Daddy has seven of us to take care of and a very important job. He can’t just be changing diapers all day! And he’s Luna’s Daddy, and it wouldn’t be nice to her if he did all the Daddy things for all of us!”

“Whoa. I can see that I hit a nerve and I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be critical of Baze.”

“I think what Dax was trying to say is that if we were your Daddies, we would want to take care of that. If it was okay with you, of course.”

“Oh.” Tessa paused to consider. Baze had changed her a few times in the beginning, but not really at all since he and Luna had married. It just felt too awkward for all of them. She’d gotten used to taking care of herself in that way, and she didn’t mind it. But she also liked the idea of not having to, and having not one, but two Daddies who wanted to care for her made her tummy feel all squishy inside.