My friends gathered closer, and Danny, the oldest of us, made a toast. “To PRIDE, to littles, to the pups, and especially to Jax for hosting this cruise in the first place.”
We cheered and clinked glasses.
“Wait. We should add Drew to that. He’s sponsoring, right?” Joey asked.
Danny nodded furiously. “How did I forget that. I was on the planning committee.”
Levi held his glass up again and we all did too. “To Danny and the planning committee, along with Drew, who sponsored it. Aaaaand…to all the sexy daddies.”
“Woo-hoo! Can’t argue with that.” I clinked my glass against Levi’s.
“Attention. Attention Pride Celebrants.” Jax’s voice came over the speakers, loud and clear. “It’s sailaway time. If you haven’t made your way to our pool party palace, please do so now.” When he finished speaking, the old Kool & the Gang song,Celebration, came on.
The four of us littles got up and danced right there beside our lounge chairs. “We did this last cruise, too.” Levi wiggled his butt and we laughed.
Other people from our trip walked around, dancing and drinking, and saying hello to us. Some of them I recognized from the club, but not all of them.
After a while, I needed a refresh for my drink and made my way over to the bar where the daddies were hanging out, drinking whiskey. “Daddy. I need a drink.” I put the empty one on the bar top.
“Sure.” He pulled me close and kissed me. “You should eat something too. They have a lot of snacks coming around. Make sure you grab some.” He tweaked my nose.
“Silly daddy, who doesn’t like snackies?”
He winked at me before ordering my drink. Vince ordered another one for Joey and asked me to take it back to him, so I did. We hung out, drinking a little more, then just like Daddy said, servers walked around with snackies for us to try, and Itried everything. A few of them I liked better than others, and I tried those a couple of times.
While all of this was going on, the boat started moving. Oops…theshipstarted moving. Honestly, I didn’t know the difference between the two, but I didn’t want to insult Jax. If he wanted it to be a ship, I would think of it that way. The view behind the ship—got it right—changed as we headed out, with the marina getting smaller and smaller behind us. I waved at it before we got too far away. “Bye-bye Marina. Bye-bye Key West.”
Joey cheered and waved along with me, calling out, “We’ll be back in a few days.”
Day 2 of The Cruise
I did not know how the rest of the cruise could beat the sailaway pool party yesterday, but I was willing to try. It started with a huge breakfast buffet with everything I could possibly want to eat. Scramble eggs, panny-cakes, fruit, and never-ending coffee.
Then swimming. Not the splashing around play we did the day before, but picking a lane and getting a few serious laps in. It had been a while since I went running or lifted weights or anything, and someone said there was actually a gym onboard, but why do that when I could swim? The cool water and hot sun left me feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. I was the luckiest guy in the world, and I was really feeling it.
“Cody, there you are. Come play with the others for a little while before lunch.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
Daddy Warner held my hand and led me to the lower deck, where my little friends were playing with the pups. They had names they used when they were in their pup headspace. Jax was Jay-Jay or simply Jay. Royce was Boone, and Todd was called Sunshine. They constantly tumbled all over each other, barking and yipping. It was a lot like little headspace, but also completely different, and both definitely complemented each other.
Levi bounced around the room with Sunshine trailing after him, while Joey sat criss-cross in the middle of the floor and fed Boone bits of pretzels. Danny rubbed Jay’s back while he wiggled around.
“Hey, guys. I wanna play too.”
“Yay! Cody’s here.” Joey jumped up and ran over, tackling me in a hug and Boone followed him on all fours. He sat back on his heels and held his hands in front of him like paws, then he pressed against me, welcoming me in his own way.
“Hey, Joey. Hey, Boone.” I patted Boone on the head and he yipped again.
“Let’s skip.” Joey took off following Levi and Sunshine as they made their way around the room.
I skipped after them, bouncing on the mats that were spread out on the floor. Soon, all of us were running around everywhere like lunatics until we fell into a big puppy pile in the middle of the room. All of us laughed like crazy, even our pup friends.
We played more until Danny reminded us that we needed to get ready for lunch. After helping the pups get their hoods off, we made sure they drank water. We knew how to take care of pups when their handlers weren’t around because we didit sometimes at Afterglow. They didn’t want treats because we were about to eat lunch, but they were all sweaty.
“I totally need a shower.” Jax ran his fingers through his hair.
“Right,” Todd agreed.
