Daddy lifts me from Auntie Gray’s lap, and to my horror, he does indeed hold me against one shoulder exactly like a baby. Before I can protest, he pats my back and a loud burp escapes.
“Oh my god!” Mortified, I bury my face in his shoulder. “That was so embarrassing!”
“Nonsense,” Daddy scoffs. “It’s a perfectly natural bodily function. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
He said the same thing upstairs when he forced me to pee in my diaper yet again, but it still doesn’t stop the humiliation from heating my entire body.
Luckily, I’m saved from my embarrassment by the reappearance of Uncle Ford, who is glaring darkly at my Daddy. “Did you buy all of Vegas, Colt? Someone just dropped off like ten boxes of stuff.”
“Oh!” I wiggle, trying to escape Daddy’s hold. “My clothes! Daddy, put me down!”
A hard swat to my diapered bottom freezes me in place. “Polite Little girls do not make demands,” he scolds. “Ask nicely and I will let you down so we can go open your boxes.”
Now it’s a whole new kind of embarrassment threatening to eat me alive. “Sorry, Daddy. May I please get down?”
“Of course, baby. Thank you for using your manners.”
The second he puts me on my feet, I take off for the living room.
“No running!” Daddy calls after me, and I force my footsteps to slow.
“Rexy!” I squeal, launching myself at the giant dinosaur that seems to take up half the room. “I missed you so much!”
“Holy shit, Colt. Where did you evenfindthat thing?”
I don’t know which of my uncles has asked, and I don’t care. I’m much too invested in figuring out which of the many, many boxes holds the pretty dresses Daddy bought for me.
“Daddy, Daddy, can we open them? Please?”
Chuckling, Daddy kneels beside me. “Since you asked so politely, yes. Does anyone have a?—”
Before he can even finish his sentence, Uncle Dane produces a pocketknife and hands it to him.
“Thanks, Dane.” Flipping it open, Daddy slices the tape on the smallest of all the boxes, a grin stretching across his face. “Ah, I was hoping these were in here.”
Leaning over, a brand-new excitement bubbles in my chest when Daddy carefully removes the sparkling globe from the box. “Oh! I forgot about those!”
“Do you want to give Lanie and Josie their presents?”
Uncertainty creeps up my spine. “Are you sure?”
“Of course, baby. You picked them out.”
I did. And at the time, they’d seemed so perfect. But now all I can think of is how silly they are, and how I should have spent more time picking out their gifts.
When I peek up at Daddy, however, he’s smiling encouragingly, holding the first snowglobe out to me. Surely he would have told me if they weren’t good presents, right?
Clinging to that knowledge—or maybe it’s just a rationalization, I don’t know—I take the globe and turn toward Lanie. “This one’s for you.”
Eyes wide, Lanie takes the glittering glass ball from my hand with a surprising gentleness, as if she’s afraid moving too quickly might shatter it. “Oh. Oh, Tabby, it’s perfect. I love it so much!”
Happiness warms me from the inside out, creeping up my cheeks as I shrug like I wasn’t about to pass out from the stress of giving it to her just five seconds ago. “Daddy was telling me all about you and Josie, and this one made me think of you.”
Giggling, she holds the globe up for Uncle Axel to see. “Look, Daddy, I’m a princess! Fighting a dragon!”
“I see, little runaway. Why don’t you give that to Daddy so I can take it upstairs to your nursery? We don’t want it to get broken.”
Lanie’s bottom lip puffs out in a pout, but she doesn’t argue. “Okay, Daddy, but you have to bereallycareful.”
