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There was something in the way he took in a breath that said he was going to protest, so I cut him off again. “There’s no more interrupting a thousand times a day. No matter if he’s writing a bestseller or answering calls to help people book airline tickets, it’s rude.”
They really needed to see my cutie as a real grown-up.
If anyone was going to baby him and watch over him, it would be me.
“I will let him know you called, but he has plans the rest of the evening, so he probably won’t return the call until tomorrow.” Maybe.
“Fine.” Sanderson’s defeated tone as he disconnected the call said I’d made my point.
That’d been entirely too easy.
“That woman has beaten down every member of her family.” As I set Camden’s phone down and started to walk out of the kitchen, deciding macaroni and cheese with some added vegetables would be a fun dinner, I saw my fuzzy-brained boy wandering in with his binkie back in his mouth.
Little time or just not ready to be big?
They seemed to be two different headspaces.
“There’s my cutie.” Ignoring the phone call for the time being since he could ask about that when he was ready, I went over and wrapped my arms around him. Smiling as he snuggled close, still sucking away, I kissed his head. “You had a nice long nap.”
And he’d slept like the dead once he’d conked out…even moving him off my lap hadn’t woken him at all.
I got a nod as he tried to wiggle closer, clearly focused on cuddles more than anything else. “How about we go snuggle on the couch?”
Then as he woke up a bit, we could find a cartoon or watch a Transformer pee on an asshole again…for the dozenth time this week.
Another nod and a happy hum coming out around the binkie said the plan was little-approved. It didn’t seem to mean that he was going to move away from me, though, so I kept a tight hold on my cutie and slowly walked us toward the couch.
“I was thinking about mac and cheese later. How does that sound?” If it didn’t sound good, we were down to noodles without sauce or frozen chicken nuggets. Neither sounded appealing, but I would be willing to suffer for my cutie.
Another happy sound had relief flooding through me.
Yes, no nuggets.
“Perfect.” Sitting down near the end of the couch, I pulled him onto my lap and let him lean against the armrest. “There we go.”
He snuggled down, resting his head on me and stretching out along the couch. I got a hum that was slightly more awake, but he’d closed his eyes and gone boneless again, so I wasn’t going to hold my breath about the whole waking-up thing.
But we weren’t in a rush and I loved cuddly little-little Camden just as much as chatty not quite so little Camden, so as far as evenings went, this seemed like it was adding up to be a wonderful one.
Chapter Twenty
Camden
“But wouldn’t you rather go get ice cream? I’ll let you have sprinkles. The colored ones, not the poop ones.” This was not good.
This was very not good.
Daddy was taking me to the grocery store.
“I still have chocolate peanut butter and bread.” Because I could get those delivered any time I wanted.
The other groceries could come like magic too, but they never had exactly what I wanted and the veggies were mushy. Healthy and mushy was a punishment, and I wasn’t going to do that to myself.
But the grocery store?
Daddy rolled his eyes. “If you’re trying to bribe me, you should’ve picked something else. Ice cream is your weakness.”
Shoot.
I should’ve remembered Daddy liked cheesecake. I always remembered but I was so distracted. Yes, my forgetting was his fault, so I deserved ice cream.
“If we keep going, The Cheesecake Factory is down the street a few miles.” I looked down to figure out what I was wearing. “I even have real go out in public clothes on, so we’re fine.”
Daddy always looked nice, but I was sometimes questionable.
He coughed, trying to cover his laugh and doing a terrible job of it. I was more believable than that when I was being naughty. “We’re almost at the store. I’m turning into the parking lot.”
As we waited to turn into hell, he frowned at me. “I don’t know if you’re little or just being dramatic, so I don’t know what to call you.”
He was so cute.
I couldn’t be too grumpy when he was so funny even if he was making me go to the grocery store. “Both?”
As he sighed, I shrugged. “You said we were going to run some errands, Daddy. This isn’t errands.”
This.
Was.
Punishment.
He’d even talked about vegetables…and he’d asked me about bananas.
I’d managed not to gag, but it was close.
Had I told him that coming to the grocery store was overwhelming and boring and there were too many decisions to make?
