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I smiled. Thank you for your input.
“There you go again.” Lucky offered me a half-smile as he covered the distance between us. “You having conversations all in your head again? You want to let me in on this one?”
Absolutely fucking not.
I smiled. “I went shopping. Bought presents for Dolly.” I lowered my voice. “Bought a treat for you, too.”
His face lit up. “You bought me a present?”
“Mm,” I pondered. Seemed Lucky liked presents. I loved to buy presents. I foresaw more shopping in my future. Happiness filled my chest. “More like an experience.”
His smile broadened. “I like the sound of that.”
What kinds of things would Lucky like? I’d only ever heard him talk about things he wanted for his students, his classroom. Not once had I ever heard him talk about something he wanted for himself.
Brayleigh and I sat on the floor of the family room. I tucked my long sundress around my legs, ensuring there were no revealing gaps, and passed her the gift bag.
Lucky sat directly across from me on the couch, his legs spread, his elbows resting on his knees, hands loose between his thighs.
I so badly wanted to crawl up between his legs, push him back against the couch, and undo the zipper of his jeans.
His chuckle interrupted my chain of thought. “I think I know what you’re thinking this time.”
I held his gaze until the heat flared in his eyes. I winked at him and promised, “I’ll show you later.”
“Please, God, let her go to bed easily tonight,” he muttered.
In typical toddler fashion, Brayleigh pulled each item out of the bag and tossed it to the side before going in for the next. Only after she’d emptied everything out onto the floor did she go back and examine each item.
“Mine sparky?”
“Yours,” I agreed.
“Mine sparky,” she whispered to herself over and again as she rifled through hair ties, bracelets, purses, hair extensions and finally the tiara which she picked up. Her face twisted into a grimace as she tried to rip the tag off.
“Here, let Minnie help you.” I reached for it, but she drew her arm back, her eyes going wide with a warning glare at the same time as her mouth drew down into a heavy frown. “Oh, my!” I laughed, looking at Lucky. “She looks like she’s going to slug me!”
“She does! Dad’s going to get the scissors, Brayleigh, so we can cut off the tags. What do you say to Minty?”
She threw her hands up and laughed. “Mine sparky!”
Princessed to the max, Brayleigh spent the rest of the afternoon squealing her three favorite words, ‘look at me’. She said it to Hope when she dropped by after Lucky called and invited her. She said it to Lucky’s sisters, Ava and Darcy who met us at the park. She said it to Tracy and Dani via Facetime.
And she said it to Lucky and me over and again as she danced and spun and ate and stared at herself in the mirror. She said it in the house, in the backyard, at the park, at the kitchen table, in the tub, and finally, in her bed.
By the time she fell asleep, I could honestly say I hated the sound of her voice. And yet, I could not wait to see if she was just as enamored with her sparkles tomorrow.
Lucky lay back in his bed. It was a rare occurrence that he looked tired.
He turned his head and offered a half smile. “You didn’t happen to bring a ball gag for her for tomorrow?” Then he covered his face and groaned. “I forgot to tell you something. You’re going to hate me.”
“Well now, that sounds ominous. Perhaps you’d better just spit it out,” I teased. Half of me braced for I didn’t know what, the other half didn’t believe for one second it could be bad.
“Brayleigh’s been having night terrors.” He watched my face as I took in the news.
“Indeed.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You know what those are?”
