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David was sweet, but this clearly wasn’t his element. When we got to the dressing room I’d rented for the evening, I stood on tippy toes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, Daddy.”
“You are very welcome, little man. Do you need me to do anything else for you?” he asked.
“Nope, I’m all good,” I said as I slipped inside and closed the door behind me.
There was a time in my life when this, plus my day job, was enough for me. Now that I was older, loneliness was setting in and with each passing day I longed for a Daddy of my own. But would any man be able to handle the separation between my career and being a Daddy? Most Doms wanted full control, day and night, whereas I needed the balance from both lives. Separate bank accounts, only be my Daddy after hours. Was that a selfish request?
Sigh…
Maybe I’m just not boy material after all, merely destined to be a solo Little.
Was that so bad?
It was when you walked a lonely path.
I’d been overlooked throughout my life as the only child to parents more focused on retirement than raising a kid. Was I mistreated? Not in the traditional sense. My parents lacked the energy to chase a toddler around so in lieu of toys, I was given any book I wanted from the bookstore they owned. I would sit and read for hours, diving into fabled stories and history. Head buried in the pages, absorbing every bit of information I could. Quiet as a mouse was how my parents’ friends described me over the years. Seemed that was a phase I never grew out of.
Both were a positive and a negative.
The number of times my parents forgot they took me to work with them and left me there overnight I’d long since lost count of. I’d fall asleep in my favorite armchair, and they’d go home and return the next day. Funny how things had changed, and it was now Dad who fell asleep in the chair in his room at the memory care facility I had to move him to a couple of years ago. Though he no longer remembered who I was, I still covered him with a blanket Mom made years before her death each time I visited. You’d think it would hurt less given my past, but it didn’t. Only now I was forgotten as was most else which prompted my having to make the choice to sell our family home and move Dad there.
Getting old was definitely not for the weak. Nor was watching the only remaining family member you had wither away.
Time spent at Cordes was my therapy. With David, I stepped outside my comfort zone and went for what I wanted and in turn had a wonderful time playing with him. I guess Little Henry could teach grown-up Henry a thing or two.
“What’s wrong with me, Magpie?” I asked my calico beauty, the love of my life, as I fed her treats.
“Meow,” she rubbed on my leg knowing that would earn her a few more by doing so. I was such a sucker for my girl.
“Yeah, I know. My life is sad.” I dumped the rest of the bag in her dish and sighed. Magpie, aka Pie-Pie, how I gave my cat a nickname that was as long as her real name was beyond me. Kind of defeated the whole meaning behind a nickname. But it happened and as the only family member I had left, I’d give her the world if I could. Or the feline equivalent…whatever that may be.
Well, tomorrow was a new day in the lonely life of Henry, the owner of Turn the Page bookstore.
Chapter 2
“Mitchell,” my boss barked over the conference screen on my laptop. The others around the conference room table remained stoic while I flinched. “I need that report on my desk first thing in the morning to present to the partners.”
Work in investments, my father said. It’ll be lucrative, and you’ll enjoy it.
Enjoy it my ass.
“Yes, sir,” I replied, doing my best to hold back an exasperated sigh. “I’ll get right to work on it.”
Seventeen years with the company and while I was the branch manager, moving to a regional position was no longer a desire of mine. Now, working for myself—that was. I wasn’t getting any younger and it was time I kicked my dream into high gear. Moving back home over the summer to be near my aging mother was both a blessing and a curse. Had Mom not fallen and broken her hip at the age of seventy-seven, I’d still be back in Chicago dealing with his pompous ass face to face.
It was easier to bite my tongue from a thousand miles away than it was in person. Though as of late, it took all I had not to spew every expletive I knew at him.
Without so much as a goodbye, he disconnected the call. Mindlessly I blinked, staring at the black computer screen. What the ever-loving fuck? Was he this nasty to his family? If so, they needed to run far and fast and break the negative cycle. Sheesh. I exited the online call and switched back to the spreadsheet I’d been working on. Seven p.m. in Chicago was five in Las Vegas, though that meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. He’d expect me to pull an all-nighter as I had so many times over the years.
I was too old for this shit.
I glanced around my childhood bedroom. Nothing had changed since I’d graduated college. The same rock band posters adorned the walls just as the trophies I’d won in the past for various sporting events I’d partaken in collected dust on the shelves they were displayed on. Maybe entering the NFL draft was the way I should’ve gone…
Yeah, and at the age of thirty-nine my body would be in more pain than it already was.
Crash! Thud! “Momma?” I hollered out and immediately ran to the source of the noise, finding my mother sprawled out across the living room floor. “Momma! Oh my god, are you okay?” When she didn’t answer me, I felt for her pulse, thankful it was there. “Don’t move, Momma, I’m calling an ambulance now.”
“911, what’s your emergency?”
