Chapter Seven
Eloise
I didn’t know how worried I’d been about punishments until I’d thought everyone was giving us privacy because I was in trouble. The thought scared me so badly, I’d felt sick.
“Well, there are timeouts, writing lines, being grounded, early bedtime, and a few other things.” Blade explained so patiently.
I nodded as I processed his words.
“But, I would really love to be your man, your Daddy, Eloise, and I know what you’ve gone through. I would never put you in timeout alone or spank you. We would agree on other things that wouldn’t hurt you physically or mentally. I want what’s best for you, darlin’,” he explained.
My heart beat rapidly in my chest.
“ You want to be my Daddy?” I asked.
“I do. Very much.”
“You do?” I repeated again. I must have been in shock.
Did I die? Did Billy kill me in that closet? Pinching myself, I was relieved to feel pain.
“Hey, no,” Blade scolded, taking my hands in his again.
“Sorry, I thought I was dreaming.”
“Dreaming?” he asked.
“Yeah, I… it feels like a dream. I never thought I’d have a chance to have a Daddy or be a Little and…” I trailed off, shrugging.
He chuckled. “I think you have it backward, love. I’m the one dreaming because how could anyone as perfect and sweet as you fall into my life this way?”
My tummy flip-flopped again. “I-I would like that. Y-you to be my Daddy. When you’re ready.”
“Yeah?”
“I would. Very much,” I answered, almost repeating exactly what he’d said to me earlier.
Lifting my hand to his mouth, he kissed the back of my knuckles. “I’m ready now, sweet girl. Eloise Tomerlin, would you do me the honor of being my Little girl and allowing me the privilege of being your Daddy?”
“Yes, Daddy,” I answered, leaning forward to hug him. My heart was full. My life was finally starting to fall into place.
***
“I win!” I yelled, giggling at the face Blade made.
“You’re a cheater, cheater candy eater,” he teased, poking my belly. I laughed and slapped my hands over the red pajamas I’d changed into that morning. I’d been in the back in the Boo-Boo Room for three days now and I thought I might get to leave soon.
“Cheater, cheater candy eater!” Tinsley parroted from the highchair of shame. She’d flipped the board one too many times while losing and Blade had strapped her in the chair so we could finish one game in peace.
“You’re a sore loser,” I teased him, “and you too, Tinsley.”
“I am not!” both Blade and Tinsley said at the same time, making the situation ever funnier.
“Well, when you come live with me, maybe you can teach me to be a better loser,” Blade said, putting the pieces back in the box.
“Bladdde,” I whined.
“You can’t blame a man for trying.”
What he was trying to do was convince me to move in with him. It was so fucking tempting, don’t get me wrong. I just was a little hesitant about it. I wasn’t naive. I knew Blade was nothing like Billy. I knew what genuine love looked like, or at least I thought I did, but it was just a scary move and so many things had already changed so quickly for me. Rogue had told me I was also welcome at her house, but I knew she and her Daddy had just moved in together and I didn’t want to mess up their time together. Elliot, Tyler, and Tinsley had told me the same thing, but I was pretty sure I was going to go back to the shelter.
“Rogue!” Tinsley exclaimed, making Blade and me look up.
Rogue stood at the door and laughed. “Were you being naughty?” she asked, walking over to Tinsley and unstrapping her from the chair.
“Yas,” Tinsley answered with a small shug.
Rogue helped her down. “Your Daddy and Papa need you upstairs.”
“Okay!” she squealed before racing up the stairs.
“Be careful!” Blade yelled. “Use your walking feet!”
“Is everything okay?” I asked. Rogue looked kind of nervous and she’d come in so quietly that we hadn’t even heard her.
“I have someone here who wants to see you and I hope that it’s okay that I brought them,” she said, wringing her hands together.
“O-okay?” My tummy did flip-flops as I waited—not the happy kind of flip-flops Blade gave me, but the nervous kind.
Rogue nodded, kinda looking like she was hyping herself up and walked across the room to open the outside door.
Blade sat on the bed and wrapped his arm around me, like he was shielding me from whoever was coming inside.
“Allyson?” I questioned, recognizing my friend from the shelter when she walked in. Why wasn’t she at the shelter? Was something wrong?
“Eloise, I’ve been so worried about you!” she said, stepping into the room.
“Y-you have?” Why would she be worried about me?
“Yes, we all were!”
All?
***
Blade
I knew we’d taken care of the threats that had hurt my baby, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t guarded about who was coming into her space.
“Allyson?”
Allyson?
“Eloise, I’ve been so worried about you!”
“Y-you have?” Eloise asked.
“Yes, we all have!”
The look of disbelief on Eloise’s face only confirmed my suspicions that she didn’t know how valuable she was to those around her.
“I think Eloise is a bit shocked that someone cared about her,” I explained, still not knowing who the woman was.
“When you didn’t come back to the shelter, I was so worried. I went to the police and they said you’re a missing person?”
Fuck.
“I am, um, my ex reported me missing…” Eloise struggled to explain.
“Is that why you were in the shelter?” Allyson asked, taking a seat in a chair Rogue pulled up for her. “Because of him?”
Eloise nodded. “Y-yes. I didn’t want him to find me.”
Allyson flung her small body across the bed and hugged Eloise tight. “I knew it must be a bad situation because you were always looking over your shoulder.”
“He b-beat me and I left,” Eloise explained, growing braver. “But I am going to have a good life here in Strickland. I’m not going to run from him anymore.”
I was so fucking proud of her and I also understood why she didn’t want to relive the whole story.
Allyson seemed to feel the same. “I’m so happy for you! I’m glad you’re staying too. I really would have missed you.”
“You would?”
“Of course, silly. We’re friends.”
The look of shock told me Eloise didn’t realize Allyson felt that way. Eloise really did go around spreading her sunshine on everyone without realizing how much we all adored her for it.
“How did you find Eloise?” I asked her, needing to know. Allyson must have gone to a lot of trouble to find her. I hated that I hadn’t even considered communicating with anyone at the shelter.
“I started going to all the places I knew she looked for cans and asking questions. When I got to Shorty’s Gas and More, the cashier said she’d gone with someone in a Daddies Ink shirt, so then I went to Daddies Ink and met Rogue,” she rushed to explain. “Rogue told me how Blade found you and how sick you were and that you were here getting treatment. I was so glad you were alive and I needed to see you. I asked Rogue to bring me to you.”
Eloise blushed and looked down at her fingers. “This is Blade,” she said, stating the obvious due to her nerves.
I waved at the woman. “It’s nice to meet you, Allyson.”
“Blade is very nice to me.” Eloise said, almost as if she was assuring Allyson she was safe.
“I’m so glad, you deserve some good things after all you’ve been through.”
Fuck me, this one was sweet too. These women and their big hearts were going to kill me.
“I got hurt the other day collecting cans and my wound got infected. I was really sick and kinda fainted. Blade called his doctor friend to help me and now I’m much better.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“I’m so sorry I worried you,” Eloise said sincerely.
“I’m just glad you’re okay! I care about you. We all do!”
“Y-you do?”
My heart squeezed painfully in my chest. Once again this sweet Little one had proven she had no idea how much she brightened the lives of those around her. I couldn’t wait to show her how much she meant to all of us.
“I have to go back to work, but I promised Allyson someone would take her home. She has to be back at the shelter by seven,” Rogue explained.
“Even if someone could just take me to the bus stop, I can catch the six-fifteen bus into town,” Allyson said.
“I’ll take you back, sweetie. No worries.”
Eloise squeezed my hand in gratitude.
***
“Thank you for giving me a ride back to the shelter, Mr. Blade,” Allyson said.
I had ulterior motives, but she didn’t need to know that.
“You’re welcome. Thank you for working so hard to check on Eloise. I know she’s thankful to have a friend like you.”
“Eloise is really good to me. She helped me study for my GED.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I think it’s very cool you’re earning your GED.” I wanted to better convey how amazing it was that she was striving for better even in such a shitty situation, but I couldn’t. Emotions clogged my throat. Fuck, I was turning into a ball of mush.
“Thank you. I want to be a nurse.”
“Oh? That’s a great career. What a great goal,” I praised.
She straightened her shoulders at my praise and dammit, I wanted to shower her with more. It wasn’t fair that shitty things happened to such sweet people.
“Did you know Eloise wants to be a nurse too? She graduated high school, though, so she just needs to enroll in college.”
“I didn’t know that, how exciting. Maybe you two could be nurses together.”
My baby wanted to be a nurse? I’d move heaven and earth to make it happen.
“When you get your GED, will you enroll in college right away?” I asked Allyson.
“Yes. I will get a grant to help pay for it since I was in foster care and that will really help out because college won’t be so expensive.”
Fuck, another punch to my gut.
“You were in foster care?”
“Yeah.”
“I was too.”
“Really? Wow. You’re doing really well. You have a job and a nice truck.”
Damn. The things I took for granted.
“I do.”
“That’s good. Did you age out of foster care too?”
“I didn’t. I got out before then.” I didn’t tell her it was because I ran away at seventeen after I beat the fuck out of my foster dad.
“Oh! That’s so great.”
“You aged out?” I asked her.
“Yeah. They don’t really prepare you. You just kinda turn eighteen and you have to hope your counselor is kind enough to help you get the information for resources or that the foster family will be kind enough to let you stay. There’s group homes and independent living programs, but the system is so overcrowded that both of those things are really hard to get into.”
“I’m sorry your counselor didn’t help you more, Allyson.”
“She kinda sucked, but it's okay. It’s going to get better soon.”
Dammit, she was sweet. She could be angry with the system, hell, with the world, but she was holding onto what hope she had left. We all needed to be a little more like Allyson.
“And Ms. Ramsey, the lady who runs the shelter, she’s so nice to us. She’s helping me look for a job.”
“Can you answer a phone?” I asked abruptly.
“Um, yes?”
“We need a receptionist at Daddies Ink.”
“Oh! Really?”
“Yes, can you bring your license and social security card to the shop tomorrow?”
“Yes, sir. I don’t have a phone, though, so maybe I could just come by in a few days after I submit my application to check and see if I got the job?”
“No, I’m giving you the job, sweetheart.”
What the fuck? I didn’t even have permission to do that.
Hell, I’d pay her out of my salary if I needed to.
“Really?”
“Really. You’re trying so hard and sometimes people just need a break.”
“Thank you so much, Mr. Blade. I promise I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t, Allyson. You’re a good girl.”
She smiled ear to ear the rest of the drive back to the shelter and it felt good knowing I could help her in a small way. I was definitely going to talk to Leland about this tomorrow, though. There had to be something we could do for the shelter. Donations, food, something.
Once I dropped Allyson off, I swung by my house to grab some things and then headed back to my Little one—well my unofficial Little one.
I walked into the Boo-Boo Room and knew something was wrong immediately. Eloise’s face was lit up from a tablet screen and I could see the tears rolling down her beautiful face.
“Darlin’, what’s wrong?” I asked, dropping my bag and running to her. Tinsely sat beside her, her face pinched tight in worry.
Eloise flipped the screen over and I was met with the aftermath of our destruction.
Friendship Fellowship Engulfed in Flames, Members Found Dead in a Murder-Suicide.
I scanned the article she'd found. It was dated for a few days before.
“Tinsley, can you go get Eloise some juice, baby? I think she’s feeling a bit shocked.”
“Yas, Mr. Blade,” she said, jumping from the bed and scrambling up the stairs.
“Blade, Billy would have never killed himself. N-none of them would have.”
I sat on the bed beside her and took her hands in mine.
“D-did you do this?”
I stroked her cheek gently. “They will never hurt you again, Eloise.” My heart pounded as I waited for her reaction. Would she hate me? Be scared of me?
“Thank you!” she cried, rising to her knees and throwing her arms around me. “Thank you!”
“I will do anything to keep you safe, Little one.”
“I’m free?” she asked, pulling back.
“You’re free.”
She put her head back in the crook of my neck and sobbed while I patted her back softly. I’d give her as much time as she needed to grieve.
“Blade!” she said suddenly, pulling back.
“What, baby?”
“Y-you didn’t kill Old Man Driggers, did you? He wasn’t evil, just really old and territorial.”
Laughing, I hugged her tight again. “No, baby, but Bash did take his gun away and maybe threaten to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.”
She laughed, loud and carefree and I loved knowing she felt the weight of her past lifting off of her.