Chapter 11
11
“Daddy, hurry!” He was snapping my dungarees. It was so hard to stand still.
“Little Bee, with you dancing it takes twice as long. Now, hold still.”
“Sorry, Daddy.”
“No need to apologize. Why is it I’m repeating those words to you so often?”
“Some bad habits are bad to break.”
“More like some bad people from your past need to be broken.”
“Hee-hee, you love me, Daddy.”
“More than life itself, Sweet Bee.”
I leaned down and kissed Daddy.
“There, now we’re ready to roll. Oh wait.” Daddy ran into the bathroom and came back out with a tube of something. “Sunscreen. It may not be one hundred outside, but the sun is still brutal and I won’t risk your delicate skin.”
“Thoughtful Daddy.”
“Always, my love. There, let’s go.”
I skipped ahead of daddy and straight outside. There was a strange man working where my playground was to go.
“Little Bee, that’s Chuck, our contractor. He made all this possible for you.” Chuck smiled and waved but kept on task.
“Thanks, Chuck!” I called out as Daddy and I crossed the yard to our project. I was super excited.
“I’ll handle the heavy bags of soil but look at what Chuck did for us.” He pointed at the hosey thingies in the bottom of the boxes. “This is an automatic watering system. We’ll only have to water the pots we bought last night by hand.”
“I can help, Daddy.”
“And that go get ‘em attitude is why I bought you these.” He handed me a cute little garden tool set, a watering thingy and matching garden gloves.
“Thank you, Daddy. These are so cute.” They had all my favorite things on them. Sunflowers and lots of ladybugs.
“Okay, Little Bee, put on your gloves and let’s get to work.”
Daddy opened all the big bags of dirt and filled up our new planter boxes, I followed behind and put our plants inside.
“Diggy, diggy, dig.” I scooped out the dirt with my little scooper and set it aside to pack the plants nice and tightly in.
“So pretty, you’re gonna bring lots of bees and ladybugs. I was so in the zone I had all the fruits done in no time.
“Just as neatly lined up as you keep your toys and organized by what they are. Utterly perfect, my love.” Daddy kissed my head. “I’ll start on the sunflower seeds while you finish our veggies.”
“On it, Daddy.” I glanced over at the playground and noticed Chuck was almost done. “I can’t wait to play.”
“I can’t wait to watch you play, Little Bee.”
That gave me more peppy in my steppy as I got to work planting our veggies. “Don’t forget Daddy, you promised no yucky stuff with these.”
“And Daddy always keeps the promises he makes to his bee.”
With Daddy and me working together on everything we were done pretty quickly. Well, it felt quicker than it was. Chuck finished up at the same time.
“All right, gents.” Chuck’s voice surprised me as I put the last Gerber daisy in its new home. “Why don’t you give it a spin, little man, and see how it fits.”
“Yay!” I glanced at Daddy, making sure it was okay.
“Go on, Little Bee. What are you waiting for?” At Daddy’s words I was off.
I swung on the jungle gym part, climbed the rock wall, slid down the slide, but when it came time to try out the swing set part, Daddy had to help me.
“This is the best. Thank you, Chuck and thank you, Daddy!”
“You are welcome. Jayger, I’ll show myself out. Holler if you need anything else.”
Daddy shook Chuck’s hand. “Will do. I have another project in mind, but we’ll talk later.”
“You got it. Bye Trevor, enjoy your new toys from Daddy.”
“Bye Chuck, thank you a million, bazillion times.” I ran around the playground and tested everything until I was ready to pass out.
“Time’s up, Little Bee. Are you happy with our backyard?”
“Oh my gosh, yes, Daddy. It’s the best!” I flung my arms around him. “I love it, and I love you so much.”
“And I you. Now, let’s hit the shower, eat a quick lunch, and get a nap in before you and Brandon get silly together tonight.”
“I almost forgot about that. What’s for lunch?” My tummy was grumbly and empty.
“Daddy ordered pizza.”
“Mmm I love pizza. But when did you get it?” I didn’t remember seeing Daddy leave.
“My love, you were so into your little song as you plant, plant, planted away.” Daddy winked at me. “I was able to meet the delivery person at the door without you so much as noticing I was gone.”
Huh, guess we found another way to keep my overactive brain occupied.
Our tummies were filled with wonderful pepperoni and gooey cheese. By the time we finished showering, I was already yawning. Tucked up under Daddy’s arm and with my favorite binky in the form of Daddy’s nipple in my mouth, it didn’t take much for my eye lids to grow heavy and my brain to completely shut down.
“Time to wake up, sleepy bee.”
“Five more minutes, Daddy.”
“We’ll be late to Daddy Adam and Brandon’s house. I hear he has a really cool playroom.”
Playroom? That got me up.
“Thought that might work. Let’s get dressed then while Daddy gets the dessert we’re bringing together you can pack up your bumble bee backpack.”
I was so excited when Daddy gave it to me. He finds the bestest gifts, but I was running out of room for all these goodies on the toy shelves in the living room.
Daddy got me dressed in my Daddy’s Little Bee T-shirt and shorts while I packed Bumble and his friend Humble. Daddy laughed so hard when I shared the name with him. They rhymed and a bumble bee was a humble bee, so it just made sense to me.
“Oh, I almost forgot Brandon’s gift.” I snagged it off the entry table right where Daddy left it and snugged it into my bag. “All ready, Daddy.”
“Right on time, Sweet Bee. Let’s go.”
“You’re here!” Brandon screamed as he ran outside right when we pulled up.
“Little boy, what did Daddy tell you?”
“Not to run. Sorry, Daddy.” Brandon’s face didn’t match the apology at all. Maybe he liked getting into trouble, but I sure didn’t.
“Adam, good to see you.” Daddy and Adam shook hands while Brandon squeezed me super tight.
“Come on, boys,” Daddy Adam said. “Let’s head inside.”
“I’ve been so excited for you to get here today. It took too long for you to get here, and waiting was sooo hard. Come see my room.” As soon as we walked inside, Brandon took my hand and practically dragged me down the hallway.
“Little boy, remember your manners.” Daddy Adam’s voice echoed behind us.
“Sorry, Daddy.” Another fake apology but I was equally as excited to play with my friend.
“Oh, I brought you something.”
He squealed and nearly put his head in my backpack. “I can’t get it out with your head in the way. You’re so silly, Brandon.”
“I love prezzies.”
“Me, too. Here you go.” I handed him the giftbag. “I hope you like it.” I didn’t remember ever giving a friend a gift. Did I even have any friends when I was younger? Or really, at all?
Brandon was honestly my first friend ever.
“Oh. My. God.” Brandon squealed so loud I jumped. “Sorry. But I love it. The Little Bumble Bee brought me a bumble bee stuffy of my own. Daddy!” He took off running down the hall with me following him. “Look what Trevor got me.”
“That was very nice of Trevor. Did you tell him thank you?” Daddy Adam reminded him. Brandon blinked a couple of times.
“Shoot, I don’t remember. I was so excited he gave me a bee stuffie. I’m sorry, Trevor. Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.”
Off to the room we went, both stealing a quick kiss from our daddies while they returned to daddy talk.
“I love your room. I take it you like ducks.” I’d never seen so many in my life. I’d also never given them much thought outside of tubby time but seeing this many with different themes was kind of cool.
“I doooo. Duckies are so much fun. Look at this huge one Daddy found.” He tried to move it but on the carpet it was hard. “You can ride it.” Brandon sat on it and rocked it like the metal riding toys on the giant springs at the park.
“It’s ginormous!”
He had a duckie rug, duckie pictures all over the wall. It was duckie overload. Who knew there were so many.
“I know, wanna play with my duckie fishing game?”
“Sure, sounds fun to me.” I was up for anything and honestly, just happy to be here.
“First we roll the dice and whoever has the highest number goes first.” Brandon rolled a three and I rolled a five. “That’s you. What you have to do is take the little fishing pole with the magnet and touch it to the magnet on the duck without tipping the duck over or you lose your turn.”
“Got it.”
Slowly, carefully, I lowered the stick just above the blue duck and it was like the magnet jumped up and latched on.
“I got one! I got one!”
Brandon clapped and cheered. “My turn.”