Their Little House Colter (Five Little Roommates #1)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Colter

It was date night for Daddy and me. Dallas had to work, which made it a perfect opportunity for the two of us to have some alone time. Things had been going great between the three of us, but we made a conscious effort to spend quality time together in pairs as well. And tonight, it was my turn with Ari.

Despite me asking a million times, Daddy didn’t tell me where we were going but said that jeans were fine. Both he and Dallas liked me in a particular pair of jeans, so those were the ones I wore. If they enjoyed the way they hugged my ass, who was I to deny them?

“You look amazing.” He eyed me up and down.

“Where are you two off to?” Monroe walked past us.

“He won’t tell me.” I made a face, and Monroe laughed.

“Some daddies are like that. Have fun.” And off Monroe went.

“Is it you? Are you one of the ‘some daddies’?”

“It looks that way.”

He didn’t cave, even when we were in the car and driving toward our destination. I both loved and hated it.

“Why the mystery?” I placed my hand on his thigh, wanting to touch him even as he was driving.

“You’ll see. It’s a surprise.” The man was never going to tell me. He was as stubborn as ever.

“Okay.” I leaned back and closed my eyes. If Daddy thought it should be a surprise, I wanted it to be a full-on one. “I’ll play along. I’m sure it will be wonderful.”

We went back and forth, talking about our jobs. I told him about how my lunch fell on the floor, and I ended up with a cup of instant noodles instead. He shared about the elevator getting stuck and having to help get someone out and how his big case was looking promising—just typical end-of-the-day conversations. Only today, we actually had interesting things to talk about.

On our first solo date, we’d spent time talking about the first little who owned his heart and how the big C stole him away. I sobbed seeing Daddy’s pain. No one should ever have to go through what he did and, as much as I loved Ari, if I could reverse time and cure Marty’s cancer, I would in a heartbeat.

That date had tuned heavy really quickly. It was an important conversation, and I was glad we had it, but I was equally glad that tonight was going to be lighter. I wasn’t sure what Daddy had in store, but he was excited about it, which meant it was going to be amazing.

Then the car pulled to a stop, and I kept my eyes closed.

“We’re here.” He unclicked my seat belt. “You can open your eyes now.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to ruin things.”

“You won’t ruin them, sweet boy.” He kissed my cheek and then cracked the door open as I did the same with my eyes.

“We’re at the zoo! I didn’t even know they were open this late.” I loved the zoo. I understood all the reasons why other people didn’t, but for me…they were magical.

“They usually aren’t. It’s one of their charity fundraising events.” He walked around to let me out and took my hand in his.

“Wait. If it’s a fundraiser…should we have dressed up for this?” I didn’t know much about such events, but I was pretty sure they were expensive and required a tie.

“Nope. We’re the perfect amount of dressed up. They do have one every year that’s very formal, but this evening is very casual.”

At the gate, Daddy pulled invitations from his back pocket and handed them to the attendant.

“Very well. Enjoy your evening.”

“We will.” I already was.

The fundraising part of the event was the dinner, which was fine. It was a buffet of decent-enough chicken and roast beef with potatoes, rice, green beans, and corn. Typical buffet kind of stuff. I wouldn’t pay for it at a restaurant, but for what it was, it worked.

But that wasn’t the exciting part of the night. Going around and seeing the animals at night—that was the real experience. I’d never done anything like that before.

“It’s so alive!” I pulled Daddy toward the next enclosure: capybaras. “I’ve never seen them moving before. They’re always sleeping!”

“They’re nocturnal. That’s what makes this event so nice—the animals that are usually sleeping being all fun and exciting.”

We watched as animals in different enclosures walked around, played, or swam—creatures that were usually pretty sedentary during the day. Of course, some of the ones that were usually active were sound asleep, or at least trying to sleep through all the commotion. But it was fun and exciting seeing them all.

“What a great idea.” I leaned in to Daddy as we watched a leopard about ready to pounce on… I didn’t know what. In captivity, most of the animals were fed food that was already dead, but that didn’t seem to stop them.

Once we had seen all of them, Daddy asked, “Do you want to go for the beer tasting or head home?”

“I don’t like beer. Let’s go home.”

“Okay, sweet boy. Let’s go home.” He paused. “Mine or yours?”

I bit my lip. “I don’t know. I wish you could stay at our place.” There were rules against that. “But also, I don’t want to just not be home when Dallas gets off work.”

“So, are you’re saying you’re not ready for this night to be over?”

“I never want our dates to be over.” And that was the truth of it.

“You know…there is a third option.”

“What’s that?” I couldn’t think of any, but I was also getting tired, and my brain wasn’t taking in as much as normal.

“We could have Dallas come to my place.”

“That. That’s the option I choose.”

I sent him a quick text, knowing he’d check it when he was on break, and was excited when, by the time we reached Ari’s, we had a reply. I scanned the text. “Dallas says he’ll be here soon, and to start without him.”

“What do you think?”

“I think we could find some activities to keep us occupied until he arrives.” I liked the idea of having Daddy all to myself for a little while but was even more excited to have both of my men in the same bed.

He shut the door behind us and pushed me up against it, pressing his body into mine and taking my lips in a deep, passionate kiss.

“Yeah,” I whispered. “I think we could find something to do, for sure.”