Chapter Seven
Paxton
We’d had such a lovely day. Spending time with Nico filled a gaping hole inside me that nothing else could. If he wasn’t a little, if he merely did collect things, childhood memories and the bunny had perhaps been a gift, could I live with it?
As a daddy, taking care of littles made me happy, fulfilled…
but I could not say I’d ever felt the way many of the other daddies who had their own littles described.
Listening to them talk in the conversation area of the club, I hadn’t been able to avoid putting myself in their place.
Having someone for both big and little time.
Out to dinner at a fine steak house or home serving chickie nuggies and sippy cups of milk to an adorable little wearing tiny shorts and a onesie.
Someone to make love to when you were being big together or explore all the aspects of the daddy/little relationship at other times. The best of all possible worlds.
Sure, some people separated those relationships, and they seemed fine with it, but my fantasy was never one person in my bed and one in the playroom. Two such intimate relationships…no, I desired them with the same man. And not just any man.
The one who had I hadn’t seen in a while.
The place was hardly vast. The bedroom and bathroom doors were open, and I had a full view of the rest of it.
Had he gone to the office? Nico’s home was nestled off by itself, and the path between the two buildings had been rapidly disappearing when we came here the night before.
Surely he hadn’t attempted to make his way there in the storm. Not without saying something?
The thought alarmed me, and I hurried to the window to look out. Conditions were terrible but not quite white-out, and enabled me to see the dark of Nico’s coat against the snowy backdrop. But what was he doing? Pressing my nose to the cold glass, I fogged it up too quickly to see much of anything.
Unable to imagine why he’d gone out at all, much less without saying something, I had to remind myself that I was not his daddy.
Not yet, and if I didn’t say something, maybe never.
But daddy or not, Nico was outside in a fierce storm and since I hadn’t seen him for a while, he might be on the verge of hypothermia by now.
This would not do.
Striding over by the door, I dressed in my outerwear and spotted a pair of lined gloves. Nico’s. Did he have another pair, or had he gone outside without? In any case, I pulled them on. If he wore none, I’d have warmed them for him.
The door fought me when I pulled on it, the wind trying to wrench it from my hands.
Outside on the porch, I caught my breath, searching for the spot I’d seen him before.
Focusing on him, I saw what he was doing.
Shoveling snow. Not making a path between the office and his cabin, rather between the cabin and an outbuilding of some sort.
And a wheelbarrow piled with wood stood behind him.
He’d obviously come out here to fetch some wood, and the snow piled up while he was there.
My clothes, especially my boots were not perfectly suitable for the depth of snow between me and him.
Not that that would stop me. I trudged along what I thought might be the path toward him, calling out as I went.
At first, I thought he didn’t hear me, but when I got close, he was squinting, peering through the snowfall in my direction. His lips were moving as well. Then I got near enough to hear him saying, “Go inside. I’ll be right there.”
“Like I would leave you here?” A bit of moonlight filtered through the clouds somehow, lending an otherworldly glow around us.
It was beautiful and just a little bit unnerving.
“You shovel and I’ll maneuver that two-ton wheelbarrow to the porch.
” I assumed what I believed to be the more difficult task, although I had no experience in this type of work.
A city boy through and through, the luxury camping the company did was enough roughing it for me normally.
So why was I so charmed by this whole experience?
Nico, of course. Anywhere he was, I wanted to be. If he felt the same, it could mean some big changes in my life.
“No…okay.” His reply came slowly, gloved hands perched on his hips. I was glad he hadn’t gone out without them. “But only because I need the help.”
I chuckled, already feeling the cold seep through my clothes. Keeping moving would keep me warm—at least for a bit. “I’m glad you’re admitting it instead of trying to do everything yourself.”
“I’m often guilty of that.” He dug the shovel into the snow and tossed the white stuff aside. “You may remember.”
“Yes.” I recalled wanting to get him to slow down once upon a time. But he’d been a force and I had no luck. “No more of that, Nico. As long as I’m here with you, I insist you let me take some of the burdens from your shoulders.”
“This snow is heavy!” Not an answer, but we’d see how it went. At least he was allowing me to help for now.
Shovelful by shovelful, he cleared the path and I followed with the load, wondering how he’d managed to get as far as he had. I would have to keep an eye on him and make sure he took care of himself. Maybe he’d even let me take care of him a bit, too.
With my eye on the prize, we managed to work our way to the bottom of the porch steps and unloaded the wheelbarrow. Nico stood on the top and I passed the split logs to him to stack by the door.
“Do we need to go back for more?” I studied the pathway even now filling in behind us. “I don’t want to run short.”
“No. I loaded it so high to avoid a second trip. We already have a good supply inside by the hearth, so at least for a few days, we should be golden.”
“Then we go in?”
“We should, but it’s so gorgeous out here.” While we were stacking, the snow had let up a little, and even more moonlight glittered on the falling flakes. I agreed, it was smart to go indoors, but watching Nico’s eyes dance, I couldn’t resist agreeing.
“What shall we do?”
“Absolutely, snow angels.”
A beautiful idea, and we started out that way, but one thing led to another, a handful of snow tossed playfully became snowballs became laughter. Completely magical. I’d never forget this either. No matter what happened.
The thought sobered me, and I herded Nico inside to get warm, not even recognizing how cold I was until the door closed behind us.