Chapter 16
FRIDAY
“Daddy!” Dallas exclaimed when she saw her Daddy standing in the doorway of the Caterpillar Room.
Her wet diaper rubbed against her as she made her way to him.
It wasn’t her favorite sensation, but knowing Daddy would clean her up and make her all better made her heart very happy.
She was proud too because she knew Daddy would be so proud of her.
He knelt when she reached him and lifted her into his arms. “How was your day, Bitty?”
“Good, Daddy. Master Shane came and read a book to us!” She wrapped her legs around his waist. “Teefs really liked it,” she said, turning the zombie baby to look at him.
“Oh! That’s so exciting. Maybe we need to get her a copy to read at home. Do you remember what the book was called?” Pike asked, encouraging her to share with him.
“Yas, huh. It was called Count Candy Corn! It was about a vampire bat.”
“There is a Little Library on the Ranch, maybe we can find a copy to read while we’re here and then Daddy can order a copy when we get back home.”
“Master Pike? Master Pike?” Tommy interrupted from the carpet, almost bouncing in his place.
“Yes, buddy?” Daddy answered.
“Can you tell all the grown-ups about Host a Ghost? I wanna do it too!”
Dallas watched as Daddy looked like a deer in the headlights.
Oh no! Maybe she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about Niki Rope and Danica.
Her letter didn’t say that, though, and she’d been so excited to show her friends the pretty skeleton bracelet her ghosties had left for her after drinking all of the pickle juice and eating all of the pickles and candy she’d left for them.
They’d kinda toilet papered Daddy’s bathroom too.
Daddy didn’t seem to think that it had been as funny as Dallas did.
“I will be glad to tell any grown-up you want me to, okay? Just send them my way.”
His words took a knot out of Dallas’ tummy. She was glad she hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Yes, Sir!” Tommy said.
“I’m gonna tell my Daddy and my Papa!” Eloise chirped from beside him.
“Daddy!” Hadley’s communication tablet voiced. Dallas was glad that technology made it easier for Hadley to talk.
“Was she a good girl today?” Daddy asked Nanny J once the Littles had settled down.
“She was,” Nanny J assured him while giving him Dallas’ diaper bag.
“May I has my candy corn craft, please?” Dallas asked Nanny J.
“Oh! You sure can. I almost forgot.” Nanny J walked over to the drying rack and grabbed her tissue paper candy corn craft.
“Thank you, Nanny J.”
“You’re welcome, sweet girl. See you tomorrow,” Nanny J said, stroking her cheek.
“Bye, Dallas,” a gaggle of Little girls and boys said as she left.
“Bye, friends,” she answered, waving over Pike’s shoulders.
“Did you has a good day, Daddy?”
“I did. I went to two classes and learned some new things,” he said, patting her soggy bottom.
“I’m so proud of you, Daddy! You’re so smarts!”
He chuckled, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Thank you, Bitty.”
“What did you learn?” Dallas asked him.
He waited until he had her in the privacy of the elevator before answering, “I took a class on breath play and on knife play. Daddy learned some new ways to dominate you that I think you will enjoy.”
“Oh,” she answered, her kitty throbbing in her diaper. “Those are very good things to learn.”
“Daddy thought so too,” he said, winking at her.
He balanced her on his hip as he carried her into their room.
Letting the door shut behind him, he carried her to the changing table in her nursery and laid her down on the top.
Reaching into the baskets below the table he pulled out a candy corn diaper.
“Do you think we should stick to the candy-corn theme today?”
She giggled. “Yas, huh, Daddy.”
Pike kissed her forehead. “Daddy’s so thankful your ouchie head and ouchie eye look much better than he’d expected today.”
“It doesn’t hurts anymore, Daddy and I was a good girl.
I played safely so I didn’t hurts it again,” she told him.
When he’d dropped her off, he’d asked Nanny J and Miss Phoebe to help her remember to play gently since she was still recovering.
They’d promised him they would and they had.
Dallas had only forgotten to play gently once and they’d both reminded her at the same time. It had made everyone giggle.
“I’m so proud of you, Bitty. Thank you for listening and making good choices.”
Before Dallas could answer, her tummy growled so super loud. She slapped her hands down over it.
“Is your tummy hungry, baby?” he asked, wiping her clean. “It sounds like there might be a monster inside of it.”
“Yas, huh, Daddy. So hungry I might haveta eat Teefs,” she said, her eyes comically wide.
“Oh yucky! What do you think a zombie stuffy would taste like?” he teased.
He taped up the clean diaper before working the ghost leggings back over her hips.
She was wearing a new outfit that he’d purchased, but he felt like this one might be his favorite one that he’d ordered.
The top was an oversized sweatshirt with a ghost on the front.
The ghost was holding a phone and a puppy and the script below it read “Hey, Boo!”.
The leggings were black and had ghosts printed on them.
She wore soft boots with the outfit and a black and white ghostie hairbow clipped her bangs back from her face.
The whole outfit was adorable and because it was oversized, it made her look even more like a Little girl.
“I fink Teefs tastes like,” she said, pausing. She pretended to take a bite of the stuffy. “Her tastes like calliflower.”
“Yucky!” Pike said, turning his nose up and sending his Little girl into a fit of giggles. That was the only vegetable he hated with a passion. He picked her up and set her back on his hip. “For lunch today, we're going to try the Italian restaurant.”
“Oh! Eloise said it has smiley-face pizza!”
“Well, smiley-face pizza sounds much better than cauliflower.”
“Yas, huh,” she agreed.
He carried her back toward the elevators so they could go to lunch.
He knew it would be much faster to change her at one of the changing stations closer to the restaurants rather than bring her back upstairs every day, but though they had used the bathroom in the arcade area before, he thought Dallas was more comfortable being changed in her own nursery—and that was totally okay with him.
They weren’t in a rush, she could take all the time she needed.
Once they walked through the doors of the restaurant, the most delicious smells filled their noses. “Mmmm, that smells good, Daddy.”
He patted her bottom. “It does, Bitty.”
“Hello, my name is Miriam. A table for two?” a young woman asked.
“Yes, please, Miriam,” Daddy answered.
“You can follow me this way.”
Daddy followed her to a table near the back of the restaurant.
“Oh, pretty!” Dallas declared.
“It is a beautiful view, isn’t it, Bitty?” Daddy said, sitting her so she could still see out the window. From the large window, you could see part of the college dorms, some of the pool, but all of the beautiful mountain peaks. It was gorgeous.
“Our guests enjoy the view almost as much as our food,” Miriam said, a kind smile stretched across her face. “Your waiter will be Billy. He will be with you shortly.”
Dallas’ tummy fell about the same time Daddy’s face did.
“Do you want to leave, Bitty? I know you haven’t had a chance to talk to Billy yet.”
Dallas nibbled her lip. She wasn’t angry at Billy.
He’d made her a really nice card and Daddy had passed on his apology like he’d said he would.
She just didn’t want to think about what happened.
It had been so scary and embarrassing. Everyone had been looking at her while she waited on someone from the infirmary.
Then they’d placed her on a cot and rolled her through the building.
“We can go if you want to, baby. It’s okay if you need a little more time.”
But even as embarrassed and scared as she felt remembering what happened, she knew Billy must feel even worse.
“No, Daddy. It’s okay. Maybe it will make us both feel better.” She rubbed Teefs’ leg against her nose for comfort.
Daddy stood and lifted her from her chair. He sat back down and settled her into his lap. “You’re such a sweet girl, Bitty. The world is a better place because you’re in it.” He pressed a kiss to the side of her head.
She brought her fingers up to her mouth to suck them, surprising herself. Oral stimulation was something new for her. Dropping her hand, she leaned back against Daddy before lifting her gaze to study him. His knowing look told her he’d seen her actions too.
“Hello, I-I’m going to be your waiter today,” Billy said as he approached the table. He was a bit pale and his notebook shook in his hands. “I also w-wanted to tell you h-how sorry I am that y-you got hurt b-because of my bad c-choices.”
Dallas felt so bad for him. She slid from Daddy’s lap. “Can I give you a hug?” she asked.
Billy’s eyebrows rose in surprise before he nodded. Dallas felt bad for him because she was pretty sure he thought she was going to yell at him, but she wasn’t. She walked toward him and opened her arms.
“It was just an accident. I’m not even really hurt, and I don’t want you to feel bad about it anymore, okay?”
Billy sobbed into her shoulder. “I-I’m r-really sorry!”
“I know and it’s okay. I forgive you.”
Much later Dallas sat munching on the last of her dairy-free, smiley-face pizza. Her belly was full and so was her heart. Rawhide Ranch really was the most magical place in the world.