Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
S uzi stared out into the lanai from the living room, Kiki hugged tight to her chest. “No, Kiki,” she warned her friend. “You heard what Daddy said. We can’t go in the lanai until he gets back.”
Sigh. Not being able to sit in the best room in the house was cruel and unusual punishment all by itself.
“What’s that?” she asked, leaning her head closer to Kiki’s cute little bunny mouth. “Yes, I know it’s so dark we might as well be standing in a cave. But it’s still a no for me. You’re lucky. You don’t have a bottom hole, but I do. This thing in my bum is plenty big enough, thank you very much.”
She turned back in to face the living room. It needed some feminine touches. It really did feel kind of like the man cave it was. With navy blue walls and dark brown leather furniture, Deke’s house wasn’t exactly a bachelor pad. But it was masculine, and the only art hanging on the wall were the rotating pictures on the movie screen television.
He did have a killer gaming system, though. Not that she’d ever learned to play. But she loved to watch him. He got so excited it was like the characters in the game were real people. He yelled at them and everything.
She couldn’t keep herself from turning back to the lanai. It was the perfect room. It called to her, tempting her to enter. Step into the light . She could hear it.
She hugged Kiki again and rubbed one of her soft ears along her cheek. “You’re right, Kiki. Daddy wouldn’t know if we sat out there for just a minute or two.”
What could it hurt? Then her bottom twinged around the butt plug he’d planted there, and she remembered what.
With a sigh, she retreated again, this time walking through the living room to the dining room. She loved the huge wooden table. Last weekend, all the Sabre guys and their Littles came over for game night. Everyone had fit around the table because she and her friends got to sit in their Daddies’ laps.
After dinner, the guys played poker while the girls went to the breakfast table and played Unstable Unicorns for Kids until Rory got upset and flipped the game board onto the floor. Then they’d colored and watched Bluey in the living room.
The dining room was her second favorite room downstairs. It faced the street, and the large windows lit the room with more daylight than the living room. For her, light equaled happiness.
She pulled a chair out for Kiki first, making sure to strap her in with the safety strap Deke had gotten for her. Suzi sat in the chair farthest from the window, she spread out her colored pencils and gel pen. It wasn’t as good as the lanai, but she guessed she could suffer through.
Who can’t follow the rules? She ruled rules like a boss.
Movement on the street in front of the house caught her attention. “Look, Kiki. It’s the Magnolia’s Garden delivery truck. I wonder what it’s doing here. What? No, I don’t know if Maggie is driving or not. I can’t see. But someone must be getting flowers. Maybe it’s Breezy. I hope so. Then we can see them when they’re delivered to her door.”
Suzi’s jaw dropped when, rather than pulling into Gage and Breezy’s drive, the delivery van pulled into Deke’s. A thrill zapped her spine, causing her heart to race. What was she supposed to do? Oh yeah, make sure she wasn’t seen and did not answer the door.
But what if Maggie was delivering something in person? She knew Maggie. It would be great to talk to her. Suzi had been alone for days… okay, two hours, but it felt like days. She needed connection. She needed conversation. And there was only one way to get it.
She edged around the dining room, Kiki in tow, sliding along the wall like a cat burglar casing a jewelry store. It would be all right for her to look out the window if she peaked from the side. Probably. Daddy just didn’t want her standing directly in front of the window. No one would see her if she did it right. No harm, no foul. No spankings.
By the time she made it to the window, whoever had been driving was hidden behind the van. When the delivery person slammed the back door, Suzi sighed. There was no way that was Maggie. Not unless she’d gained six inches in height and grown a scraggly goatee.
Wait. She was jumping the gun. The delivery person probably only wanted directions. But that wouldn’t explain the flowers being carried toward the front door.
And not just any flowers. The most gorgeous flowers she’d ever seen. The bouquet of long-stemmed flowers was massive. It had pastel pink and purple hydrangeas, peonies, and dahlias with splashes of brighter color from several poppies artfully scattered through the arrangement. And then there were the roses. No, not roses, rosebuds. Dozens of them. Deke had sent her flowers to cheer her up. He was the bestest Daddy ever!
But why would Deke tell her she couldn’t answer the door and then send flowers?
Her heart sank. Those flowers weren’t for her. They were probably for Deke. Not that he’d ever struck her as the flower type. Who would be sending Deke flowers? Suzi reached for Kiki and pulled her friend out of her straps and into her lap. “I didn’t send Daddy flowers, Kiki. Did you?”
Kiki didn’t really talk audibly, but Suzi could still hear her. She already knew the answer. Kiki didn’t send flowers. She ate them.
Suzi’s heart hurt. When she’d read about heartache, she hadn’t realized it was a real physical pain. Why would Deke be close enough to some other girl to get flowers? He hadn’t talked to her about being exclusive, but she’d thought that was the direction they were headed.
She should have known better. She was great for the short term, but no one ever wanted to stay with her forever. Guess she wasn’t the forever kind of girl either. But at least she’d found out early. Only not early enough to keep her heart from hurting.
When she hopped down from the bar height chair she’d been using, the weight of the plug in her bottom made her clench. Deke had said it was a reminder, and as reminders went it worked well.
For the love of daisies and disappointment. Why had she gotten her hopes up? No one had ever sent her flowers before, but she’d never had a Daddy like Deke. Never. Sure, bouquets had been for other girls, not her. That had been true until now. Now, finally, someone was coming to the door with flowers just for her. She raced to the door but skidded to a halt when a thought occurred to her.
“Kiki, do you think maybe it’s a trap?” She looked down and was almost certain Kiki nodded.
Yes, it was a trap. Only this was a trap laid by a sneaky Daddy. Did he think he could trick her into opening the door to a stranger so easily? Never! Did he not know she was this close to getting her Ace Reporter Badge?
She jumped when the deliveryman pounded on the door. And she was standing right there in the foyer. Could he see her through the door’s frosted glass accents? Turning around, she tiptoed back to the living room and tucked into the corner between the wall and the door frame. The pounding echoed through the room like a bass drum.
Peaking around in time to catch the man setting the flowers down in front of the door, Suzi made herself count to one hundred in her head to sneak back up to the door.
And if she cheated and counted by tens, who could blame her? There were flowers at stake. Her first ever flowers. They might wilt if she didn’t get them off the front porch. She had to save them– she had to!
After the delivery truck backed out of the drive, she cracked the door open just wide enough to pull the arrangement inside. Slamming and relocking the door as soon as the task was accomplished, she didn’t even try to contain a girlie squeal of glee. Flowers held straight out before her so the water in the vase wouldn’t spill on Kiki, she raced to the kitchen and placed the bouquet on the bar.
After only a few dozen twists and turns of the vase, she had them just how she wanted them, turned so the most rosebuds showed.
“How long does it take for rosebuds to bloom into roses?” she asked Kiki. Kiki wasn’t sure, but now Suzi had the chance to find out.
Climbing up on one of the burgundy leather barstool chairs, she sniffed each type of flower in turn, starting with the billowy hydrangeas. They had a fruity, sweet aroma. After breathing the scent in deeply, she barely stifled a yawn.
Goodness, the excitement of getting flowers must have taken a lot out of her. She was sleepy. She might need a nap before Deke came home. But first, she wanted to smell all the other flowers in her beautiful bouquet.
The peonies were more citrusy and spicier, reminding her of Asian perfume. She breathed in again to see if she could name the specific one, but she couldn’t think very well. She had to blink to keep her eyes open.
Wow, she might not be able to put that nap off after all.
Still, she couldn’t leave without smelling the roses. Those were the most important of all. With a long sniff, she decided the roses smelled like, well, roses. They were a tad sweet and musky. This time, when she pulled in a deep breath, a wave of dizziness hit her. She had to hold onto the counter to keep from slipping off her chair.
But she hadn’t been raised to be a quitter, and she’d never smelled dahlias before. Turned out the dahlias didn’t have much of a scent at all. But after trying to make sure for a breath or two, another wave of sleepiness crashed over her, almost smothering her.
Definitely time for a nap. She’d have to smell the bright red poppies later.
Wow, she was going to be lucky to make it to the couch, much less upstairs to her bed. It was hard to even keep her balance. She stumbled from one piece of furniture to the next, holding onto whatever she could reach to make it to the sofa without falling.
Somewhere in the distance, someone banged on the door of the lanai. Geez, were they trying to break it down? She should tell them to stop, but she didn’t have the strength. Her vision was so blurry from fatigue she would have to do that as soon as she woke up.
The roar of pipes thrummed up the street, and she knew her Daddy was home. That was good. Hopefully, he’ll be here soon. Then he could stop whoever was banging on the door.
She’d just lie here on the couch and wait. She was giving him the biggest thank you kiss ever for her… for her something. What was wrong with her head?
The garage door slammed open. “Suzi!” Deke roared across the kitchen. He sounded upset. She’d have to share her… her…
There was more shouting and banging on doors and thuds. Suzi tried to make sense of it as the world went black.