Chapter Eleven
Abbott
Our first date had gone so well that when I woke up the next morning, I questioned whether it had been a dream. Since then, things had gotten better. We talked almost every day, and when we didn’t talk, we texted a couple of times.
More than once, a quick hello turned into an hour-long conversation I didn’t realize had gone on so long until I noticed the call length on my phone.
We were getting to know each other bit by bit, and every new thing I learned about him had me liking him more.
From what I could tell, he felt the same about me.
I’d seen my friends a couple of times since the date, and they were encouraging my belief that things were headed in a very daddy direction.
Luke sent a message to the group chat telling us he wanted to meet for ice cream before our night out. He didn’t even pretend there was something subtle about it. He said, “Let’s go visit Daddy Ice Cream.”
There were a thousand reasons why that was probably not the best idea. But could I think of a single one? No. They wanted to meet Soren, and maybe they could give me some advice tailored to us. I wanted to see him anyway, so any excuse should work.
We met at the parking garage nearby and walked the rest of the way together. And as all good friends did, they teased me along the way about my hot ice-cream daddy. None of them would be jerks when we got there, but leading up to our arrival, they were having a good time. Fair enough. I was too.
Brock held the door open for us, and we walked in. Soren caught my gaze and broke into a smile.
“That was for you, wasn’t it?” Luke said.
Looked like they’d mess with me here too.
Couldn’t be helped.
We got in line, which was longer than I thought it would be.
From the looks of the crowd, the local high school had just gotten out, and all of them headed here.
It was great for Soren’s business and gave us time to figure out what we wanted to eat.
But it also meant that we didn’t really get to talk as much as I wanted to.
During the first lull, Soren came over, and I introduced him to everybody, and I called him Soren. Not “the guy I’m dating.” And then I felt guilty about not saying he was the guy I was dating. That was what we were doing, right? Dating? Why did my brain always have to complicate everything?
“You were all there the night I met Abbott.”
“We were, and you’re the one who gave him back his spoon,” Sammy said.
He smiled at that. “I was more than happy to reunite them.”
Soren got called back to the counter, but he never went long without looking over and making sure we were okay, which, of course, Luke noticed and decided to comment on. Often.
Finally, things slowed down enough that he came over with his own bowl of strawberry-cheesecake flavor which we all tasted before he had a bite, and we chatted, the group of us, mostly about ice cream and topics that didn’t matter.
But it wasn’t the conversation that hit hard.
It was the way my friends were able to be themselves with him.
None of them were nervous or had their best customer-service-type demeanor on.
Brock was Brock, and Luke was Luke, and Sammy was Sammy.
Witnessing that Soren could be around my friends and they were that comfortable—it mattered because they mattered.
I’d never be one of those guys who fell in love and forgot his friends.
This outing was a hint that I could have both, and I wouldn’t need to compartmentalize.
All too soon, it was time to leave. Soren had work to do, and we had plans.
Tonight was the night the daddies got together, which meant we were all free to have our own fun.
Usually, we went to each other’s houses.
But tonight, we’d decided to hang out in the little room, play, eat snacks.
We hadn’t gotten much further than that, but we were going to have fun.
What we didn’t realize was that the daddies had a similar idea…
and this time, they had Soren with them.
We barely made it into the club before Brock spotted Zeph sitting next to Will, who was sitting next to Soren.
“We should go say hello, don’t you think?” Brock grabbed my arm.
He’d sworn up and down that under any other circumstances, he’d have gone straight into the little room because daddy nights were for daddies and little nights were for littles.
That this wasn’t about snuggling his daddy.
There was probably some truth in that, but more likely it was because Soren was there, and my little friend group had put on their matchmaker hats.
I wasn’t about to stop them.
The daddies had managed to get one of the sitting areas that had couches with a table in the center that was larger than the average coffee table and was great for coloring or eating.
Luke and I sat in front of the table with the coloring supplies at the ready, and the other two were with their daddies.
“I thought you were having a little night tonight. I figured you’d be at Luke’s,” Will said.
“Well, yeah.” Luke looked up from his picture. “We stopped and let the dog out first, so we should be good for a while.” He grabbed a new crayon and went back to his coloring.
“We thought it would be fun to come here.” Sammy snuggled into him. “And besides, there were only three of you here with this big couch, and we’re hungry.”
He knew how to play his daddy. Next thing I knew, Will waved over a server, and the three daddies ordered pitchers of iced tea, glasses of milk, and many plates of food to share. So much for just stopping by and saying hi.
As we were waiting for the food to come, someone sat beside me. Not someone. Soren. “Can I help you color?”
“Yes, please.” I pushed the coloring page between us. “Do you wanna do the butterflies? They’re really small.” I was pretty picky on my coloring and didn’t want to stress too much about staying in the lines.
“I love butterflies.” He grabbed a few crayons and started coloring, small detail after small detail.
We’d just finished our masterpiece when the food came.
Soren took my appetizer plate, asked me what I’d like, and put everything I mentioned on it.
Then did the same for Luke, the only other one there without their own daddy.
It was different with Luke, though. Soren’s voice was more customer service and less daddy, or possibly that was just how I wanted to see it.
We had a good time. Brock and Sammy always liked to spend time with their daddies.
Luke liked to tease them about it, especially when they started being extra adorable. “The daddies stole our little night,” he whisper-shouted.
“Should we let you get back to it?” Will was dead serious. He didn’t understand Luke the way the rest of us did, that he was 100 percent teasing.
“Heck no. They don’t have good food in there. Let me grab another dinosaur-shaped nuggie.” Luke grabbed two.
We were having fun, lots of fun, but all too soon, Luke needed to get back for Dog, and it didn’t feel right having him leave on his own because I wanted time with Soren.
I left with Luke, and the other two stayed with their daddies.
“I think you like him. I think you like him,” he singsonged when we were out of earshot.
“That’s because I do,” I sang back.
“That’s good.” He gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Because I’m here to tell you he likes you too.”
Please let Luke be right.