Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
The dining room of the Mexican restaurant was a happy, noisy place, with Littles dressed in adorable outfits, giggling and chatting as they ate, stuffies on their laps or in their own chairs at the tables, and Bigs of all kinds sitting with the Littles.
Reese kinda knew what Littles and Bigs meant. She’d read some romance books with ageplay, and it was easy to see who was who here. She could hardly believe she was here, in a place like the Ranch that existed in real life. She had to keep reminding herself not to stare at everyone as Arlo guided her to a table, and as he held her chair for her, she had to wonder if Arlo was into all of this stuff? And why in the world did a part of her desperately hope so? She had a feeling he must be if he worked at the Ranch.
“They have a really good menu here. The tacos and enchiladas are very good, but I’ve gotta say, the mac and cheese is some of the best I’ve ever had,” he said, scanning one side of the menu, then turning it over. “The chicken tenders are good, too, and so are the burgers.”
Reese looked at her own menu, all-too aware of her cheeks burning as she thought about whether or not Arlo had ever been someone’s Daddy. The thought made her uncomfortable, like she didn’t want to think of him Daddying anyone else.
“Um, I guess I’ll try the mac and cheese.”
A waiter appeared and greeted Reese. “Hi there. I’m Billy, and I’ll be your server today.” Turning slightly, he added, “Hi, Uncle Arlo,” with a shy smile.
“Billy, good to see you. This is Reese. She’ll be staying with us awhile.”
“Welcome, Reese,” Billy said, his sweet face all smiles. “Now, what’ll you have?”
Just as she was about to tell him, Arlo spoke up. “The lady will have the mac and cheese, plus a small bowl of fruit.”
“But I…” Reese began, but she stopped when Arlo held a hand up.
“Do you have any food allergies we should know about?” he asked.
“No, no allergies.”
“Good. The fruit bowl it is, then. What kind of juice do you like, Reese?” he asked.
“Uh, I like apple or orange juice,” she answered, feeling a bit shy and flustered at the way he was taking charge.
Arlo turned to Billy. “Some apple juice for her, and I’ll have a big glass of lemonade and the cheeseburger, cooked medium, and let’s skip the fries today.”
Billy thanked them and walked off, and Reese couldn’t help but stare at Arlo, waiting for some sort of explanation.
Arlo’s brows arched. “You have a question for me, Reese? Is this about the fruit?”
“No, I like fruit. I just… well, I’m just not used to anyone doing everything for me.”
“Do you have any objection?” he asked. “If you do, then I’ll back off, of course. But I like to take care of people. And not to offend you, sweetheart, but you seem like you need some caretaking.”
Her cheeks burned, but she knew he was right. “I’ve had to take care of myself for a very long time,” she said quietly, emotion making her chest pull tight. “I’m not sure I know how to let anyone truly help me. It’s been a really long time.”
“Since you grew up in foster care, I can understand how that makes sense. Do you want to tell me more?”
“Oh…” It wasn’t something she normally talked about with anyone except for Wren, but she felt she could trust him. “Well… when I was little, my mom left me with my dad and kinda never came back. And my dad had some problems, but I remember loving him, and that he loved me. It’s all kinda fuzzy now, but I really do remember that he loved me. Except when I was five, he gave me up.” She shrugged, trying to hide how much that still hurt.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” Arlo said, concern on his handsome face. “That’s got to be difficult.”
She shrugged again. “I guess so. I mean, it was when I was a kid, but now that I’m an adult, I understand that people have problems, and his problems meant he couldn’t take care of me. I’m not mad at him or anything. But in foster care you don’t really get much help with anything, especially when you move homes a lot, so I learned to kinda take care of myself.”
He leaned forward and laid his big hand over hers. “Reese? I feel like you need to learn to let people take care of you. It’s something everyone here at the Ranch does for each other, like the girls coming to help you out with the animals. I’d like to help in any way I can. And if it’s hard to learn how to let someone take care of you, I think I can help with that, too. What do you think about that? Is that okay?”
She nodded, keeping her eyes on the napkin in her lap.
“I need you to tell me if it’s okay,” he prompted. “I need you to say the words.”
She lifted her gaze to his, a nervous warmth filling her up inside even as tears stung her eyes. “Okay. Yes. It’s okay. In fact… I think I’d kinda like it.”
He chuckled. “I think I would, too. We can talk a little more about it after we eat our lunch.”
“We can?” she asked, not quite sure what he meant. Or, a small part of her hoping she did know what he meant, anyway.
“Yeah. You can tell me what kind of help you think you might need, and I can let you know what I think I can help with.” He smiled at her and sat back as Billy returned with their drinks.
While they ate, he filled her in on all of the services available at the Ranch. He told her about the gift shop in the lobby, the Italian cafe, the library, the gym, the theater, and so much more. Then he mentioned Rawhide University and her jaw nearly dropped.
“Like a real accredited university?” she asked.
“Yep! The whole staff lives here on the Ranch. A lot of the students like that they can manage their studies while living here and getting to be their Little or Middle selves when they’re not studying. We have student dormitories for them so they don’t have to come and go all the time. It lets them focus on their studies without having to switch their head space off and on as much as if they had to deal with the outside world every day.”
“Wow. This place has everything.”
“Yeah, it does. Except for a petting zoo. Did I hear that right?”
“Oh! Yes, it was Sadie’s idea, and I think the animals will really like it. Plus, it’s a way for me to contribute while I’m here.”
He nodded. “I get that. But honestly, if you or the animals aren’t comfortable with it, you don’t need to do a thing. Derek means it when he invites someone here. And being that you’re Wren’s childhood friend, you’re automatically family. Especially since the ageplayers don’t seem to bother you.”
“No, not at all. I’ve read some books about it. Well, a lot, maybe.”
“Does that mean the idea interests you? If you’re okay with me asking, that is. We don’t do anything around here without consent.”
There went her cheeks again! But she felt like she needed to have this conversation with someone besides Wren. And maybe more specifically with him.
“Yes, I’m okay talking about it, even if I feel like I don’t know very much. And yes, it… it interests me.”
She knew her cheeks were turning a dozen different shades of red, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by it.
“Hmm. Since we’re all done eating, why don’t we head down to the barn to check on your animals, then we can talk some more without a bunch of people around?”
“Okay,” she agreed.
They were quiet on the walk to the barn, then they checked on her little menagerie, and all the animals were perfectly fine. As they sat on a bale of hay outside Stella’s stall, Bossy P flapped his way down from one of the rafters and settled on Arlo’s shoulder.
“Wow. He really does like you!” she exclaimed. “That’s so not like him.”
Arlo scratched the parrot’s head. “I told you animals liked me. I think they know good people when they see them.” He gave her a smile and a wink that made her tummy dance.
“I think so, too,” she said as she reached up to give P’s head a scratch.
“So,” Arlo started, “do you want to tell me about being a Little?”
“I… what?”
There went her darn cheeks again!
“Don’t be embarrassed, little one. This is the kind of conversation we have quite often around here. And I see a lot of signs, even if you hadn’t told me about your reading habits. This place is made for people to feel safe, no matter what their roles are. It’s why I feel safe here.”
“You? But why would you need to feel safe?” she asked, still a bit shaken at his question, but having to admit on the inside that he was right. It was just something she hadn’t been ready to face about herself, especially since she had no idea what to do about it. Until she came here, that is.
“Because my caretaking needs can be met here, whether it’s the animals, or helping a friend. Or getting to Daddy someone, which is something I haven’t done for a long time.”
It felt like a lot to take in. Arlo was a Daddy! She’d been right about that hope, which had been floating around her brain since she’d met him. But what could it possibly mean for her, if anything? He hadn’t said he wanted to Daddy her , just that he wanted to help.
“How come it’s been a long time?” she asked, trying to put off the rest of the conversation.
“Well, I had a Little before I came to work here. Her name was Sarah, and we were together for four years. She was a nurse. And one night on her way home from her shift at the hospital there was… an accident. And I lost her.”
“Oh no! I’m so sorry,” Reese said, reaching out to put a hand on his. She felt so powerless to help, to say the right thing.
“Yeah, thanks.” He cleared his throat. “It was a very long time ago; I was barely thirty years old, so it’s been eighteen years. And eventually I came to work here, but I just haven’t met anyone who felt right to me. So all of my ‘Daddying’ has really been just some caretaking with the Littles around here, which all the resident Bigs kinda do. I’ve been an Uncle to a lot of Littles, but there’s been no one to call my own.”
That explained Billy’s addressing him as “Uncle Arlo”.
“Do you… do you miss it?”
He turned to her, his blue eyes shadowed. “Yeah. I do. I miss it a lot. But I won’t offer that to someone until it feels right.”
She nodded. “I sorta get that.”
He moved Bossy P to his other shoulder and turned to her. “Reese? I know you just got here and we’ve just met, but do you think you’d like me to be a Daddy to you? I’m not saying you’d belong to me right away–we’d have to see how it worked first. But you feel… well, you feel right to me. I know this is all new to you, so I’d take things slow. You’re welcome to say no, and we’ll still be friends, I promise. Consent, right? What do you think?”
She thought she was about to pass out, that’s what she thought. Her head was spinning so fast it was hard to think straight.
“But I… I’m only here temporarily.”
“If this works out with us, and you go get a place in town, we can work around that.” He paused to smile. “Although, I can tell you already, a few of us would like you to stay, including Wren and Sadie. And me, of course. But there’s absolutely no pressure.”
“I, um, I’m not really sure what that would involve, though. Not me staying here but… the other thing.” She lowered her eyes to where she had her hands clasped in her lap, her fingers twisting a piece of hay.
He tucked his fingers gently under her chin and raised her face to his. “It means we would go through some negotiations,” he said, his voice quiet, but sounding sure of himself. “We have forms here you can fill out so I know what you’re okay with and what you’re not. I know Derek gave you the general packet already, but there are other things that would be specific to us. Then we’d talk it through and decide how we both feel about it all.”
“Would it mean that… that sometimes I would get… spankings?” she managed to ask, not sure how she’d gotten the question out.
He nodded. “That would be a requirement for me as a Daddy. Sometimes to make sure a lesson gets properly ingrained, and sometimes just for pure pleasure.”
“Oh.”
The images flashing through her mind, mostly from the books she’d read, made her head spin even more. She couldn’t believe this was even happening!
“But I don’t want you to worry that I’d cross any boundaries. That’s why we have the forms and the discussions. But I do need to say that if we get into this dynamic, I’ll have certain expectations of you, and certain punishments if you can’t obey. And most of the expectations I’d have are about respect, and you taking care of yourself. There won’t ever be any wiggle room on either of those things. But, that said, we need to discuss safe words now, so you understand you have that option before anything ever happens between us. Do you know what a safe word is?”
She nodded. “I’ve read about them.”
“Sometimes real life and books can be two different things, so tell me what you understand about safe words.”
“It’s like, if something is too hard I can say a word like ‘red’ to make it stop?” she said uncertainly. She didn’t want to sound like a total idiot, and she knew there was more to it, but was feeling pretty flustered and her brain wasn’t really working.
“Yes, that’s sometimes the case. But it can also be for emotional triggers. And if you need things to go easier—but only if you really can’t take it—or if you need a drink of water, or to use the bathroom, or your blood sugar crashes, or you have a leg cramp, but don’t want the scene to end, you’d say ‘yellow’. Plus, sometimes I may check in with you and ask if we’re ‘still green,’ which means I wanna know if everything is okay and we can continue.”
“Oh, that makes a lot of sense. So, it’s like traffic lights.”
“Exactly. Green for go, yellow for slow down, red for stop.”
“That’s easy to remember,” she said.
She nodded her head while trying to absorb what he was saying. Was this really happening? It sounded like everything she’d ever dreamed about.
Almost.
Because she still had an awful lot of life stuff to figure out, and just because he wanted to Daddy her didn’t mean… well, anything else.
“So, what do you think? Feel free to let me know if you need some time. The offer will still be open.”
She looked up at him, at his blue eyes, and the laugh lines around them that only made him sexier and more Daddy-like. And she wanted—needed—to crawl into his lap and curl up. So she did. Without a word, mostly because she couldn’t find any words, she climbed over the hay and curled into his lap.
He didn’t say anything as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her so close to his broad chest that when she rested her head there, she could hear his heart beating. And it was beating just as fast as hers was.
“You are the sweetest Little babygirl,” he murmured as he stroked her hair.
She’d never in her life felt anything so nice. She’d never heard such sweet words. She felt so safe and protected. And there was the best sort of trembling, buzzy sensation in her body that had to do with how handsome he was, and the way his hands felt on her hair.
“Does this mean yes?” he asked her. “I’m always going to ask you to say the words out loud. So tell me, honey, do you want me to be your Daddy? Do you want to be my Little girl? At least for now?”
“Oh, yes, please,” she answered, snuggling in.
“The first rule is, you’re going to call me Daddy.”
“Mmm, yes, Daddy,” she said, shocked at how comfortable the word felt. “Daddy,” she repeated quietly.
“Good girl,” he told her.
“Hey, Reesey!” Wren called out as she and Sadie ran into the barn.
Reese shot out of Arlo’s lap, but she was pretty sure they’d seen them curled up together. But did it really matter, here at the Ranch? Still, she knew her cheeks were bright pink. Again.
“What is it?” she asked as she smoothed a hand over her hair.
“We talked to my Daddy about the petting zoo, and he said yes!” Sadie announced, spinning in circles while Wren grinned and clapped her hands. “And we can start right away! And Uncle Arlo is s’posed to help you! And me and Wren get to help set things up, too, plus Hayleigh and Everly, if they wanna help, and it’s gonna be sooooo amazing!”
“That’s great!” she answered, still a bit frazzled. “Um, I’m not even sure where to start, though.”
“I can help with that,” Arlo said, getting to his feet. “Derek did tell me I’d be your assistant.”
Reese whipped her head around. “He said what?”
Arlo shrugged. “He said if you stuck around, you’d need help with the animals, and that I could come out of retirement and be your right-hand man. Since they’re your animals, you’d be the boss of the petting zoo. My boss.”
Sadie stopped spinning and she and Wren clasped hands as they fell on the barn floor, giggling like crazy.
“Ohmygosh, you’re gonna be Uncle Arlo’s boss!” Sadie crowed in between fits of laughter.
Reese just sat there in shock. Her animals were going to get all the care and attention they needed. And she was going to stay at the Ranch for a while. And Arlo was going to be her Daddy. And her assistant ?
“This is… this is great!” she said, stumbling a bit over the words.
“It’s amazing!” Wren agreed, sitting up and still giggling. “Uncle Arlo, does that mean you’ll call Reesey ‘boss lady’?” A new fit of giggles took over and she collapsed on the ground again, clutching her stomach.
“Okay, okay, girls. You have your laugh, but I’ll have you know I’ll make a very good assistant,” Arlo said, a small grin on his face as he helped Wren and Sadie to their feet. “We can start right now. Pull up a hay bale and let’s talk about how this is gonna work and a good opening date. And Reese,” he said, turning to her, “I haven’t forgotten you and I have more to talk about later.”
She nodded, smiling as the girls clambered onto the hay bales. Sadie pulled a notepad from a pocket of her romper and a pen from the other. “I’m ready! The petting zoo planning committee has come to order!”