Chapter Ten
Stone
“You put your left foot in, you take your left foot out, you put your left foot in…”
Whoops, beneath the balls. Payden slipped when he tried to shake it all about.
We’d postponed our trip to the ball pit car by a couple of days since Payden’s attention had been grabbed by the second feature after we’d watched Thomas and the Magic Railway and we ended up sticking around for that one too, and a giant arts and crafts session in one of the cars had left Payden needing to be scrubbed free of marker, watercolors, fingerprints, and glue by the time he’d finished his masterpiece.
Then we’d had our day in Seattle, and a night where all is wanted was to stay buried in him after the first time we’d made love.
Getting to touch freely, tasting his skin as well as his release after he’d fallen apart, were memories branded on my soul.
I’d had a lot of sex, I’d been a rockstar for fucks sake, but the way we’d connected had been a whole new level of intimacy.
His creation from the craft car sat proudly on the tiny table in our cabin, with fluffy white cotton clouds drizzled with glitter glue, since mercifully, real glitter hadn’t been included among the art supplies.
He’d drawn two unicorns frolicking, used yarn and glitter glue for their manes and tails, googly eyes on their faces, and an assortment of tiny buttons to spell out Unicorn Besties Magical Adventures, after he’d had me write it in marker for him.
Talk about a challenge trying to fit it across the top of the rainbow he’d drawn.
I caught him beneath the arms before he sank completely, only instead of letting go, I held him up while he switched legs, kicking my leg out beside his, so it looked like we were doing a strange caterpillar conga as we shook our legs and made the balls churn.
“You put your whole self in, you take your whole self out,” while the music continued playing, half drowned out by giggles and laughter among our efforts to sing along.
I lifted him and gently tossed him into the balls in front of us, since there was space to do it, then plucked him out of the balls, arms windmilling, to set him back on his feet in front of me.
“Wheee!” he squealed each time his feet left the ground. It didn’t matter that I barely tossed him two feet into that pit. He laughed and waved as he sunk deeper into the balls. “Save me, Daddy, save me before the balls gobble me up!”
I scooped him up and twirled him around, flopping back into the balls with him on top of me when the song reached the line, That’s what it’s all about!
We all cried out "Hokey Pokey" at the end, laughing while I hugged him against my chest. It wasn’t lost on me that once again, I was the only Big actively taking part in the activity, but Payden hadn’t stopped smiling since we stepped foot into the car and he’d seen all the colorful balls waiting to be displaced.
When the next song came on, Payden squealed even louder.
“Bear Hunt, Daddy, will you be the bear and hide in the balls for us?” He asked, hands cupped beneath his chin to form a heart as he peered up at me.
“I’ll do my best,” I declared, before floundering across the pit, nearly faceplanting into them a couple of times the way Payden had.
“Turn around. Turn around!” Payden called out to the other littles in the room. “My Daddy is gonna hide and be the bear and pop up and scare us and chase us during the song.”
“Yay!” Several others cheered.
Fortunately, it wasn’t crowded. There were just three other littles playing and three daddies in chairs along the side of the pit, one with a phone in front of his face and one who never took his eyes off his little and was ready with a wave and a juice box he held so his boy didn’t have to get out of the pit.
The third was scribbling in a notebook, but every now and again she’d look up, seek out her little girl, and touch base with her to see if she needed a snack. So far, no takers on the food offerings, but she seemed to be having the time of her life bouncing around in the balls.
Since there was now more to being the bear than just hiding, I had to put on the performance of a lifetime when they discovered me, since even the boxcar attendant had gotten in on the spirit of the game and paused the song while I found the perfect hiding place.
Down, down, sinking beneath the balls I went, until the last glimpse I had was of the tousled pink and purple mane of today's unicorn outfit on Payden. I wiggled and scooched, reaching up through the balls to smooth my hair down so it wouldn’t be visible as they hunted for me.
I just hoped I wouldn’t get stepped on in the process.
Damn, I never thought balls could create such a noise muffling situation, but I could barely hear the song when they started replaying it.
At another time in my life, this might have been a trippy experience that resulted in lyrical dissertations of the strange ass view I had while I waited for them to play out all the parts of their bear hunt.
It wasn’t dark. More like the colors nearest me were muted hues, while the ones higher up just looked like rainbow streaks blended together.
There were balls molded all around me, including one stuck between my shoulder and ear that I didn’t dare try and move since any wiggle would make the balls shift.
I didn’t know if motion down here would be visible from the surface, but I wasn’t about to spoil the game to find out.
When I felt the pressure of balls surging against my side, I knew they were getting closer and even caught a flash of bright fabric when my little unicorn led his bouncing line of bear hunters past me by less than a foot.
Smart unicorn.
He was dancing a grid pattern through the balls with his friends, instead of leaping and darting in every which direction and potentially missing me in the process.
They found me on the next pass, my unicorn in the lead.
I waited until he was about to bounce on me to pop up in front of him with a great big bear roar and my arms thrown wide, balls flying everywhere in a seriously epic jump scare that made all four littles leap backwards, scream, then flee to all corners of the ball pit.
I couldn’t play favorites and chase just my little unicorn, that wouldn’t be fair.
So, I chased the little girl in the Strawberry Shortcake crop top and shorts, then pivoted to slog through the balls, arms still raised, hands curled like massive bear paws, while I growled and snarled and lifted my feet as high as I could to plod through the balls like I was a big, menacing beast. Their squeals and laughter were better than any applause I’d ever received for a song, especially after I finished chasing the little in the blue shorts and T-shirt, who didn’t seem to have a theme to his attire, and turned my attention towards my grinning unicorn.
Not only did he wave at me, but he pranced when he ran away, at least until he sent himself tumbling forward into the balls again.
Growling louder now and making all the snapping, nom, nom sounds to make it appear he was being eaten, I wrapped myself around him and tickled him until all his kicking and flailing sent several balls into the air.
“The bear got me!” Payden squealed. “The big old Daddy bear got me!”
He was laughing too hard to ever make anyone think he’d really met his demise at the hands of a big old grizzly bear, but it was a sound I’d never get tired of hearing.
I was just setting him back on his feet when the little in blue went streaking past us, calling out to his Daddy, who I spotted seated on the edge of the ball pit, shoes removed. “Daddy, Daddy, are you going to play with me?”
“I am Sprite,” he replied. “Daddy is done with work for the day. In fact, I think Daddy is done with work for the whole trip.”
“Yay!” His boy hurled himself into his arms when he hopped into the ball pit, then the man did something that shocked me to my core when he mouthed. Thank you.
Guess maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing to join in and have fun with my boy after all, especially when the next song came on.
Okay, seriously, Elmo Slide in a ball pit should have been on my bucket list!
We waved our arms, hopped to the left, and followed in every direction that Muppet gave us all the way to the end, when Payden and I collapsed into an exhausted heap in the balls, along with a few of the others.
He looked flushed too.
Time to slide into Daddy mode.
I slid my fingers beneath his hood and felt that his hair was damp, so I gently pushed the hood off and took his hand, leading him to the edge of the ball pit, even as the little girl called out to him not to go.
“Let’s get you something to drink," I said after we’d climbed the ladder out of the pit.
It was always good to see tubs of bottled drinks on ice in each of the activity rooms, especially when there was water as well as juice.
Juice might taste better going down, but that sugar will make you dehydrate quicker than shit when you’re playing, especially on a hot afternoon.
I didn’t want him passing out on me the way I’d done on stage, so I snagged him a water.
I took the cap off before I handed it to him, glad to see he’d found a place to sit.
“Sip it, don’t guzzle,” I said. “I think it might be time for a cool shower and something to eat.”
“Can we go to the pizza party?” he asked. “There was one on the schedule. It says we get to have whatever toppings we want on our pizzas and that there will be all kinds of treats to go with it and movies on the flat screen too.”
“Well, then we absolutely cannot miss such a grand affair, can we?” I replied.
“Nope,” he said, solemnly shaking his head before he went back to sipping.
He finished the bottle, though, and placed it in the recycling container before waving to his new friends.
“Awe,” the little boy in blue whined. “Do you have to go?”
“Yeah, I got too hot, but we’re going to the pizza party later.”
“Oh, we’re going to the pizza party too, right, Daddy?”
“Sure are, Sprite.”
“We’ll see you there, we can sit together!” the little in blue said.
“We’ll save you seats if we get their first,” Payden declared.
“Yay! We will too.”
With one last wave, we were on our way, Payden moving with far less bounce in his walk after how much playing he’d done in the ball pit. If a cool shower didn’t perk him up, I might have to insist he nap for an hour before heading to the pizza party because he looked just about bounced out.
“That was so much fun,” he declared as we made our way back to our car. “You scared the fluff out of me when you popped up out of the balls.”
“Rawr!” I growled, making him eep and leap away.
“See. Scary!” He declared, pointing a finger at me.
“Oops.”
“That oops did not sound sincere!”
I couldn’t help but snicker at the indignant look on his face. He was just so damned adorable, inside and out. The way he’d made friends today and drawn everyone together to play was truly a gift. Did he know how rare it was to be a magnet like that, drawing everyone in?
Bet I wasn’t the first stray he’d brought home either.
And I’d wager every cent I ever earned that none of them left his side after he rescued them. At least that meant he was used to being stuck with the critters he dragged home, because I was already hooked and it had just been a few days.
Holy shit.
I sat on my bed to ponder that while he got his shower, thrown by the revelation and how deeply I’d already come to feel for him.
That wasn’t me.
It always took time for me to warm up to new people in my life, since there had been so many and they never stayed long. But with him, I just didn’t want that distance. I didn’t want to waste time with a feeling-out period. I didn’t want to wake up every morning expecting him to be gone. I wanted…
To laugh and be silly with him every day for the rest of my life, have dessert for breakfast whenever we wanted to, and binge train movies until we couldn’t stand the thought of them anymore.
Which would probably be never.
I was there with a spare towel to help dry his hair when he stepped out of the bathroom, cooler clothes laid out on the bed for him to slip into once he was dry.
I’d figured shorts and a T-shirt, which was easy enough since those were the bulk of what he’d packed outside of onesies.
Fortunately, the shower had perked him up, so no nap was warranted.
He started skipping the moment we stepped out of the car and didn't stop until he and his new friend nearly collided at the pizza party.
“Talk about timing,” the other Daddy said and waved a package in the air. “I brought spare wet wipes in case you need them.”
“Thanks,” I replied, and whipped out the small pack I’d taken to carrying in my back pocket as we watched the pair do an adorable dance on their way into the car. “I might have to take you up on it if this doesn’t cover it.”
“Guess we’re as prepared as we can get,” he said as we stepped through the doorway after them.
I hoped so, I really did, because Payden had already captured my heart, which meant that there was no way in hell I was going to fail him.
I hated failing the people I cared about, let alone someone I was starting to love.