Sweet Tooth (Little Cakes, #11)(39)

“I haven’t been there. I have a stuffie already,” Elizabeth admitted, noticing that a couple of Littles sat at the table with their well-loved stuffies.

“What’s your stuffie’s name?” Rose asked.

“Hortense. She’s a hippopotamus,” Elizabeth shared.

“That’s a perfect name,” Tori cheered. “I’d love to meet her sometime if you’d like to bring her.”

“I’d like that. Hortense loves being with me.”

“Of course she does. Just like your Daddy does,” Sue suggested.

Elizabeth looked around the room and noted that several other Daddies stood talking in different clumps. They seemed as eager to talk to each other as the Littles were. She peeked at Tom who finished making vegetables on his nametag and stuck it to the pocket of his shirt.

He immediately leaned close to ask, “Are you okay, Bunny?”

She nodded and pressed a kiss to his cheek before whispering, “I’m okay, Daddy. You can go talk to the other men if you’d like.” She made a bunny head with one hand as they’d planned.

“Littles, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go chat with your Daddies. Thank you for being sweet to my Elizabeth.”

“He’s very handsome,” Lark whispered when he was a few feet away.

Elizabeth noticed the pretty brunette had houses decorating her nametag as she answered, “He is.” She waited a few seconds and then blurted, “He’s younger than me.”

“That doesn’t matter. Daddies can be all ages,” Riley answered. “I never would have thought I’d end up with my Daddy, but he’s perfect. Do you think your Daddy is the right one for you?”

“Yes,” Elizabeth answered without hesitating. She looked around at the kind faces gathered at the table and felt better. “Sometimes I’ve worried about his age.”

“But not anymore?” Ellie probed.

“I guess I just needed to hear that it wasn’t important from other people—other Littles,” she admitted.

“Perfect! Our work is done now. Let’s play. We could color or we could play a card game like go fish?” Kiki suggested.

“Cards!” several Littles chimed in.

“I’m tired of go fish. What else could we play?” Ellie asked.

“Spoons?” Elizabeth suggested.

“I haven’t played that in forever. I bet there are spoons in the kitchen!” Tori suggested.

Within minutes, the group was organized and everyone had four cards in their hand. Riley dealt that round so she picked up a card from the deck and swapped it out for a card in her hand before passing that one to the person next to her. The next one, she simply passed on and Elizabeth knew which card Riley wasn’t collecting.

The cards were passed quickly around the group and Elizabeth tried to keep her eye on the spoons in the middle of the table. She saw Lark take a plastic spoon. There were only two left! How had she missed the others grabbing one? Quickly, she reached her hand out to claim a spoon, and Tori grabbed the last one.

When everyone started giggling, Ellie looked up from her hand. “No way! You all are sneaky! I’m going to have to watch you closely. I guess I have an S now?”

“You do,” Daisy agreed, nudging her with her elbow in jest. “I thought for sure you’d seen me but you were concentrating so hard.”

“I almost had four queens!” Ellie said. “That was fun. Who had four of a kind?”

Kiki lowered her cards to show four aces lined up. “I got them so fast. Ready to play again?” she asked, gathering the cards to shuffle them.

A minute later, they were embroiled again. Before they started the third round, Ellie raised her hand over her head to signal her Daddy that all was well. The men drifted away, leaving the Littles to sneak spoons from the pile in the middle and giggle as the next round happened.

Elizabeth had earned the letters S-P-O-O when Tom walked back into the daycare. “Hi, Daddy. We’re having fun. I’m Spoo. It’s not time to leave, is it?”

“I’m afraid it’s going to be past your bedtime when we get home. Say goodnight to all your friends,” he insisted firmly, holding out his hand.

“Can you take me around Blaze quickly so I can see everything? Riley said it’s okay for you to give me a tour. She and her Daddy are doing a shibari demonstration next week. Can we come see it?” Elizabeth asked eagerly as she stood.

“Of course.”

“Yay! Thanks, Daddy.”

Turning to her friends, she waved and quickly said, “Goodnight, everyone. Thanks for letting me join the fun.”

“See you next week, Elizabeth!”

“Goodbye!”

“I’m coming in for lunch tomorrow,” someone shouted.

“Bye!”

Elizabeth squeezed her Daddy’s hand as they walked away from the group. “They were so much fun. Thank you for bringing me.”

“I’m glad. They seemed like a good group. So, do I call you Spoo now or Bunny?”

“Bunny, Daddy,” Elizabeth said with a giggle. “You saved me. I was almost out.”

“Thank goodness for your bedtime, then.” Tom answered with a wink. “And I appreciate you leaving without arguing with Daddy.”