Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Ashton went very quiet for a moment before he rested his head on my shoulder and sighed. The binkie stayed firmly in place, so I patted his bottom as I took him to the kitchen. “I think you’re going to like your new presents.”
An excited inhale escaped before he could hide how curious he was.
“I know.” Kissing his head, I set him down in the kitchen and gave him a beaming smile. “You like presents.”
Knickknacks.
Flowers.
Goodies.
He loved all kinds of gifts…small, big, or completely random and ridiculous. It’d taken me a while to figure out what he liked, but seeing his eyes light up was fun.
This might turn out to be something I needed to work on to get right, but I was pretty sure I’d started strong.
Ashton wasn’t so sure about that, but he seemed willing to humor me and even leaned into me and tucked himself under my shoulder as I led him to the table. “I just have a few things to get dinner ready and then we’ll have special time together.”
His expression could best be described as skeptical, but I’d seen it a lot over the past few years, so I wasn’t worried. He even sighed as he sat down and pretended to be frustrated that he couldn’t rest his elbows on the table.
“One second.” Kissing the top of his head, I ignored the adorable sound effects and went over to the pantry.
I’d hidden some of his goodies behind some veggie crisp things I’d bought at the store that I knew he’d never eat and the rest in the junk cabinet that he kept saying he was going to clean out. His drama came back as he saw me get all the fun new stuff and I couldn’t help guessing what his thoughts were.
Dramatic yes…but blaming himself was always a good guess and he’d probably have questionable logic about why he had to play along in the scene.
But when I set the coloring books and crayons down, he sucked in a breath and went still as his eyes got wider. “I think you forgot that I had a half day.”
Occasionally there were good reasons to work for the school district.
Being able to randomly drive over to the zoo was one such reason.
“I got you the big cats coloring book and the one with the monkeys and apes and all those guys.” Next on my list was the one based around the small aquarium that they had, but his quiet roar said I’d made good choices.
Ashton took turns imagining being the cat and being stalked and eaten by one of the cats, so it didn’t surprise me when he hunched over and started flipping through the pages. His restrained hands made it harder but he didn’t seem to notice much.
“And here are your crayons.” It was the biggest box of oversized crayons that I could find. It wasn’t one of the huge boxes the smaller ones came in, but I’d done my best. “If you make me a picture, we can put it up on the fridge.”
That had his head cocking, but he was too focused on carefully figuring out how to pick up the crayons I’d spread out on the table to overthink it. Still, giving him a push seemed like a good idea. “I would love to have a reminder about how much I enjoy my helpless boy.”
Oh, that sigh.
I was going to get my picture.
I didn’t bother trying to hide my happy dance as I went over to the oven and turned it on, mostly because he liked knowing he made me excited and I liked the sounds it got me. Huffs and sighs and even a whine as he gave up trying to pretend that he didn’t like coloring.
But no matter what nonsense he was telling himself, I was in control, so he was going to color. The Micha is in control bit was going to be playing over and over in his head, but if it helped him to try something new, I was okay with a bit of manipulation.
“I might’ve gotten another surprise while I was there, but I’m going to show you that later.” His fascination with those poop-shaped chocolates had not been as subtle as he seemed to think. “I like surprising my sweet, helpless boy.”
Well, technically my grumbly, diapered, slightly dramatic restrained boy.
His muffled gripes said he’d gotten that part too, though.
The new toy helped keep most of his thoughts internal but it wasn’t blocking the cute noises he made. He kept trying to sound like he didn’t appreciate my teasing, but he continued coloring and even wiggling in his seat to rub himself against the diaper.
He was the king of mixed signals…or maybe prince in this case.
He was also very focused and seemed to find some kind of headspace as he colored because he was fully engrossed in his lion picture when I finally came back over to the table with his bottle. Dinner was finishing up in the oven, so we had a few minutes to cuddle if he wanted to switch gears.