Page 22 of Schooling Little Sage

“Hmm, okay, I’ll try Butterflies. Can we get nuggets?”

Daddy laughed. “Absolutely, my sweet-brain squirrel chaser. After you.” He swept his arms through the air. He was so silly and made me laugh all the time.

It was nice not to be sad or scared anymore or to have to hide away and be quiet all the time. Daddy was silly and-and… he kissed me. A couple of times now. Made my tummy all wiggly, in a good way.

“Daddy, are you gonna keep me like, forever?”

“Um, yeah?”

“That was a question.” I grabbed a Jell-O cup. “Watch it wiggle, Daddy.”

“Silly boy, let’s sit outside and talk.”

Ut oh, I hope I didn’t ask the wrong question or push him too far. If Daddy broke up with me, I’d have a bad case of the sads. Like, forever sad.

As soon as we sat down, Daddy took a big drink. I played with my Jell-O while he figured out his words. My tummy wasn’t as happy anymore while we waited to hear what he had to say.

“This was a conversation I’d hoped to have in private, but since you brought it up, here will have to do. Yes, I want to keep you forever.”

The wiggles just came and I couldn’t stop them.

“My wiggly, smiley boy, your Daddy loves you with all his heart.”

Wait, what? The wiggles stopped and the tears hit. My lip trembled as I struggled to get the words out. “You-you love me?” No one had ever said those words to me before. “Like, for real?”

“Like for real. I love you to the moon and back, my little butterfly.”

The chair fell over when I shot up but I didn’t care. All I could see through my tears was my Daddy’s open arms. I crawled up on his lap and cried. Someone loved me. Daddy loved me and all my silly, noisy parts too.

“My love, are those happy tears or sad ones?”

“B-b-both.” Daddy loved me. Those three words played on an endless loop in my brain.

“Oh, sweetheart, Daddy wants to take all your sads away.”

“You do, Daddy. I love you so much. I was so afraid of saying that to you and you running away or telling me I’m dumb and to shut up.”

“I would never say any of those mean words to you and, if someone ever says that to you, you come and tell me, and Daddy will set them right.” He squeezed me tight. There was no better place than in Daddy’s arms.

“’kay.”

“Do you want Daddy to feed you?”

Did I? Maybe sometime but not right now. I wiped my eyes and sat up. “No thank you, Daddy, I can do it. I’m a big boy.”

He booped my nose and kissed me. “Yes you are. You’re Daddy’s big boy.”

I stole another kiss and hopped down so I could eat. I really liked this whole kissing deal.

“Daddy has a couple of prezzies for his boy. Want to go back to my place after we eat?”

“Yes, please.” I wanted to do that even without prezzies. “Daddy, if you’re my Daddy, does that make us boyfriends too?”

“In our relationship it does. But it’s not the same for everyone.”

“I’m figuring that out. If we’re boyfriends does that mean I can still only come over when you invite me?”

“Great question. Guess I hadn’t really thought about it that way since we are always together when we’re not working. I’ll get you a key.”