Page 22 of Dear Daddy, Please Want Me

Saul honestly didn’t think much about his Jewish roots day to day, but with Levi around he found himself thinking about it more. Or maybe he just wanted to know everything about his tempting employee.

“So… Chinese? Mexican? Thai? There’s a Kosher deli that might deliver, too.”

“Mmmmm…. Those all sound good. Thank you.”

Saul finally looked up to find Levi giving him a dreamy look. What was going through his head? He didn’t seem to have any further thoughts on dinner. He’d just said thank you.

Then it really sank in. Levi was waiting for him to choose. Trusting him to take care of him. Giving him, perhaps, the opportunity to do this little thing as his Daddy. It was a heady feeling. And it wasn’t technically crossing any lines.

“Great. I’ll order something.” Saul said, probably more brusquely than he intended. He already felt like he wasn’t reading from the right script.

Levi was supposed to say, Thank you for ordering for me, Daddy.

And he would say, I need to make sure that my boy is eating something healthy, but I got you a treat, too. Something much better than those vending machine cookies.

That was how it worked, right? It was sure as hell what his mind was filling in right now.

He also felt like he had to get it right. Like if he didn’t order the right thing, he’d be messing something up. It should have felt like a heavy responsibility but instead it felt like… an opportunity. A way to communicate to Levi something that he probably had no business communicating.

Thank God for the profiles.

He pulled up his favorite Mexican place and got what was definitely too much food. Vegetarian enchiladas. Cheese flautas. Chiles rellenos. A hearty salad with hard boiled eggs replacing the chicken. Three types of vegetarian tacos. Then tres leches cake for dessert. Whatever Levi’s palate, there had to be something he would like.

He would be paying for this himself instead of expensing it, but Levi didn’t need to know that.

He submitted the order, then tried to get back to the data. He really wasn’t getting anywhere. Not that it was a huge surprise, but at least earlier today he’d been able to focus.

Now he just kept noticing Levi’s leg resting against his.

He put together a few queries to pull a report that he was pretty certain he’d already pulled this morning.

Levi pressed their knees together.

Saul sorted a spreadsheet.

Levi said he wanted to tell him what he’d been working on and get his feedback, which seemed like a welcome distraction from, well, his distraction.

Levi started with an efficient summary, but that only lasted until they were looking at two of the error profiles. Levi got all heart-eyed talking about how sweet it was that EnglishDaddyInNY had found ArmyBratBoy and his friend.

Saul was almost jealous for a minute. He would never be as tall and rugged as the Daddy in that trio. The man looked like everything a Daddy was supposed to: dominant, distinguished, and well… just male. Very, very masculine, with his well-groomed beard and his muscular shoulders. He was young, maybe in his thirties, but he had piercing blue eyes that could only come from a place of great confidence.

If that was what Levi wanted, Saul would definitely be a disappointment.

But Levi didn’t mention the Daddy’s looks. His focus was all on how lucky the boys were that they had someone to take care of them. How they would get spankings and cuddles. How sweet it was that they found each other.

Levi didn’t have the slightest bit of subtlety, which only made it cuter. His hints were about as subtle as a sledgehammer. Saul found himself smiling, getting drawn into Levi’s fanciful story about three people he’d never know beyond their profiles and a perfunctory message to the help desk.

Saul probably shouldn’t have found it so charming, but there was something earnest about Levi’s excitement. Even if Saul hadn’t stumbled over Levi’s three letters earlier, there wasn’t any doubt now about what he wanted.

Which raised another question. Why today? What was different from every other day in the past year or so that had brought on this adorably clumsy seduction? If it could be called such a thing.

It was more like Levi was hoping that if he acted enough like a boy, whatever that meant to him, he could somehow trick Saul into wanting to be his Daddy.

It was working.

When the demonstration was over, Saul thanked Levi for his summary and tried to ignore the flash of disappointment that crossed Levi’s eyes. He didn’t like that look at all.

If he were somewhere else… Hell, if he were someone else, he would snatch Levi up in an instant.