“Spike—”
“Too soon, isn’t it?”
“Daddy!”
He stopped, stared at her. His face flushed slightly. “That’s the first time you’ve called me Daddy since the day we got home from the hospital.”
She hadn’t let her Little out in a while. But maybe that was a mistake. She’d kept herself from slipping into that Little space out of guilt. To punish herself. But she was punishing him too. And maybe they both needed this in order to heal.
“Daddy, this is perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing.” Because he’d done this for her.
Well, maybe the time-out chair she’d spotted in one corner. That could go.
The walls were painted cream, but along all four walls, decals had been stuck on. There was a large tree in the corner, spanning almost two full walls and hanging from the branches were small, colorful houses. Fairies danced in the air, some of them close to the tree, but others appeared on the other walls.
A magical fairy tree.
But then in amongst all the fairies, dinosaurs roamed. Big ones, small ones, some flying ones. It was insane. It shouldn’t have made any sense.
It was perfect.
The corner where the tree resided had a small book shelf along with lots of big, colorful cushions on the floor. A reading corner.
Across from her there was a platform with a microphone on a stand along with her karaoke machine. A gold metallic curtain had been hung from the wall behind the stage.
There was even a dog bed for Mr. Fluffy. It was white with his name written along the side of it. He padded over there, flopped down and promptly fell asleep.
Along one wall was storage. Big tubs that he now led her to. Even the giant giraffe that Damon bought her, who she’d named Jamie, was here.
“These are full of toys. Wasn’t sure exactly what you liked.” He pulled out one tub. It held a doll along with piles of clothes for her. Another tub was filled with Legos.
“Oh, this is amazing.”
The baby corner had a rocking chair. A big, wooden one with comfy looking cushions. Next to it was a small set of drawers like you might use for a nightstand. On top of the drawers was a lamp in the shape of a dinosaur.
He drew her over there next, opening the drawers. Inside, she saw there was a baby’s bottle with an oversized nipple, a gorgeous looking pacifier that had a dinosaur face on the front of it, and a dinosaur-shaped bib.
“You don’t have to use any of those.” He shrugged. “Although I used the bottle when you had a migraine to get some fairy juice into you.”
“You did?” She could vaguely remember that. “I’m not sure I can . . .”
“It’s okay. It’s just in case. Would you like to play with something?”
She glanced over at the reading corner. “Want me to read you a story, Daddy?”
“Nothing would make me happier, baby doll.”
* * *
For the first time in a long, long time Spike actually felt at ease. He watched as Millie sat on the floor and built something with the Legos. It was slow going with one arm, but she didn’t get grumpy. She’d already read him three stories before declaring that she wanted to play for a while.
He’d brought his laptop in to work while keeping an eye on her.
She liked the playroom.
Thank fuck.
Yeah, he’d been a bit nervous. But he was glad now that he’d done it. He was heartened to see the sadness lighten in her eyes. This was helping both of them, he realized. Hopefully, easing both of their stress levels.