She wanted to make a good impression on his friends. Cook for them, be a charming hostess, make sure it was sometime she wasn’t having a migraine or her period and she sure as hell wouldn’t be wearing a hospital gown and a diaper.
“Settle down, buttercup, no need to get all het up. They know you’re not feeling well and they’ll be insulted if you exhaust yourself trying to get all gussied up. Now here. We’ll wrap this blanket around you like this…”
He picked up the blanket she’d dropped on the floor and draped it around her shoulders before giving her a very stern look that at once made her feel very small and biddable but also kind of turned on. She didn’t want him to be bossy about everything but there were some things she would happily let him control.
“Sit down on the couch.”
“Yes, Daddy,” she acquiesced as she sat cross-legged on the squishy cushion and drew the blanket tighter around her.
“And we’ll put this blanket over your lap, and ta-da—no one will know what you’re wearing. I promise they wouldn’t be surprised or think it was weird even if they did. I give you my word, I would never do anything to humiliate you, okay? That wouldn’t be taking very good care of you, and that’s what I want.”
“Okay.”
He must’ve seen her eye Spaghetti too, because he picked up the discarded dino and handed it to her.
“You can keep Spaghetti. Cosima will have at least one stuffie with her, I guarantee it. Now I’m going to get the door and I’ll be right back.”
Devaney nodded, and tried to calm her nerves. It was one thing for Eric to see her like this—he clearly enjoyed it—and even though she did trust him when he said he’d never humiliate her, it was another to have strangers around. Being in this squishy, obedient place was wonderful but incredibly vulnerable too. Like she might cry if someone was unkind.
She heard a chorus of voices in the hall and then Eric led a small parade of people into the den. Okay, three people, but they were all chatting so gregariously it felt like a lot more. There was a white guy who was one of the biggest men she’d ever seen—like half a foot taller than Eric, and he was probably six feet—a white man who had bright red hair and was cackling like a loon, and a very petite white woman who was wearing the cutest romper under a snow-bright cardigan. It was mint green with white polka dots and a wide white belt, and she had on white thigh high stockings and chunky silver Mary Janes.
A thread of envy ran through Devaney like she’d never felt for the other women at the country club with their diamond tennis bracelets and their designer clothes and their late model cars. This woman was adorable and looked so, so happy. And Eric had been right: there was a light brown bunny dangling from the woman’s hand that wasn’t ensconced in the giant’s grasp.
Eric shook his head with a smile.
“Devy, these are my friends I was telling you about. This is Hudson—”
The guy who looked like he could be an offensive lineman smiled at her and waved.
“This is Ian—”
The scruffy ginger with his hair sticking up at all angles smiled and waved at her too.
“And this is Cosima.”
“I love your dinosaur! Can I see him? Or is it a her?”
“Cosy,” Hudson said in a tone that she recognized. It was that gentle chiding way Eric spoke to her sometimes. “You remember Devaney isn’t feeling well so we’re going to be gentle, right? That means not asking her a million questions.”
“But, Daddy—”
Daddy! She’d called Hudson “Daddy.” Was Cosima his little girl? Is that why Eric had been so certain they wouldn’t blink if she was a blanket burrito with a stuffed dino in her lap?
“No buts, teapot. Please don’t make me give you another reminder.”
The brunette pinched her lips between her teeth but looked like she might explode if she had to be quiet much longer.
“Um,” Devaney started, still feeling painfully shy even though these people were so friendly. “It’s a him. I named him Spaghetti. You can see him if you want.”
Cosima looked up at Hudson, bounced on her toes. “Please, Daddy, please? She said it was okay. Please?”
Wow. Devaney could’ve watched them all day. So foreign and yet so familiar at the same time. That thread of envy was stitching its way through her pretty good.
It wasn’t that she wanted precisely what they appeared to have—was Cosima a little girl all the time?—but that easy comfort and the way they adored each other was relationship goals.
“Remember, gentle, babygirl. But yes, you may go see Spaghetti.”
The way Hudson took Cosima so seriously made her chest feel all squishy and warm. He obviously doted on her and she looked up to him and it was just, yeah, wow. She didn’t have much time to linger on that feeling because Cosima was coming over at that very particular rate of speed she recognized from when she’d told the boys they couldn’t run but theyreallywanted to.