His Little Sunshine by Della Cain

Chapter Sixteen

Quinn

Filming was beginning on Monday, and Brad had agreed to come down early and spend the weekend with me. It had been too long since we last held each other. The day was slowly ticking by, the minutes until his arrival feeling more like hours.

We spoke to each other every day, texted at random times, and video chatted often. But it wasn’t the same as being together. Not really.

Declan had been gone a good chunk of the time as well. I don’t know how the farmhands dealt with Holden’s and my grumpy asses when our men were away. It was par for the course that they worked so much and at the station, not here, when they were setting up for the show. I got that. I did. I just missed Brad.

I sealed the envelope I’d just stuffed and wrote his name on it then set it on the counter with the other three.

When he’d showed me his shirt, the one he had made from my doodle, I saw how precious the little things like that were to him. If my attempt at art made him smile, why not give him all the doodles, and so I did. Each and every day, I mailed a new one to him. Sometimes it had a note with it, other days it was placed in a cute card, and sometimes it was just the doodle and nothing else. My goal was to have one arrive every day. The post office wasn’t perfect in their delivery schedule, and some days he got three and others none, but it was out of my hands.

I’d kept the past three, knowing he was coming here. Today would be a three-doodle day and, unlike the others, these had a very specific message.

The gravel outside crunched under tires. He’s here.

I hurried to the door and, sure enough, he was parking next to my truck. I reached the car as he opened the door.

“I tried to get here early, but construction was a beast.” Brad climbed out and straight into my arms, kissing me soundly and holding me close. “Gods, I missed you.”

“And I missed you, Sunshine.” I held onto him, the car starting to ding at the door being open. “Let’s get you inside.”

He popped the trunk, and I reached for both of his bags. “The small one is for this weekend,” he said.

“Okay.” I grabbed them both anyway. “It’s going to be too hot to leave them in the trunk.”

“They got me a room at the B&B…” He spoke hesitantly and I immediately set the bags down and cupped his cheek. He leaned into my touch, and the words began to flow. “It’s part of my contract, and they wanted to get one for Declan, too, but he put his foot down saying home was close enough. I had no reason to ask them not to get me one, but I want a reason.” He closed his eyes.

“Want me to give you one?”

“Please, Daddy.” It was only the second time he’d called me that, and I wasn’t altogether sure the first time had been intentional. This was though. He was asking for more than just a place to stay.

“Let’s get inside.” I kissed the tip of his nose. “I have something for you.”

He agreed, his expression still dejected. I wanted to just tell him to stay, let him know I hated every moment he was away and I wouldn’t ask him to give up his career to be with me, but I wanted more.

I set his bags in the entryway. “There’s mail for you on the counter.”

He looked at me, and his face lit up. “I thought I wouldn’t get any more now that I was here.” He raced to the counter and grabbed all of them. “Three!”

He ripped open the first one, not pretending to be careful, and pulled out the doodle. “It’s so adorable.” He squeed and buzzed as he made the little paper with the bumble bee on it fly.

I came up behind him and wrapped my arms around his middle, pressing my front to his back and peering over his shoulder as he opened the second one.

He pulled it out and tilted his head from one side to the other and back again. “It’s an eyeball.”

“It is. There’s a third one.”

“Oh, right.” He set the eyeball next to the bee and slid the third open with a bit less enthusiasm. Knowing him, he was still focused on why I would possibly give him an eye doodle. He reached in and pulled out today’s picture, a sun with a happy face.

“Is this me?” He leaned his head back and kissed my chin. Really, part of my chin and part of the air, thanks to the angle, but it counted.

“It is.” I took it from his hands and set them in order on the counter. “What does it say?”

“Say?”

“Say.”

“Bee.” He traced the bumble bee. “Eye.” Brad traced the eye next. “Sun.”

“Say them together faster.” I wasn’t sure if I should correct him on the sun being sunshine, and I opted not to.

“Bee eye sun,” he spoke slowly. “Bee eye sun.” This time he said the words more quickly. He repeated them, this time altering the words. “Be my sunshine?” He turned in my arms and draped his arms around me. “You want me to be your sunshine.”

I nodded.

“Is that like a boyfriend or a boy? For the record, both would be yes. I just don’t want to get my hopes up.”

“It’s to be everything. My partner, my boyfriend, my boy…stay here with me while you do this project.” I wiped a tear escaping his eye. It was a happy one, his entire body thrumming with joy. “Be the last person I see when I fall asleep and the first one I see when I wake up.”

“You gave me a reason. I didn’t even need to ask you. You already had it waiting for me.”

“I did, but I always want you to ask me for what you need. Today I got lucky,” I teased. “I might not always read the room correctly.”

“I will,” he promised. “And maybe that means we should bring my bags upstairs now.” A passionate kiss later, we were carrying his luggage upstairs.

“We can figure out how to arrange the furniture so you have a dresser in here. There are plenty to pick from, but I didn’t want to be presumptuous.” I set his weekend bag on the bed and left his other one beside the dresser. “I did empty the side table for you.” It had three tiny drawers and would be enough for the few things he’d brought.

Brad didn’t move, his gaze glued to his bag. I settled my hand on his shoulder, and his head snapped in my direction. “Sorry. I was just thinking about what you said. I practiced what to say on the car ride over, but maybe you can just open the front pocket for me.”

I pulled the bag closer. It had two zippers and what looked like two even amounts of storage. “This one?” I tapped the panel, and he nodded. Slowly, I unzipped it and instantly saw what he was wanting to talk about. Inside were little things. I wasn’t sure exactly what. I’d let him show me, but the glimpse I got was enough to know the general theme. “I’d love to see what you brought.” That had his shoulders relaxing. “And just because you bought them and brought them here doesn’t mean you need to like or keep them.”

He reached in and pulled things out one at a time, setting them on the bed without any narration. There was a sippy cup, a little plastic cup, a divided dish with an elephant on it, matching silverware, a set of plastic animals for the tub, a small pile of onesies, and a couple of diapers. The clown cars of overnight bags.

“The onesies…they all have pictures I drew on them. Have you tried them on? Do they fit?”

He sat on the edge of the bed. “I wear them to bed sometimes. It’s like being close to you.”

I dropped to my knees in front of him, not wanting to be taller than he was. That would give me the power advantage, and he didn’t need that on top of all the things he had rushing through his head.

“You’re so brave.” I held his hips and crawled between his legs, settling my head on his chest. “I bet you look adorable in them.”

“You’re not upset I went behind your back?”

“You didn’t. Not at all.” I looked up at him. “You’re discovering who you are and what you need and, while I’m honored to be part of that journey, it’s your journey. There is no right or wrong way to explore these things.”

There was a long silence before he finally spoke. “I think I’d rather explore them with you. Alone it was…it was more about being near you. You know?”

“I know, Sunshine. How about you tell me about these things, and we can kind of move on from there?”

He agreed and talked about each of the items and why he picked them, from the tub toys reminding him of ones he had as a small boy, to the sippy cup that sparkled in the light, to the diapers he bought because they were adorable.

Nothing he had surprised me, not really. Even the diapers made sense. He’d helped Declan create his nursery, and being around him that much would of course intrigue him. Would he want to use them? I had no idea. But my brave boy was willing to discover it for himself.

“What do you think?” He set the last onesie down.

“I think we should put these things away and go shopping.” That surprised him, judging by the look he gave me. “We can put them in the nightstand, and I’ll find a drawer for you until we pick out your dresser.”

“Okay. Should the dishes…should they go there, too?” He gathered up the cloth items.

“We can put them in the cupboard if you’d like.”

He nodded. “Should I put the toys in the bathroom, too?”

“Yes.”

We had everything put away, including his clothing and toiletries, in less than half an hour and were on our way to the store. I drove us to the next biggest town, not wanting him to be nervous and worried as we picked out some little food and possibly some other things he might not have thought about.

I was excited to share his first little experience alongside him…as his daddy.