He shifted his hold so their fingers were interlaced. He smiled when she sucked a breath. During one of their conversations over the past months, she’d revealed that she loved holding hands that way, that there was something about the fingers rubbing together that was a major turn-on.
“All right, babygirl. Let’s go find something yummy for lunch. And if there’s a toy store, maybe we can buy you something special to remember this weekend by.”
Chapter 15
Lacy stopped mid-step when she saw the stuffie store. She’d ordered a bear or two online, but had never actually visited a store in person, but it was on her Little bucket list.
“Lacy?” Drake stopped and half-turned to look at her.
“Can we go in here?” she asked, staring into the store, enthralled. The stuffed animals in the windows and the colorful displays she could see through the doorway were pulling at her hard.
Before Drake could answer one way or the other, her stomach gave a long rumbling grumble of dissent. Her free hand moved to cover her belly as her face burned with embarrassment. The sound drew the stares of two women walking out of the store, each carrying a bag with the store’s logo.
She felt so jealous.
Drake released her hand and took a step closer, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “We’ll come back after we feed that monster belly that is threatening to break out and eat us all.”
Lacy giggled as she allowed herself to be guided away from the store of her dreams. Then she saw what the next store was.
“Oooo, a toy store. Can we go in there, too?” She bit her lip before she saidDaddythough it was right on the tip of her tongue.
“After you eat a good lunch we’ll go to all the stores you want. Just remember, we have to be back at the hotel before three o’clock so we can get ready for tonight’s party.”
“Yes, Daddy,” Lacy whispered easily after pulling out her phone and checking the time.
They would have plenty of time to make her a new stuffie and maybe even buy some new coloring books and crayons at the toy store.
They found a map of the mall and discovered the food court was on the upper level. That meant they had to take the escalator, which was just a few dozen yards away.
As they approached, Lacy slowed until she stopped just before the entrance. They were far enough away that they did not block others from stepping around them to approach the rolling stairs.
She stared wide-eyed at the escalator as she began to slowly twist her head side to side.
“I can’t,” she whispered so softly she wasn’t sure Drake would hear her over the music, conversations and other noises around them.
“You can’t what, Lacy-girl?”
“I can’t go on that.” She pointed to the moving stairs as a single tear ran down her cheek. “It will eat me and then we’ll never get lunch or my new stuffie.”
She could not bring herself to look at Drake. The last thing she wanted to see was his amusement, or even worse, anger, at her fear.
She and her mom had been visiting a mall similar to this and the escalator had grabbed her favorite scarf and pulled on it until Lacy had to unwrap it from around her neck so she couldbreathe. She’d loved that scarf, but apparently the escalator loved it even more.
“Lacy, sweetheart, look at me,” Drake said cupping a had around her cheek. “Look at Daddy, little girl.”
It took several seconds to stop staring at the escalator and shift her gaze to Daddy’s face.
“There’s my girl,” he said gently once she was focused on him. “Now, I want you to breathe with me. In. Out. In. Out. Good girl.”
It was only when she was following his instructions that she realized she had stopped breathing. When he took her hand and held it against his chest so she could feel his heartbeat. It was strong and steady and grounded her back into her body.
When she was able to take a deep breath and relax, his smile widened even further. “Good girl. All right, the food court is at the stop of this escalator. I don’t see any stairs, so this is the only way to get up to the food.”
“But it’s going to eat me like it tried to do before,” Lacy said, recognizing that her voice was the higher tone she used whenever she was in her Little headspace.
Drake frowned slightly then looked at the escalator as he tried to work out a solution. His gaze returning to hers, he said, “How about if Daddy holds you while we go up the stairs. That bad old escalator would never eat you if I’m holding you.”
Lacy was nodding even as she asked, “But what will all these people think?”
