Page 27 of Trashed to Treasured
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. He could have hurt you.” Brody was sobbing harder with every word.
“Wait, what?” I wanted to take Brody inside to talk about what he was saying, but the officer is waiting for me to give a statement. “Shit, do you want to go in and I’ll join you as soon as I’m done out here?”
“No.” He shook his head, clinging to me even tighter. “I’m not moving an inch without you. Just do it all quickly. I’ve gotta pee.”
I chuckled and kissed his forehead. “Baby, go inside and go pee and then get yourself some water and come back out. Hopefully, I’ll be done by then.”
His lower lip popped out, and he crossed his arms over his chest, pouting. “Is that an order, Daddy?”
I rolled my eyes, knowing he was just being difficult. Or maybe vulnerable. “No, sweetheart.” I pulled him against my chest again and held him tighter. “But I do care about keeping you healthy, and I expect you to care about staying healthy. Which means not getting a bladder infection because you’re being stubborn.”
Now he rolled his eyes, proving my initial thought that he was being difficult. “Fine.”
He started to walk away, but I grabbed his hand, holding him in place. “And we’re gonna talk about how long this has been going on and why you didn’t trust me enough to tell me.”
“It wasn’t th—” He tried to argue, but I held up my hand to stop him.
“We’ll talk when we’re inside. Alone.”
Now his pout was more genuine. “I’m so sorry, Daddy,” he whispered before running past the drama on his lawn and inside the house.
18
BRODY
He hated me now.
I shouldn’t have lied to him when he asked what was wrong. Aaron only asked for one thing from me, and I couldn’t even get that right. I didn’t look back at what was happening with Geo and the police as I raced inside, no longer able to hold in all the emotions I’d been feeling since Geo came back and reminded me of how much I screwed up everything.
I dropped my clothes as I went to my bedroom, ending up totally naked in the center of my room.
Part of me wanted to hop into a hot bath and wait for Aaron to come get me, but I wasn’t sure he’d do that. Not anymore.
Without having a better plan, I slipped into one of the Daddy’s Boy onesies that Aaron bought me but I hadn’t worn before, grabbed the matching pacifier, and tucked myself into bed. I’d never done this by myself before, and I didn’t like it one bit.
But if I ever wanted to be little again, I’d need to get used to being little by myself…because I was pretty sure I didn’t have a Daddy anymore.
Once that reality hit me, I couldn’t hold back the fresh batch of tears. I sucked on my pacifier and tried self-soothing through the sniffling, but it didn’t work well. Or maybe it did because I eventually drifted off.
When I woke up, I heard movement in the kitchen but the room was dark. I didn’t know where my phone was, so I wandered down the hall with the pacifier still in my mouth and nothing on but the onesie.
Aaron was putting bowls of macaroni and cheese on a serving tray I’d never seen before and then grabbed a sippy cup and a beer and placed them on too. He lifted the tray and took two steps before noticing me standing there.
“Oh, hey there, sleepyhead. I was gonna bring you dinner in bed.”
I pulled the pacifier out of my mouth and tilted my head in surprise. “You were?”
“Yeah.” He seemed confused. “Would you rather eat out here?” He nodded toward the couch.
I shook my head, put the pacifier back in my mouth, and went straight to bed. My body was moving on auto-pilot, once again, almost disassociated from the world around me.
Aaron placed the tray over my lap and then pulled his big bowl and beer off, leaving just my sippy cup and puppy bowl. “Is there anything else you need, sweetheart?”
I shook my head but didn’t speak, still unsure where we stood after today, and I had absolutely zero appetite because of it.
He took a big bite and then noticed I hadn’t touched anything on the tray. I was just staring at the food in confusion.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” He put his hand on my shoulder, finally noticing my near comatose state. He placed his fingertips on the end of the pacifier. “Are you ready to spit this out?”
