“Yes, baby?”
“I love you.”
Time froze and for a moment Beau didn’t move at all.
Palmer looked at him, her eyes wide with fear and her hair messy from snuggling under the covers. “You don’t have to say it back. I know it’s a really big deal. I just… I haven’t felt love like this before—safe and soft and I don’t want to go another day without telling you that I love you.”
“Oh, pretty baby,” he said, pulling her from the covers. “Thank you for telling me your feelings. I love you too, little girl.”
“You do?” That seemed hard to believe. Daddy was loveable, but Palmer felt like she still had a lot of work to do. She was still kinda messy on the inside.
“I do. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, pretty baby.”
Palmer smiled and lay back down. “Yay.”
“Yay.” Daddy chuckled, stroking her hair.
“I… I don’t feel like I’m loveable yet. It still feels like I have to do a lot of work inside of my brain and heart to be loveable, but you’ve never lied to me before, Daddy, so I trust you.”
“The wonderful thing about love is that it doesn’t have to be earned. You don’t have to be perfect to receive it. It doesn’t wait for you to get everything right or become someone better first. Love just accepts you, messy or not.”
Palmer reached out, grabbing his shirt and pulling him close. She pressed a kiss to his lips—it was much like their first one, soft and safe.
“Thank you for loving me, Daddy.”
“You are the best thing in my life, little one.”
Palmer knew there was one more thing she had to do before she could go to bed.
“Fuck.”
Beau’s eyebrow raised. “Excuse me, pretty baby?”
Palmer’s tummy flipped, but not in a happy way.
“Fuck,” she said again, less confident this time.
“Palmer,” Beau started, but before he could even finish, Palmer burst into tears.
She didn’t want to be bad, but she had to know if Daddy would stick to his word and punish her. “I’m sorry!”
Beau looked sympathetic as he wiped her tears away. “It’s hard to believe good things can be real, huh?”
She nodded and sniffled pitifully.
“That’s okay, pretty baby. You can check as often as you need to, but I promise I’ll always keep my word.”
Palmer gulped and her bottom tingled in anticipation.
Beau stood and held out his hand. “Mouths that say dirty words get washed out, little one.”
Palmer placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her from the bed. He plucked her pacifier that was attached to her soft puppy from the bedside table.
“No, Daddy!” she cried. “Puppy didn’t say a bad word, Palmer did!” She hoped he would use the other pacifier- the one attached to the pretty clip.
“Unfortunately sometimes our naughty actions affect other people, little one. Puppy is going to have to learn a hard lesson with you.”
Palmer cried as Beau led her into the bathroom. He set her on the sink with a hand on her knee before kneeling and pulling out a bottle of pink soap.