Broadway Baby (24 page)

John nodded, “I was going to suggest that anyway. It’s too soon for us to even think about me spanking little Lily. Though how do you feel if I put her in time out?”

“I think that’s fine,” Shelby smirked. “She has been in rare form for a week now. Feel free to find a corner or however you do time out. Believe me, she is not a stranger to it.”

John laughed, “I didn’t think she would be. So do you think she’s really okay with me watching her?”

“I think she gave in just a bit too easily,” Shelby admitted with a sigh.

John nodded. “She wouldn’t be the first to do that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think she needs the break from you as much as you need it from her, but it’s not going to stop her from challenging me as well.”

“Good luck then,” Shelby replied nervously.

“We’ll be fine. You go say your goodbyes, Mama, and leave little Lily to her Uncle John.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” John walked with Shelby down the hallway and shook his head at the sight that met him.

* * *

“Lily?” Shelby’s voice was met with a huge grin.

“I’m making a tea party, Mama!” Lily bounced to Shelby and hugged her tightly. “Uncle John and I are going to have tea and paint nails, and do all sorts of fun stuff.”

“I see that,” Shelby chuckled at the child friendly beauty supplies lined up on Lily’s vanity next to the table holding the tea party. “Be good for Uncle John and I will see you soon.”

“Are you sure you need to go?” Lily whispered as Shelby hugged her.

“I am,” Shelby kissed Lily’s cheek gently. “You will be just fine, Lily. Enjoy your day and I’ll be home before you know it.”

“Okay, Mama.” Giving Shelby a hard hug Lily released her and watched as she left the room her face falling the farther Shelby’s footsteps echoed down the hallway.

She was just about ready to run after Shelby when John stepped in, “So are we going to have that tea party or not, Lily?”

“You really wanna have a tea party?” Lily looked up at the giant in front of her.

“I do, but I’m not sure I’ll fit in the chair at the table.”

Lily looked at John again and had to agree that all six foot six inches of the man probably wouldn’t fit at her tea table. Letting out a giggle as she imagined him trying to fit into the chair she took his hand and led him to the table. “Maybe you need to sit Japanese style.”

“Maybe I do,” he agreed as Lily giggled once more.

* * *

“Shelby!” Turning her head Shelby waved to the blonde already sitting at an outdoor table. She had come from her yoga class to meet John’s wife and she hoped to find some insight after speaking with Alicia.

Quickly weaving through the tables Shelby was met with a hug from the shorter woman along with a smile, “It’s so nice to see you again. John said that you wanted to talk.”

Sitting down Shelby nodded at John’s wife, “Thanks for meeting me, Alicia,” Shelby waved to the waitress and ordered an iced tea for herself.

“It’s no problem.” Alicia ran her hands through her straight hair and sat back. “John says you needed a break from little Lily today.”

“That would be an understatement,” Shelby affirmed as her tea arrived. “She has been a royal terror since Cora’s arrest.”

“I can only imagine,” Alicia began. “How long have you been together?”

“We’ve been working together for over a year but have only been together as a couple for a few months.” Shelby shook her head. “It all seemed to come together so naturally. John tells me you’ve been together for fourteen years?”

Alicia shook her head, “Actually we’ve been together for sixteen, but I’ve been his little for fourteen. It took us both a while to admit what we truly needed and wanted in our relationship.”

“Did you ever do this to John? Push him I mean, the way Lily is currently pushing me.” Shelby stirred her tea with the straw.

“What exactly is she doing, Shelby?” Alicia asked quietly.

“What isn’t she doing?” Shelby deadpanned. “She’s drawn on the walls, tried to get to the contraband cookies again, has thrown more tantrums over the smallest things, refused to put her toys away…” Shelby stopped speaking as Alicia began to laugh.

“Has she hidden her vegetables in the flower pot or tried to flush them down the toilet yet?” The woman’s blue eyes sparkled with the question.

“She hid them under the chair cushion,” Shelby replied. “She also tried to wash her crayons in the washer. I caught her before she started the machine.”

“Let me guess, her crayons were dirty?” Alicia giggled again at Shelby’s nod.

“She is in deep, Shelby.”

“What do you mean?” Shelby may have been more familiar with age play than Lily but she wasn’t as familiar with it as Alicia and John.

“I mean that she’s hiding from big Lily right now. She doesn’t want to face the things that big Lily is going to have to face in the coming days or weeks.”

“That makes sense,” Shelby admitted. “We have a meeting with the D.A. tomorrow. Something about Cora and her plea. I’ve tried to talk to Lily about it but she’s refusing and I can’t very well talk with little Lily about Cora because that’s not fair to either of us.”

“Exactly,” Alicia smiled at Shelby. “Lily knows that you won’t push the situation with little Lily and she’s taking advantage of that. You have good instincts, Shelby and you need to use them in this situation.”

“So what do I do? I don’t want to force her to be big but the D.A. requested that we both be there tomorrow. I’m not sure why, but little Lily would not be the choice to take along.”

“You give her an out,” Alicia answered quickly. “Let her know that big Lily might be needed at the D.A., but as soon as you’re done there then little Lily can come back for as long as she needs.”

“I guess I can do that,” Shelby stirred her tea again. “The thing is, as much as I love little Lily, I’m missing big Lily.”

“Balance is a big part of these relationships, Shelby. It took a long time for John and me to find that balance and sometimes we still struggle with it. Right now Lily needs the safety of Mama and of being little. When she’s ready she’ll be big Lily again and then you can talk all this out. It’s not easy but it’s well worth it.”

“Oh I agree with you,” Shelby drank some more of her tea. “I know that I want to be with Lily forever if she’ll have me. We just need to figure out all parts of our relationship.”

“Exactly,” Alicia looked at Shelby for a moment and spoke once more. “Have you thought of a code word?”

“Code word? You mean like a safe word?” Shelby asked.

“In a way, but the code word would be used when you need to talk to Lily. Not little Lily, not big Lily, just Lily. It would be helpful right about now. Lily could also use it when she needed to speak to you. It would be a safe way to be able to talk with no pressure for either of you.”

Shelby gave a small smile, “That is a really good idea, Alicia. I think we’ll have to talk about it.”

“I would recommend it. I would also recommend consistency, Shelby. She needs to know that Mama is still going to hold her accountable and do all the things she usually does.”

Shelby thought for a moment. “So I stick to her bedtime, the bath routine, and the punishments when needed?”

“Exactly,” Alicia patted Shelby’s hand. “I told you that you had good instincts. Just do what feels right for the two of you and I think you’ll be just fine.”

“Thank you for meeting me today. I think I needed this more than I needed the yoga class,” Shelby had finally relaxed enough to know that Alicia was correct. She just needed to follow her instincts in regards to Lily. “Would you like to come and meet Lily today?”

Alicia’s face broke into a wide grin, “I would love to meet Lily. I can always use a new friend and maybe next time I can go with John when he babysits.”

“Next time?” Shelby’s brow raised.

“Oh, trust me, there will be a next time.” Alicia giggled again and Shelby shook her head at the woman’s obvious joy over Shelby’s naivety.

Chapter Eleven

Unlocking the door to her apartment, Shelby pushed it open and announced that she was home. She and Alicia had just entered when a small blur ran toward her. “Mama! You’re back!” Shelby was practically tackled by Lily in a big hug before she noticed the blonde woman next to Shelby.

Noticing Lily stiffen in her arms Shelby bent down to look Lily in the eyes. “Lily, this is Alicia. Alicia, this is Lily.”‘

Alicia waved shyly to Lily and Lily mimicked the movement. Quiet hellos were exchanged as John came into the room breaking the tension. “Alicia?”

“Daddy!” Alicia greeted John with a large hug and giggled when he swung her around. “Put me down, Daddy. I don’t wanna get dizzy.”

“I don’t know,” John winked at Lily. “Lily seems to love this and she hasn’t gotten too dizzy yet.”

“Yeah, it’s lots of fun, Mama,” Lily agreed. “Uncle John spins really fast and then puts me down and I walk funny.”

“It sounds like you had a lot of fun with Uncle John today,” Shelby kissed the top of Lily’s head and gave her another hug.

“I did,” Lily nodded agreeing.

“And you didn’t give Uncle John any trouble?” Shelby asked.

Looking at her feet Lily stole a quick glance at John and then grabbed Alicia’s hand. “You wanna see my room, Alicia? I have all sorts of toys.”

“Sure.”

Kicking off her shoes, Shelby turned to John, “Well, what did she do?”

“Let’s go into the kitchen and chat while I finish cleaning up.”

“Cleaning up?” Shelby slowly followed John into her kitchen and groaned. “Please tell me she didn’t do this all by herself.”

“Well I sure didn’t help,” John laughed at Shelby’s expression.

“What was she doing anyway?” Shelby asked grabbing a towel and starting to wipe the flour off the stove.

“Making cookies,” John deadpanned. “I put her in time out for trying to get to the ones above the refrigerator so she decided that she’d make her own.”

“And to do this she needed all the flour, sugar, and chocolate chips?” Shelby asked continuing to clean.

“And the peanut butter,” John added holding up the now empty jar.

“Nice nails,” Shelby commented dryly.

“Thank you, I think the rainbow effect is quite nice,” John chuckled. “You have a little spitfire, Mama. That’s for sure.” He gathered all the dirty towels and headed to the laundry room. Returning to find Shelby finishing up the washing of counters he leaned against the doorjamb. “Did you have a nice conversation with Alicia?”

“I did actually,” Shelby leaned against the counter and looked at John. “John how exactly was Lily able to do this to the kitchen with you here?”

“I was distracted,” he admitted.

“Distracted?” Shelby pressed wiping down the counter one last time before looking at him again.

“We were playing hide and seek and I decided to put a few of her toys away while she was hiding. Rookie move on my part. I know better.”

Shelby began to chuckle and soon was laughing in full, “I am so glad I’m not the only one that has fallen for her hide and seek game. Never, I repeat, never agree to play that with her, it never ends well.”

“You could have told me that before you left,” John frowned.

“I never thought she’d try it with you since it was your first time here,” Shelby admitted.

“Mama!” Lily came running into the kitchen followed closely by a running Alicia. “Save me, Mama.”

“Save you from what?” Shelby asked.

“Tag! You’re it, Lily!” Alicia crowed turning to run only to be stopped by a large hand on her arm.

“Alicia you know better than to play tag inside,” John admonished.

“But Lily wanted to and I’m having fun, Daddy.”

“No tag inside, Alicia,” John’s voice was firm and Alicia sighed. “Okay Daddy. Sorry we can’t play tag anymore, Lily.”

“It’s okay, Alicia.” Lily looked up at Shelby’s frown. “I don’t think Mama wants me playing it either. Let’s go find something else to do.”

“Something that doesn’t require running, Lily,” Shelby stated as the girls began to leave the kitchen.

“Okay Mama, gotcha, no running,” Lily replied turning and running as fast as she could down the long hallway.

“Littles, what are you going to do?” John asked as Shelby pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned.

* * *

“Did you have fun today?” Shelby asked as she washed Lily’s back.

“I did, Mama.” Lily dunked her favorite dolphin bath toy under the water and pretended it was swimming. “Can Alicia play with me again someday?”

“I think that can be arranged.” Shelby continued to wash Lily and watched as she made the dolphin jump out of the water. “So why did John put you in time out, Lily?”

Lily sighed deeply, “I tried to get the cookies, but Uncle John caught me. He made me sit in the corner in time out for a really long time.”

“A really long time, huh?” Shelby asked knowing from what John had told her that Lily had been put there for ten minutes.

“Yep, I think it was almost forever, Mama.”

“That is a long time,” Shelby agreed. “Lily, I want to talk to you about something important.”

“Okay,” Lily made her dolphin jump out of the water again. “What do you want to talk about, cookies?”

Shelby chuckled, “No, not cookies, Lily. I want to talk to you about something called a code word or a safe word. Have you ever heard of that?”

Lily nodded slightly, “Yeah, but why do we need one?”

“I just thought that it might be a good idea to have one,” Shelby sat on her knees and picked up the cup they used to wet Lily’s hair. “Tilt back please. It would be something that we could use when Mama needs to talk to Lily about something important and needs little Lily to be bigger.”

“Would big Lily have to stick around?”

“Nope.” Shelby began to wash Lily’s hair gently. “In fact, this conversation we’re having now could be started using the code word.”

Shelby finished Lily’s hair and let her play more, “What do you think?”