Sinfully Delicious Saturday Snippet: Seafoam and Saltwater Taffy: Packing up to go

 

Seafoam and Saltwater Taffy can be preordered here. 

Daddy had helped them make lists of what to pack. They each had two suitcases, Daddy wanted gear in one and everyday stuff in the other. What Rusty was doing was utter chaos. The next time Rusty walked out of the closet with a single item of clothing in his hands, Ember stepped directly into his path and captured his hands, bringing them up between them until Rusty slid them over his shoulders and tugged him forward until Ember was molded against Rusty’s chest.

“Slow down, I know and I will,” Rusty murmured. “I just need to remember to breathe.”

Ember pulled back enough to smile up at him before he signed. “And get out the list Daddy made you.”

“And…damn….I forgot.”

Ember snuggled against his chest again, listening to his heartbeat while Rusty pet his hair.

When a last minute request to speak at a conference in New York had resulted in Daddy being away when he’d planned to come over and help them with their packing, he’d created elaborate lists for them so they wouldn’t need to worry about forgetting anything. Ember had put them in the end table drawer beside their bed. He led Rusty there now and extracted them, laying his beside his suitcases and passing Rusty his.

“One line at a time, the same as before,” Ember signed.

Rusty nodded at that and flashed a little smile, so Ember matched it, then widened his until Rusty smiled brighter. When he did, Ember hopped back and forth from one foot to the other, waving his hands in an impish little dance he’d created back on one of their Saturday morning living puppet shows. It never failed to make Rusty laugh, even when he was frustrated about something that had gone on at work.

As he’d expected, it worked now too.

“I love when you do that,” Rusty said. “We could be seventy-three years old and I’d still want you to do it, even with a cane. Might be even funnier that way, who knows. Add in the some gray hair and a gecko on your head and I’d say you’d top even the original rendition.”

Ember silently laughed along with him, then signed, “Do you want to play a game with me?”

“Always,” Rusty replied.

“I pack for you, you pack for me,” Ember signed. “The only catch is that we each have to slip in a surprise for the other, and we can’t look until we’re on the ship.”

“Game on,” Rusty said as he picked up his list.