Dad's Club

Parks

I'm a twenty-four year old man sitting at a park full of toddlers, weighed down with a pastel pink blanket, two stuffed animals, and a coffin shaped diaper bag.

Every mother in sight was giving me the evil eye, but my daughter was too busy picking flowers to notice the wide breadth of space between her and most of the other children.

I frowned, but immediately changed my expression when my baby girl came running towards me.

"Daddy wook!" She held out a small purple flower in her dainty little hands, and I made an exaggerated gasp.

"Oh, how pretty!" I made a show of smelling the small flower, and my daughter giggled.

"Yew likes it, Daddy?"

I placed a kiss on her pale cheek with a nod. "It's my favorite color, princess." Her smile grew ten times wider, and I picked her up so that we could leave.

"Are you hungry yet, El?"

My little princess nodded, busying herself by playing with my plugs.

It didn't matter how many toys I bought her, she always seemed to prefer tracing my tattoos or brushing my hair.

What can I say? I'm raising a Daddy's girl.

On our way past the play structure, I heard one of the kids shout, and El whipped around with a gasp.

"Daddy wook!" She pointed to the small boy's shirt. "He wikes da Misfits too!"

I laughed, and we both watched the boy run to his Dad, who looked remarkably like myself.

My daughter noticed our similarities and wriggled out of my arms with a determined look on her face. I watched her with an amused smirk, dutifully holding her blankie for when she came back from interrogating the poor guy.

"Why do you look like my Daddy?"

El was too used to me being the odd man out, obviously.

I sighed and jogged over, picking up my little bundle of sass and hoisting her onto my hip with a frown. "Elvira, that is not how we talk to strangers." I tried to scold her quietly, but El was too dramatic for that.

"I just asking, Daddy!" She huffed. "I not twyin' ta be mean."

I glared.

"His ears are bigger than yours, Daddy!"

I froze and snapped my head around to actually look at the guy, who seemed to be having a similar conversation with his own son.

El giggled and grabbed ahold of my stretched earlobe, resuming her exploration of the engraved wooden plugs I was wearing.

The guy sighed, and I flashed him a tense smile. "Kids, right?" He snorted and gave me the once over with his warm brown eyes.

"I'm Mike." I held out my hand that wasn't wrapped around my daughter for him to shake, laughing when his son took it instead.

"I'm Graham." He smiled up at me brightly, his spiked blonde hair and blue eyes a stark contrast to his father's darker features.

"It's nice to meet you, Graham." He beamed and reached up to wave at El. "Hi baby!"

She blushed and hid in my neck, making me roll my eyes. "Now you act shy."

Graham's dad chuckled and pulled out his phone. "We need to head home before my wife freaks out." He handed me his phone. "Put your number in, we should hang out." I grinned and bit my bottom lip nervously. "You sure? I don't even know your name."