S.Y.L.O. (Brantley Gilbert)

Part 11

Brantley's POV

After everyone gets to the barbeque I yank off the feather boa my goddaughter made me wear and I'm currently standing leaned up against a tree around the fire trying to scratch off the rest of the pink nail polish. That little girl is gonna be the death of me, especially if I go to work with hot pink nails. I can hear the jokes now. "Having a little trouble rockstar" Ashley asks nudging my arm and I chuckle. "You're still using that nickname?" I ask, giving up on getting the little bit of paint off my thumb nail. "Hell yeah, don't act like you don't still write or play. Kolby told Eli about you playing Becky's song to her the day you got out. Glad to see you're still the big teddy bear we all know and love". She hugs me and I grumble a little bit, hugging her back. I'm gonna kill Kolby for telling people about that. I pull out of the hug and look back down at Ashley "so how have y'all been" I ask her. "Pretty good, been waiting on you're bigass to out so you could meet little miss. I think you're already her favorite uncle, Kolby would never have tea party's with her because he was always busy with Cam. Now she has a buddy to play princess with other than me" Ashley explains, leaning against the tree about a foot away, beer in hand. I grinned and shook my head. "Are y'all really gonna make me play tea party with her every time I come over?" I ask, looking over at her dreadingly. She lets out a laugh and takes a sip of her drink before telling me "We can't make you do shit but I have a feeling Tinsley can. Seems like she's already got you all wrapped up". She points her beer bottle at Kolby running around, giving Tinsley a piggy back ride and I can't help but smile. She is a cute little shit, I'll give her that. I open my mouth to respond to Ashley when Kolby runs up to me and drops Tinsley into my arms, telling me "I gotta piss" and runs off. I give him a 'what the fuck' look before looking down at the 4 year old tiredly smiling up at me. "Uncle B what's your name?" She asks, yawning and reaching up to hold onto my hand, looking at my rings. Man am I glad a changed them right about now. I smile and simply tell her "Brantley" and her gaze turns from my fingers to my face. "I like that name. Maybe I'll name one of my kids that one day" she mumbles as I rub tiny circle on her hand that's rested in mine. Widely smiling, I softly rumble "you better" as her eyes drift closed. Ashley walks over and peeks over my arm and says "oh I'll take her in and put her in bed" reaching up to take her from me. "I can if you want. So you can't stay out here with everybody else" I tell her, cradling the little girl tighter in my arms. Ashely grins and tells me "Okay, her room is Cam's old one". I nod my head and start walking up to the house to put Tinsley in bed. I open the back door and walk in, heading down the hall to Cam's old room. I walk in and slightly chuckle. The used to be bright yellow room is now hot pink and I can just see Eli's face at the color either Tinsley or Ashely picked out. Laying Tinsley in her crib, I pry her fingers away from my hand and lay her little arm back down, then turn around to walk out until I hear "Uncle Bwantwey". I turn back around and go up to her crib, looking at her and reach down her hold her hand "Yeah sweetie?". She opens her eyes and asks me sweetly "can you read me a bedtime story?". Fuck. I look around the room to see if Eli and Ashely have any books for her and see a box of little kiddy books in the corner. "Okay, sweetheart, let me grab a book" I tell her and she smiles as I walk over to the box. I grab the thinnest book I can find cause I don't think it's gonna take long for little miss to fall asleep. I drag the rocking chair from the corner of the room by her crib and sit down, looking down at the book I grabbed. 'Goodnight Dora' well this seems fitting. I open up the book and as I go to read the first word Tinsley reaches up and whines, wanting to hold my hand and I just chuckle holding my hand out for her to grab onto and start reading. I focus on the book, reading quietly and slowly start to feel her grip loosen. I decide to read to the end instead of just halfway through to make sure she's completely asleep before I go back out to Eli and Ashley. Once I'm finished with the book, I look down at Tinsley whose hand had dropped from mine and is very lightly snoring. I stand up and put the rocker back in the corner and the book back in the box before going back over to the crib and lean down, kissing her forehead. "Goodnight sweetheart" I whisper. I turn to walk out but jump slightly when I notice Eli leaned in the doorframe. "Damn it" I whisper, careful not to wake Tinsley while holding my pounding heart. He chuckles at me and I punch him in the shoulder stepping out of the room and closing the door behind me. "You asshole" I grumble holding back a laugh at how stupid I know I looked. "Hey" he says, stopping me then tells me "thank you for putting her to bed. I don't think I've seen a sight that damn cute in a long time. Even Kolby doesn't care for her like that". I cross my arms and grumble a little more "she is pretty damn cute". "No you being a big softy to her was the cute part" he says, punching my shoulder playfully before walking out the back door with me following. I lightly hit him in the back of the head and laugh "don't call me cute".