“I think I love it, too,” I tell her. “Very much.” I sigh. “You look gorgeous, Laine.”
“This is the dress,” she says. “I just know it.”
She turns around for my help with the zip, and it’s so nice to brush my fingers down her spine.
“Then we’d better go pay for it,” I say.I’ve never been so proud as I am to have my beautiful Laine on my arm at the Christmas party.
Her eyes are still bright and shining with innocent wonder, but my little girl isn’t a little girl, not with her makeup on.
She’s most certainly a young woman this evening.
Michael French hands her a glass of champagne, and nudges me to convey his approval.
“I’ve heard so much,” he tells her. “All good, of course.”
“I’m so pleased to meet you,” she says, and she means it, I can tell.
“This is my wife, Barbara, and my daughter Caroline.” I smile as warmly as she does, and it thrills me as Caroline strikes up conversation.
Maybe they really could be friends.
I’d like my sweet Laine to have nice friends.“They’re so nice!” she gushes and lands a kiss on my cheek. “Caroline said she’s here for weeks until she’s back at uni, suggested we go to theirs for their Boxing Day party.”
“Would you like that?”
She nods. “I’d love that. I love meeting your friends, Nick.”
I’m certain they love meeting her, too. Penny and Mike, and Trevor from IT. So many people I’ve seen every day and given no thought to whatsoever.
That’s all going to change.
I’m going to change. Hell, we’ve changed so much already, Laine and I.
I think there’ll be plenty of new developments this coming year, not least the little bump Laine seems eager to have in her belly.
We’ve talked about it properly, just like we should have done before I unloaded my cum into her pussy at every opportunity.
She’s young, but not that young, and I’m certainly not getting any younger myself.
I still want to be able to do everything good fathers do.
I want to trek through the countryside with our butterfly nets, and be there for them until they’re plenty old enough to take care of themselves.
I have time, but it’s ticking.The necklace is a sly little test. I present it in its sweet little box, and watch her expression as I open it.
The disappointment is only fleeting, but it’s there.
A necklace not a ring.
But it’s beautiful, and the thinks so too.
“Oh, Nick… Oh my God…”
“A diamond for my sweetheart,” I tell her, and step behind her to fasten it around her neck. “I can’t take the credit,” I admit. “Penny chose it. You’ll have to thank her for her excellent taste.”
“I’m thanking you,” she says. “I’ll show you how much I love it later.”
And then she heads off to find Penny.
Her new-found confidence amazes me.
Everything about her amazes me.
Somehow I think Barbara French really will need to be buying a hat for our big day.
And soon.
Very soon.
I can’t wait until my sweet little Laine Seabourne is sweet little Laine Lynch.EpilogueLaineHe tells me my old house is finished. Good as new he says.
I kick off my heels and thank him, but it feels so far away that place.
I guess it will be nice for Mum should she ever come back.
Maybe she’ll be back for Christmas. Maybe I’ll get a text.
Maybe she’ll even come to dinner with Nick and me.
Maybe I don’t really care that much anymore.I’m excited about my own life now.
I’m excited about finishing up my college course, even though Nick tells me he earns enough for both of us. For all of us. For the children we plan to have and the life we want to lead. Enough for everything.
At least child studies puts me in an alright position to have babies of my own.
I want so many of Nick’s babies.He says he’s going to redecorate Jane’s room. A new room for new little people when they come along.
He’s already started boxing up her things.
He’s moved her DaDDy drawing to the corkboard in the pantry. I trace my fingers around the letters sometimes, and wonder what it will be like to have a little girl of my own someday.
Nick threw the belt from the study into the fire, said he doesn’t need that anymore either.
He says that discipline doesn’t need to be cruel to be kind, and some rules are made to be broken. That’s life he says.
The thought of his hand on my ass still gives me tickles, and I think that maybe I’ll have to be a naughty girl some time, just to go over his knee again.
I really am dirty these days, and that’s ok too.I’ve been trying to find a way to tell him. Trying to find a way to show him what I want without it feeling icky.
I mean how icky can it be to play a little when you’ve got someone’s engagement ring on your finger? It doesn’t get much more grown up than that.