I got distracted by Catalina who I caught sneaking out of her brothers’ room. “Catalina what are you up to?” She didn’t miss a step, “Oh hi mommy, I was trying to find my ball.” She held up the ball so I couldn’t call her on it, but I’m pretty sure she was lying through her teeth.
I was too excited to share my news to dig any deeper and sent her on her merry way. The trips were in bed and so was Cody and the others can pretty much fend her off if need be. Things were coming along just fine.
I have a lot of irons in the fire. My mother in law is working on my father in law, the sisters are bending their men’s ears and I just worked on Colt. Come tomorrow the fur’s gonna fly. Whoopee.
Todd
"I don’t want to go to sleep. It feels like I haven’t even got a chance to enjoy the fact that you’re home. It’s been a very long day.” We were sitting on the couch in the living room, our old hangout spot. She had her head on my shoulder and I held her hand in mine.
Knowing what I know now, I have no doubt that there are ears and eyes all over the place but I was hoping that her dad was cool enough not to spy on us. I wouldn’t say that I was in the clear, but after the talk we had earlier I sense definite progress.
I didn’t share any of what we talked about with her, and she’d been so preoccupied with her own revelations that she didn’t ask. I spoke too soon because no sooner had I had the thought than she turned up her face and asked.
“’What were you and daddy talking about so long in his office? Did he say anything about us getting back just in the nick of time?”
“No, we were just talking about stuff, nothing serious.”
“With uncle Hank in the room and the door closed?” I shrugged my answer and hoped she’d leave it at that.
“Did he seem to like you any better than before?”
“Sure, your dad’s cool, he doesn’t have any reason not to like me.”
“That’s good.” She put her head back on my shoulder and we both gazed at the TV seeing nothing I was sure.
I didn’t want our whole summer to be about fear and worry so I was trying to think of things to talk about while having that shit in my head. Just like her dad, I didn’t want her knowing anything about it. Anything more than she already did that is.
I wanted to ask her what she thought about the information her sister had shared with her but saw no way to do that without divulging what had been discussed with her dad so I chose instead to keep the conversation light.
“What did you want to do this summer baby?” She’d had a lot of plans during our Facetime sessions, things we never got to do together when we were younger. I never really held out much hope before that we’d get to do those things, at least not this summer, but things were looking up.
I could wish that her dad and I had come to an understanding over something else but then again I’m just glad that he’d let me in.
“I told you, I want to do everything. We’ve never been horseback riding together, I’ve gotten really good. I want to go to the swimming hole, and go bowling. I do that with the family but I want to try just you and I.”
She went down the list of all the things she had in mind and I was happy to have my sweet naïve angel back. There was no talk about jumping my bones or going to a hotel or any of the other one hundred things that were certain to get me killed by her dad.
Of course now that the bull was out of the pen there was no putting him back and being this close to her with that door open was playing hell with my libido. Now that I’d talked her back into being the Caitlin we all know and love, my body was doing its ultimate best to betray me.
I didn’t think it would happen. I thought for sure that I had enough will power after all this time to keep this shit at bay, especially under Colton Lyon’s roof. But now all I can think of is the smell of her hair after her evening bath and the way her body felt pressed up against mine.
She’d grown a lot since the last time I’d seen her. She now has the body of a budding woman, that tight firm teenage body that most girls have and I’d have to be dead not to notice. She keeps in shape with all the afterschool activities she takes part in, and she’s petite by nature.