Because of her past there would be concessions made yes, but that was only gonna go so far. I had no intentions on putting us on hold or moving at a snail’s pace. Like I’d told her the night before I was willing to give her time to get used to having a man in her life but there was no way I was going to be able to keep my hands off of her for long.
The day would’ve been perfect except for after lunch as we were leaving some dude called out her name. She flinched at the sound and we turned to see the douche from the diner heading towards us. “Oh hi Dan.” She introduced us as the others had walked on to look into a store window. He acted like I was an insignificant species as he focused all his smarmy attention on her. Lucky for him she was practically under my arm, his days had already been numbered but his actions now sealed his fate; the fucker was obliterated. No I have no problems with being possessive, it doesn’t bother me at all no matter what society says.
They exchanged bullshit small talk while he kept giving me looks but I noticed that she seemed oblivious to his obvious interest. Maybe that’s something I’ll have to teach her about as well. I wasn’t sure just how much the asshole in the Midwest had stolen from her but I didn’t want her walking blind. When it looked like he planned to monopolize more time than I was willing to give him I hurried him along. “Sorry, Dan is it? but we have to go.” I didn’t even wait for him to say anything else just took her away. Fuck him, childhood friend or not he didn’t get any props.
We walked into the store that the others had gone into and mom called us over all excited. “Mom what the hell is that?”
“It’s the quintessential little black dress, every young lady should have one.”
“Yeah but isn’t it a bit too short, and where’s the back?” the women started groaning but I paid them no mind as I walked deeper into the store pulling Kadyn behind me. I searched the racks until I found something more agreeable, it had a solid under dress and was topped with lace; at least it had sleeves and a back.
Next was the shoe store where she stared at these shoes with red bottoms that Carrie and Nessa were trying to push on her. I could see her practically salivating over the gravity defying contraptions but she refused to even try them on. The third time she did this I pulled her aside. “What gives baby? You’re looking at those shoes like they’re the holy grain so why don’t you want them is it the price?” she looked up at me and I swear I heard my heart crash and tumble at her feet with the next words that came out of her mouth.
“I can’t run in those Matthew.”
“Baby…” I pulled her into my chest and held her tight. I know I must’ve been squeezing her too hard but she didn’t complain. I held her until the pain in my chest eased before holding her away from me.
“I’m standing between you and danger remember? You don’t have to run anymore not from anything or anyone I promise.” I bought her every color they had to the delight of the women in my family and when she complained that she’d only ever worn her mother’s heels in the house to practice she had more than enough volunteers to offer to teach her how it’s done.
By the time we returned home I felt like I’d made a little baby step towards progress, one down a million more to go. Since today had been such a hit I planned on forcing as much new things on her as possible. I’ll have to work around her schedule though unless there was something I could do about that. I couldn’t imagine that if given the chance she wouldn’t prefer spending her days doing kid shit as opposed to being stuck in a diner working.
I really was becoming my brother because it never entered my mind to ask her one way or the other. I was in Matt Steele knows best mode; it felt kinda good too. I never had this much interest before so this was all new for me as well, and it was an eye opener. When your true emotions were involved this dating game was a whole new playing field. My mind was consumed with ways of making her happy, of seeing that winsome smile that she’d shown throughout the day. I wanted to hear her laugh at Josh’s stupid antics or the douche’s calamities as they tried to entertain her.