“Thank you, Daddy.”
“Anyway,” I continue, “even before, it was still a good idea. I just used the hard money loan as an excuse not to have to go through with it.” I shake my head again. “I gave you that work because I didn’t want to find a solution.” I reach forward and stroke her cheek. “I should have known my brilliant little girl would figure it out if there as anything there to figure out.”
She turns her head, lifting her hands as she does. She takes hold of my arm with one hand and the back of my hand with the other and she kisses my palm and then my wrist. She whispers something in French. I lean forward and kiss her forehead. “What did you say?”
“Tu es tout pour moi,” she replies. “You are my all, my everything. You are everything. I… To me. You are everything to me.”
I take a deep breath. “Vous… Vous êtes ma belle fille.” She giggles and kisses my wrist again. “Did I say that right?” I ask.
“How do you say it?” she asks, “Um… proche et compréhensible. Close enough.”
“How would I say it right?”
She smiles and says, “And now the little girl teaches the Daddy.”
“Tell me.”
“You must say it tu.”
“Twice? Okay. Vous êtes ma belle fille. Vous êtes ma belle fille.”
She giggles and puts her hand on my chest. “No, Daddy. Not vous. Vous is formal, like you would talk to someone in business or a stranger. Vous êtes. You are. It is right. But it is like saying, how you say, to a… um, you call someone a judge? Your honor? It’s like saying to a stranger. Tu es. That is the familiar form, how you say, to someone you love. So…”
“Tu es ma belle fille,” I say and I slide hand behind her head to pull her close for a kiss. She lets out a moan against my lips that thrills me and in very short order, I set about undressing her. It isn’t easy because she wants to keep her mouth on mine.
But I’m motivated.
I’m very, very motivated.
The moment she’s naked, I lift her up and put her on the bed. “Daddy,” she whispers.
“Little girl,” I growl.
She lets out a little moan and she suddenly seems so small and beautiful. It’s hard to believe the strength of her conviction just a few minutes before.
More than anything, though, it’s hard to believe that she got through to me, that she stood her ground and made me listen until I realized what I expected of her but refused to accept of myself.
Annamarie.
It’s her.
She’s not just my little girl.
She’s my forever little girl.