Chapter 1

“Dad?” my daughter asked, as she handed my car keys back to me.

“What, sweetie?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“It’s kind of embarrassing,” she said.

“Jamie, you know you can ask me anything. What do you want to know?”

“I asked my friends Melody and Kiersten, and they just laughed at me. I don’t know who else to ask,” she replied.

“Then ask me. If I know the answer, I’ll tell you. If I don’t, we’ll do some research to find out,” I said.

“Promise you won’t laugh at me?”

“Why would I laugh? If you don’t know something, one of the best ways to find out is to ask. What’s your question?”

She took a big breath, as though she were gathering her courage. “Well, why do I get a tingly feeling sometimes in my, ... my, ... um, ... my vagina? Why does it sometimes get wet and slippery?”

Oh shit. Now what? This is where my ex would have been useful. I’ve tried to help my daughter understand as much about her body as I can. I was okay with the basic birds-and-bees talk. Years ago, I had explained to her about menstruation and the physical changes her body was going through as she changed from a girl to a woman. I thought I had pretty much covered everything. She was fully prepared when she got her first period. She knew how babies are made, how a male’s sperm gets to a female’s egg, how a baby grows in the uterus, and how it is born. I had taken her shopping for bras and panties, coached her on how to keep herself clean and how to deal with her cycle, and all the rest.

It had always been just my little girl and me, since her bitch of a mother walked out of our lives when Jamie was still an infant. That’s why my daughter and I are so close. I was the one who fed her, changed her diapers, bathed her, rocked her to sleep, helped her learn to ride a bike, treated her scrapes and bruises, and taught her how to drive a stick shift. We’ve always enjoyed our time together, and she’s the kind of kid who’s eager to learn new things.

Being a single parent has always been hard, and friends had told me that dealing with a teenage girl would be a chore. Jamie’s a good kid. She seems to have a lot of friends, and she’s been allowed to go on dates for a while, but for some reason, she doesn’t seem to get asked much. As a result, I assumed she was pretty innocent sexually. I realized we had discussed nothing about the signals her body would give her about her sexual desires. Now she’s asking me why her pussy gets wet and tingly. Oh, this could get awkward!

“When does this happen to you, honey?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I guess when I see a cute guy, or when I watch people kissing and stuff on TV. It was pretty bad last week at the pool when Brian and Paul were hanging out with me. My vagina tingled so much I didn’t know what to do. I sorta wanted to rub it, but I kinda figured I shouldn’t do that in front of people.”

“That was good thinking, honey. It’s just like when you get a wedgie. You find some private place to fix your underwear so you don’t have that feeling.”

“Is it wrong to want to rub myself?” Jamie asked.

“No, not at all. But it’s something you should do in private,” I replied.

“But why does it get all wet and slippery?” she asked.

“Well, honey, your vagina produces a kind of moisture that acts as a lubricant.”