Chapter 44

Another sleepover was to take place three weeks later, this time at Kathryn's house. Wednesday evening, though, Katy was devastated.

"We can't go to Kathy's on Saturday. Her mother has to go to work."

Suddenly her face lit up.

"Daddy, couldn't... ?"

"No! Absolutely not!"

As soon as I said 'No, ' I knew that I had lost. I kept on fighting for a couple more minutes, while half my brain was already moaning and preparing for something that couldn't be avoided. Fifteen minutes later, Katy was already calling the other girls, and I was discussing with the mothers how the sleepover at our home should be done. Pussy whipped by my six-year-old. Pathetic. Why, then, was I smiling?

Candice dropped off both Alison and Kim early in the morning, and gave me a sloppy wet kiss while carrying some of the bags inside the door. Of course, she also made sure that our bodies touched as much as possible, and got the obligatory voices of disgust from the three girls. We also a curious look from Katy. Candice left almost as quickly as she had arrived, but not before taking hold of my manhood and making sure that I was at least semi-hard. Yeah, thanks a lot.

I was still trying to readjust myself inconspicuously under the eyes of three girls, when the doorbell rang again. Everything else was forgotten while the three girls ran to the door to greet the last musketeer: Evelyn. To my surprise Lindsay was carrying two bags, one for Evelyn (Eve) and it seemed that she had one for herself.

"I thought that you could use some help, here. If you don't mind?"

"Sure don't. This party is something totally out of my experience, and I'm quite sure those little pests would have tricked me as soon as they had a chance."

"And what makes you think I won't help them?"

The small laugh she gave out when she looked at me touched me softly somewhere that I was not sure I wanted to be touched. At least, not yet. Not this year, and maybe not even the next one. She noticed it immediately, and looked at me as though I had hurt her, which was probably exactly what I'd just done. I forced a smile and took her hands in mine.

"Lindsay, I'm sorry. You did nothing wrong. It seems, though, that I'm still sensitive in more ways than I'd like to be."

The tension that had been apparent in her face slowly disappeared and then she sighed.

"I know ... or I should have known. After all, you probably know I have been speaking with the others. Of the three of us, I'm the one who has the degree in psychology, and do those things for living."

"Well, you know that they say: 'the cobbler's children have no shoes.'"

As soon as the phrase was out of my mouth, I kicked myself mentally, hard. We kept on looking each other for a moment, and she must have noticed my shocked look, as she finally started to giggle. Then she looked around, and as all the girls had disappeared upstairs to Katy's room, she move closer and whispered to me.

"You know, Noel, after what my friends told to me, I had quite different expectations of your cues."

I blushed, but I just had to answer her some way.

"Just wait 'till I sweep you off your feet."

Or maybe I'd just better concentrate to keeping my feet out of my mouth. After just one more hour, I was very happy that she was there with me. After two more hours I was sure that all the little girls there were destined to drive me crazy with their silly questions, while I tried to prepare something to eat for all of us. When I was once again rolling my eyes and wiping my hands on my apron I suddenly felt Lindsay's hand in mine. The shiver I felt was a bit distracting, and once again I felt something that I thought that I was not ready for. Luckily she didn't notice, this time.

"Noel, you are doing fine. Please remember that three of these girls have not seen a manly figure up close and real for years, if ever. They are curious."

I looked down to the apron I was wearing. Manly figure? Lindsay followed my gaze and looked a bit embarrassed at first, but then she started laughing. I did my best to look devastated. Which in this case was not very hard. Of course she started laughing even harder. That was what she was doing when I kissed her. No striking lightning's, no fireworks, but I felt some sort of tingle all around my body. She stopped laughing and stiffened in my hands. I pulled back and looked at those blue eyes. What I saw there reflected what I could feel inside my own head: hurt and fear. I had decided that I never wanted to hurt again in the way I'd been hurt before ... and from that came the fear.