Chapter 10

I didn’t stop to listen to Chi-Chi’s conversation, but it sounded like there was some whimpering and whining going on. Instead, I joined the conversation with Darryl and the girls.

“You look like you’re ready for a big date, Daddy,” Kelsey commented, coming to straighten my tie sweetly.

“Thanks, Sugar,” I smiled. I’d worn the suit to do a little showing off for her, after all. It was nice to be appreciated. “I think that might be a good thing. Leanne tells me that I owe her dinner now.”

She looked at her friend and then back at me. “I think she’s just looking to see if you’ll be her Daddy too,” she said with an impish grin.

“I suppose that’s possible,” I allowed, seeing Leanne stick out her tongue at Kelsey from the corner of my eye. “I get the impression that someone’s been bragging about how much they love having me be their Daddy.”

“Well, I might have mentioned that you’re not a total loss like the boys at school and you’re a little better than so-so to look at when you clean up like this AND you smell really pretty today, Daddy.” She giggled and danced out of reach before I could swat her ass.

I chuckled and shook my fist at her.

Rose latched onto her comment and came up to find out what Kelsey was talking about. She nuzzled into my neck and made an appreciative sound. “You DO smell nice today,” she commented and laid a peck on my neck before she backed away with a twinkle in her eye. “Not that you didn’t smell good yesterday. I think that suited what you wore yesterday. This works for the suit.”

That started the other girls wanting to smell for themselves. Leanne slipped her arms around me. “Give a girl a hug,” she told me and she took a moment to critique how I smelled. “I like yesterday better, but I can guess why you smell different today,” she grinned and then Swan wanted her own hug.

I picked her up and held her to me while she wrapped her arms around my neck. She was almost painfully small, compared to the other girls who were closer to being grown women. She took a moment to whisper in my ear that she didn’t want to hurt her own dad by calling me Daddy today and apologizing.

“Don’t be sorry, Pumpkin,” I whispered back. “If you slip and say it accidentally, I’m sure he’ll understand that it’s a nickname.”

I put her down and she turned to kiss my cheek before returning to her father’s side.

“Well, you certainly seem to have managed to get Swan to come out of her shell,” Darryl commented lightly, glancing back and forth between me and his daughter.

“I try to treat all the girls well,” I said with a smile. “They’ve all been over to see Kelsey at one time or another and I’m not so much older that I don’t remember what it was like in high school.”

He nodded. “I wondered about that. You said you were dating Kelsey’s mother, but you seem much younger than me and my wife and we had Swan straight out of college.”

I nodded. “I am a lot younger than Lisa,” I admitted. “She jokes that she’s just keeping me off the market until Kelsey’s old enough to date.”

Darryl laughed at that and the girls gave me knowing looks that suggested that they knew more than was proper. Thankfully, he didn’t notice. “Do I need to talk to you about staying away from Swan?” he asked.

“I don’t think she’d like that,” I said judiciously and drew his attention to the suddenly stern look his daughter was giving him.

He suddenly got a worried look on his face. “I think you’re right,” he admitted. “Maybe we should go.”

“I was taking Kelsey shopping,” I told him. “The girls are welcome to come along, though if Swan wants to come.”

He looked at her and shook his head. “Another day, maybe. We have some shopping of our own to do.”

Swan looked disappointed, but came to hug her friends and then give me another one before she reluctantly followed her father back to their SUV.

I looked at the vehicle and then at my Charger and thought I should really have something more like that now.

“What’s on your mind, Jake?” Kelsey asked, following my eyes. “Worried that she’s gonna get away?” She giggled at me and punched me in the arm. “Keep picking her up for hugs and she’ll be calling you Daddy again in no time.”

I gave her a wry look and a chuckle. “No, I was actually looking at the SUV and thinking I should have something more like that. I’ll never get rid of the Charger, but for the business, if I decide to get more serious about it, the extra space would be handy. Not to mention I have more people to offer rides to lately. Maybe I should go full Soccer-Mom and get a minivan.”

She made a face. “Get a full-sized van if you’re gonna do that. Turn it into a shaggin’ wagon with wall to wall mattress and satin sheets.”

“So you can borrow it on the weekends and use it for your own personal hotel room?” I asked slyly. “I think I’ll stick with the SUV idea. They look like they can do the job well enough.”

She shrugged and walked back to the car, flanked by Leanne and Rose. “I think I’m gonna take off,” Rose said regretfully. “I’ve got a Chem test first thing tomorrow and I need to hit the books.” She sighed and said she wished she could come along.

“We can drop you off, if you want,” I offered.

She nodded and the four of us piled into the car for the drive to her place. I’d never been to Rose’s place and it was in a nice neighborhood. It was sincerely a lot nicer than the neighborhood Kelsey and I were going home to. We didn’t live in a bad area, but you could tell that these lawns got professional care and plenty of it. Kelsey got out to let her out and she waved goodbye.

“Just us pervs now,” Leanne commented when we pulled away from the curb.

“Pervs?” I asked, glancing at her in the rear-view mirror. “Who said I was a perv?”

“Kelsey,” she said brightly.

I shot my little girl a dirty look that she had the good grace to look embarrassed about. “And what has poor, grounded Kelsey been telling you?” I asked pointedly.

“Don’t be mad at her,” Leanne pleaded with me, reaching up to touch my shoulder. “She didn’t tell anyone but me.”

“She wasn’t supposed to say anything to anyone else,” I said as calmly as I could. I shot glances at both girls as I tried to keep the car on the road. My heart was pounding in my chest. I could see the jail time coming already. For her part, Kelsey wilted continually under my gaze, getting a sense of how displeased I was. “Alright. Done is done. What did she tell you.”

“All of it,” Leanne told me, starting to get a sense of how pissed off I was about this. “She knows I won’t tell. I promised her I wouldn’t. I really won’t.”

I pulled over to the side of the road and parked the car in front of a random house, so I could turn toward the girls. “Kelsey,” I said guardedly. “DID you tell her everything?” She nodded wordlessly and stared at her lap. “ALL of it?” She nodded again and I sighed, rubbing my temple. I could feel my migraine starting. I still got them from time to time. I hoped I’d be able to drive home. They sometimes fucked up my vision. “Why would you do that? We talked last night about the consequences if that ever got out.”

“You told though!” she said, distressed that I was upset. “You told the people that you work with.”

“Kelsey, I told my lawyer and the people that work in the office. They CAN’T testify about the things I tell them. I could kidnap Chihuahua and cut him up into tiny little pieces and tell Brandon about it without worrying because that conversation is protected by laws and ethics so strong that they’re sacred. I trusted him because it’s his job to protect me if something bad happens. I take it you discussed this at school today?”

She nodded. “We have lunch together.”

“So the other girls know?” I asked, seeing the world spinning out of control.

She shook her head. “Only Leanne,” she insisted. “We went outside to talk. No one could have overheard. I told Swan and Rose that I needed to talk to her about something and then we went out to have lunch on the grass under the big tree in front of the school. No one else knows.”

I nodded. That was one worry out of the way. “Okay,” I allowed that point. “Why?”

“She knew something was up,” she admitted. “I...” she trailed off, knowing that she’d fucked up.

Leanne put a hand on Kelsey’s shoulder. “I knew that Kelsey was getting laid,” she explained. “I knew because she only ever looked like that after the times that she and I fooled around.” She blushed. “We’ve been ... She’s been my girlfriend for a couple of months now.”

I nodded. “That’s one question answered,” I said, my migraine making me want to cut my skull open to relieve the pressure. I closed my eyes and pressed my palm to my temple. I knew I needed to get my shit together if I was going to be able to drive. “So you demanded to know where she was getting her needs taken care of. Since you’re her girlfriend, she naturally told you.”

“That’s the short story,” she admitted.

“I think I need to hear the long version,” I said wearily. “Let’s get it all on the table.”

“I’m not going to tell anyone. You need to believe me when I say that,” she squeezed my shoulder. “She told me because I knew what she looked like after sex and I knew that I hadn’t put that look on her face. No one else noticed. The other girls know about me and Kel, so they’ll just assume that I’m the reason she looks like that. Now that I know what the deal is with the three of you, I can cover for you. It actually works out better.”

I nodded. “I suppose that’s understandable,” I allowed. “She can’t help looking happier when she feels it.” I took Kelsey’s hand to let her know that I didn’t hate her. She flinched, but then looked up at me with tears in her eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Daddy!” she whispered, devastated at the magnitude of how much risk she put us in.

“I know, Sugar,” I told her softly and gave her hand a squeeze. “We’re gonna have a long talk about this, but I’m not gonna embarrass you in front of your girlfriend.”

“You ... don’t hate me?” she asked uncertainly. “You’re not gonna go away?”

“I’d be a pretty rotten Daddy if I turned my back on you the first time you made a mistake,” I told her gently. “No, I don’t hate you, Sugar. I love you. You need to understand the immense danger you put us in though. I know you trust Leanne, but every time you tell a secret like that, you need to be able to be sure that it won’t come back to hurt you. My lawyer’s not allowed to talk about it. That’s why I told him.”

She nodded. “I know,” she whispered. “I just ... She knew something was up. I ... I had to tell her something and then we just ended up talking about all of it.”

“It’s kind of my fault, too,” Leanne admitted. “I thought she’d snuck off with Chihuahua and did something with him. I was so pissed off. After he called us cunts yesterday, I was gonna dump her if she’d let him touch her. When she wouldn’t tell me who it was, I was starting to get angry about it and told her that I hoped it was worth it because I wasn’t going to touch her again if that’s how it was.”

“I HAD to tell her, Daddy!” Kelsey cut in. “She didn’t understand. She thought I went with HIM and I couldn’t let her hate me for that.”

I nodded. “I get it,” I said. My head felt like it was gonna explode. I figured that should take care of the pressure. “So, this leaves us in an awkward position.”

“Not really,” Leanne said lightly. “You need someone to cover for you on days that Kelsey’s too spacey to pay attention to what she’s doing. The other girls know that we’re together and they’re cool with that, so they won’t think anything of her looking like she’s had sex recently. I don’t think either of them would be upset if they found out, but I think they might ask a lot of questions, Rose in particular.”

“You don’t think Swan would freak out a little?” I asked, thinking that was the opposite of what I expected.

“I think Swan would go along to get along,” she said. “She doesn’t have a lot of friends. I’m not saying that to be mean, but she’s really bad at making friends. I think she’d accept it without getting too huffy about it. Rose would probably want to know a lot about it, but she’s not gonna make waves either. They’re both cool with me and Kel. Why should this be any different?”

I looked at her seriously. “If Kelsey’s told you everything, then you know there’s a lot of difference,” I said flatly.

“There is, but that’s details. There are ... reasons that Rose would ask questions, but that’s not mine to tell, just like if she asks me questions about you guys, my lips are sealed. Just trust me, Rose isn’t gonna judge. She’ll be curious, not outraged.”

I nodded, deep in thought. Well, I was as deep in thought as I could be with my head pounding like this. “Okay,” I said quietly. “Don’t take this the wrong way, honey, but this wouldn’t have been my first choice. It’s not that I think that you’d rat us out, but sometimes friends fight and sometimes those fights turn nasty and people say things in anger that they can’t take back.”

“I’ll never tell!” she swore adamantly. “Not even if we split up.”

I nodded. “Good. It wouldn’t just hurt Kelsey, but also me and her mother to have this out there. There’s other people that would be hurt, but our lives would all be ruined.”

“I know,” she said. “One of the guys at my last school had an affair with one of my teachers. When it blew up, EVERYONE suffered. His family sent him off to one of those church schools where they try to ‘fix’ you with prayer and the teacher went to jail. Well, the trial hasn’t happened yet.”

I nodded and felt a little better, knowing that she’d seen a little of the consequences. “The kid was a friend of yours?”

She nodded. “It was my dad that he had the affair with. That’s why Mom and I moved here. We had to leave. People were harassing us everywhere we went. She’s from here. She’s gonna be divorcing him, but he won’t be getting out any time soon. In a way, I’m kind of glad. I hated it in Salt Lake City. It was way too churchy for me. Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is that I know first hand that it tears families apart. I still get mail from my dad. He says he still loves us, but he realized he was more attracted to guys and just couldn’t keep ignoring it. My friend, Josh, is miserable. I got one letter from him since we moved and he was talking about killing himself. I hope he didn’t,” she said softly.

I reached back and took her hand. “Sounds like you got the only happy ending out of that,” I said, giving her hand a squeeze.

She nodded. “I won’t let anyone find out about you guys,” she told me and I was ready to believe her this time. “Even if Kel and I were just friends, I wouldn’t be part of ruining lives like that. Josh cared about my dad and Dad cared about him. They both had their first time together really. At least their first time with another guy. They were both planning to come out when Josh turned 18 and they could be together legally.” She shrugged. “I guess that’s their problem now as to whether they tough it out and wait until Dad gets out. By that time, Josh will be in college so they can be together.”

“You’re rooting for them, by the sound of it,” I said.

“Yeah,” she said without much conviction. “Mom’s never gonna take him back, so he might as well commit to Josh. I mean they paid a hard price for the chance to be together.”

I nodded. Most of the guys I’d ridden with over the years were homophobic. I didn’t care, but at the same time, I wasn’t interested in even being around other guys when it came to sex. I’d seen three guys have sex with a girl at the same (time) and that was a little too close to the line for me. Fine to see it at a rally or in porn, but I didn’t want to feel some other guys balls bouncing off mine while we drilled the same chick. I spit-roasted Charlene once with her boyfriend at the time and even that was awkward. Dude kept trying to make conversation.

“Well, hopefully things work out for your dad,” I said. “It could go either way, depending on where they send him and how willing he is to be friendly to the right people.”

She nodded. “I know. Enough about him though. He’s gonna be gone for a while so I need to learn to get by without him.”

“Alright,” I said. I was feeling a little better, but I still wanted to throw up and lay down. “Let’s get the shopping done and then I can drop you off and we can go home for dinner.” I put my seat belt back on and pulled the car back out into traffic. Mercifully my sight was still okay. I grabbed my sunglasses though and put them on.

“Are you still mad at me?” Kelsey asked in a small voice.

“No, Kelsey,” I said in just as quiet a voice. “This conversation gave me a bitch of a migraine though. We need to get the bathroom stuff for both places and get keys cut.”

We went to Walmart for the sake of getting what we needed and the girls took off with the cart to start on the bathroom while I went to the automotive center to get keys done. That turned into a good news, bad news story. The good news was that there was someone cutting a key for another customer. The bad news is the grinder sounded like a million asshole children dragging their nails over a chalkboard to my migraine. By the time I had a copy of Kelsey’s key and two copies of mine, I was ready to hold up the pharmacy at gunpoint. I made my way up to the health and beauty section and found them filling a cart. We got copies of everything they used at home and I picked up duplicates of all my stuff for Lisa’s bathroom. I picked up a tube of KY, making Kelsey giggle and I gave her a knowing look.

“Is there anything else we need?” I asked and then clarified. “I mean NEED. My headache’s getting worse. If it’s not vital, we need to go.”

They shook their heads and we quickly made our way to the car. We dropped Leanne off and she paused before getting out of the car to kiss Kelsey on the lips and then turned to me and did the same. “Feel better, Daddy,” she said sympathetically. “I didn’t mean to ruin your day. I wanna talk about it more, but when you’re better.” She kissed me again, her tongue darting out to swipe across my lips before she jumped out, giggling and took off into the house.

To say I was stunned, would be putting it mildly. What was her game? Was she just looking for more details or hoping we’d give her and Kelsey more freedom together now that we were out in the open? My mind couldn’t focus right now, but I studiously filed the moment away, remembering the touch of her tongue on my lips.

We were about a half a block away from home when my vision started to get fucked up. Migraines suck. I tend to develop holes in my vision where I can’t see, weird kaleidoscopic effects that make it hard to drive and when they’re really bad, I start vomiting.