Chapter 7

What a delightful thing, having Cindy in the house with me. Two weeks into our relationship we were less awkward around each other. That's a good thing when the 'house' is an 8x35 foot travel trailer. But snug was okay. The bed was queen-sized, HUGE for me by myself, but perfect for me and my Cindy. We had a sofa we could share, the dinette, a little floor space. The big drawback was the bathroom.

Even though my customized trailer had, for these things, a HUGE shower, it was big enough for ONE. No way two people could fit. So showers this evening were solo. Of course, that doesn't keep a certain little girl from sticking her head in the curtain and giggling as her hand reached for random appendages.

And with curtains drawn around the trailer, we could do nude for a little while before I got into my shorts and T-shirt and she got her nightshirt and panties. We sat on the sofa together. Really together. As in, if I move, she moves with me. Like we're stuck together. And I'm loving it.

Bedtime. We straightened the sheets and comforter and turned them back.

"Uh, Dan," she says.

I look at my angel. Hair still wet. Note to self. Buy a hair dryer. "Yes, love?"

"D'you have to sleep in your underwear?"

"My shoulders get cold..."

"Your pants."

"No, I guess not. Why?"

"I'm takin' mine off. Take yours off."

"Sure." The underwear went on the nightstand beside the bed. Hers went on the other side.

A CD with soothing classical sounds went into the player and the sound went to background levels. As I slid under the sheets next to her, I switched out the lights. She formed herself against me as I lay on my back. Her hand traced down my chest, across my stomach and soft fingers wrapped up my dick, idly fondling.

"Mmmm," she said. "Almost perfect..."

"Just 'almost'?"

"Yeah. Perfect would be if this was every night for the rest of our lives..."

"Yes it would. Now go to sleep. The alarm's set for six. We'll get up, go to breakfast, and I'll drop you off back here so you can catch the bus, just like normal."

She stroked my fresh-shaven face with her hand, scooted up and kissed me. "Even the music is perfection. What is that one?"

"Moonlight Sonata. Beethoven."

The alarm came all too soon and the two of us jumped out of bed, dressing at opposite ends of the trailer to take advantage of the space. Fifteen minutes. Then in the truck and two miles up the road to the little diner that was often a breakfast stop for me. Waitress eyed my companion. She knew me. "Ain't that the little Smith girl? Donna's her mom?"

"Yeah, I said. This is my buddy. Promised her a breakfast if she did good in school."

"Oh ... Well, hi, hon. Whatcha want."

"Pancakes," said Cindy.

"And I'll do that too,"I said. "She gets milk an' orange juice. I get milk an' coffee."

The place was fast. A thirty percent tip every day helped that along. We were out the door and back in the RV park in forty-five minutes. As we were pulling in, I noted that the pickup truck of Donna's old boyfriend was leaving. I took the long way around to Cindy's place, making sure that he'd continued down the road.

I dropped Cindy off and drove to work. And every now and then during the day, I'd think of my little doll and I'd get pleasant feelings from the top of my head to, well, you know...

Things were going well on the project. They didn't need me there all day, so I left in mid-afternoon. Took advantage of that event to make a grocery run. Bought more TV dinners. And a hair dryer.

Back at the RV park, I stopped in the office. I was greeted by Helen.

"Hey, Dan, you're early."

"Yeah," I said. "Sometimes I can get away with it. How's things?"

"Pretty much the same as yesterday. An' you?"

"Great!"

"An' Cindy?"

"Took her to breakfast this morning. She was fine then."

Helen smiled. "Dan, we got to do something about that young lady. You seen that red pickup come through here?"

"Yeah. Her mom's old boyfriend. That's what Donna said, anyways."

"Yeah, I remember her seein' him back early in the year. I worry that he's gonna show up, an' no Donna, but here's this sweet little girl..."

"You really think?"

"I have my suspicious mind, you know. Watch too many a' them TV shows." She continued. "An' I notice that Donna's not just stayin' out all night on weekends. Her car wasn't here this mornin'."

"Yeah," I fibbed. "That's why I took Cindy to breakfast."

Helen cocked an eye at me. How much of that did she believe?

"Cindy needs somebody to take care of her. Looks like that ain't her mom, you know."

"I know. It's kinda sad. She's such a charmer."

Another look from Helen. "You need a daughter?"

"Like a hole in the head. Besides, what judge in his right mind would sign an adoption for THAT fourteen year old cutie to some forty year old single guy?"

"You might be surprised."

"An' do you honestly think that Donna's gonna sign over her own daughter?"

"Dan," said Helen, "I think that if Donna had just a teeny bit of encouragement, she'd be happy to get shed of that responsibility. You know, I could see that happening."

"And," I said, that's step one. What about step two?"

"Like I said, my husband was quite a character. You might think that runnin' an RV park ain't much, but Herb Hardison knew a lot of people. Folks liked him. Even a few judges he used to take huntin' an' fishin'. Old men that still owe favors to the right people."

"But I don't need a daughter, Helen. I travel."

"Remember what I told you about me an' my husband. About an older man takin' a young girl out of a bad situation? Maybe NOT a daughter."

"Helen," I said, "that's thinkin' that would get me twenty years in prison."

"Suppose now, just suppose, that I was her legal guardian. Court order. If 'er mom released her." Helen watched my face. "Do you think that I would let you hurt her?"

"Well, no..."

"So if you drove off with her, do you think I'd let that happen if I thought you'd hurt her?"

"No. but..."

"Dan, I'm not stupid. I watch you two. You smile when you're together. An' it's not a "father-daughter" smile, or a "big brother-little sister" smile. An' your face changes when you talk about her. Your eyes. An' she ain't learnt to be subtle yet, so she just bubbles." Helen's eyes twinkled. "If you two haven't already tied up, you're too damn close to count. Am I right?"

I didn't say anything.

"I'm right." She smiled.

"Helen," I said, "I'm not a dirty old man takin' advantage of helpless little girls. Honest. It's not like that."

"Dan, Dan, Dan, you're awful dumb for an engineer, bud. You're not listening at all. I watched her. I watched you. You an' me talked an' I had you figured for a decent fellow. Cindy's been here for years. I know her like one of my own. One of my own. If one of my daughter's woulda come home with you doin' the "Momma, we're getting married" thing, I'd have been very happy."

"Thanks, Helen. I appreciate that."

"Dan, that's not the half of it. Two or three weeks after you moved in, before school started, Cindy'd come in here every day an' ask about you. We noticed things together. You go to work. You come here. I've had construction guys in this park before, and they was always carousing and goin' out an' bringin' women back here. An' you didn't do none a' that. We both noticed."

I mused, "I didn't know I was being observed."

"Hah, you know me. I ain't got nothin' else to do. But Cindy, she was, like, "Mizz Helen, do you think he's nice?" an' "He's good lookin'" an' "guys like that, they make good husbands, huh?" and Dan, I think somebody set her sights on you. And then you turned Donna down. Flat! Cindy's..."

"Are you serious?"

"I'm serious. So you got a very precious little thing there, an' I don't want to see her broken. No way."

"I would never do that, Helen. I've been tearing myself apart over this. I have one thing telling me "no" and another thing telling me "yes"...

"And if I was her guardian, Dan, when she turned sixteen I'd have you an' her in the courthouse getting' married."

"You think?" There was hope.

"So what do we do for her birthday?" Helen laughed. "An' then ya'll have to make it through the next seven hundert an' thirty days..."

We made it through the week with homework sessions until eight. Cindy's mom had come back Tuesday and hadn't gone to work for the rest of the week. Cindy risked nothing. She dutifully transported books to my place, we did homework, Wednesday we went out for pizza afterward, but none of the roaring sex sessions like Monday night, just on the outside chance that Donna still had enough of a sense of smell to detect the odor of a freshly fucked teen.

Friday evening Cindy came over toting a shopping bag. She stepped into the trailer and extended it. "My birthday from Mom."

I looked at a pretty decent little set of clothes. "At least she got you something," I said.

"Yeah," said Cindy. "I suppose so." She clicked the lock behind her. And smiled demurely at me. And ran into my arms.

"Hello, there, my almost fourteen year old doll," I said, kissing her. "So, what's wrong? You're not smiling..."

"Oh, Dan, you know me an' Mom have been havin' trouble lately. She was just kinda mean today before she left. Told me she'd be married if she didn't have all the extra burdens. She was talkin' about me..."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." I held her.

"I just want to be held right now."

I guided her to the sofa and pulled her down beside me. She turned into my arms, then backed up into my lap, sideways, head on my shoulder. I wrapped her in my arms and gently kissed the top of her auburn head.

I felt the silent sobs. "Baby, nobody should cry on their birthday."

"Tomorrow's my birthday. An' tonight I just wish I could run away." Another sob. "I really try, Dan. Honest. I clean up, I even cook. I do the laundry. I don't cause trouble. An' she treats me like an obstacle to her life. It didn't use to be so bad, but since I turned twelve, every day it gets a little worse. But I tried..."

"I know, baby ... Sometimes people just aren't right."

Quiet voice. "Hold me, Dan."

And I whispered, "I love you, my Cindy forever."

"I need you, Dan..."

"What you mean, you need me?"

"You're, like, my life..."

"And you're mine."

"Dan," she said, sitting up, looking at me with a serious face, "You need to know that I WANT to be yours."

And a tornado of thought was going through my head. Damn it! She was fourteen. I was haplessly, hopelessly smitten with her. And she was fourteen. And what was I supposed to do? Give my heart to her? She had it. And there was a black corner of despair there, too, as in "Dan, in a year she's gonna be tired of you. And you're gonna be seriously screwed, in more ways than one."

"Cin, my love," I asked, "What does forever mean to you?"

"Forever. Is forever."

Cindy, darlin', I'm not just in this for a few weeks or a few months ... I want forever, too. But I'm way ahead of you in age. When you turn twenty-one, I'll be almost fifty. You'll be a beautiful young lady. What will you do with a fifty-year old husband?"

"Husband? As in, you'd MARRY me?"

"If we were together when you're twenty-one, we'd have been married five years."

"You'd marry ME?"

"Haven't I told you that?"

"We talked about marryin' an' laws an' stuff, but you never just said we'd be married..." Squeal. Her demeanor changed from the sadness of moments before to that twinkly-eyed doll whose smile could melt glaciers. "Dan," she smiled, "D'you love me, like, marryin' an' forever?"

"My dear," I answered, "what do you think I was just asking? I worry that I give you my heart at fourteen and at fifteen or sixteen or seventeen you decide that you're more attracted to people your own age ... It hurts to give away your heart and have it dropped in the street. I know." It was my turn to get teary. Flashes back to happy times. First marriage. And previous girlfriend, who I thought was carrying me out of the loss of my first wife. And then the darkness I had to dig myself out of, and the first ray of sunshine, well, in my heart I knew that ray of sunlight was Cindy.

"Oh, Dan," she said, "Is that a tear?"

"I'm sorry, Cin. Sometimes things get a little too much for me. I don't know if you understand what you mean to me, baby."

Cindy kissed my tears away. "Dan," she said, "I will never leave you. Forever. Like stars in the sky forever." And the next kiss wasn't on a teardrop. It was full on my lips, and the tongue that slid through her parted lips, touched my lips, and met my own tongue, It wasn't wanton, it was tender, yes, tender, caring in a way that belied the youth of its owner. She finally pulled away.

"Dan, you're so wonderful to me. But you know what really did it?"

"No. What?"

She smiled as if she were reliving a dream. "The other night when we went to bed, and you put that beautiful music on an' we held each other. I went to sleep in your arms with not a care. The sounds were perfect. The feelings were perfect. An' you holdin' me so gentle an' sweet was perfect."

"You make me feel good."

"That too!" And a mischievous grin. And a peck of a perfect little kiss. And from six inches away, her face was angelic perfection. "An' are we finished bein' serious? What's for dinner?"

"Let's get in the truck and figure it out on the road..."

Cindy climbed in on the passenger side and was buckled in. I climbed in, and off we went. "Catfish?" I asked.

"Uh-huh ... That's great!" So we went off to a local fried catfish emporium and had a happy supper.