My Father's Best Friend's Secret Baby

by Jamie Knight

  Chapter 28

  Natalia

  I woke up feeling the happiest that I had in as long as I could remember. I was falling for this man. I already wanted to buy him underwear. Take long drives in the country together. Suck that incredibly thick, juicy cock as a thank you for emptying the dishwasher.

  The last time that I felt so happy was the day that my mother took me and some of my friends to an amusement park. We had done everything there was to do that we could find in the park. We rode every rollercoaster and every ride that spun had spun us until we were so dizzy and couldn't walk.

  We got off the rides, laughing our heads off, falling all over each other because we were so dizzy. I remembered the easy way that my mother had laughed, watching us and shaking her head.

  “You girls are so silly,” she said, laughing and sighing.

  She too was happy, just watching us having fun.

  It was my first time eating a funnel cake. The smell wafted up into my nose, making me crave the warm sticky dessert. And tasting it had been like eating a miracle, if that was even possible. I ate so much that I struggled to breathe. I had to pretty much waddle out of the amusement park.

  There was still a picture of that day that was made into a magnet and put on our refrigerator. Three of my friends, plus Grace of course, had their arms out in front of them and held me why I lay floating in their arms. I had smiled so big, my cheeks hurt. I had been truly happy.

  Now, I sat up in bed for a few minutes, watching as Bradley slept easily. I wanted to reach out and touch his face, just to make sure that he was real, that I hadn't just dreamed or imagined him being there. It’d felt this way all week, every time I’d woken up before him and still couldn’t believe my luck. But, he looked so perfectly serene, I didn't want to risk waking him.

  I decided to slip out of bed quietly, careful not to move too much so that I wouldn't stir him, and headed toward the kitchen. I wanted to make Bradley a nice breakfast in bed. I thought that would be a great start to our day after such an amazing night. Truly, I was just in love with the little world that the two of us had made this past week. Now I wanted everything to be special, to match my mood.

  I found a pancake recipe online and determined we had all of the ingredients that I needed. I wasn't the greatest chef, but hell, I could follow a simple recipe. The recipe boasted that it was the best ever, so I had hope for it.

  As I walked to the kitchen, I passed the couch. A flash of thought hit me, it was the same couch where I had my first orgasm with Bradley and the one that I had sat on many times watching movies with my father. Absently, I wondered what would happen if our secret was discovered.

  This was one secret that I was not too eager to share with my father. There was no telling the damage that could be done. Even though I didn't ask Bradley, I had a sneaking suspicion that he would agree with me on that one.

  But my attention quickly returned to marking this morning with a breakfast made of love. I liked that connection, food and sensuality. Bradley was awakening all kinds of new experiences for me.

  I quickly tore through the pancake recipe and cooked each one to a crispy golden brown. After that, I found some eggs. I had a taste for some fried eggs and made some to go alongside the pancakes. When I had finished making everything, I pulled two plates out of the cabinet and went to the stove to serve the food.

  But as I turned, Bradley appeared in the kitchen. My heart sank a little thinking about how my plan wasn't going to happen. I couldn't very well surprise him with breakfast in bed if he had already gotten out of bed. I quickly let the thought go and decided that any type of breakfast, whether in bed or not, would be great with a man like Bradley.

  “Good morning,” I said, greeting him cheerfully.

  “Good morning,” he said, sounding so sad.

  I froze, holding a spoonful of eggs in midair over one of the plates. I looked over at him and saw a very serious, worried look on his face. It was a look that I had only seen on the faces of people after someone had died. My heart started beating fast. What was going on?

  “Everything okay?” I said, almost afraid to ask the question.

  He didn't speak for a few moments and stared down at the floor.

  “No,” he said, finally, covering his face with his hands.

  “What's wrong?” I asked, knowing that I wasn't going to like the answer.

  “Listen, we need to talk...” he said, slowly walking over to sit down at the kitchen table.

  I stopped what I was doing, completely abandoning any idea of having a romantic breakfast. Something had obviously changed since last night and I needed to find out what. I sat down silently at the table, folding my hands in my lap, my lips pressed together firmly as I waited for him to speak.

  “What happened this week shouldn’t have happened,” he began, talking very slowly as if he was trying to choose his words carefully. “Don't get me wrong; it was great. No, it was amazing. You were amazing. The only thing is... it shouldn't have happened. It was completely inappropriate. I let my poor judgment get in the way of what I know is best and now things are completely messed up. I wish that I could take it back, but I can't. And I'm so sorry.”

  I was devastated by his words. I felt like he was trying to brush off what was happening like it was just some fling, some fly-by-night nothing that we could easily just push aside as if it had never happened. I didn't want this to be like the kiss: something that happened that we never talked about or acted like had never happened.

  “This week meant something to me,” I said, the pain in my voice obvious.

  He looked up at me apologetically. He clasped my hands in his.

  “You're right. It does mean something. It means that I'm a weak, pitiful old man who allowed his desire for you to get the best of him. And you let your pity for a weak, pitiful old man get the best of you. I shouldn’t have let you. You deserve someone your own age. A much better match for you than I could ever be.”

  I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Tears started streaming from my eyes before I had a chance to stop them.

  “Please don't cry,” he pleaded, moving to wipe away the tears as they fell. I pushed his hand away.

  “I care about you,” I said.

  “I care about you, too,” he replied quickly. “That's why I'm saying this. I don't want to hurt you and I don't want you to be sad. I just want it to be clear that what happened should not have happened. And I’m so sorry, Natalia. It can never happen again.”

  I could feel the tears welling up all over again, but this time, they were accompanied by another feeling: anger. I was angry that something so simple and amazing could be complicated by things like reason and rules.

  I was angry that I had allowed myself to get so wrapped up in what was happening that I never even stopped to consider what would happen once it got good. And, more than anything, I was angry that Bradley was making something so beautiful into something ugly.

  “I know that none of this is easy and so little of it makes sense,” he continued, taking his hands away from mine like they were flames consuming him. “I didn't expect any of this to happen and I hate that I let it go as far as it did. That's why I've decided that I'm going to move out when James, er, your dad gets back into town. That way, it won't happen again. It's for the best, Natalia. I hope that you believe me.”

  My anger quickly escalated into rage as his words sunk in.

  “So, I don't get a say in any of this?” I screeched, shaking I was so mad. “You just get to make all of the decisions here without even considering how I might feel or what I might want?”

  I pounded the table, emphasizing my last words, waiting for his rebuttal. But, no rebuttal came. He just leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, looking off in the distance. I tried to catch his gaze, to look into his eyes, and see if that was how he was really feeling, but he didn't give me the chance. It was almost like he was refusing to make eye contact with me.

  “Fine,” I said, pus
hing away from the table. I walked as quickly as I could to my bedroom and walked into my closet. I rummaged around until I found my tennis shoes. It had been such a long time since I had run.

  I first discovered my love for running when my mom put me in track at the beginning of my Freshman year in high school. She said that she thought that it would help me to run off some of the nervous energy that I had.

  And she was right. Despite my initial protests against running, I quickly learned that running helped me to put everything that might have been worrying me behind me. Each step was refreshing, like I was running toward and bright and shining future and leaving anything negative behind me.

  Considering what my day had started like, I figured that today was a great day for me to get back into running.

  As I ran, I tried to think of a plan, something that I could do to try to change things. Even though the shower plan had gone tragically wrong, I held out a faint hope that things might turn around if only I did or said the right thing.

  I tried to think of something seductive that I could say, something that would put his hairs on end and make him lose all control of his senses. I was desperate for some sort of solution to stop him from wanting to leave.

  Suddenly, I halted my gait. At that moment, I realized something that I should have realized from the very beginning: it didn't matter what I did or said. Bradley was very confident in his decision. I knew that I would love to see where things went and that I was boiling with the urge to keep pushing. I didn't want to give up so easily.

  But, at the same time, I knew that his mind was made up. And that I would only be frustrating myself and probably Bradley in the process if I just didn't come to terms with the way that things were. He was convinced that the best thing to do was for him to leave. So, there was no sense in my trying to stop him.

  I couldn't force someone to be with me who didn't want to be.

  And that was just the thing: I was sure that, deep down, Bradley really wanted to be with me. I could see the way that he was fighting not to get turned on this morning, but couldn't help himself. But, I also knew that he was a man of honor and lived by a certain code and his being with me had made him violate that code. It was tearing him up inside.

  I started back running toward the house, feeling my heart breaking with each step. It was the first time that I had run and it seemed to pull me deeper into sadness rather than taking it away.

  When I got back to the house, I didn't see Bradley anywhere. At the same time, I wasn't exactly looking for him. I decided that I would do my best to avoid him until he left. It would be easier not to have a constant reminder of my sadness.

  Chapter 29

  Natalia

  A couple of days later, my dad came back home. I heard his loud voice booming from the front door before I saw him.

  “Natalia, I'm home!” he called out.

  Hearing his voice made me realize how much I had missed him. I ran to the door and jumped up into his arms, hugging and kissing him.

  “I'm so glad to see you, Dad,” I said, nestling my head into his chest. “How was your trip?”

  He sighed, and looked up from our hug to cast his gaze around the house.

  “It was just like any other trip, I suppose,” he said, sounding tired. “I'm just glad to be back home for a while. How was everything here? Good, I hope?”

  I tried not to think about everything that had happened and tried even harder to plaster a fake smile on my face for my dad's sake.

  “It went fine,” I said.

  “Good,” he said, nodding his head. “Was Bradley helpful?”

  I should have expected that he was going to ask about him, but it didn't stop me from wincing at the sound of his name. I knew I would have to figure out a way to hide any reaction I might have to news about him.

  “Yes, he was great,” I said. “He helped me get my car going again.”

  I could feel my dad's eyes carefully searching my face.

  “Good,” he said, once he was satisfied with my response. “Where is he? I should say hello.”

  He called after him and I knew that that was my cue to make my exit.

  “Okay, well, it's good to see you home,” I said, walking toward my bedroom.

  Bradley walked out his room as I was passing him. We had this moment of awkward silence as we stood there staring at each other. I gulped. He blinked. Quickly, I walked around him, keeping my head down until I got to my room.

  I wanted to talk to my dad some more, but I decided that I would spend my night in my room so that I wouldn't have to risk running into Bradley again. I wasn't exactly sure how long I could go avoiding him, but for now, until my heart could heal a little bit, I would have to do whatever it took to make sure that I didn't run into him, especially in front of my dad. My dad was very observant and it wouldn't take him very long to start asking some very hard questions that I wouldn't have answers to.

  But, all I wanted was for Bradley to stay in the house so that I could see him every day. Even though we hadn't talked for several days, simply knowing that he was in the house was enough to give me a glimmer of hope that things might turn around for the better. I went to sleep that night with thoughts that maybe things wouldn't turn out as bad as I thought.

  I woke up and made a big breakfast, partially to welcome my dad back, but also in an effort to call a truce between Bradley and me. We needed to smooth things over.

  I knew that there was no way that we could talk about anything in front of my dad. But I hoped that maybe by me cooking breakfast for him too that he would understand I had no hard feelings, and anything negative that had happened between us didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth.

  I found the same pancake recipe that I had found before and got to work making the pancakes.

  “It smells delicious in here,” said my dad, walking around the corner with a smile on his face, wearing his fluffy robe, the one that he always wore when he got back from deployment. He sat down at the table and playfully picked up a knife and fork and banged it down on the table, pretending that he was waiting for food.

  “I'm making pancakes for all of us,” I giggled and told him, tickled by his playful nature.

  “Oh, well, there's only the two of us,” he said. “Bradley moved out. Found himself an apartment. I'm so happy for him. I wasn't sure how long that it would take, but it looks like he took care of business right away. I just hope that he's happy.”

  “Me, too,” I said, trying to keep my voice cheery and my face as straight as possible. I finished making the pancakes and stacked some on my dad's plate. I excused myself after I had finished serving him, telling him that I was starting to feel sick and needed to lay down.

  Oh, crap. I couldn't believe that he had actually left. I wanted to believe that he was just overreacting, that this was the way that his mind tried to make sense of everything that had happened between us.

  I told myself that it would blow over and he would be right back to indulging in whatever it was that we had going on. I told myself all these things that I wanted to be true, not realizing how badly I was deluding myself.

  I felt so stupid. I was a fool for believing lies of my own creation. And I was dumb for letting myself get so wrapped up in Bradley to the point that, now that he was gone, I wasn't quite sure how I was going to pull myself together.

  The first thing that I could think to do was to call Grace. Even if she didn't really have a solution to my problem, talking to her always made me feel better.

  She picked up the phone after the first ring.

  “Hey, there, lover girl,” she said, her voice dripping with seduction. “How's everything going with you and your lover boy?”

  I opened my mouth to answer her and the only thing that I could manage to do was to break down in tears all over again.

  “Oh, my God!” she exclaimed, immediately sounding serious. “What's wrong?”

  “Bradley... left... and... now... I... ” I said, trying to catch my breath
in between the avalanche of tears that was still flowing.

  “I'll be over in a flash,” she said, getting off the phone quickly.

  I hung up my phone, throwing it onto the bed. I lay down on the bed and cried some more. The truth was, I wanted to be mad at him for making such a drastic decision, but I couldn't help but think about the wonderful times that we had spent together, how tenderly he held onto me, the way that he looked at me. The memories flooded me so hard and fast and I couldn't stop the tears from streaming.

  About twenty minutes later, I heard a knock at the door. Grace opened it without waiting for an answer, peeking her head around the corner.

  “Natalia, you in here?” she asked.

  My head felt like it weighed a ton as I tried to lift it up to look in her direction. I croaked out a response.

  “Awww,” she said, her voice so full of compassion. “Honey, you'll be okay. But, tell me what happened? I thought that things had turned around and were going well. I know I was out of phone range for our family’s week of camping but I assumed all went great, since I didn’t hear from you when I got back yesterday. Did the shower plan not go the way that we expected?”

  She had a carton of mint chocolate chip ice cream in her hand, two bowls, and two spoons. She walked over to the dresser and sat everything down, served a couple of scoops of ice cream into each bowl, and brought them over to the bed.

  I laughed, thinking all the way back to the shower plan.

  “No, the shower plan was a complete bust,” I said, sitting up and wiping my face with my sleeve. “It got me nowhere but next to him watching a movie all night. But, while we were watching the movie, I saw that he had a boner. It was pretty weird. I was sure that something was going to happen, but it didn't. So, the next day, he tells me that he wants to go on a date...”

  “Oh, yeah I remember you telling me that,” she said, perking up. “What an asshole! I thought that pretty much was the end of everything. Anyway, good riddance.”

  She brushed her hands together like she was cleaning them. It was always hard to get through a story with Grace because she would always interrupt and not sit long enough to listen to all of the details. Normally, it didn't bother me, but today, it was frustrating.