by Lena Little
“It’s our destiny,” I say, no pun intended.
“And now I’m Daddy’s Destiny.”
“Damn right you are,” I growl.
She reaches up from my grip and our two lips meet.
Sometimes in life, you need to give destiny a little kick in the pants to get things started, and she sure did exactly that by showing up at my shop. Young, smart as a whip, beautiful, and all mine. What more could a Daddy want? Nothing, because I’ve got the most priceless thing in the world in my arms.
Her.
Always.
“I love you, baby girl.”
“I love you, Daddy.”
11
Dylan
The next day
I slide in behind Destiny who’s staring at the TV. Wrapping my arms around her from behind I nibble her earlobe. “I never asked you. Why did you come into my shop trying to buy that gun?” I pause. “And tell me the truth or you’ll get a spanking, little girl.”
“Why aren’t you spanking me already?” she smirks, which I can see because I wrap my head around the side of hers, although her eyes are still glued to the news.
“I’m not about to spank you for trying to buy it, but I will spank you for not telling me if you were going to actually use it. That was my question.”
“To be honest, I wasn’t sure. After the first few weeks in his home, I realized he’d adopted me as bait, which is why I never invited anyone over to the house and excluded myself from all high school activities, not wanting to get close to anyone so as not to endanger them. All I had to do was tough it out for a couple of years then I’d be an adult and be able to do things on my own. At least that’s what I thought until I realized he’d silently blackballed me for shutting him down.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, trying not to hug her too hard out of rage for Freddy.
“I found emails on his phone where he told people not to hire me for the internship positions I’d applied to. It made no sense because being a senator’s daughter, at least on paper, should have opened a lot of doors. Doors which he slammed shut. It got so bad that I was applying for after school jobs and couldn’t even get an interview. I was way overqualified and had a four point-o g.p.a….yet still, nothing.” She pauses. “But to answer your question I didn’t want to actually kill him, and wouldn’t have.”
“You’ve got too big of a heart.”
“And thankfully now it belongs to you,” she says turning in my arms as the TV shows Freddy doing the perpetrator’s walk as it’s known in legal circles. He’s going away for a long, long time, and with more victims coming forward by the hour it’s clear he’ll never see the light of day again.
“And I know the responsibility that brings, and I accept it gladly. I want to be the rock you can always lean on. I need to be the man you can share things with, get them off your chest, and feel better. I want to be there holding you each and every night when we go to bed, your face the first and last thing I see each and every day. And not just your face, but your face with a smile.” And smile she does, melting me instantly. “Like that!”
We embrace for I don’t even know how long until finally I feel her body start to pull back a bit and wonder if I’m squeezing her too much. It’s just that I love my baby too much and it’s time to show her what that means for us, for our future.
I grab the remote and turn off the TV, dropping to a knee.
“Little one, you’re the strongest person I know. Your whole life you’ve been fighting battles on your own and not saying a thing about it to anyone, just surviving and trying to make it another day. Surviving ends now, and thriving begins, because Daddy’s going to do everything to make sure all your dreams come true from this day forward…because you’ve already made all his come true just by existing. Your smile, your beauty, your mind, everything about you. Even when you’re trying to make me jealous I still couldn’t ever feel anything but love for you.”
“And possessiveness,” she adds.
“Absolutely. And now it’s time to possess you always, just like thoughts of you possess me.” I slide a tiny black, felt box out of my pocket, and pop open the top. “A princess cut for my princess. And while you’ll always be my princess what I really want, what I need, is for you to be my queen. Make me the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Make me your Daddy, your everything, forever. Will you marry me?”
As she slowly closes her eyes and reopens them I can literally see the weight of the world, the struggle she’s been carrying around on her shoulders her whole life like the female version of Atlas, melt away.
“You make everything so perfect, Daddy. Yes. I’ll be yours, always, because I always have been.”
“We just needed destiny to bring us together.”
“We sure did,” she laughs in-between tears, my words obviously a nod to her getting the ball rolling. And now that snowball is an avalanche speeding downhill into eternity.
I slide the ring onto her finger, a perfect fit. Not a second later I feel it graze my cheek as she cups my face and tugs me up, causing me to stand for the best part of it all. Her lips, our kiss.
“I love you, little one,” I say, scooping her up in my arms.
“I love you, Daddy.”
Epilogue
Dylan
Three months later
“Honey, I’m home,” I say as I walk into the house. Man, saying that never gets old. Knowing my woman is here, safe, while I’m out taking care of things for us makes my chest swell with pride. I’ve got Fort Knox level security installed so no one ever gets even close to the property to so much as breath in her direction. And when we leave I’m always there by her side, just how she likes, which she tells me each and every day.
As possessive as I am for her I’ve offered her the chance to do things by herself, not wanting her to feel like a prisoner or constantly under my surveillance, although if she did leave the house I’d be hanging back on my motorcycle keeping an eye on her just in case. Losing her would be losing everything, and I’m never taking that chance.
“How did it turn out?” she asks from the kitchen. Once I’m there to properly greet her I hold up the blanket. She turns from making cookies to look at it. “I like it.”
“Should keep you warm and cozy when we’re snuggling and watching movies on the couch at night.” I can’t even believe I say words like cozy and snuggle these days, but as her Daddy, I’ve surprisingly grown accustomed to it quickly, and love making my little happy. I twist my hands so she can see the other side of the blanket, where our names are hand-stitched on one side.
“I love it, Daddy. But you know the only warmth I need is yours.”
I shoot her a naughty look. “And that’s not the only thing I’ve had done.” I slide up my sleeve, being careful not to catch the plastic that’s taped to my forearm.
“Whoa!” she says, stopping with the cooking immediately as she moves closer to me.
“Yep, sweetheart. It’s your name and…us.”
It took over two days in the chair to complete and a lot of work to hide it the last couple of days, but the ink on my arm is easily my best yet. It’s her name accompanied by a drawing of the two of us kissing. She stands on my toes, lifting up on her tiptoes to reach my lips. It couldn’t demonstrate our relationship better. I’m always trying to lift her up, in all ways…to help her feel a little bit taller and let her know there’s somebody there for her. Always.
“When did you…?”
“It’s been a work in progress my entire life. I just never knew it until I found you.”
“Does this mean we can’t shower together?” she teases.
“Where there’s a will there’s a way.”
“I love your positivity.”
“And I love you. Every. Single. Thing. About. You.”
She melts into my arms before taking a step back and sliding the cookies into the oven.
“How’s your homework?”
“Great. I even got an A on my math quiz.�
��
“Because you’re a freaking genius!”
“Thanks to your help. I can barely pronounce trigonometry, let alone learn it. My tutor,” she winks at me, “made all the difference.”
I pull her in and give her a kiss on the top of the head.
“And there’s something different I wanted to talk to you about, too.”
“This sounds serious,” I say, pulling back, recognizing the change in her tone.
“It is.”
I scoop her up, along with the blanket, and carry her into the living room and sit her on my lap on our couch. Pulling the drawer out of the table next to it, I remove her wooden hairbrush and begin brushing those long, beautiful locks of hers. I know it relaxes her and I can see that’s what my little girl needs right now.
“Some things have come out in the news lately that make it seem like you had some kind of history with Freddy. And you’ve kinda alluded to it too. Did you know him before I came into your shop a few months ago?”
I exhale hard. “I’m happy to tell you about my past, anything and everything you want to know, but I don’t want to throw salt on a fresh wound.”
“I’d like to know.”
“Okay then,” I begin. “I don’t know him, but I know of him. Reason being is he locked me up on b.s. charges when I was younger. He wanted to keep his conviction rate high when he was a lawyer, and once I’d been booked, for a crime I knew nothing about, by the way, he was determined to convict. He even refused a simple twelve dollar D.N.A. test which would have proved my innocence, proved I’d never even been anywhere near the scene of the crime. All he ever wanted to do was refuse anything the public defender put in front of him, especially my juvenile status, trying me as an adult.”
“You’re kidding?”
I shake my head. “Unfortunately not. I was an orphan and I had no one to back me up.” I roll my eyes. “Seems he has a thing for orphans in every way. He preys on people he incorrectly perceives as weak when in reality we’re tougher than the average kid because we’ve fought through more.”
“You can say that again.”
“I served five years for armed robbery, which was crazy because I’d never even held a gun or so much as stolen a look from anyone. I always kept my head down and minded my own business, which is exactly what I tried to do in jail. But it doesn’t really work that way inside the bars that cage you and other men up. Inside I met hardened thugs and learned the underground scene, and not only that I learned a lot of the people in there had also been locked up on charges that lacked as much evidence as mine did.” I pause. “All these years I’ve been trying to think of a way to take him down, but nothing came to mind. Nothing that I could accomplish successfully.”
“Until I walked in.”
“Until you walked in and made everything perfect, although getting revenge on him was never part of the game. Getting you was everything. The revenge was just an added bonus.”
“You like how I planned it out to the end, how I showed up knowing you’d be in the backroom watching?” she asks with a mischievous smile on her face.
“What plan did you have you naughty little girl?”
“Didn’t you ever wonder why I didn’t ask why you happened to be outside my house that night?”
“Because you already know the answer. I followed you from the gun shop.”
“Did you really think I thought I was going to buy a gun, when I used Feddy’s against him?”
I say nothing, waiting for my little planner to reveal more of the ways she heisted my heart.
“I watched your shop for weeks, knew the hours you kept, and who worked behind the counter at what times. And at what times you were in the backroom, surely watching those security cameras you had everywhere.”
“You what?”
“I was looking through a list of people that my dad had put away, someone who wouldn’t like him and who might be able to help me. When I saw your picture my heart stopped. At that moment thoughts of hate and revenge went away and I felt other things for the first time in my life. I felt like there was a man out there who was destined to protect me, one who was so perfect, the father I’d wished I’d always had…a real Daddy. This was my chance to literally pick my own Daddy out of thin air. But I didn’t want to go to you until I was eighteen.”
“Because of the gun permit.”
“And other things,” she smirks.
“You set me up!” I play along, although she knows I admire her ingenuity.
“I gave you a nudge to see if you’d follow and I knew you had cameras in your shop so if anything happened to me that night there would be video evidence of where I was and how I’d been driven, emotionally, to do what I might have to do.”
“You used me,” I gasp, having fun but loving her big reveal, just like I love everything about her.
“I didn’t trick you, I chose you. And I gave you a chance to choose me right back, or not. That’s all. I’m a lady after all and I prefer to be the pursued, not the pursuer. But at least I should get a say in who’s doing the pursuing…right?”
“Like I always say, I might be bigger and stronger physically, and have more life experience, but you’re the one in charge of what you want. I’ll never ask you to do anything you don’t want to do, nor press you in any direction you don’t want to go. And you know that if anyone did, I’d wreck them. But back to the story. How did you know I’d follow you?”
“I didn’t, but I made sure not to make it hard. And at first, I didn’t think you’d followed me. Your tailing skills are good, Daddy.”
“That’s what sleek motorcycles are for, precious.”
“And before I did anything I also did some checking and saw that you’d never been married and hadn’t been linked to any other women.”
“Because you were my destiny, and I was waiting all these years for you and only you, even though I didn’t know it.”
“Daddy’s Destiny?”
“You know it. And I also know that as my destiny, this, what we have, you…it’s guaranteed to last forever.”
“Just like my love for you, Daddy.”
“Just like my love for you, angel.”
I give her a kiss and just shake my head in appreciation and a bit of surprise at my little girl. These days nothing she does surprises me. At least that’s what I thought until…
“Oh, and I’ve got one more thing to reveal.”
“More secret plans?” I tease.
“How can it be a secret when you already told me it’s exactly how things were going to be when it happened, and it turns out you were exactly right.”
My eyes narrow and I rack my brain trying to figure out what she’s alluding to. “I don’t get it.”
“But what you do get, to be in about half a year, is a different kind of…” she pauses, her mouth open as she holds one more word on the tip of her tongue. “Daddy.”
My body covers in goosebumps and I jerk back, my eyes widening. “You mean?”
“Yep,” she says, bringing my hand to her belly.
I pull her in tight, kissing her all over and then kissing her stomach.
“I know you’re in there, buddy. Daddy’s out here ready for you.”
“You’ve got to wait six more months,” she laughs. “But luckily for you, someone else is ready for Daddy right now.” She pulls the blanket up and over our heads. “Can we play Daddy’s Secret Surprise?” she whispers under the cover.
“You read my mind. Just like you always know what I’m thinking and what I’ll do in any given situation.”
“Because you’re my destiny.”
“And you’re mine, Destiny. I love you.”
“I love you.”
Extended Epilogue
Destiny
Ten years later
I can’t believe it’s been a decade already. Where does the time go? I ask myself this question every day but I already know the answer. Time flies when you’re having fun, and I’m having more than a barre
l of monkeys because I’ve got the man of my dream…and the family of my dreams to match.
I look down in the crib at Diana and Daniela, our four month old twins. Daniel, our firstborn son, is outside watching and playing with our other two children, David and Delilah, giving mommy some time with my two new bundles of joy.
“I thought I might find you in here,” a deep voice says softly.
I just smile, not wanting to wake them.
“You want me to take over for a minute so you can get back to your Etsy store?”
“Not quite yet,” I say, taking his big hand in mine before he quickly wraps his other around me, pulling me in close as we watch our new girls together.
Dylan sold the business shortly after Daniel was born, saying that time with his family was worth more than any amount of money anyone could throw at him. Luckily the new buyer threw a lot and neither one of us ever has to work another day in our lives.
As for me? I actually enjoy my ‘job’, if you can call it that. I design footsie pj’s for kids, hand-sewing each pair with love before shipping them out to all corners of the globe. I love receiving orders and letters from satisfied parents just as much as I do making them. But what I’d really like to ‘make’, is another child.
Every time I go through the delivery process I say ‘never again’, until that newborn baby, or babies, in this case, are put in my arms. Then it’s just a matter of when I can get pregnant again so we can just keep growing our little family. Luckily, Dylan is always happy to oblige. I swear the man just might like children more than I do, and that’s saying something because I absolutely adore them.
“More to squeeze these days,” I say, admitting I’ve gained a little weight over the years.
“You’re pregnant again?” he says, spinning me to face him. “Tell me it’s true.”
“No, silly. It doesn’t really work that way. At least not for me.”
“We can change that,” he says grinding his hips into my stomach so I can feel his need.