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"Do you like fish, it's good for you."
"I think so I mean I've fried lots of it when dad would go fishing with Mr. Stark..." Her voice tapered off at the mention of her father.
Taking her hand I gave it a squeeze, rubbing my thumb back and forth across her palm. I pulled her to me for a kiss. If it's the last thing I do I'm going to wipe that desolate look from her face for good. I'll be damned if he'll cause her any more sorrow or heartache.
"You hanging in there baby?" She nodded her head before taking a bite of her fish.
"This is good Gideon, I like it."
"Good I'm glad."
We enjoyed the rest of our meal over much lighter conversation. I asked about school and what these tests she was taking this week were all about.
I wasn't surprised to learn that she was in the top one percentile of her class, which she told me was unknown to her father.
She'd taken her SATs and passed with flying colors and some other aptitude tests they were giving kids these days that they didn't have when I was in school.
Apparently she'd done well enough to be accepted to an Ivy League school, but daddy dearest had nixed that. Well I'll get all her affairs with the school straightened out. I had the necessary papers now, she was old enough to speak for herself, and we didn't need his signature for anything. Asshole.
I still didn't like the idea of him being her guardian of note so I’m gonna have to deal with that first.
"Would you like to get married?" She dropped the fork and looked at me with wide-open eyes.
What the fuck? I hadn't meant to say that, what the hell had just happened? We barely knew each other, she hadn't even met my parents, and she was so fucking young. I was going to wait, what the hell happened to waiting until she got settled in?
Yeah, all those things were true but when she jumped from her seat into my lap, her arms going around my neck to hold me in a chokehold, I knew it was the right move.
If I could just get my heart to calm down we'd be good to go.
Fuck Thorpe, you really are nuts, you've lost your fucking mind over this girl. How do you go from being totally against giving up your freedom to getting married to a girl whom you'd only just met?
I haven't even really kissed her yet, not the way I wanted to anyway. I had no idea what her likes and dislikes were. What were her favorite things to do? In fact I knew nothing about her except that the way she made me feel, I'm sure I'd never feel that good again with anyone else. Never!
There was a lot to be done I had three months before her eighteenth birthday. I'd already committed myself to waiting until then before taking her to my bed...well, before making love to her there since she was already sleeping in my bed.
"You won't change your mind will you?"
"Well you haven't answered the question yet so..."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes." She squealed, peppering my face with kisses after each enthusiastic yes and I was grinning like an ass.
"So when... How? Tomorrow?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, not so fast little one, we have to plan it, sometime after your birthday."
"Why do we have to wait?" I hated to see her lose that exuberance but I had to do this right for her sake.
I kissed her nose before looking into her magnificent eyes.
"Because I have a mother who would skin me alive if I ran off and got married without telling her. She's going to want to plan an extravagant event whether or not it's just us, or she invites half the state."
She grew rather quiet and sullen and I was beginning to realize that I hated to see her look anything but happy. Lifting her head up, I caressed her cheek lovingly.
"What is it, what's wrong?"
"What if she doesn't like me?" She looked close to tears, I guess it's only natural for every new daughter in law to worry about whether or not her new mother in law would approve, but somehow I think there was more going on here than that.
She looked fucking petrified, just as she had that morning when she asked me if this was home.
