“You don’t have to thank me. Anything for my girls.” I pulled her closer and put my mouth on hers. I groaned when she licked the seam of my lips and bit my bottom lip. I was hooked on her, and she knew it.
“Mommy, is this color good?” Sometimes it was a little too easy to forget we weren’t alone. Sam nodded as she climbed off my lap.
“Perfect!” Sam replied as Bella skipped to the table. Sam shrugged at me with a devious little smirk. We weredefinitelyhaving that date later.
* * *
“You knowwhere the school is right, babe?”
“Yes, Sam. I’ve picked Bella up with you a couple of times.”
“Okay, just making sure. Bella! Come on, time to go!”
Bella came out of her room in a short-sleeved blue dress with rhinestones along the hem and a pair of black Mary Janes on her feet. She looked like an adorable little princess. I knelt down in front of her.
“Wow, Butterfly! You look beautiful! Ready to go?” Bella flung her arms around my neck and giggled.
“Don’t wait up, Mommy!” I told Sam as I led Bella out to the car.
The dance was in the cafeteria of Bella’s school. It looked like a typical dance with streamers everywhere and a DJ of sorts who hooked up an iPod to speakers. Dads were congregated on one side while the girls were running all around. Bella let go of my hand when she saw her friends, and I headed over to the refreshment table for a bottle of water.
“So, you’re Lucas, I take it?” I was surprised one of the fathers knew who I was. “John Ericson, Julianna’s dad.” I’d met Julianna quite a few times and even picked Bella up from their house, but never met her father before.
“Lucas Hunter, nice to meet you.” I shook his hand. He seemed like a decent guy, so I was hoping he wasn’t one of Marc’s friends.
“We didn’t know Bella had a voice until this year. She talks about you all the time when she’s over the house. It’s nice to see. I hated how her father used to grunt at her when he’d pick her up. You must’ve been just what she needed.” I hated how it was common knowledge that Marc treated his wife and daughter like garbage, but I was glad to hear I might be turning it around.
A stocky guy in a sports jacket came up to John. He had headphones on and looked like he was listening to the game on his phone.
“I hate these fucking things. My ex-wife was on my case to bring Sarah. Did you hear Marc Christensen moved to Chicago? I was wondering why I hadn’t seen him around. Maybe his hot wife is available now; what was her name again? Yes, Samantha! I wouldloveto tap that. A pretty face with a rack like that shouldn’t go to waste.” John grimaced as he shot me a glance. Yes, that was a friend of Marc’s, all right.
I extended my hand to him. “Lucas Hunter, Bella’s date and Samantha’s boyfriend. I assure you, Samantha and her rack areveryunavailable.” I shook his hand a little harder than I had to.
“Bob Mullins, good to meet you.” Bob put his head down and slithered away. I laughed to myself, like he ever had a chance with my girl. I decided then that I’d go to more school functions, as I was sure a lot of other dads noticed more than Sam’s rack.
“Lucas! Can we dance?” Bella ran over, and John took Julianna over to the makeshift dance floor. “It’s okay if you don’t; Daddy always hated to dance.”
“Absolutely, Butterfly! Let’s go!” One Direction was playing, and it was actually a song I recognized since Bella made us play it in the car over and over again. I knew all the words to ‘the best song ever’ and twirled her around like all the other dads.
“Are you having fun, Lucas?”
“I’m having the best time ever!” She laughed and ran back to her friends.
As I strolled off the dance floor, someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around to see an older woman with dark hair and kind eyes. I assumed she was one of Bella’s teachers.
“You must be Lucas. I’m Joanne Nelson, Bella’s troop leader. Samantha called to let me know you would be bringing her tonight. And after hearing about you for so long, I was anxious to match a face with the name. It’s good to meet you.” I shook her extended hand.
“Guilty as charged. It’s nice to meet you, too. This is a nice little party.”
Joanne smiled. “I’m glad Bella got to come. She has made such a turnaround from last year. She was so shy, and now we have to tell her to be quiet sometimes. I have something to show you.”
I followed Joanne to the back of the room where the bulletin board was decorated with artwork from the girls. She took down two pieces of multicolored construction paper. The first one she handed me was a picture Bella must’ve drawn with two stick figures colored at the bottom with a blue crayon. Under the drawing, Bella wrote, “Lucas teached me to swim.”
“We asked the girls to draw the best part of their summer at the beginning of the school year. Bella was the only one who didn’t have to think about it.”
There was a definite change in Bella from when I first met her. Sam said Marc was always snapping at the both of them when he was home, so Bella was always introverted for the most part. I loved thinking I may’ve helped bring her out of the shell her dick of a father scared her into.
Joanne handed me the other picture and smiled. “I figured you’d want to see this, too. We asked the girls to draw a picture of their favorite person who wasn’t their mom or dad and to tell us what made them great.”
