Lana’s eyes get a glassy sheen as her bright gaze shines up at me. She keeps her smile in check and clears her throat before responding.
“Well, you’ll note my initial estimate for making a baby is a lot further ahead than today. I hadn’t expected to find you until a lot later, but I’m ecstatic to move the date forward. The actual rate at which you can impregnate me is yet to be determined, but once we can factor it in, along with a few things like budgets and recovery time between each birth, we can easily redo the calculation to find out what size bus we’ll need to cart them all around in.”
I pick her up to kiss her smart little mouth, and I’m still laughing when I put her back down again. “I don’t care if you think you can’t tell a joke, beautiful. You’re funny as hell.”
“Well, you’re not,” she says, pressing her fingers to her cheeks. “Did you just scuff me with your beard again? I’m going to have to stay in here another six minutes to let the redness fade. Dickhead. Get me some more ice, or Dad will get suspicious and come over to demand that you leave his daughter alone.”
“Yeah. I’m going to have to tell him, Lana. Sooner rather than later if I prove to be quick off the mark on that impregnation rate you mentioned — otherwise he’ll be getting a big surprise this Christmas.”
“What if he fires you?”
I shrug. “I’ll get another job pretty easily, but I don’t think he will. He needs me. I’m sort of the best there is.”
“I know. I mean, I didn’t know you andKellywere the same guy, but I’ve heard ‘Kelly this and Kelly that’ so many times over the years I half-believed you were some mythical beast from local mining legend.Kellycould fix the winch on a crane a mile high and with one hand scratching his sack.Kellysaved the season with his bush-fix on a shaker deck that almost shook its plant halfway to Dawson.Kelly’sdick is in the Guinness Book of Records for girth, and it tastes like ice cream.”
Laughing even harder, I pinch her lips together.
“You keep being so fucking cute, and I’m going to do a lot more than kiss you, Lana Baker-Hawkins. Best you hush up and get yourself away from me before I show you what my cock really tastes like.”
She bats my hand away, looks me dead in the eye, and says, “I already know what your cock tastes like, Bates Kelly. It tastes like my sweet fucking pussy, and if it ever doesn’t, you’ll be headed for fucking trouble. I’ll see you later.”
Her smirk makes my dick even harder.
This girl is too fucking delicious.
I want to fuck her again already. She does things to me that make me feel half my age.
I close the door after her, leaning against it so I don’t rush out to drag her back when I should be counting to one hundred — Mississippi-ly — before I follow her. I can’t give away our secret before I’ve figure out how to break it to her dad when I’m meant to be his fucking friend.
Hey, Hawk. I’m in love with your daughter, and not only am I fucking her innocent little cunt with my girthy dick, I’ve also got designs on making you a grand-daddy.
Yeah, that’s going to go down like a cup of cold sick.
I’m going to have to think some more about how to shave the sharp edges off the news. My sweet girl came here hoping to feel her father’s love, and that’s been looking like an uphill battle evenbeforeI’ve put a baby in her belly. He and I have got some shit to discuss, and it ain’t going to be pretty.
20
LANA
Itry to concentrate as I scan the extensive list of shit Dad neglected to tell me, but I can still feel Bates inside me, and my mind keeps wandering to the future and how happy it now looks.
All of my predictions of delayed life goals have gone out the window because Bates sees something in me that others don’t, and helikesit. He even laughs at my jokes!
I knew I could be efficient, but I’ve never been able to apply that skill tolove. I’ve worked my ass off trying to get it in any form, but until Bates showed up, I was getting nowhere fast.
Now, I’m going to achieve all my heart’s desires sooner than I ever could have imagined — I’ve found love, and my heart is sofull.
My life has always felt like a giant puzzle, and all this time I’ve been clinging on to the most important piece, hoping it didn’t somehow come from a different box altogether. It never seemed to fit anywhere. Not with Dad, not with Mom, not out on my own in the lonely world. I’ve been searching and searching to find where I truly belong, but now that I’ve found Bates in the picture and tested my puzzle piece against his, things have snapped perfectly into place. Nothing has ever felt so right inall my life, and together we’re going to create the stable, loving family I’ve always wanted — thatwe’vealways wanted.
“I thought you’d pitch a fit at the size of the list, but you’re smiling.”
“It’s not because of the list, Dad. If anything, I’ve had to resort to my virtual happy place so I don’t blow a fucking gasket at this shit.” I study his notes again, honing my focus as I compare it to the schedule on my laptop screen. “How could you keep so much from your productivity specialist when she demanded an accurate report in her contract?”
“It weirds me out when you refer to yourself in the third person,” he says from across the desk.
“Yeah, well, if I saidGoosewanted it, I wouldn’t get a fucking list at all,” I say, tasting the sharp vinegar tang of my tone that elicits a gasp from my father.
“That’s not fair,” he says, immediately defensive. “I try to give you what you ask for. I do my best to be a good dad to you, Lana.”
