Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 980(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 980(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
“Is this right, Daddy?”
“You’re doing a great job, little one. Keep going and I’m going to give you your special prize.”
“Daddy cream?”
“Yes, baby. Now show me what that mouth is made for.”
He grunts as I wrap my mouth around the tip and glide the head between my lips.
“Good girl,” he grits out. “My baby, my love, my little girl, my wife…my everything.”
He releases my hair, spreading his arms wide on the top of the seat, sinking down and letting me give him my all.
Because I know my Daddy will always give me his.
CHAPTER 15
MERRICK
Epilogue 5 years later
“Baby?” I’ve searched the house and the deck but there’s no sign of Kezia.
She’s usually sitting out front, weather permitting, waiting for me to get off my shift, usually tackling me with a hug as the kids join in.
We have three and one on the way. Two older boys, Jameson, four, and Gordon, three. Melanie is our youngest at eighteen months and number four is going to be a surprise.
I look at the kitchen table and there sits her cell. I pick it up and, as usual, it’s dead.
Kezia has never taken to technology and prefers to be outside, doing art with the kids, reading or dancing around the house or at her studio. She rarely turns on the television unless it’s to watch something with the kids.
The house is never the same without her. There’s a mess in the kitchen, as usual. She’s not the cook of the family, but she tries, and cleaning up isn’t her specialty either.
She truly is a free spirit and it may mean a little more work on me, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
She’s my prize, my princess, my little girl, and I’d do anything to make sure she’s happy.
She’s made a family with me but also with my parents and Summer and Margaret, and of course, Genevieve. She brings light, and laughter, everywhere she goes, and it’s a constant fucking battle to keep guys from gravitating to her. Even the fathers of the kids at The Little Sprite Dance Studio need some schooling from me now and then.
I’m still working, but more and more I just want to spend every minute here with my family. Retirement isn’t long away. Seeing my parents enjoying each other still, the way they do, just makes me want to have that with Kezia.
I hear the door click behind me and a second later, the cold, empty house is full of chaos and love again.
“Daddy!” James and Gordon come running, but Kezia smiles, holding Melanie, who’s dead to the world in her arms, sound asleep.
“Where were you?” I ask, trying to keep the edge off my voice because she knows better than to leave without letting me know where she’s going and without her cell.
“We just went to see Summer. Had ice cream, then went to the park.”
“Without your phone? Without letting me know?” I do like control when it comes to my little sprite, but there’s always a reason and a purpose behind it all. I taught Kezia to drive just after we got married and, well, she gets lost easily even with GPS and has had three minor accidents in five years, so I want to keep close tabs on her when she’s out.
Besides, I can’t stand not knowing where she is and if she’s safe, even when she’s not driving. Just how I am, and that’s not going to change. Not when it comes to my wife and our family.
I bought her a beast of a car, a tricked-out Suburban, and she’s on her third because I want her to always have the latest and greatest when it comes to safety.
She curls up her lips on a little pout. “Sorry?”
“Uh-huh.” I nod, looking down at the boys. She knows if I was really worried, I could pull up my tracking on my phone. The first anklet I gave her gave out a few years ago, but she got another one to replace it a day later. “You guys are sticky. Go wash up. You can have free time in the playroom for an hour, then I’ll have dinner ready. Go, scoot.”
They whistle and head up the stairs to the enormous playroom, and I go over and take Melanie from Kezia and set her down in the portable crib in the living room.
I’m as obsessed as ever with my wife, and sometimes I may go overboard, but whatever it takes to keep her safe and keep me from losing my mind is what I do.
Kezia has given me a life I never imagined. Her softness, her wildness and free spirit balance out my own calm, controlling nature, and I’ve grown as a man, a husband and a father. In turn, she’s grown to trust, to understand what it means to have roots and real family.