Chapter 23
Over the next few weeks, they stayed in near constant contact.
Phone or video calls first thing in the morning, last thing in the evening, and most days at lunch as well.
In between calls were texts. Lots of texts.
Though the long-distance relationship was a challenge, Lacy grew to love Drake even more than she thought possible.
She also grew more worried about how they were going to maintain the relationship until they could be together, whenever that might be. Especially when Drake grew distracted during their calls and became slow to respond to texts.
She could feel him pulling away, but was so infatuated with the man she could not confront him or just cut things off.
She planned her days, her life around his calls, and wondered how she could go back to living without a man, a Daddy in her life making sure she drank her water and ate her lunch and got enough sleep at night.
“I’ll be out of touch for the next couple of days,” Drake announced one Thursday morning. “I want you to keep up with everything and be a good girl. Okay?”
“What’s going on?” Lacy asked though she had a feeling he would not tell her.
“It’s a surprise.”
“Good surprise or bad surprise?”
Drake winked at her with a grin. “I suppose that depends on how you react when you find out what it is. Now, promise me you’re going to be my good girl and keep up with your water drinking and sleeping and eating. And I want you to keep texting me with what mischief you’re getting into.”
Though she wanted to grump and whine and demand to know what the surprise was, Lacy took a deep breath and huffed a sigh. “All right, Daddy. I promise.”
“That’s my Lacy-girl. I’ll talk to you as soon as I can.”
“Bye, Daddy,” Lacy said, but found he’d already hung up. “I love you.”
Standing up, she laid the phone on the table and ran to her bed. She threw herself across the mattress and grabbed for Snowball, hugging her so tight that he began complaining.
Rolling into a ball, she allowed the tears to fall. Her Daddy didn’t love her anymore. This was just his way of cutting ties so she wouldn’t cause a scene. She listened to the crackle as her heart shattered into a zillion pieces.
“Well, screw him,” she whispered. “If he doesn’t want me anymore then I don’t want him either. Or his dumb old surprise. It’s probably a get fucked, I’m done party or something equally stupid.”
Snowball just looked at her with her soft black eyes. And then she couldn’t see her through the tears as she began to sob.
“We’ll be okay, Snowball. We’ll be just fine. We don’t need no stinky Daddy,” she whispered, not sure if she was trying to convince herself or her stuffie.
At least her photography business was going well.
She’d sold nearly all of the pictures of Drake, alone and with Bobby.
The ones with Candace weren’t quite as popular.
But even better than that, several other popular cover models and a number of authors had been in touch, asking to work with her.
Even with Drake around, she could make a name for herself as a photographer.
When she’d finally had coffee with Rebecca and confessed what she was doing, her cousin surprised her by being supportive and not jealous as she’d expected.
She’d even offered to let Lacy use her backdrops and other props if she ever needed them.
But Lacy preferred to use natural light and backgrounds instead of a studio setup.
Over the next few days, Lacy threw herself into work. She set up a day of photography sessions with the bodybuilders at the gym, and convinced two to do additional shoots with her, which she would post on her website for sale.
Five days after her last call with Drake, Lacy came home from a late evening of taking pictures at the gym to find a big pickup parked in front of her house.
She looked around the neighborhood, but none of the neighbors looked like they were moving out, and the house next door still had a “for rent” sign in the yard.
Shrugging, she climbed from the car and collected her bags from the trunk before heading to the house.
It was dark and she’d forgotten to turn on the exterior lights, so she did not see the man sitting in a chair on her porch.
“Lacy-girl,” he said as he pushed to his feet when she stepped onto the porch.
Screaming in surprise, she took a step back, but missed the porch and began to fall backward. Before she could fall too far, arms came around her and pulled her back up again.
She looked up into the man’s face and froze. “Drake?”
“I prefer Daddy,” he said as he lifted her and carried her away from the porch’s edge.
“Daddy. What are you doing here? I thought you broke up with me,” Lacy said as tears filled her eyes and spilled over. As much as she’d cried the last few days, how did she have any tears left?
Drake stared at the crying woman in his arms and knew he’d fucked up. He should not have kept his plans a surprise.
“Break up with you? Why would I break up with you? Didn’t I promise you a surprise?” Drake asked as he rubbed one hand up and down her back, hoping to soothe her.
He wanted her to be happy about his news, not tearful.
Lacy dropped her forehead to his chest and wailed, “I don’t know. That’s what I couldn’t understand.”
“Well, let me tell you a secret. I didn’t break up with you. I just had to make some life changes and wanted it to be a surprise.”
Lacy sniffed as she lifted her head and looked at him. “What kind of life changes?”
Drake smiled and pointed to the truck parked in front of her yard. “The kind of changes that make it so I can see you every day … that is, if you still want to be my Little girl, my woman, my sex goddess?”
Lacy looked over her shoulders and then turned back to him with wide eyes. “You’re moving here?”
“I’m moving here. I’m staying in a hotel for now, until I find a house to rent, though I see that one is available.” He pointed to the house next door where the tenants had moved out two weeks before. “Once I rent a place, I’ll have to go back and get the rest of my stuff.”
Lacy looked from him to the house next door and back again. “But what about your job in Georgia?”
“I talked to the corporate offices and found out they had an opening for a manager here, so I asked to be transferred. I figured it was easier for me to move than you moving to Georgia and trying to find a job. So, what do you say? Want your Daddy for a next-door neighbor until we decide we should be together forever and for always?”
He brushed a few strands of hair from her face as he waited for her to make her decision.
As he waited, his cock throbbed with the accelerated beat of his heart.
No matter what her decision was, he was determined to spend the rest of the weekend making up for lost time with his beautiful Little girl.
Finally, she looked up at him with a smile that reached deep into him and made his soul happy. “I think that’s a great idea. At least until we decide if we can live in one house, or find a bigger house together. I love you, Daddy.”
Drake hugged tight and brushed a kiss on the top of her head. “I love you, too, Lacy-girl. Now, let’s go inside so I can fix your grumbling tummy some dinner. Before I take you to bed and make you mine all over again.”
“That sounds perfect, Daddy. Come on,” Lacy grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the front door and his future.
The End