Meant For Her

24. Christopher

As soon as I park the truck in the driveway, I pull up Uncle Viktor’s number. He of course answers within seconds. It’s like the phone is stuck to his side. “What’s up?” His voice is soft, and I hear the television in the background. I can just picture him sitting on the couch watching some game or another.

“Um,” I start to say, but then all I do is close my eyes. “Something amazing happened tonight.” My heart contracts in my chest. “I was asked to go to a father-daughter dance.” My voice breaks at the end, and I feel exactly how I did when Rain came up to me in the family room a couple of hours ago.

“That’s a big deal,” he states softly. “Are you okay with that?”

“I’m more than okay with that.” I put my head back on the seat. “I’m just?—”

“Feeling guilty that you are taking his place,” he says the words I don’t want to say.

“In the past couple of weeks, I’ve found out a bit more about Benji that I did not like. I also came to the realization that if I knew the person he really was, there is no way I would be friends with a guy like that.” Truth be told, if I had found out what he was actually like before he passed, there was no way in fuck I would have even spoken to the guy, let alone have him be one of my best friends.

“That’s a lot to unpack.”

“It is, but it’s the truth. He wasn’t the man I thought he was. But with that said.” I swallow down. “I have serious feelings for Dakota, and I can wholeheartedly say I’m in love with Rain and Luna.” I know I’m in love with Dakota, but I don’t want him to know before she knows.

“Serious feelings sound like a big deal.” His voice is judgment-free and exactly how I knew it would be, yet I was still scared to bring it up.

“We’ve been on one date with each other,” I admit to him, “and I know that I want a million more.”

“So you don’t have serious feelings for her. You are in love with her.” His question or statement goes unanswered. “Christopher, you have stepped in and given them support. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, wrong with that.”

“I know.” I exhale. “I know, it’s just that. I’m angry that if he was still here, he wouldn’t see the beauty in front of him.”

“The only thing you can control is what is in front of you now. You can’t lose your energy on things from the past. You have to focus on the here and now.”

“She’s so fucking special, Uncle Viktor. Like hands down the best person I’ve ever met. She’s had all this shit happen to her, and instead of wallowing, she’s a fucking warrior.”

“She has no choice,” he reminds me. “She’s got two girls who have already lost a parent. She’s not going to just fall and leave them alone.”

“She would never.” I jump to her defense quickly, making him laugh.

“You obviously did something good if she asked you to the father-daughter dance.” He changes the subject from Dakota. “It’s a great honor.”

“It really is.” I smile. “I’m going to take her to dinner before the dance, just her and me.”

“You are a special man, Christopher. Proud of you.”

“Thanks, Uncle Viktor, for everything.”

“When are you going to stop thanking me?” He laughs. “It’s getting on my last nerve.”

Now I’m the one laughing. “I’ll talk to you later,” I say and hang up, getting out of the truck and walking into the house.

I’m about to call Dakota when my phone rings, and I see it’s Stone.

“What’s up?” I answer after one ring.

“What’s up, my ass,” Stone snaps. “You haven’t called me in what… two weeks?”

“I was on the road last week.” I quickly add, “And then I was busy.”

“Busy?” He snorts. “I see your game has picked up and not gone down the tubes. We are all proud.”

“Shut the fuck up; it was a couple of games.” I walk up the stairs to my room, and for the first time ever, my house feels so empty.

“I think they almost scheduled an intervention. The Bat Signal was unleashed, and I think even the phone chain.” I can’t help but laugh at that one. One thing I can expect from my family is for them to be in your face when they think you need it. “So what’s going on?”

I sit on my bed and think about telling him about Koda. “Not much.”

“How is Koda,” he asks, “and the girls?”

“Good.” I don’t say much more. “Rain asked me to a father-daughter dance tonight.”

“Stop it.”

“Yeah.” I nod and put the invitation that she handmade down on my bedside table.

“That’s amazing.” His voice goes high. “Shit,” he hisses, “you have to practice your mean face.”

I can’t help but laugh. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“For all the boys who look at her,” he snaps. “You have to make sure they know that if they fuck with her, they are going to get you.”

“Oh my,” I whisper.

“Make sure they know she’s off-limits, and you aren’t afraid to fight them.” He stops talking for a minute before he continues, “And then you can trip him when he walks by you by accident.”

“You know she’s six, right?”

“Better to start now so they know,” he advises softly. “I have to go. Ryleigh is giving me the look that says if I don’t stop talking, she’s going to kick me, and not in places I like.”

“Hopefully, when she kicks you, it makes your brain go back to normal.” I hang up on him and then FaceTime Koda.

I lie in bed that night, wondering what it would be like if we all lived under the same roof. The night of the dance, I put on a black suit and light pink tie to match Rain’s dress that Koda told me she was wearing.

I grab the corsage I had made of tiny roses with a light pink bow out of the fridge before taking off to pick her up. I arrive and walk up the steps, my hands shaking with nerves as I ring the doorbell.

I hear running from the other side of the door, and as I look down, I take a deep breath and wait for it to open. “Hi, Uncle Chrissy,” Luna greets me, moving out of the way so I can come in. “Rain is coming,” she says as I close the door behind me. “Momma and me are doing mani and pedis.”

“Oh, fun,” I reply and look at the stairs, seeing Koda coming down wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. She’s wearing stuff that is casual, yet my cock wakes up.

“Hi.” She smiles at me. “You look nice.”

“Thank you.” I walk to her and wrap an arm around her waist, bending to kiss her cheek. This time closer to her lips than before. “You smell nice.”

“So do you.” Her eyes brighten as she stays in my arms a bit longer than she should, but neither of us pays attention until we hear footsteps on the stairs. I look up to see Rain walking down wearing a white, long-sleeve shirt with a light pink skirt that ruffles and goes down to her ankles. Her hair is pinned back as she smiles at me.

“Don’t you look beautiful,” I praise, crouching down in front of her. “I got you this.” I hold up the clear container.

Her eyes go big as her mouth hangs open. “For me?” she asks, and I nod, taking it out and putting it on her wrist. “Mommy, look.” She holds her wrist backward to show her.

“Very pretty,” Koda says with tears in her eyes, but they are happy tears because her eyes shine bright. “We have to take a picture.” She pulls her cell phone out of her back pocket as we pose for pictures in the foyer. I pull Luna and Koda in for a selfie at the end, the four of us with huge smiles on our faces. “See you two later.” She puts her hand on my chest and leans in to kiss my cheek and then down to kiss Rain’s.

“Shall we?” I hold out my hand for Rain after she puts on her jacket and makes a fuss not to squish her flowers. I walk out holding her small hand in mine, opening the car door for her, helping her in, before I get behind the wheel.

I hold her hand even when we get to the restaurant, helping her take off her jacket. I sit in front of her and smile. Not sure how to start a conversation, but once the nerves wear off, it’s just me and her.

“Do you think I’m going to be able to play hockey on a team next year?” she asks as we wait for our food.

“I don’t see why not. Is that what you want?”

She nods. “I’m excited for the winter camp.” She mentions the winter camp that takes place over Christmas break. She’ll be on the ice every single day doing on-ice and off-ice training. “I’m going to skate every day.”

“You might get sick of it,” I tease, and she shakes her head adamantly, making me laugh.

We finish eating and head over to the school. The first thing we hear once I open the school’s front doors is the music. Balloon arches are set up from the school”s entrance to the gym. We stop at her locker for her to put away her jacket, and she makes sure she looks down and her flowers are all right.

She slips her hand in mine as we walk toward the gym, stepping in and seeing that half the lights are on, while the other half are off. Round tables are all around the outside of the floor, leaving a big open space for dancing or better yet for kids to chase each other, which is what a couple of them are doing. White and pink lanterns hang from the ceiling, which is why half the lights were off.

“Do you see your friends?” I lean down to ask. She nods her head and points at a group of girls in the corner twirling in their dresses. “You can go and say hello to them,” I urge her. She nods at me and slowly slips her hand out of mine going toward them.

I put my hands in my jacket as I watch the girls all giggle together. I see Rain hold out her hand for all the other girls to see her corsage. “Did you upstage all the dads?” someone asks from behind me, and I turn to see Cole walking into the dance.

I laugh. “Not sure about upstaging.”

“I knew I was forgetting something,” he says, standing beside me. “I’m surprised to see you here. Thought for sure she would ask Eddie.”

“He’s in Florida,” I reply, my eyes never leaving Rain, making sure she’s in my sight the whole time.

She comes over to me when the DJ asks everyone to get on the dance floor. She puts her hand in mine as we walk over to the dance floor. I look down at her, the immense feeling of pride hitting me right in the chest.

She wraps her arm around my waist when a song comes on, and we dance side by side. She smiles up at me, and then the dance switches to a fast dance. I stand to the side with the other dads while the girls bop up and down.

Three hours later, we are walking out of the gym, and she’s going on and on about her friends loving her flowers. When I open the car door for her, she looks up at me. “Thank you for being my date.” She giggles when she says that. “It was the best.”

“Thank you,” I say, bending to hug her, my arms wrapping around her, pulling her to me. “It was the best night ever.” I kiss the top of her head while she gets into the car.

By the time I pull in the driveway, she’s passed out cold. I open the door and carefully unbuckle her seat belt. Picking her up in my arms, I rest her head on my shoulder, and the door opens before I have a chance to ring the bell.

“Hi,” Koda says, standing there in her loungewear set, “is she out?”

“She is,” I confirm softly as I walk up the steps toward her bedroom. It’s been a couple of times when I’ve been over, and they’ve fallen asleep, so I carried them upstairs. Her night-light is on in her room, and when I put her down on her bed, she wakes up just a little.

“Watch my flowers,” she mumbles as I slip her shoes off.

“Should we leave her in the dress?” I look over at Koda, who nods. I move Rain enough to get her cover over her, then slip her corsage off her wrist and put it on her bedside table.

I follow Koda out of the room, wishing I wasn’t going home to my house. “How was tonight?” she asks as we walk down the stairs toward the front door.

“It was the third-best night of my life,” I tell her honestly, standing in front of the door. She looks down blushing, hopefully thinking of the other two nights I was talking about. “She’s the best.”

“She is,” she agrees with me. I take a step to her, wanting to kiss her with everything I have, but instead, I lean down and kiss her cheek. “Thank you for taking her.”

“Lock up after me, yeah?” I say, walking out of the house with what feels like a boulder sitting on my chest.

I pull out my phone and text my father first.

Me: Tonight was hands down the proudest I’ve ever felt.

I send the text and attach it with a picture of the two of us that I took when we were at dinner.

I’m walking into the house when the phone rings. I look down and see it’s my dad, and he’s FaceTiming me.

“Hey,” I say once we connect, and I look and see it’s my mother and my father. My mother looks like she’s blinking away tears.

“Hey,” she replies softly, looking at me, “that picture is going in a frame in the house.”

“I think so also.” I kick off my shoes in the mudroom, and the smile on my face is plastered there. “Tonight was so much fun.”

“Tell me all about it,” my mother urges softly. “I want to know all about it.” I tell her the little things that made it so good. The having dinner with just her, her holding her hand in mine, and being proud I was by her side. Her just being fucking her and being the best kid I’ve ever met.

“Well, now you know,” my father says when I finally stop talking.

“Now I know what?”

“What it means to love someone so unconditionally that you would brave the storm just to keep them okay. You would do things you wouldn’t do for anyone else but them.” His smile mimics mine. “Now you know how I felt when I met Caroline.” He looks at my mom. “Best thing I ever did in my life.” She blinks her eyes and leans forward to kiss his lips.

“Dad,” I say, “I’ll never try to take Benji’s place.”

“Totally different scenarios,” he counters. “They are old enough to keep the memories of Benji with them, but at the same time create ones with you that are totally different.”

“I’ll do whatever they want me to do, whenever they want me to do it.”

My parents share a look and then turn to smile at me. “We can’t wait to see them again. Maybe we could come down soon and visit.”

“That would be great. Let me talk to Koda.”

“Okay, honey,” my mother says, “love you.”

“I love you too,” I say, smiling at her. “You too, big guy.”

My father laughs. “Proud of you,” he praises, and for the first time, I understand him. I give him a chin up and hang up the phone, and then quickly text Koda.

Me: I miss you.

She replies right away.

Koda: You just left.

Me: I know, but I thought you should know.

Koda: Consider me in the know. Also.

I look down at the screen, wondering if she hit send too early.

Koda: I miss you also. Thanks for taking her to the dance.

Me: It’s me who should be thanking her.

Koda: You can stop being perfect now.

Me: Trust me, the things I’d like to do to you now are not making me perfect.

Koda: Stop turning me on right before I go to bed.

I’m about to answer her when my phone rings, and when I put it to my ear, I can only laugh when I answer it.

* * *

I’m walkinginto the house three days later after practice when I get a text from Dakota.

Koda: Do you think you could meet me quickly?

Me: Where?

Koda: 375 Peterbourgh.

Me: When?

Koda: Now, if you’re free.

Me: Be right there.

I get into the car and put the address in the GPS, seeing it’s about fifteen minutes away.

Me: Be there in fifteen.

Koda: I’ll be waiting.

I start the drive there, wondering what is going on. I pull up to the house thirteen minutes later and see Koda’s car parked in the driveway of a two-story house.

I park on the street at the curb, looking up at the house that has four massive windows in the front, two on each side. On the right side, you see the living room, and on the left, you see the staircase going up to the second floor. I stride up the paved walkway to the brown front door, stepping up the two steps.

The door opens right away, and Koda stands there wearing a pair of black pants with a thick white knitted turtleneck sweater. “Hi.” She smiles big at me, and I step in beside her, bending to kiss her lips.

“Hi,” I return softly, looking over her head, seeing a living room with two white chairs and a gray armoire stacked with books.

“Thanks for coming,” she says, slipping her hand in mine.

“Of course,” I reply as she walks with me trailing her, holding her hand down the small hallway toward the kitchen and family room.

“Look at the kitchen.” She runs her hand over the white granite island with three stools. “Isn’t it perfect?” She smiles so big, and I look around at the staged living room.

“You have to see upstairs.” She pulls me back toward the front door, walking up the stairs to the second floor. “There are four bedrooms.” I look at the doors once we get upstairs.

“What is all this?” I ask as she walks into the master bedroom. I see the king-sized bed in the middle of the room against the wall, a bench in front of the bed with pillows on it. She slips her hand out of mine, taking a step deeper into the room, going to the window that faces the side of the house. “Where are we?”

She puts her hands to her mouth and then squeals, “This is my new house.” Whatever I thought she was going to say, it’s definitely not what she actually said.

“What?” I gasp, my mouth open as I look around.

“I put an offer in on the house two days ago.” She jumps up, just like Rain did in the gym. “And they accepted it right away. It’s mine after they come and take all their staged shit away.”

“You bought a house?” I look around the room.

“I did,” she confirms and guilt washes over me.

“But what about?—”

“It’s too big,” she explains, “but this.” She turns in the room. “This is so us. I can picture making breakfast with the girls in the kitchen. I can picture putting Christmas greens around the stairs and seeing the lights twinkling outside.”

“But what about the other house?” I ask, and she rolls her lips.

“We put it on the market last week, and I’ve gotten two offers, and now it’s a bidding war. Which is shocking since I had to disclose that someone died in the house.” She snort-laughs at the last part, shocking me even more.

“Koda,” I say her name. “What about the girls?”

“The girls are okay with it. We sat down yesterday, and I told them that the house was a bit too big for just the three of us. Christopher, we barely use half the house.”

I take steps to her. “You really are serious about moving?”

“I really am serious about moving. It’ll suck to pack all the things up, but I think that—” I put my arms around her waist. “I know it’s the right move for us.” She puts her hands on my chest. “I didn’t think I would find it so fast, but the minute your aunt sent me the link and I clicked on the photos, I knew it was mine.” She beams with happiness. “It’s mine.”

“It’s the perfect house,” I say, bending my head and kissing her lips, thinking it’s going to be just a soft kiss. But she slides her hands up my chest, around my neck, and into the back of my hair as her tongue enters my mouth. The kiss goes from zero to a hundred in a matter of seconds. Her hands move from my head to my back, roaming down to my ass. “Dakota.”

I release her hips just to say her name, but her hands are at my waist. My hands have a mind of their own, and they are cupping her ass and bringing her toward me, my cock hard on her stomach. I swallow her moan, but her hands are pulling up my T-shirt as she moves her fingers into the waistband of my sweatpants. “Christopher,” she says my name, and it shoots straight down to my balls. Her fingertips make my whole body shiver. “That night.” She gets on her tippy-toes, kissing the underside of my jaw. “When you touched me.” I swallow, but it’s getting harder and harder to breathe or focus for that matter. “I regretted one thing,” she admits, nipping the bottom of my jaw. “Do you want to know what?”

“Baby,” I hiss, “I can’t even breathe right now with your hands on me.”

“Do you know what that does to me?” Her fingertips go deeper into the elastic of my pants. “How sexy it makes me feel?” I close my eyes when she kisses my neck and then licks it. “For the past month, all I’ve thought about was what I would have done to you.” I feel her fingers at the elastic of my boxers. My stomach contracts from her touch. “How I would have taken you in my mouth.” She nips under my chin, and I swear to God I’m shaking, and when her fingers finally touch my cock, I think I’m going to come from one touch. “Hmm,” she says, rubbing the precum around the head of my cock. “I want to taste you.”

“It’s yours.” The minute I say those two words, she drops to her knees in front of me. “Fuck,” I growl when she pulls the pants down under my hips, my cock bouncing free.

“Is this mine?” She looks up at me with those innocent green eyes, but you can see the sparkle at the same time. She grips the base of my cock in her hand. “This is mine, right?”

“All of me is yours,” I tell her, and she leans in, licking the top of my cock like she’s licking an ice cream cone.

My knees about buckle under me with just one touch. “You like that?” she asks, but I’m too focused on what she is doing with her mouth to answer her. “What about this?” She twirls her tongue around my cock and then moans. “Or this?” She bends her head to lick my cock from my balls all the way to the tip before sucking the head into her mouth softly. “Oh, yeah, you like that,” she says as my cock jerks in her hands.

“You continue like that, and you’ll see how much I like it when I come all over your face.” I’m joking, but her eyes darken. “Fuck, you want me to come on your face?”

“I want you to come when you want to come, where you want to come,” she declares, taking a bit more of my cock into her mouth. “On my face.” She moves down a touch more. “On my tits.” She grips the base of my cock and works her hand at the same time as her mouth. “On my stomach.” I swear I close my eyes. “In my pussy.” My head goes back as I think about fucking her, my hips thrusting forward in her hand. “On my back.”

“Baby,” I moan, putting my hand on top of her head, “you have no idea what you’re asking me.”

“I know exactly what I’m asking you.” She licks the side of my cock before taking more of it into her mouth. My hand grips her hair, pulling her head back to see my cock sliding out of her mouth before I feed it to her.

“You are asking me to come on your body?” I thrust my cock into her mouth, not giving her any chance to answer me. “It makes me wild when I think of my cum on you, but especially when I think of it inside you.” She grips my cock even harder as she jerks me and swallows me at the same time. “With my cock in your mouth, it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

She lets go of my cock long enough to say, “For now,” before she swallows me back in her mouth.

“I wanted to do this in a better way.” Her hot mouth on me makes me forget all of this. “Be romantic, but fuck me, I have no control when it comes to you.”

“Christopher.” She looks at me, sucking in my head lightly. “I need you to do something for me.”

“You can ask me to do anything.”

“Lose control with me.” The minute she says that, everything in me snaps. I pick her up from under her armpits, and she groans.

“I wasn’t done with that,” she whines, but my hands are ripping her shirt over her head. Leaving her in her bra as I lean down and take a nipple in my mouth through her lace. “Okay, I guess we can go back to that, after.” I chuckle as I move over to her other nipple and suck it, then bite down on it.

“One of these days,” I vow when she moans, “I’m going to make you come just by sucking your tits.” I move my head down her stomach to the waist of her jeans. “But for today, I want you coming on my tongue and then my cock,” I say, unsnapping her bra and tossing it to the side with her shirt. My hand comes up to cup her tits, rolling her nipples between my fingers.

“Christopher.” Her knees close together as I move my hand to undo her button and pull down her zipper.

“You have one decision.” I stop moving my head up, her eyes have glazed over. “Are we fucking on the bed or the floor?” My hands fall from her tits.

“Not on the bed.” She shakes her head. “It’s a staged bed.” She tries to cover herself, but my hand comes out to knock hers out of the way so I can see her perfect tits, peaked and pebbled for me.

“And?” My hands come back up to play with her nipples. I roll them at the same time, and she has trouble speaking.

“And there might have been other people fucking on the cover.” She tries to look at me, but her eyes close just a touch.

“The floor it is,” I decide, moving and pulling her pants down her legs. “Lift your leg,” I tell her, and she lifts one leg and then the other, leaving her naked in front of me.

“Fuck.” My hand comes out to slide through her folds. “Wet for me.” All she does is nod her head as I slide a finger into her, her hand gripping my wrist.

“It’s not fair I’m naked, and you’re not.” Her head falls back and rolls to the side as I slide my finger out and slip another one in.

“You want me naked?” I ask, and she nods.

“I want you naked and on top of me,” she confirms breathlessly. “I want to wrap my whole body around you while you fuck me.”

I slide my fingers out of her, bringing them to my mouth and licking them clean. I’m about to reach for my shirt when she slaps my hand away. “You can’t have all the fun.” She reaches for my shirt and roughly tugs it off me.

She grips my cock, forgetting about my pants. “That’s not my pants.”

“I know, but it’s so pretty.” She steps into me.

“Baby,” I say, and she looks up at me, “no guy wants his dick to be called pretty.”

She laughs. “Okay, fine, it’s so big.”

I nod. “That’s a good one.”

“A monster.” I roll my eyes.

“Can we get to the fucking, please?”

She smirks at me. “Please.” She moves my pants down my legs, where I kick off my shoes and then slip my socks and pants off at the same time.

“Did you make a list?” I ask, wrapping my arm around her waist and feeling her hot body against mine.

“Yeah.” Her arms go around my neck.

“And what’s number one? Was bedroom floor one of them?”

“No,” she answers, “but it’s shot straight up to the top of the list as of now.”

“Baby, I don’t know how this is going to go,” I admit, “having you naked in front of me. I haven’t had my cock this hard in my whole life. I don’t know how long it’s going to even last.” She smiles big. “That’s the spell you’ve cast on me.”

I bend to my knees, taking her with me. “I promise the next time will be a million times better.” Her hands go from my neck to my face. “And longer.”

“Christopher,” she says my name, and it runs straight to my cock.

“My name on your lips is like heaven to me.” I bend my head to kiss her. The kiss is wet and hard. “I want to take my time with you.”

She puts her finger on my lips. “Christopher, show me,” she urges softly. “Show me what I do to you.”

My mouth attacks hers as my arm wraps around her waist, and I pick her up and bend her to her back. Her legs open for me as I place her on her back, and she grips my cock, pulling me into her. “Now,” she says when I let go of her lips, “please.” I kneel in the middle of her legs.

“Okay, baby.” I watch her rub my cock up and down her slit. “Watch us,” I tell her, and she looks into my eyes before looking down between us. “Watch me fuck you.” I move her hand out of the way, gripping my cock and sliding the head into her and stopping because her tightness and wetness are better than I ever imagined.

“More?” she asks, reaching forward to my hips and trying to pull me into her.

“Baby,” I grind between clenched teeth, “I need to go slow.”

“Christopher, you said you would give me whatever I want,” she reminds me, “and I want it all. I want it now, and I want it hard. I want you to bury yourself inside me, and I want it now.” She hitches her hips higher, trying to get me more into her.

“Fuck,” I swear, losing control.

“I want you, Christopher.” The way she says my name, everything I had holding me back snaps. “Please.” Instead of inching into her, I slam into her, shocking her as she hisses out, “Yes.”

“Look at how you look with my cock stuffed in your pussy,” I tell her, pulling out to the tip and then slamming in again, the sound filling the room. She arches her back, holding on to my arms that are beside her. “Fuck, you’re tight.”

“Well, that’s because your cock is a monster,” She stops talking when I slam into her. “Yes, right there.” I watch her mouth open as her pussy gets tighter and tighter.

“You are squeezing me so tight,” I tell her, my balls slapping her ass. “If I was taking my time,” I say between thrusts, “I’d pull out and eat your pussy.” Her fingernails score into the skin on my arms. “Fuck you with my tongue.” Her pussy squeezes me tighter. “Right before you come, slide my cock back into you.” It’s all I need to say. Her back arches, her head goes back as her hips rise up to meet mine. “That’s it, baby,” I encourage her. “Come all over my cock.” She spasms five times before I finally let go myself and plant myself to the root and explode into her.