Chapter 23

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I was in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner while Eric and Jo went upstairs for her bath and to have that talk. Personally, I thought he was overreacting to the whole thing. She was an innocent eight-year-old playing pretend with her friends. I didn’t see the harm in it.

 

But Josie wasn’t my daughter so I had to stay out of it.

 

After the dishes were done I let Dimples outside to do his business. He didn’t need too much time outside. Those little legs of his had a heck of a time with the steps leading off the deck. It was comical to watch the little guy jump onto the next step. Eventually Eric was going to get that doggie door put in.

 

I took my glass of wine to the living room and sat back on the couch while I channel surfed. A new episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was about to start in the next half hour so I just left NBC on. A few minutes later I heard Eric coming down the stairs alone. Jo was probably splashing around in the tub for a bit before Eric pulled her out for the night.

 

“How’d it go?” I asked him.

 

“Good, she was a little confused at first but I think it all made sense in the end,” he told me as he sat down next to me.

 

“Good. Do you feel better?” That’s what the talk was about, from what I gathered, making himself feel better.

 

“I may never feel better about it,” he chuckled. “I know you think I’m insane and I know her little marriages are innocent, but she grows up a little more each day, you know? When she gets to be ten and eleven she’s going to hit puberty and start developing and it won’t be as innocent. She can keep her husbands, but… why are you still looking at me like I’m overreacting?”

 

“Because she’s still eight!” I laughed. “Eric, it’s not even crossing her mind about getting boobs or that little boys might get curious about them. When you were ten how many boobs did you touch?”

 

“Um… none,” he sighed, leaning over to rest his head on my shoulder.

 

“Honey, she’s going to grow up but you don’t want her to think every guy out there is a pervert who just wants to molest her, do you?”

 

“I don’t think she thinks that. She told me what Felicia told her, and I know she was just trying to teach her acceptance. I guess I’m just looking at the long run and making my daughter older than eight.” Eric tilted his head up to kiss my neck.

 

“I understand your concerns. Jo’s a gorgeous little girl. You know someday she’ll be beating boys off right and left–”

 

Eric pulled his head back with a horrified look on his face. “Sookie, no, she is not beating boys off.”

 

“Why wouldn’t she?” How else was she going to get away from them?

 

His horror turned into a small chuckle, which quickly formed into a hearty laugh.

 

“You do realize my mind went straight to beating boys off,” he explained while making a motion like he was jacking off.

 

Oh my God.

 

I burst out laughing too.

 

“No, freak show!” I shook my head at him.

 

The miscommunication was exactly what we needed to break the tension though.

 

“I know, I know, she’s going to be a popular girl,” he chuckled, sobering up some. “I just want it to be for the right reasons. She’s keeping her husbands, by the way.”

 

“Good. Hey, you never know. Those boys could grow up to be respectable young men who are protective of their former wife,” I pointed out. “You wouldn’t like someone bullying Felicia, would you?”

 

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I told her I want to meet them. She has good taste in friends though.”

 

“Oooh, slumber party!” I joked.

 

“Um, no.” He didn’t like my joke.

 

“Too soon?” I rubbed his arm sympathetically.

 

“Yes.” Eric gave me a lingering peck. “Felicia likes you. She sent me a text to tell me she approves.”

 

“That’s good news. It’ll make life easier for all of us.” I really was relieved. I knew Eric wasn’t going to dump me because his ex didn’t approve for some cockamamie reason, but her approval meant we didn’t have to worry about her talking shit to Jo when we weren’t around. “She seemed nice too. I’m glad we met.”

 

“Me too. Now we need to figure out how to get Jennifer on the same page and we can be one big happy family.”

 

“I can give her a lap dance,” I offer. He didn’t like that idea either.

 

“Uhh, hell no,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, two girls rubbing on each other is hot, but not when it’s my current girlfriend and my baby mama’s girl… that looks kinda like a man.”

 

“Does she really?” I’d never seen Jennifer, only heard things about her. Eric was never complimentary to her and the reviews were mixed from Jo. It depended on if Jennifer made her eat veggies.

 

Eric reached over to grab his phone. I saw him pull up his Facebook and scroll through his friends. When he got to Felicia’s page he clicked, and then into her photos. He selected one before handing me his phone.

 

“Oh.” Yeah, Jennifer’s face was definitely more masculine. Her shoulders were broader than the average woman’s. There was something still feminine about her gait, but her overall look was fairly androgynous. The short hair and lack of makeup didn’t help much.

 

“Uh huh,” Eric nodded. “She’s good to Jo as far as I can tell, so I stay quiet when she gets all twaty on me.”

 

“Amelia says it’s penis envy,” I chuckled.

 

“Most likely,” Eric agreed. “Every now and then Felicia looks at me like she wants a real dick. I think it’s when they’re fighting.”

 

“Well as long as she knows yours is no longer available to her, that’s all I care about.”

 

“She is well aware of that. It hasn’t been available in a long time.”

 

“Good.” I turned my head to kiss him.

 

“Just so you know if you ever have any questions about how all that went down I don’t mind answering them. She’s always going to be a part of my life, and I don’t want to keep any secrets from you.”

 

“Okay.” I knew Felicia had essentially left him for Jennifer. I didn’t know all the circumstances. Someday I’d ask but I didn’t need to know everything all at once.

 

“I should go check on the princess unless you want to.”

 

“I can if you want.” I didn’t mind.

 

“Sure. I can get her lunch together for tomorrow and then we can all curl up to a movie before bed.”

 

“No SVU for Jo?” I handed my wine glass to Eric.

 

“Hmm. Is that what’s coming on? She can watch that if that’s what we’re watching.”

 

“It’s on next but my DVR is recording it.” I got up and headed for the stairs. “We’ll be down in a few.”

 

I jogged upstairs to the bathroom and Josie was in the tub, splashing around and drawing on the wall with her soap crayons.

 

“Hey, kiddo. Ready to get out?” I asked her.

 

“Yeah, my fingers are all wrinkly,” she said, showing me her fingers.

 

“Do you want to come down and watch a movie with your dad?” I grabbed her towel from the rack.

 

“What are we watching?” Josie pulled the plug on her bath before she stood up to take the towel from me.

 

“I don’t know. Got any ideas?” I helped her out of the tub and then wrapped the towel around her. It was going to take forever for all that hair to dry. I grabbed another towel and started to pat it dry.

 

“Can we watch The Dark Crystal?”

 

“Uh, I don’t know. I’ve never seen that before,” I told her.

 

She looked up at me with a sympathetic look. “I think we need to watch it,” she said seriously.

 

“Okay. Well let’s get your jammies on and comb your hair and then we’ll go downstairs,” I said.

 

“Okay.” She used the towel to finish drying off before she wrapped it around her thin body. Eric had a Little Mermaid nightgown set on the counter for her with a pair of matching panties that she wiggled on under her towel. “Can you braid my hair for bed?”

 

“Sure I can.” I grabbed the comb off the counter in the bathroom and after Jo put on her nightgown I towel dried her hair a little bit more. She sat on her bed and turned her back to me so I could braid it for her.

 

“Are you sure you don’t want to be my stepmom?” Josie asked after a minute of silence.

 

Her question made me smile.

 

“Is that what you want?” I asked while I parted her hair.

 

“Yeah, my dad isn’t so grumpy and I like you,” she told me.

 

“That’s good. I’m glad you don’t want me to stay at a hotel when you’re here.” That made me laugh when Eric told me that.

 

“If he got a different girlfriend she would have to. I’m glad he picked you. He liked you for a long time.”

 

“You think so?” I started to weave her long, thick hair.

 

“I know so,” she nodded, but stopped when I held her head still. “He looked at you like he looks at you now. That means he liked you before.”

 

It was a very astute observation for an eight-year-old.

 

“I guess he does,” I agreed. I hadn’t really paid attention to it.

 

“I think you should move in here with us,” she added.

 

“Oh you do, huh?”

 

“Yep. I don’t want Dad to be lonely when I’m not here,” she said like I should’ve known better.

 

“He’s not. Dimples keeps him company and he has Uncle Tray to talk to,” I reminded her.

 

“Oh yeah… But Dimples doesn’t talk and Uncle Tray isn’t always around. He likes Amelia too much to hang out with Dad all the time,” she reasoned.

 

Plus having a baby was going to limit his free time exponentially.

 

“Well I’m sure your dad and I will talk about it someday,” I told her.

 

“Okay, when you do make sure to tell him you have my vote,” she giggled.

 

“Deal,” I promised. “Let’s go find a tie for your braid.”

 

Josie took the end of her braid from me so she could go back to the bathroom to find a hair tie. I followed her and by the time I caught up she had a seafoam green hair tie that matched her nightgown to hand to me.

 

“You know, I was thinking that since Christmas is coming maybe you could pick another princess dress you want,” I told her.

 

“Really?” she asked, looking up at me. “Can you make me a Jasmine costume? Or maybe a Pocahontas to match yours?”

 

“I can make whichever one you want. It’s up to you. You can think about it.”

 

“I will,” she agreed.

 

I hung up the wet towels and followed Jo downstairs to the living room. Eric was sitting on the couch with Dimples.

 

“Oh look how pretty you look, princess,” he grinned.

 

“Sookie should teach you how to braid, Daddy,” Jo said.

 

Doing hair for him was like cooking for me.

 

“Or I can keep Sookie around to do it,” he suggested.

 

“That’s what I said,” Jo agreed.

 

“Jo thinks I should live here,” I supplied when Eric looked confused.

 

“I see,” he nodded. “I like Sookie a lot, princess, but we still have to get to know each other better before she moves in.”

 

“What else do you need to know?”

 

“There are plenty of things,” Eric said. “When you make someone your girlfriend it’s a time to get to know each other and find out if you’re going to be compatible… if you’re going to get along in the long run.”

 

I took a seat on the couch, leaving plenty of room for Jo in the middle between Eric and me. For the moment I was going to keep my mouth shut.

 

“Was Mommy your girlfriend before you married her?” Josie asked as she climbed up between us.

 

“She was,” Eric nodded. “We thought we were going to get along forever but we stopped. Sometimes you have to take a chance on things like when you didn’t want to taste the popcorn flavored jellybean, but you did and you ended up loving it. We took our chance and it didn’t work.”

 

“Did you stop loving each other?”

 

“I don’t think we did. We just love each other in a different way,” Eric answered. “I don’t love her like I hope to love Sookie one day. I love her like I love Grandma Karin, or even you.”

 

“Can we watch The Dark Crystal?”

 

Eric blinked at her rapid subject change.

 

“Sookie are you okay with that?”

 

“Fine with me. I’ve never seen it. Your daughter gave me a look like someone suggested to Paris Hilton that she wear Payless shoes,” I told him.

 

Eric shorted before he told me, “I didn’t see it until after we had her. Felicia was in love with it for a while and turned Jo on to it.”

 

“Gotcha.” I grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch to spread it out on my legs, and Jo snuck under the blanket with me.

 

Eric got up to put the movie in. On the way back to the couch he made a side trip to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the kitchen. When he joined us again he sat on the opposite side of Josie so I was sandwiched between them.

 

Jo leaned closer to me as the movie started and I didn’t mind her resting her head on my chest. I saw Eric smiling out of the corner of my eye and it made me happy. I played with the end of Josie’s braid and by the halfway point of the movie she was asleep, so I nudged Eric.

 

“Hmm?” he hummed.

 

“She’s out,” I whispered.

 

Eric gave me a quick peck before he got up to gently pick Josie up so he could take her to her room. Dimples jumped down as he started up the stairs to follow them.

 

That dog dragging his transmission up the stairs was too much.

 

I turned off the DVD and folded up the blanket. The water bottle went back in the fridge and I locked the front door before going upstairs. I went to Eric’s room and got my nightgown out of the overnight bag I’d packed that afternoon. I was changing clothes when Eric came in.

 

“You know if I lock the door you can just stay naked,” he suggested as he closed the door.

 

“But what would we do then?” I asked innocently and stepped out of my panties.

 

“I can think of a few things.” Eric flipped the lock before closing the gap between us. His hand found its way between my thighs so he could rub my mound. “They involve playing with you here.”

 

“Mmm… I think I like where you’re going with this.” I ghosted my lips over his.

 

“You have some options,” he purred. “I can rub you with my fingers until you cum or I can slide my long, hard cock into you…”

 

“That’s a difficult decision for a girl to make,” I told him while I unbuttoned his jeans.

 

“I can give you both.” He moved his hand down a little lower so he could rub my slit. “Licking you until you cum is an option too.”

 

“Which would you prefer?” I won no I matter what.

 

“Hmm, well… I think you should lie back on the bed,” he said, “Then you should spread your perfectly thick thighs. I can rub my tongue over your clit while I pump two thick fingers in and out of you… as soon as you cum I’ll sit up and slide my cock right into your juicy cunt. I think that sounds best.”

 

“Sounds good to me,” I breathed.

 

“Assume the position, lover,” he commanded in a soft, almost soothing sex voice.

 

I smiled and pushed up on my toes to kiss him before I stepped back to lie down on the bed. I spread my legs for him and watched while he undressed. My hand moved between my thighs all on its own and Eric obviously was enjoying the show.

 

“I don’t mind sitting back to watch the show either,” he chuckled.

 

“Would you like that?” I’d never done it before with an audience but I trusted Eric.

 

“I would like that very much.” He finished undressing and moved to take a seat at the end of the bed.

 

My fingers kept moving and my eyes stayed on his. When I lifted my hand to lick my fingertips for the moisture, Eric shifted slightly. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his cock twitch. My fingers moved around my clit slowly, teasing the little bud, and it made my juices start to flow slowly. I reached down to play with my opening and Eric groaned softly when I worked two fingers into my core. I pumped them slowly and my free hand tugged on one of my nipples. Judging by the way his cock was swelling, he was definitely enjoying what I was doing.

 

I resumed rubbing my clit and every few seconds I returned to pumping my fingers in and out of my core. My heart was pounding in my chest so hard I could feel my pulse in my ears. I started breathing hard and I knew I was going to cum soon.

 

Eric’s hand wrapped around his length and he started to stroke slowly as he watched me. His eyes were trained on my fingers pumping in and out.

 

“Cum, Sookie,” he told me. “Please, baby. You look so gorgeous when you do.”

 

His praise was a definite turn on and just thinking about him pouncing on me from the end of the bed was enough to push me over the edge. I cried out when I came. My back arched and I completely forgot that his daughter was asleep down the hall. I sincerely hoped she was a heavy sleeper, or I probably just woke her up.

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