“You want me? Not your mother?” I looked at Kat who was starting her crying shit again.
“Yes daddy I want you to help me, can Todd come too?”
“Sure, let’s do it.” I didn’t even think about the fact that I had a houseful of men who’d come here to help me sort shit out. I looked around at them and they were all grinning like idiots.
“Go ahead we got this.” Mancini winked and I found myself being dragged out of the room by my daughter. I didn’t even finish breakfast.
“Oh hell no!” That was the third hell no from me and the second from the boy. Only because I think he was biting his tongue on the first one. My daughter had brought me here to torture me. Each dress was more risqué than the last, this one didn’t have a back, arms, nothing.
We both shooed her back into the dressing room while looking around to make sure there were no males in the vicinity. The boy’s face was red and he looked everywhere but at me. I did notice that he seemed more putout than I was and I was way out there.
She didn’t even get to show us the next one. As soon as she stepped out of the room both our arms went up and directed her back behind the damn curtain. Who the fuck is making this shit? The three blind mice? Where the fuck is the material?
“Oh come on you two, can’t we agree on anything?” I got the feeling she was playing me just like her mother, because my kid knows damn well what she’s allowed to wear and what she’s not and so far all her choices have been from the ‘not’ pile.
“Fine, then you choose something then.” The boy and I moved at the same time. The sales lady looked like she wanted to laugh her ass off and there were other mothers there with their teenage daughters, not one dad in sight but I didn’t give a shit, I was into it now.
“What about this one sir?” He held out this thing that looked two sizes too big for her and was more suitable for a visit to an abbey than a prom. “Damn kid, even I’m not that bad.” I rifled through the rack with all the bright colored frou-frou shit.
We kept pulling out shit but there wasn’t really anything there I found suitable and I was glad to see that the boy and I were on the same page. “The fuck, they made these for teens?” The shits were disgusting as far as I’m concerned.
Caitie came walking over in the robe they’d given her to wear while she tried on stuff. “Nothing?” I didn’t trust her smile. Then the sales lady called her over and she disappeared back into the fitting room.
When she came out this time I had to cover my mouth with my hand and blink a coupla times to clear the gathering tears from my eyes. “It’s beautiful!” She turned to Todd next and he had a big ass grin on his face. “Perfect!” Why did I get the feeling that she had that shit picked out before she put me through all that shit?
We took pictures to send to her mom to get her take and then she called me. “You did good daddy!” She teased over the phone. “Now you need to find shoes and an evening clutch?”
“The fuck what? The fuck is a clutch?”
“Caitie will explain it to you caveman.”
We went to find shoes and the clutch fuck and my daughter was happier than I’ve ever seen her, to this point anyway. I watched the way the two of them interacted and damn if his ass isn’t whipped. She must’ve learned that shit from her mother.
“Daddy, I know the uncles are at the house waiting but can we have lunch before we go back?”
“Sure why not? Where do you want to go?”
“I want to go to the cantina.” That’s her mother’s favorite Mexican restaurant. I don’t think we’d ever been there just the two of us before Caitie and I.
“Sure, let’s do it.” I paid for her stuff though the boy looked like he wanted to reach for his wallet. Not yet kid! Then they walked out of the store hand in hand. I don’t think she noticed, but I was happy to see that the kid was using all the protective measures Mancini had taught him.
I drove and the boy sat in the passenger seat while she sat in the back, hanging over the seat between the two of us, yammering away like a magpie. I wasn’t as uncomfortable as I thought I would be, maybe because the kid knew how to be respectful.
I did notice the way he catered to her, like opening the car door and then the door leading into the restaurant. I excused myself to go to the restroom and left them looking over the menu. They couldn’t have known I’d made my way back and was standing just behind them when I heard the conversation they were having.