Not a good thing when I was about to go face her dad after taking his daughter’s virginity.
Her fingers trembled slightly in my hand and I stopped and turned her to face me.
“Okay give it to me, what’s your biggest fear?” She fidgeted and looked around at the windows of her home.
“What if he says no, what if he tries to stop us from seeing each other?” I put my finger over her lips to stop her having another one of her panic attacks.
“Not gonna happen, no matter what, I will never let that happen.”
“You say that now but how will you stop it if that’s what he tries to do?”
“Your dad is not stupid, he knows what I feel for you, what we feel for each other. The good thing is that he was once here himself so he’d know that there’s no way he can keep us apart, and that it would be better if we do this the right way, than for the two of us to have to resort to sneaking around behind his back.”
“Okay, okay but…”
“No buts babe, we’ll be fine, you’ll see, now let’s go on in, I’m sure they heard us pull up and I don’t want them worrying about why we’re hanging around out here.”
I never let go of her hand, not even when we were standing before her parents and they were both staring at her hand in shock.
“Sir, ma’am, as I told you before, Sian is the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with. I know you might prefer that we wait, but the reality is that we’re teenagers and we’re in love.
I don’t want to lie to you, or to make your daughter disrespect you, so I’m asking you to please give us this.”
Her dad has this way of looking at me like he’s seeing something that’s not quite there or shouldn’t be. He was giving me one of those looks now, while his wife looked like she was about to cry.
“Why the rush?” If that was all he had I could deal. At least he wasn’t brandishing a gun and yelling at me to get the fuck out of his house.
It took some doing but in the end I convinced him to let the engagement stand. I had his wife to thank for helping me smooth things over and I was doubly grateful that he hadn’t made me look like an ass in front of my girl.
My second option would’ve been taking her out of there kicking and screaming if I had to, because there was no way I was ever giving up Sian Claiborne.
Mom had forwarded the message that she would be calling Mrs. Claiborne the next day at the latest so they could get together and plan a party of some sort.
The parents had already met once and had hit it off, since the two women seemed to have a lot in common, namely shopping and gossip. I didn’t see the need for a party but Sian seemed to like the idea so of course I was on board.
I saw her and her dad whispering in the corner while her mom was congratulating me and I kept my eye on her, reading her body language.
I relaxed when I saw that she was happy, though she looked close to tears, and when he drew her in and kissed her hair I understood why; he was giving her his blessing.
Thank fuck! Dad and I had brainstormed every scenario in case this thing went south, down to exit routes if it came to that. I was glad that I wouldn’t have to go that far and I was equally happy that the shit was over and done with.
With that out of the way there will be no need for sneaking around to be together, and I knew without a doubt that Sian and I were going to need a whole lot of alone time in the future.
Chapter 4
SIAN
“I’ll see you tomorrow at the house don’t forget to bring a bathing suit.”
“I won’t.” He was getting ready to leave for the night and I hated to see him go, but mom and dad had been so very understanding about this whole thing that I didn’t want to rock the boat by overdoing it.
And begging them on my hands and knees to let me go home with him would most definitely be pushing it.
Not to mention letting the cat out of the bag about us sleeping together, which I’m so not ready for and which I’m pretty sure they hadn’t guessed yet, I hope...crap.
“You have to let me go babe, I’ll call you as soon as I get home I promise.”
“Give me fifteen minutes, I have to tell the girls.” I waved my finger back and forth in his face with a big stupid grin on mine.
“Are we really doing this? I feel like I’m in one of those cheesy Disney teen movies.”
“We most definitely are, now let go before your dad changes his mind and comes after me with a chainsaw.”
“I don’t think he has one of those, just one more please.” I pouted my lips out at him until he kissed me again and then he was gone and I felt bereft for all of five minutes before I headed to my room.
Of course I called my girls on conference and gave them the good news. After the screaming and congratulations wound down they were all full of plans.
Belle was the first one to bring up the pink elephant in the room. Something I hadn’t even broached with Jace, because he tended to treat this particular subject the same way always.
“Mandy is going to shit ten bricks when she hears about this.”
“Well I was thinking of keeping the news out of circulation for as long as possible.”
“And how do you plan on doing that? I don’t think Jace would be too happy if you took his ring off, and if it’s half what I expect from your description, a person would have to be blind six times over not to see it.”