“But, you might. You might leave me.”
“No! And if I did . . . I . . . I would be the . . . the problem.” Comprehension settles on her and she says, “Oh, Daddy!” and she puts her arms around my waist, crying against my abdomen. The tone of her weeping is different now, these are almost happy tears, or something like that.
Healthy tears maybe?
She pulls her head back and says, “If those galleries don’t like my work, I’ll email twenty-five more, Daddy. If they don’t like it, I’ll email more and if I run out of galleries I’ll just open my own gallery.” She’s still crying, but her voice is completely clear.
“Good girl,” I say.
She hugs me again and I hold her for a while and finally say, “You know, I was going to give you a pretty bad spanking.”
She stops hugging me, nods, and puts herself over my lap. “Okay, Daddy. I deserve it.”
I lift her up so she straddles me and kiss her. “No. It wouldn’t be helpful now. You learned your lesson, Little Girl. You learned your lesson and I’m proud of you.”
“Can you look at all the sent emails, please Daddy?”
“Do you want me to?”
She nods. “I want you to check whenever I tell you something about my ceramics, so you know I’m not lying to you.”
“Okay, Little Girl,” I say. “But, there’s something I want to do first.”
She nods and says, “Okay, Daddy.”
She starts to get off me and I pull her back. “I don’t need you to get out of my way for me to do what I want to do first.” I wink. “You’re exactly what I want to do first.” She giggles and I pull her close and kiss her hard. “And while I’m at it, I want to do that second, third, fourth, and fifth and ten thousand times.”
She giggles and I stand up, throwing her over my shoulder. I swat her ass as something that has nothing at all to do with punishing her, and as she giggles, I carry her to her room. I toss her on the bed and she cries out in surprise as she bounces on the mattress. “Did I mention that what I want to do first I also want to do very, very hard?” I growl.
She looks up at me with the most adorable expression, filled with excitement and just the slightest twinge of fear added to the mix. I unbuckle my belt and stare at my little girl.
“Very, very hard, Little Girl.”