Picture Perfect

I slowly opened the door. He smiled at me and waved me in.

“Hey, Gary, I have to go. My daughter just walked in. I’ll see you at the office. Bye.” He hung up without letting Gary get a word in. His smile widened when I drew closer to him. “Hey, Princess, what’s wrong?”

I didn’t say anything, instead I climbed into his lap like a child and gently cried into his shoulder.

His arms instantly went around me as he rocked my shaking form. He placed gentle kisses all over my head as he whispered words of comfort into my ear. “Sh, it’ll be okay, Sweetie. It’ll be okay.”

A loud sob escaped my lips as I buried my head further into the crook of his neck. I felt something cold and wet drip onto my cheek. And with sudden realization, I figured out that my father was crying with me.

“You’re not supposed to cry,” I whispered to him as I wiped away his tears.

“I’m allowed to cry, baby girl. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be in this mess. You wouldn’t be engaged. You would be free to date and marry whomever could win your untamable heart.”

“Daddy, it’s not all your fault. You did what you had to to save this family. If not for you, then I highly doubt we would even be living in a trailer.”

“If not for me putting you basically into slavery. How could I father do that to his child?”

“It’s better me than Josh.”

Dad shook his head. “I still shouldn’t have placed you in this position. I should have said ‘no.’ I could have found another way…and now, I feel as if I’ll lose you forever- it’s the fear I had before I signed the contract.”

I hugged my dad as tight as I could. “You’ll never lose me, daddy. I promise. No matter what happens to me, I’ll always be your little princess. I’ll always love you…but, I know what I have to do, and I’m okay with it. I accepted it when you guys told me six years ago.”

“If I could, I would take it all back.” He whispered in my ear.

“I know you would.” I whispered back to him.

Daddy chuckled after a long silence.

"What?" I asked him, not getting what was suddenly so funny.

"I just remembered how much I missed this."

I cracked a smile. "I missed it, too."

"Well, let's go find us a book and crack it open, for old time's sake!"

I nodded my head enthusiastically and darted off to my favorite section. I grabbed my favorite book off the top shelf and skipped back to my father's desk. With a large grin, I handed him the book and climbed back into his lap.

"Peter Pan, huh?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Yea, I just want to freeze time right now and let this night never end. Because, well, you can't grow up while reading Peter Pan, it's down right blasphemy!" I giggled.

Daddy smiled and put a sloppy kiss on my cheek. "Well then, let's not grow up together...even if it is just for a night.