AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dada!” Nicola exclaims, opening and closing her fists as she toddles towards me. Before I have the chance to greet her in return, our dog, Louie, slams right into me, almost toppling me over.
“Stupid dog,” I laugh, giving him a scratch behind the ears as the beagle pants and yaps happily at me. As Nicola reaches me, I lean down to pick her up, pretending to nibble her ear to make her laugh with joy. “Where’s Mommy?”
Nicola makes a gibberish noise which ends with “Mama”, and looks back down in the direction she came from. I figure this means that Mommy is in the kitchen – which I probably could have guessed, given that the sounds and smells of cooking are noticeable even from here.
I carry Nicola through the house until we reach the kitchen, with Louie trailing close at our heels. He occasionally runs ahead, excited, then stops and waits; then he gets impatient and runs back to trot beside me as if he’s trying to tell me to go faster.
I set my briefcase down on a side table as I pass, entering the kitchen through the open doorway and moving up behind Liliana, who is working at the stove.
“Hey, Mommy,” I tell her, planting a kiss on the back of her head before she moves.
“Hey, Daddy,” she replies. She turns and fixes me with that dazzling smile of hers, wiping her hands on the front of her apron before turning her face up to kiss me again. “How was work?”
“Oh, you know,” I say, setting Nicola down on the floor so she can continue to toddle around as she likes. “Nowhere near as good as coming home.”
“Is anything ever?” Liliana teases.
I lean back against the table as she turns back around, tending to the bubbling pots on the stove. “No, nothing is. What can I say? I should be a stay-at-home Dad.”
“You know, you can,” she says. Her tone is light but serious. “Just tell Henri to take over everything. He’s capable enough.”
“That much is true.” I lick my lips a little as she bends further over the stove to reach a pot right at the back, pushing her ass out towards me. “There would be one downside, however.”
“What’s that?” she asks, distracted by her cooking and clearly not aware of the trap she’s walked herself into.
I can’t resist. I reach out and cup the two perfect globes of her ass, running my fingers across them. “I might not be able to hold back my insatiable urges if I’m home all the time.”
Liliana momentarily stiffens in surprise, but then she relaxes – and pushes herself even further back into my hands. “And what would make that a downside?” she asks, her voice syrupy sweet and sending a jolt right to my crotch.
I groan, reluctantly letting go. One of the things that come with family is extra added responsibility, and that has to be taken seriously. Before Nicola came along, I would have had no problems with putting Liliana on her back on the table, making her lose her mind, and then ordering takeout to replace the ruined dinner. But now we have someone who will get very crabby if they don’t eat on time, and besides, no babysitter to watch over her while we enjoy ourselves.
“You’re going to ruin me, woman,” I tell Liliana. It’s become a favorite joke of ours. We both know that she has done the opposite, she has made me. Before, I was only half a man. Now, I’m whole and strong, and my family enjoys the benefit of that as much as my colleagues do.
She only chuckles. “Why don’t you get Nicola set up in her chair?” she asks. “This won’t be long.”
I head to the far side of the kitchen to scoop up our daughter, who is currently engaged in tugging on Louie’s ears. She mumbles more nonsense and taps on my chest with her tiny hands as I carry her over to her chair and strap her in, ready to eat.
We sit down for a dinner of delicious food, lovingly prepared by my wife. Next to me sits my beautiful daughter, and our dog sits in the corner chewing on a bone, here in this home that I always hoped would have a family to fill it. What more could I ask for?
Liliana doesn’t touch her own knife and fork. Instead, she reaches for the spoon that Nicola is ignoring and lifts it up to begin feeding her bite by bite, letting her own food go cold. A wave of love comes over me, reminding me how lucky I am even to be here.
“I’ll do that,” I say, putting down my cutlery after taking only one bite. “You enjoy the food.”
“It’s alright,” Liliana says, glancing at me. “You had a long day at work.”
