Daddy’s Sweet Little by Scott Wylder
Chapter EIGHT
Marcus
After six weeks, I was convinced Nina was the best employee I’d ever had at Daddy’s Candy. Normally, I would have worried that my romantic interest in her had produced those thoughts, but Kendra agreed with me. The girl had an intuitive ability to understand the ebb and flow of customers and a natural talent for inventory flow. One mid-morning, I watched her stack old time candy bars in a display right by the counter. A week before, I mentioned I got three times as many as I ordinarily would because of a special sale from the distributor, but they weren’t selling as quickly as I expected. She set up the display that afternoon. For the past week, they’d been the hot commodity. If today went as the past few days had gone, I’d sell out. I already had more coming. They’d be delivered on Thursday morning.
Art stepped into the store and navigated through the tourists buying candy to say hello. “Kind of working here, man,” I said.
He laughed and said, “I’m here on business. I need enough fudge for fifteen people.”
“Having a party I wasn’t invited to?” I asked.
He laughed again. “No, it’s just the girls getting together for a playdate, tonight. What do you say to a night with the catfish?”
I knew there was a playdate for Nina, but the fudge was a nice surprise. “I’ll get the fudge for you,” I said. “Could you come here a moment, Nina?”
She immediately smiled like a schoolgirl and all but skipped over. “Yes?” She added a whispered, “Daddy.” Art smiled at that.
“I’m putting some fudge together for your playdate. Do you want to help me pick the flavors?” She nodded happily and ran over to the fudge, taking pieces and putting them in a box.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you so happy, Mark.”
I rolled my eyes. “You make it seem as if I was some kind of downer all the time.”
“Not at all,” he replied. “You weren’t a downer when you were asleep.”
“Hardy har har,” I said.
“Catfish?”
“Not tonight,” I said. “I’ll be working late.”
“A likely story,” he said.
He left a short while after, with a big box of fudge and in another thirty minutes or so; the last of the old time candy bars was on display. We sold out by two in the afternoon. I wanted to congratulate Nina on the success, but the store remained busy all the way up to closing. After we had closed and locked the door, Kendra said, “Wow! That had to be our busiest day yet!”
I laughed and said, “We’ll have to see when I run the register.”
Kendra said, “Are you driving over tonight or do you want a ride, Nina?”
Nina looked at me and said, “Will you pick me up after my playdate, Daddy?”
“Sure,” I said.
“Okay!” Kendra said with a giggle. “Then, you’re coming with me.”
To me, Kendra said, “Ten o’clock and not a second before!”
I laughed as she dragged Nina along and out of the shop.
In the last six weeks, we’d grown much closer and it was all very wonderful. We hadn’t slept together yet. I wanted to, about as desperately as I’d ever wanted anything. However, Taylor and I had slept together from day one, and I wanted to make sure Nina and I took things slowly. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her, or of making a fundamental mistake from the very beginning. Arthur thought I was being an idiot in that regard but, then again, Arthur pretty much thought I was always an idiot so it didn’t really matter.
I wanted her, but I wanted her to be ready and I wanted it to be beautiful.
Work went well. For the most part, it just involved reconciling the inventory and the finances. It was shaping up to be our best year ever, but the transactions weren’t much higher in number. In other words, we’d made more money with about the same number of customers. Years of retail experience told me this had everything to do with how the store was arranged and how smoothly and efficiently it operated. Both of those things had, for the most part, improved because of Nina. In my mind, there was no doubt about it. The success of the season could all be attributed to her. She’d done it and she was wonderful.
That idea carried me through a quick dinner at the diner and then a very, very long wait before I could pick her up. That was life for me now, though. Time when Nina wasn’t with me seemed to drag on and on. Finally, the time came and I felt so excited to head to Arthur’s, even though it would only mean ten or fifteen minutes in the car with her. That was okay. Those ten or fifteen minutes, I would have her all to myself.
She looked radiant and happy when I arrived. She proudly announced that she had won at checkers and then showed me some of her coloring pages. After we got into the car, she said in a hesitant voice, “Instead of taking me to the shop for my car, could you please take me right to my place, Daddy?”
“Sure, Princess,” I said. I loved how even now her face seemed to light up at Princess. I wondered why she hesitated but she seemed happy as we drove and I didn’t say anything. When we got to her little apartment building, I parked the car and, as always, walked her to the door. Again, she seemed uncertain and I said, “What’s wrong, Honey?”
She pressed her lips together and then said, “Will you please come in, Daddy?”
This was it. I masked my disappointment as I nodded and we stepped inside. I supposed I knew the day would come and here it was. I couldn’t do it. I’d treated her like Taylor instead of like Nina and this was the end of things. I smiled to let her know it was okay, but instead of sitting me down in her living room, she led me to her bedroom. I felt confused as she guided me to the bed.
“Daddy, I want to…”
She couldn’t finish and instead, she kissed me. Her tongue slipped past my lips and at the same time, she reached down and took hold of the bulge between my legs. Twenty seconds later, I was on the bed watching her strip. When she was naked, I let out a sigh that made her blush. She crawled onto the bed and pulled at my jeans to get them off. My boxers followed and she said, “I want to make you happy, Daddy.”
I just stared at her in wonder, feeling relief beyond reckoning that she wasn’t ending things.
A moment later, I just felt incredible.
