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I look at my daughter, announce written all over my face.

"Oh my gosh, look at you!" Odeletta fusses, adjusting Noemie's hair.

She's wearing a black dress that goes to her mid thigh, way too short for my liking, but I kept my mouth shut. Her dress is strapless, showing off clevage, which I tried to protest but was shot down by her older sister, her younger sister, her cousin, her best friend, and her mother.

Caroline looks beautiful. Her blonde hair is curled.

"Noemie, I'm so scared." Caroline whispers to her sister.

She's sixteen.

Lucy is twelve, Noah is eighteen, Noemie is twenty one, and Raylen is twenty three.

Raylen's fiance, Abby, sighs slowly.

"You have no reason to be scared." Odeletta smiles. "You look beautiful, sweetheart."

Noah drapes his arm around his girlfriend, Katie. Noemie is texting her boyfriend back. He's in the Navy. She met him through Raylen, actually. He's Raylen's best friend. His name is Eric. He's two years older than her but he's a great guy. I approve of him.

Noemie lives in Colorado, attending the same college that Odeletta and I did so many years ago. Raylen is graduated, and Gabe hooked him up with a job as a lawyer in New York City. He proposed to Abigail in the exact same spot I proposed to his mother in.

I'm so proud of my kids. Opal is twenty four, too.

Everyone is so grown up.

"Mama, what if he doesn't like me? What if he's rude?"

"Then I'll kick his ass." Raylen snarls, earning glares from my wife, Noemie, Lucy, Opal, and Abigail.

"If he's rude to you, I'll have a word with him." Noah says gruffly, earning a giggle from Katie.

Since she emerged from the bedroom, all dolled up with makeup on, I've stayed silent.

Since I found out my little girl is going on a date, I've been bitter.

She's too young for boys to toy with her heart.

Caroline looks at me.

"Daddy? Are you mad at me that I have a date?"

She's just a baby.

It feels like she's just a baby.

But still, I find myself sighing.

"No." I say. "You look beautiful, Caroline. It's okay."

She walks over to me and pulls me into a hug. I hug her back.

When I lean down to kiss her forehead, my wife gasps and pushes my chest.

"You will ruin her makeup, Nathan!"

I scowl.

"She doesn't need makeup." I argue. "She's perfect the way she is."

The doorbell rings, and my wife darts for it before I can.

I sprint past her, pulling open the door.

A kid stands there, Caroline's age. There's a black Mercedes in the driveway, polished to perfection. He shoves the keys in his pocket.

I narrow my eyes at him.

He has brown hair that is styled carefully with gel. He has a sharp jawline and nervous blue eyes. He's wearing jeans and a black button down, his shirt tucked in.

Oh, this boy is most definitely after sex.

He has a bouquet of roses in his hand.

His eyes meet my narrowed ones. Odeletta is tugging at my arm from inside the house.

"Ne lui fais pas peur!" She pleads.

She told me not to scare him. I almost scoff.

Does she not know me? This is my baby he's taking out.

This is the last one that I watch grow inside of my wife. The last one I whispered to.

While I'll react the same for my little Lucy, this is the last biological Reed.

This is important.

If I scare him so much that he takes off, he never should have asked my baby girl out anyways.

"You must be Mr. Reed." He says, and his voice is shaking. "It's wonderful to meet you. I'm Jeremy."

He sticks his left hand out.

He looks so afraid, his hand is shaking.

I stick out my right hand and shake it.

He grips my hand strongly.

Huh, maybe he's not as bad as I thought.

I slip out the front door and shut it behind me.

"What are you intentions with my daughter?" I question.

His eyes widen.

Right, I don't waste any time.

"I just...she's so funny and smart. She has a great personality and I've liked her for a very long time, sir."

"How long is a long time?" I question.

"S-since third grade, sir."

He's like Caroline for that long?

My eyebrows rise in shock.

"My intentions are pure, I promise you."

"You didn't tell me she's pretty." I say flatly.

"She is!" He gasps. "She's radiant! I just, um, I lo-" he cuts off. "I like her for her, not just for how she looks."

"You were going to say you love her." I say calmly. "Weren't you?"

He bows his head, his cheeks tinging pink.

"Yes, sir."

"That girl in there is a nervous wreck." I say. "And it has taken a lot of late night arguments with my wife to get me to agree to this. She's my baby girl. If you hurt a single hair on her head, a single cell in her body, I will destroy you. She's my girl, and she's my wife's world. She deserves respect and love, does she not?"

"I agree whole-heartedly." he says seriously. "My intentions are true."

I'm impressed.

He did better than Eric did when I interrogated him.

I let out a huff.

Why do I have to like the kid?

"Where do you want to go to college?"

"Harvard." He says. "Or Princeton. I don't know what I would like to study yet though, sir. I have straight A's and a 4.0 grade point average."

"Show me your grades." I practically order.

He gulps and pulls his phone from his pocket, his hand shaking as he types.

After a couple moments, he turns the screen to me.

I take his phone from his hand.

He has straight A's, all of the percentages above ninety five. His GPA is a 3.999.

"That one point on my GPA is making me crazy." He lets out a nervous laugh. "I am staying after school tomorrow to do extra credit in a few of my classes to try and bring it up."

"Do you have any siblings?" I ask, handing him his phone.

"Yes sir, a sister."

"How old is she?"

"She's my twin, sir."

"And your parents?"

"They are married, happily."

I nod at the Mercedes in the driveway.

"Did they purchase that car for you?"

He looks over his shoulder and his eyes fill with pride.

"No sir, I work at the animal shelter by the school. I have been saving for that car since I was a kid, collecting money I got for my birthday or allowance."

"You paid for that?"

"Yes, sir."

"Are you a virgin?" I press.

His eyes widen. "Yes, sir."

"Do you plan on taking my daughters virginity tonight?"

His eyes get huge.

"No, sir. I would like to wait until I am at least engaged."

"When do you want to get engaged?"

"When I am graduated from college, sir."

"Do you want children?"

"Yes. I always wanted a big family. I want a lot of kids."

"How many?"

"I don't know sir, four? Maybe eight."

Holy shit.

"What is your favorite subject in school?"

"Math."

"Why?"

"Because every problem has a solution. It's not like English, where everything is a puzzle. Math has a problem and a way to solve it. That's how I like to look at life, you know? When there is a problem, there is always a way to solve it."

I like this kid a lot.

I throw up the front door.

"Caroline." I say.

She walks up, her eyes wide, her face pale.

I watch Jeremy. His eyes study her face first and he smiles, before his eyes flit down to her body.

They don't linger on exposed skin.

"You look beautiful." He says.

Her cheeks turn bright pink.

"Thank you." She whispers.

"Here." He holds the flowers out to her. "I got them for you."

"Thank you." She smiles softly. Noemie takes them from her.

"I'll put them in water for you."

"Thank you." Caroline says to her big sister. She turns back to Jeremy, and then looks at me.

"Go on." I say, nodding my head towards the car.

Jeremy beams at Caroline and puts his hand on her back, on the small of her back.

"I think your hand is a bit too low there, Jeremy." I say harshly.

"Sorry sir!" He exclaims, raising his hand to the middle of her back instead of the small of her back. Odeletta is laughing softly, her fingers linking through mine.

"Have her back by ten!" I say, taking a step forward as they get closer to the car. "Actually, no! Have her back by nine!" I cringe.

She's sixteen, Nathan.

"Nine thirty!" I finish.

Jeremy nods at me from across the yard.

His hands are shaking so bad, I'm worried he might go into cardiac arrest.

He opens the door for her and checks to make sure she's all the way in the car.

"Use a condom!" I yell. "And don't kiss her with tongue! She's just a kid! She's my little girl, Jeremy! I own a gun!"

He looks petrified as he gets in the car. I can see Odeletta shaking in laughter as he carefully starts his car. He puts on his seatbelt and looks at Caroline. He says something to her, and she looks at him and snaps out of her trance, pulling on her seatbelt.

He just told her to put on her seatbelt.

They back out carefully and I don't move until the car is out of sight.

"Daddy, it's alright." Noemie laughs. "She's sixteen."

"I like the kid, alright?" I grumble, walking into the house.

My kids and my wife and I have been through so much. Caroline needs somebody who can and will protect her.

Odeletta kisses my cheek.

"Let's order pizza." She laughs.

I watch her disappear into the kitchen and I follow her out of habit. She leans against the counter as she orders the food. I listen to her heavy French accent, watching the way she forms her words.

She's so beautiful, her stance so elegant.

This woman can make everything elegant. The way she speaks is elegant, the way she rides a motorcycle is elegant. Even the way she fights is elegant.

I think back to that day so long ago when she was smoking a cigarette, sitting so perfectly.

She made something so vile and disgusting look so perfect.

It infuriated me.

She infuriates me.

I know what makes her tick. I know everything that makes her mad, I know everything that makes her happy, I know her. She's not just the song, she's the whole album. She's so complicated.

She's like...sunshine mixed with hurricane, and standing there in her loose white t-shirt and jeans destroys me.

She makes something so casual so...incredible.

She finishes ordering the pizza and hangs up.

I know exactly how to make her laugh, or how to make her blush, or how to make her mad at me.

But even when she's mad and shouting at me, there's nobody more beautiful angry.

Our relationship has been a beautiful mess.

I never meant to fall in love with her the way that I did, but I did fall in love with her. There was no fighting it.

She's a thrill of a lifetime and I spent so long bitter because I thought I would never find her.

"Why are you staring at me?" She asks, her almond brown eyes narrowing at me. Her arms fold across her chest. I step forward and trap her against the counter, my hands on either side of her.

This woman is my best friend. She has always been there for me, and I her. We have been through the unthinkable, but we came out on top.

We always come out on top.

Her eyes peer up at me.

I reach up, brushing my thumb across her cheekbone gently.

"Do you remember when I used to call you French Fry?" I murmur. She laughs softly, nodding her head at the memory.

I don't care that four of our kids are standing in the kitchen, our sons girlfriends with them, along with our niece.

She's everything to me.

"I love you, mon amour."

Her cheeks flush a bright red when she notices everyone is in here, but she looks back up at me.

"I love you too, beau."