Love Like This

Girl Dad

I've been MIA so here's another chapter since you guys are still reading the chaos that is this book!

Today was the worst day of Spencer's life. He'd been through a lot of traumatic things in his life, his father dying, getting shot, Coop's coma, Olivia's relapse, but this, this was clearly worse than all of those things and Olivia was completely calm.

"It was going to happen eventually Spencer; all we can do is wait and see what happens."

That's what she kept telling him, but she didn't understand. He was a father to three children but only one little girl. Aaliyah was his angel and today, the worst day of his life, she was going on her first date.

"How can you say that? What if something goes wrong? I should go with them, keep an eye on things." Spencer ranted, pacing all over their kitchen floor.

"Did you go with SJ on his first date? No, so you can't go on Aaliyah's." Olivia said as she flipped through a magazine and sipped on her coffee, truly unbothered by her husband's worrying.

Spencer stared at his wife, shocked that she wasn't agreeing with him.

"Seriously Liv? You aren't worried at all?"

Spencer's voice took on a vulnerable tone that instantly drew Olivia's attention. She pushed her coffee and magazine out of the way before turning to face him and opening her arms. Spencer stepped into the space, allowing Liv to reassure and support him with her physical presence.

"Do you remember your first date?" Liv asked softly, still holding him tightly in her embrace.

"Yeah, it was with Kia." Spencer said with a laugh. "Her uncle sat on the porch staring at me when I came to pick her up, it was terrifying."

They both laughed at the thought of freshman year Spencer trying to mask his fear and taking Kia out in spite of her uncle.

"We went to the movies and her curfew was at 10, I took her home at 9. That's how nervous I was. What about you?"

"Well, my first real date was with Chris." Olivia said, laughing as Spencer frowned. "We went to a carnival a few weeks after homecoming. He was very respectful, and we had a great time."

Spencer grumbled to himself, it didn't matter to him how his first date went, this was his baby girl, she deserved nothing less than perfect and no boy was going to be good enough for her.

"Do you remember our first date?" Olivia asked, rubbing the back of his neck to try and relax him.

"How could I forget. You beat me in every single game we played that night." Spencer said, pouting at the thought that he still couldn't beat his wife at pop a shot.

"I think about that night all the time." Olivia admitted while she cradled him closer to her chest. "There were so many other things we had going on in our lives at that time and that entire night, all I could think about was how happy I was with you."

Spencer smiled as he thought about how happy he was that night, his smiling falling when he remembered pressing his wife against a car and running his hands over her body to end the night.

"I still don't like the idea of my baby girl going out with some buy." Spencer pouted as he protested to his wife. "I know how boys think, and I know that some boys just want to take advantage of her."

Olivia understood his hesitance, she'd gone through her own process of dealing with change when SJ started dating. It wasn't easy to see your baby's grow up and start new things, but they had to allow them the space to try, to see what they do and don't like, they would be better people in the future if they learn some hard limits in the present.

"You never did that to me." Olivia reminded him. "When I told you I wanted to wait, you respected that, and we waited. Our girl is strong, she knows how to stand up for herself, we made sure of that, she'll be fine. We have to let her do this."

Unknown to the parents, their children stood in the hallway, almost falling over each other to listen to their parents' conversation.

"Get your elbow out of my side." Aaliyah whispered to SJ, shoving him back a little.

"Shut up! Their gonna hear us." Isaiah complained to his older sister.

"Or you two could move so I can go get my water bottle." SJ sighed. He wasn't trying to eavesdrop on his parents, he just needed to get something out of the kitchen and his brother and sister refused to let him pass by.

The arguing between siblings was finally loud enough for their parents to hear and there was a silent debate over who was going to break them up. Spencer lost.

"Hey, you know we can hear you guys, right?" Spencer called down the hallway only to be met with silence. "Stop fighting."

The sound of feet rushing towards the stairs is all that could be heard as the younger two children made their way upstairs and SJ made his way to the kitchen.

"Dad, she'll be fine." SJ said as he searched through the fridge. "She's got Mom's gift of breaking the strongest of men down to an infant, she grew up arguing wit me and Isaiah, she has your right and left hook, she'll be fine. If anything, you should be worried about the poor kid taking her on the date." SJ closed the fridge and made his exit, kissing his mother on the cheek and patting his dad on the back before he left the kitchen.

Olivia laughed as her son was able to put everything into perspective rather quickly, SJ had always been straight to the point.

Liv placed a kiss to Spencer's lips before leaving him to his thoughts, he needed to process and hopefully he'll be good to go in a few hours.

----

Spencer made sure to answer the door when Aaliyah's date arrived. He wanted to be the first person to tell the boy what his expectations were. He was going to toss in a threat, but Olivia shot him a look that told him he was pushing it, so he told him to have Aaliyah home by 10:30 and that he'd be waiting up for them. Aaliyah made sure to give her dad a big hug, whispering in his ear that she'd call him if she felt uncomfortable because she knew he'd always come get her.

Spencer watched as the car pulled away, taking his heart with it, sad that his little girl was growing up so fast.

"She still needs you." Olivia said while leaning against his back. "No matter how old she gets, she is always going to need her dad."

Olivia could feel Spencer finally relax into her touch, he'd been tense for hours and she knew he'd complain about his back pain later on. He'd complain and he'd pout at her until she offered to rub his back and that always ended one of two ways. One, Spencer would fall asleep. Two, Spencer would go from complaining about his back to trying to break hers.

"I need to get a chair; I'm going to wait for her right here." Spencer said.

"Let's go inside, you can wait for her by the window." Liv laughed, pulling him into the house before he could complain.

A/N: Something quick to post as a thank you for still reading, new chapters coming soon.