King's queen

chapter 8

~KING~

It didn't take long for us to fall into a pretty regular routine. Adelaide got up with the girls and got them ready while I made everyone breakfast. It was usually just cereal but, on the weekends, I made real food. Then she took the kids to school and went to the dance studio while I went to work. After school the girls either went to the studio for their own classes or one of my bastard brethren took them home and watched them until Addy got there.

I usually rolled in around one am. The house would be clean and quiet. Adelaide left a plate of dinner for me in the microwave, usually with a note about anything she or the girls needed or what they were doing the next day. Sometimes she included a cute story about something one of the girls had done. Once there had been a little p.s. On the bottom complaining that the door had a loud creek, and she woke up every time Nightmare went out for a smoke or when I came home.

Saturday morning everyone was sitting around the table enjoying the French toast I had made when I asked. "You gals wouldn't want to go for a ride with this old man down to the lake for one last dip before it's way too cold. Would ya?" I asked, knowing full well that my kids would jump at the opportunity.

"Yes!" The younger two choruses.

"It's already too cold." Nova announced, looking at Addy for confirmation. We all turned to look at her, waiting to see if she would join in our family fun or keep herself separate from us. If I was being honest, I probably shouldn't have invited her. I should probably have been doing my best to keep our arrangement simple and transactional. I'd be damned if it wasn't tempting to pull her into our life and give her the fun and loving family life she deserved. I should have seen her as just another daughter to care for. But she didn't act like a daughter, she acted like a wife. and she didn't look like a little girl, she had the body of a gorgeous grown woman.

"I think that sounds like a lot of fun. Don't be the bump on the log." Adelaide bumped Nova with her shoulder.

"OK, go get into your bathing suits!" The girls and I rode in my big work horse of a truck and Addy followed us up to the local swimming hole.

As usual my kids left me to carry the bags full of beach toys, towels, and the chairs that we probably wouldn't even use. We like to spend a lot of time in the water, and I was happy to get down and dirty in the sand building Castles with the kids.

Addy touched my arm and held a hand out to take a bag from me. My ex-wife never would have thought to even offer to help me carry stuff, never mind take a strap off my shoulder and take the bag anyway after I said no. "I got this; you can go get in the water with the girls." I assured her. She smiled and I felt like a man who'd been living in the dark seeing the sun for the first time. She didn't smile often, and when she did it was usually for the kids.

"I'll go find us a spot near the water so you can see the kids from your chair." I don't think she realized that I planned on joining the kids in the lake. I know that it's normal for parents to sit on the beach and watch their children play. But I enjoy swimming and playing. Sometimes even big men like acting like little kids.

I found her standing on the shore laughing at something the girls were doing in the water. She turned to me, and her dark brown eyes turned to liquid caramel in the sun. She didn't hesitate to help me set up the chairs and spread out the blanket. When we were finished, I pulled my shirt off over my head and pulled off my jeans, vaguely aware that she too was shucking her clothes.When I stood up from taking off my jeans I froze like a deer in the headlights. She was wearing a fucking string bikini. It wasn't a thong, and the top covered most of her breasts. I had actually seen more of her during that stupid stripper audition, but this was different. She wasn't trying to turn me on. It wasn't even the most revealing bathing suit on the beach. But she was the only one who had my fucking attention and I felt like a lecherous old man.