Friend Zone

Penn laughed. "Thanks, Mrs. Brand. I'm not craving pickles, though. The pie and ice cream sound good. What kind of pie is it?"

"Apple," Mom told her. "I love a good apple pie. It's Eric's favorite."

We sat and ate pie and got acquainted. Penn warmed up to Mom right away and Mom was warm to everyone. "You know what would be good?" Penn said. "A hunk of cheddar cheese."

Mom laughed. "I love that, too, Penn." She got a block out of the refrigerator and broke it into three pieces. We nibbled on it and talked. Mom was a little uneasy with Penn staying with me. She asked her if she wouldn't rather stay with her. I felt Penn immediately tense up and squeeze up against me. Mom saw what was happening and she came around and hugged her.

"I wouldn't dream of taking him away from you, if that's what you need," she kissed her. "I'm sorry, honey; I just thought you might be more comfortable here. I know I'd love the company."

"Thanks, Mrs. Brand, but I want to stay with Eric," she said.

"Please don't call me that," Mom told her. "My name is Mary. Mrs. Brand sounds so old."

I think they fell in love with one another that night. We stayed for an hour and a half and I took Penn home. I went to work, and when I got home she was asleep, curled up like a kitten on the sofa in front of the fireplace. I woke her up and she told me she wanted to go back to school the next day. She didn't want to go to bed before I got home. I scolded her a little.

"I don't get much sleep these days and I don't need as much as some people," I told her. "You're pregnant, Penn, and you need to rest. Don't you stay up like this."

I was wasting my breath. She was always asleep when I got home, but she never went to bed until I got there. Sometimes she'd be lying there with a book open on her stomach and papers scattered all around, but she refused to go to bed until I got home. I had a Dodge truck with the hemi in it, and she drove it to school when the weather was bad. It was four-wheel drive and I felt like she was safer in it. When the weather was good, she drove the Hellcat and I drove the truck. I got her a little job working from three to five for my boss in his office. He loved her right away, and she seemed to be a good worker. We got her on our health plan and she didn't have to worry about that any more. By the time school was out, she was growing a little tummy. I don't think she gained more than ten pounds the whole time she was pregnant. She ate like a horse and I think her hair grew a foot. It was below her butt and it looked amazing. She brought her report card home the last day of school and it was great. She had all A's except for one. She had a C in Anatomy and Physiology and she apologized to me.

"I promise I'll work harder next year," she said. "I hate those kinds of classes where you just have to memorize all that stuff. I can do better and I will."

"Hey, you can't be good at everything," I told her. "You don't have to apologize to me, Penn. If you're disappointed in yourself or happy with yourself, that's all that matters. I know it's been a tough year."

We spent every available minute together. As her tummy started to grow, she made me rub it with lotion so she wouldn't get stretch marks. I rubbed her feet and ankles, too. They were swelling a little and she loved me rubbing them. Her boobs were growing, too. They became even more noticeable, and that was saying a lot.

She was four weeks away from her due date when she waddled into the garage. We had been taking classes on birth and parenting and we sort of knew what to expect. We kept bags packed and she was carrying them. She kicked my foot that was sticking out from under the truck where I was changing the oil. I rolled out and saw her face.

"My water just broke, Eric," she said calmly. "I think I need to go to the hospital."

We were there in ten minutes and in another ten, she was in a birthing room. She was starting to feel it pretty hard and I asked about drugs. The nurse was one of those militant "natural childbirth" types and she looked at me sternly.

"The anesthesiologist might not get here in time," she said. "Women have been doing this without drugs for thousands of years.

"Well, you go and look for him," I told her. "Nobody gets an award for enduring the most pain, and a lot of those women died. Doctors didn't wash their hands, either, for thousands of years. If he isn't here in five minutes, I'm going to find him and squeeze his nuts to see if he likes pain."

She huffed off, and Penn and the other nurse died laughing. She didn't laugh for long. She started having contractions and I thought she was going to break my hand. The anesthesiologist made it in four minutes and he gave her an epidural. The pain went away and we enjoyed the birth of the most beautiful baby girl I'd ever seen. They let me cut her cord.

"What's her name?" the Obstetrician asked.

"Abigale Erica," Penn told him.

They filled out the birth certificate and gave it to me. I looked at it; more than a little confused. "You need to sign it," the nurse told me. "You're her father."

I looked at Penn. She nodded. "Please," she mouthed to me.

I noticed that the name was Abigale Erica Brand. I got a big lump in my throat. I felt like I was going to choke. Tears were filling my eyes and I could hardly see. I took the pen and signed my name and Penn held out her hand. I gave her the certificate and she signed it, too. The doctor signed and that was it. Abby was my daughter. The nurse held her out to me and I could see her bright blue eyes looking up at me. I took her in my arms and one little hand grabbed my finger and held on. I knew it was just a reflex, but that one motion stole my heart and I never got it back.

They let us go home two days later, and Abby gurgled in her little car seat in the back. Penn sat in the back with her and I drove carefully home. Our lives were chaos for the first month. I was out of school for the summer and it was a good thing. We made one of the bedrooms upstairs into a nursery and I moved up into the other one so Abby was between Penn and me. We took turns getting up with her. Penn breastfed her for a while until school started again. Mom came over and took care of her when we were at school and you have never seen a more devoted grandmother. She wouldn't hear of putting her in day care, and she loved taking care of her. When Penn and I got home from school, Mom went home and we spent the rest of the evening spoiling her rotten until I had to go to work. I'm surprised she ever learned to walk, the way we carried her around. We both had homework to do and it was grueling trying to fit everything into twenty-four hours. It was a good thing I didn't need a lot of sleep. Penn did, but still, she never went to bed until I got home. I'd been promoted three times, and I was now working in the engineering department. It was even more demanding than production had been, and I was feeling pretty stressed.

Penn was doing okay, and she had started talking to her siblings on the phone. She saw them at school and they told her that their father was drunk all the time. By the time we both graduated, Abby was walking and starting to talk a little. I was sitting on the sofa one day trying to study while holding her and keeping her entertained. Penn was doing homework, too, and all of a sudden Abby pulled her pacifier out of her mouth. She looked up at me and said, "Da-da." I didn't quite catch it and I just kissed her absently. She said it again; "Da-da."

I looked over at Penn and she was crying. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

"I think so," I told her. "I think she just called me 'Da-da' to get my attention. It's her first word, Penn!"

I squeezed that perfect little angel up against me and she cooed. "Da-da."

Penn came over and put her arms around us. Abby looked at her. "Ma," she said.

We laughed and cried until it upset Abby and we had to calm her down again. She picked up words after that the way a vacuum cleaner picks up dust bunnies. By the time Penn's nineteenth birthday came around, she knew "Gra," too, and she could name a lot of objects around the house and in her books.

I took Penn out for her birthday and Mom kept Abby. I took her to her favorite restaurant. It was a local place and they had really good food. We got a booth and Penn made me sit with her. She held my hand until I could hardly eat. She was sitting very close and I could feel how warm she was against me. She just kept staring at me and I started getting a little uncomfortable.

"Is something wrong, Penn?" I finally asked her.

"No, everything's so right," she said. "I can't begin to tell you how right everything is. Eric, did you know that we've been together almost two years?"

"No, I didn't know that. It seems like twenty years to me," I told her.

"You big lunk," she punched me.

"I'm serious, Penn. It's hard for me to remember when we weren't together. So much has happened it makes the rest of my life seem like a few minutes."

"That's so sweet," she said. "Are you sorry, Eric?"

"Sorry about what? Sorry that the most gorgeous girl in the world lives with me? Sorry that the sweetest person I know waits up for me on the sofa every night? Sorry that I have a little girl who calls me Dad? Am I insane?"

"Well, you don't have a girlfriend. You haven't been on a date since we've been together. Are you lonely?"

"I don't have time for that," I told her. "I don't have time to date, either, and I'm not interested in it, anyway. I thought I was on a date now."

"You mean, with me?" she asked.

"Do you see anyone else here?"

"Eric, do you think I'm pretty?" she asked.

"You're the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen," I told her.

"Why haven't you made love to me then?" she asked.

I nearly choked on my water. I sputtered around while she laughed at me. "Jesus Christ, Penn. What kind of a question is that? I didn't know you would be interested... I was afraid... you were so young and I promised..." I stammered like an idiot.

"I've been trying to seduce you for a year," she told me. "I rub my tits on you; I kiss you all the time. I run around the house in next to nothing and my pussy is wet every time you touch me. I rub myself off every night thinking about you. I'm beginning to think you're gay."

She rubbed one of those hard little boobs against my arm and it looked like her nipple was about to shred her shirt. My cock was as hard as iron and I felt her hand slide up my leg onto my crotch.

"Ooh, I guess you're not gay," she said.

"No, I'm not, and stop that," I held her hand. "Someone is going to see us. What are you doing, Penn? Are you trying to drive me crazy? I noticed all that stuff. I just thought you were comfortable with me. I've spent a long time trying to show you that you could trust me. I wasn't going to screw that up by perving on you."

"I'm trying to tell you I love you, Eric. I've loved you since the day you took me to see Dad. I'm in love with you. I want to be your girl. If you don't love me, I'm going to move in with Mary. It's going to be too hard for me to be around you any more. I've been dying inside, trying to get you to notice me. I can't stand it anymore. I need to know if there's a chance for me. I'll always let you have our daughter whenever you want her, but if you don't love me, I need to move on and so do you."

Her eyes were starting to well up with tears. I took her cheeks between my hands and looked in her eyes. I kissed her, and it went on for a long time. Someone cleared their throat, and when I looked up, our waiter was standing there.

"I love her," I told him. "She loves me, too."

He got a big smile on his face. "Did you just find out?" he asked.

"Yes, I knew she really liked me. I was afraid I was in the friend zone."

He went away and came back with two pieces of cake. "Congratulations," he said. "The cake is on me. I thought you two were married when you came in here."

He left the check and went away. I looked back at Penn and she was glowing. She took my arm and rested her head on my shoulder.

"I'm so happy, Eric," she said. "I may burst!"

On the way home, she took off her seat belt and crawled across me. She leaned her back against the door and sat on my lap with her arms around my neck. "Don't have a wreck," she said.

"I may," I told her. "I'm having a hard time concentrating with a little gypsy on my lap."

She didn't get off when we got home, and I carried her inside. Mom's face lit up like a light bulb when she saw us.

"He loves me," Penn told her.

"I knew it," Mom said. "See, he just needed a little push."

"You two planned this!" I exclaimed. "My own mother is scheming around."

Mom snorted. "Well, someone had to take some initiative around here. You two were just going to dance around the rest of my life. I want more grandkids before I'm eighty!"

"We'll get started right away," Penn giggled. "Is Abby asleep?"

"Yep, and I'm gone." She got her purse and left.

"So, what do we do now?" I asked Penn.

"You take me to bed," she said.

I carried her to the stairs and set her down. She wiggled her butt all the way up the stairs in front of me and it was a sight to wake the dead. Her perfect little ass jiggled under her jeans and I had to give it a squeeze. She gave a soft little squeal and ran the rest of the way up. We melted together and I couldn't get enough of those luscious little lips. We fell on the bed and she climbed on top of me. She unbuttoned my shirt and spread it out before kissing all over my chest and belly. I started undoing her shirt and she sat up and let me. It fell away and she undid her bra. Those breasts sprang out. They were everything I had imagined. They weren't really that big, but she was very small and they sat so high and proud that they looked big. I had seen glimpses when she was nursing Abby, but this was Penelope in all her glory. She had a lot of glory, too. I pushed the shirt and her bra off and she lay on top of me. Her nipples were sweet and brown, and they were poking holes in my chest. They were hard enough to shatter, and she scraped them across mine.

My hands slid up and down that beautiful back and she felt like silk under my fingers. I slid my hands down and felt the explosion of her hips and waist. Her hips weren't wide but her waist was tiny and there was a dramatic curve there. I felt her unbutton her jeans and I slid my hands inside and up over that fantastic ass. She was getting impatient and she wiggled around until she kicked them off. Her panties went, too, and I rolled on top of her. I shucked out of my pants and boxers and looked at her. I froze. She looked so good it hurt. She just had a few little blonde curls down there and she kept them trimmed. I could see her skin through them and her little pussy was bare and pink. I wanted, no I needed, to taste it. As I got close, I could smell her; a mixture of soap and horny girl. She was shy about letting me in there, but I pushed her legs apart and there it was. I couldn't get enough. I lapped and sucked and nibbled and she went off like a bomb. She thrashed around until I couldn't keep up with her any longer. She pulled on my hair and I nibbled my way back up until I could claim her lips again.

She tried to push her tongue down my throat. "Damn, Eric; were you trying to kill me?" she gasped. "That was so amazing! I've never felt anything like that in my life. No one has ever done that to me. I thought it was good rubbing myself off, but it's nothing like that."

"I want to watch you rub yourself off," I told her.

"You're a nasty boy," she giggled. "Do you want to fuck me now, or do you want me to do that to you first?"

"I don't want to fuck you, I want to make love to you," I told her.

"Okay, but I'm doing that before the night is over," she warned me.

I moved up over her until I could feel all that hot moistness against my cock. She was very wet and the head of my cock slipped in easily. She gasped.

"Easy, Eric, it's been a long time since anything's been in there."

I took my time and before long, I was inside the tightest hottest pussy I'd ever felt. After giving birth, I didn't expect it to be that tight, but it was. The hotness was just Penn. She always felt like she had a fever when she touched me, and this felt scalding! I started to move and she moved right back. It was slow and sweet as honey for a while and she had a small orgasm. I wasn't going to last long. Being inside this amazing woman I was so in love with was driving me to the edge. We were moving, and the friction was exquisite. She was climbing the hill again and I took her hand and put it between us to hurry her along. She rubbed her clit and I plunged in until we both exploded together. She writhed and moaned like she was dying and I heard a male voice, too. I realized it was me, and I pumped her full of cum.

My cock never went soft. I slowed down for a while, just cruising until I felt her begin to tremble again. I rose up on my arms and pounded her. She was gasping and moaning again, and when we came this time, she let out a little shriek at the pinnacle. We collapsed together and I heard the pitter-patter of little feet going down the hall to my room.

"Daddy, whe ah wu?" Abby called.

"In here in Mommy's bed, baby," I called.

She came in and stood by the bed. "I hud something," she said. "Why ah you quishing Mommy?"

"We're just playing, baby," Penn told her. "I'm sorry we woke you up. Do you want to go back to bed or get in with us?"

She climbed in, her little white nightgown making her look like a living doll, and we collapsed, giggling like school kids.

She giggled, too, just joyful at being with us, and I climbed over her. We squished her between us and fell asleep. I was having an amazing dream. An angel was sucking my cock and it felt so good I was about to come. When I opened my eyes it was true. Penn was bobbing up and down, nearly sucking the skin off my cock. She stopped when she saw I was awake and held her fingers to her lips.

"I put her back in her bed," she whispered. "Don't make any noise."

She was the one that wound up making the noise as I mounted her from behind, straddling her legs and giving her everything I had. Her moans and cries would have woken a cemetery when she came and I was right along with her. Amazingly, Abby didn't wake up at all. We showered together, and afterwards we wound up back in bed where I fucked her again.

"Jesus, Eric, you're killing me," she whispered as we held each other. "I love it. I never knew it could be like this. It was just painful the first times. I thought I must just be frigid. I know now. It just takes the right guy. You're the guy for me. There won't ever be anyone else."

We fucked like bunnies for the next six months. I fucked her in every room in the house and in the garage, too. We fucked two or three times a day and it really wasn't a surprise to me when she came and sat in my lap one evening.

"Eric, I'm pregnant again," she told me.

I had been waiting for that moment. "Hold that thought," I said. I went out to the garage and unlocked the bottom drawer of my toolbox. I got out the little box and went back in. I knelt on the floor in front of her and her mouth fell open.

"Penelope, will you make an honest man out of me?" I asked her. "Will you marry me?" I opened the box and she squealed like she'd been stabbed. I took the ring out and slipped it on her finger.

She threw herself on me, sobbing and giggling at the same time. "Nothing would make me happier," she said. "Yes, yes, yes, I'll marry you. I've wanted to forever. I'll love you forever."

She did, too, but that's another story.