Ghost

I didn't expect the vision that came strolling through the gate. Allicent had her mother's looks, long blonde hair, blue eyes and a dark tan. Mari's hair was a very dark brown; she had fair skin and grey eyes that changed color with her moods. She looked a little too Goth to suit me, but you could tell that she was a beautiful woman. She had a carryon bag over her shoulder and she was tall and willowy. I could see all the men checking her out as she looked around for me. She looked very cool and sophisticated. All that went away in a second when she saw me. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree; she dropped her bag and flew across the carpet into my arms like a little girl.

"Daddy," she squealed and launched herself at me. That's the way she had always greeted me and I had never failed to catch her. This wasn't the thirteen-year-old slip of a girl that I had last caught. This was a long, solid woman and she nearly knocked me down. When I recovered, she buried her face in my chest and just sobbed.

"God, Daddy, I've missed you so much. I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me. I've needed you so bad. Thank you for letting me come. I love you, Daddy and I'm so, so sorry."

I petted that long, shiny hair and held my baby girl as close as I could. "It's okay, baby," I consoled her. "I don't hate you. I love you. We're going to be okay. Now stop crying and let's go and get your bag before someone steals it."

She giggled wetly and I gave her my handkerchief. She used it to pat her face dry and blew her nose before handing it back to me. I took the crumpled ball gingerly and put it back in my pocket. "I should have known to bring tissues," I said.

She giggled again and dragged me off by the hand to retrieve the bag she had dropped. I carried it and she held my other hand as we walked down to the luggage carousel. "I have so many things to tell you and so many questions," she said. "I can't believe we finally found you. I've needed you so much, Daddy. Promise me you won't leave me again."

"No, baby, I won't I promise," I squeezed her hand. "We can talk as long as you want to. It's a bit of a drive back to where we're staying." We got her stuff put away in the RV, and I gave her the tour. She loved everything and said I had a "cool little house." "Are you hungry?" I asked her.

She was and we stopped at a good burger place I knew. She chattered like a magpie between bites, and I couldn't believe how good it felt just watching her. She had too much makeup on her eyes and I didn't like the dark purple lipstick she had on, but she was very much the baby I remembered. She had a quick smile and very good teeth. She just dazzled me and I realized how much I'd missed her.

It was a beautiful day and I took her down to the park. We sat on a bench and watched the kids play on the playground. She snuggled up into my side and I wrapped one arm around her. She rested her head on my shoulder and I could feel her starting to shake a little bit. When I looked down at her tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"Why are you crying, Marisol?" I asked her.

"I'm sorry," she choked out. "I just thought... I wondered if I'd ever get to do this again. Do you remember when you used to take Allie and me down to that ice cream stand and then we'd take our cones to the park? Allie would always finish hers first and run off to play. I'd just sit by you like this and you'd put your arm around me. I felt so happy I would never want to move. I've been so afraid that I'd never see you again. I drove you away and I'd never..." she broke down.

"No, baby, don't cry," I squeezed her. "It's all over now. You didn't drive me away; I ran like a coward. I'm so sorry, Mari."

"No!" she sat up and took my face in her hands. "You never apologize to me! I had a chance to be there for you and I blew it. You don't ever get to apologize to me again. I'm going to spend the rest of your life making it up to you."

I hugged her close. "It can't work like that," I said. "How about we just forget about anyone making anything up to anyone else and just love each other the way we should have been doing all along?"

She buried her face in my chest. "I want that more than anything in the world," I heard her muffled voice.

I pulled her to her feet and we walked back toward the RV park. She walked pressed into my side with her arm around my waist and mine over her shoulders. "Tell me about my baby," I said. "What's going on in your life?"

Mari was an athlete. She had just graduated from high school. I felt really bad that I had missed her graduation. She had a volleyball scholarship to SMU and she badly wanted to go there. She didn't know how she was going to afford it. The scholarship only paid about half of her tuition. The school was trying to talk her into getting student loans to cover the rest, but she was very skeptical about graduating owing nearly $100,000. Once again, that made me feel like a rotten father. I was going to have to make some moves. I had a while, so I didn't say anything yet. It was easy to tell by the way she moved that she was athletic. That long, slender body just moved like a cat. She liked music and played in the school band. She played sax and flute. She loved dogs and didn't have a boyfriend.

She looked up at me with doubtful eyes. "I've been kind of bad this year, Dad. My grades weren't that good and I've been... doing some stuff. Are you mad at me?"

"No, baby," I told her. "What kind of stuff?"

"I don't want to tell you," she said. "I'm afraid."

"I think it's important that we start being honest with each other," I told her. "You tell me something you think I won't like and I'll tell you something you will like. Deal?"

She stopped walking and looked in my eyes for a long moment. She nodded. "I've been smoking weed," she half whispered. She searched my face, looking for some sign.

"Is that legal?" I asked.

"No, I'm too young and it hasn't been legalized yet in Louisiana," she said. "Allie hates it. I do too, really, but I've just been feeling so rotten and so sad. I haven't done it since Allie told me she found you and that you would let me come and be with you. I won't do it anymore. Will you let me stay with you, Dad? I won't feel like that if you let me stay with you." She was clinging to me now. "I hate Mom, Dad. I can't stand to be around her. She's the one that caused all of this. I know she's sorry and she's tried really hard to make it up to Allie and me, but I hate what she did. She nearly cost us the chance for you to love us and I don't want to live with her. I'll do anything if you let me stay with you. I'll work and take care of you. I won't go to school."

"No, Marisol," I told her. "You don't need to do that. You're an adult. You can live anywhere you want to. You can stay with me as long as you want to, but I'm going back. I made a terrible mistake when I left. I'm going to fix that as much as I can. I want my girls to have a father in their lives. If you decide to go and play volleyball, I'll move to Dallas to be with you. Is that where you want to go?"

"No, I don't give a damn about that," she said. "I would rather have a life than play volleyball. I want to go to LSU with Allie, but they didn't offer me a scholarship. I'm not sure either one of us can afford to go there."

"You can afford to go to Harvard if you want to," I told her. "I'll pay for both of you to go anywhere you want to."

She looked up at me, her eyes shining. "Really, Daddy? Thank you! Is that the thing you were going to tell me?"

"No, I was going to tell you that I love you and I'm sorry for not being at your graduation," I said.

We arrived at the RV and she pulled me inside. She kissed me on both cheeks and hugged me until I couldn't breathe. "It's okay," she whispered. "You'll be at everything else for the rest of your life."

We got to know each other over the next two months, and by the time I got my work obligations wrapped up it was as if the last five years had never happened. Andrew was in Europe and Allie came to stay with us again as we got ready to go back east. She decided she wanted to go along for the road trip. Mari was a changed girl. The dark, weird makeup was gone and she was just the most gorgeous girl under that Goth look. She discarded the weird pants and wore shorts like a normal girl. Allie was very pleased with the transformation and they got along just like I remembered. They fought like hornets, but it didn't last five minutes. They never had a cross word for me.

We had long talks, and they were ruthless in exploring my feelings. I laughed and cried more in three months than I had in the last five years. We talked out our problems and I think we completely understood each other. I loved them without reserve and they showed me every day that they felt the same way about me.

They probed me relentlessly about Gwen and my mother. I didn't want to talk about it, but they were like water rushing downhill and they held me while I poured out my anguish, fear and anger. It was like going to a therapist that had this bottomless love for the client, a boundless sympathy and care. They told me about the changes in their mother and grandmother: how they were devastated and the smoldering wreckage I had left behind. They talked for hours and it was healing and cathartic. I came to terms with my anger and pain, realizing that it hurt me as much as the objects of my wrath. I actually began to let go of all that rage and began feeling hopeful about the future.

I began to realize how lucky I was to have those amazing girls, how hard they'd worked to rescue me from my self-imposed exile and how lonely I'd been. There was a determination building within me to go back, face my demons and try to build a future for myself and the people I loved. I knew I was still in love with my wife, helplessly, and I had thought, hopelessly. My girls gave me hope. If I could mend things with them, was it not possible to mend the same fences with Gwen and my mother? Mom would be a bitter pill to swallow, but she was my mother. Until that final betrayal, she had never been anything but the most amazing woman I'd ever known. She made a horrible mistake. It was worse than that, but I had feet of clay myself. How could I continue to hold her in contempt? Life became brighter and I felt as I had shed a crippling burden that had been resting on my shoulders like Atlas, bearing the weight of the world.

Unfortunately, I got the bed where the table folded up and my old bones complained every morning. The sight of two beautiful, sleepy girls stretching like kittens and looking for a cup of coffee was worth it. As we got farther east, I got tenser. The girls sensed my growing unease and they reassured me constantly. It was impossible to be tense with one of them sitting on my lap. They refused to sit down and buckle their seat belts while we were traveling. One of them was always standing behind my seat, arms around my neck and whispering in my ear. By the time we got to Baton Rouge, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack at any moment.

We pulled into the RV park and got set up. The girls had been feeling out their mother and they were confident that she didn't have any nasty surprises in store for us. I wasn't so sure. The girls set up a meeting. They would go inside, check the situation out and I would scout around outside. The place they chose was a Starbucks. It had a large parking lot and was somewhat isolated from the nearby buildings. The girls went in and I checked out the parking lot. There was a police car in the parking lot behind the building. There was no one in it and I assumed they must be waiting for me inside. I went across the way to a bookstore in the strip mall and texted Mari.

"It's a setup," I told her. "The police are here. She's going to have me arrested."

After a few minutes she texted me back. "It's just a coincidence. I confronted Mom and she went into a panic. The police officer was just getting a cup of coffee and a muffin. She's gone now."

I checked, and sure enough, I saw the patrol car pull out onto the street. I felt foolish, but very frightened nonetheless. I couldn't bring myself to cross that parking lot. After a bit, my phone vibrated. It was Allie. "Where are you?"

I couldn't get my fingers to press the buttons of my phone. Mari came outside and looked around. I couldn't just let my baby girl stand there looking for me. My feet felt embedded in the concrete but I managed to make them carry me across the lot. Mari saw me coming and ran to me. I was shaking like a leaf and my knees felt like they were going to give way. I could see the concern in her eyes when she got close. I suppose she must have felt like I was either going to collapse or back out and walk away.

She hugged me and held my hand. "It's okay, Daddy. Mom is crying but it's okay. She knew you saw the police officer and thought she brought them. She was afraid you'd left. Come on, we won't let anything happen to you."

We went in with her pulling at my hand and I saw Gwen and Allicent sitting at a tall table. I froze. She was still as breathtaking as the first time I saw her. I was a senior and she was a sophomore. She was friends with my A&P lab partner. We were comparing notes at the ice cream shop when I looked up and saw this vision crossing the floor toward us. Dark tan, flashing white teeth in a gorgeous smile, long very light blonde hair, almost white, swinging just below her butt, and a body to die for. She was tall and slender and curved in all the right places. Her breasts were just jaw-dropping, high, firm and just right for her frame. I would have guessed a large c-cup, but who knows about that without checking? I would have happily checked.

Marlie, my lab partner, noticed me staring and giggled. "Close your mouth, Caine. You're embarrassing yourself and me. I'll introduce you." I don't remember what I said during the fifteen minutes Gwen sat with us but I wound up with her phone number, somehow. I was useless as a study partner after that and Marlie sent me off to my apartment with her mockery burning in my ears.

It took me a week to call her. It wasn't that I was shy or backward, I was just busy. I was doing an internship and trying to make grades and I was just busy. I hit a lull and gave her a call. I asked her to go out and she agreed. I'd been in relationships before. I had dated the same girl all through high school. I was popular, all-state defensive end on the football team, state champion twice at discus and a second string power forward on the basketball team. I was basketball homecoming king and prom king, too, my senior year. My girlfriend and I had a misunderstanding about halfway through our senior year and it didn't improve with time. She wrecked my car while driving drunk one night and that was it. I loved that car and despised people that drove drunk.

I fixed the car but that relationship couldn't be fixed. I dated other girls, slept with a few of them and then off to college. There was nothing serious until Gwen. I did the usual college thing and there were always willing girls around. That all came to a screeching halt after my first date with her. In a month, we were exclusive. We dated for six months before I managed to get her in my bed. The first time I made her come, she was mine.

We had taken in a movie early and went out to Buffalo Wild Wings for a late dinner. I asked her if she wanted to go to a club for a little bit. She did and we went to one some guys had been telling me about. The dance floor was pretty busy and we had a couple of drinks. She didn't drink much and I could tell she was getting a buzz. They started up a song she loved and she pulled me to my feet and out on the dance floor. I sort of have two left feet, but she was spectacular. That lithe body bent and swayed in ways that were unbelievable and she was very much a creature of the night. Every man in eyesight was checking her out and a lot of the women, too. The song ended and they struck up a slow number.

This was more my game and I pulled her in. She was all over me, that tight amazing body melted into me and the scent of her was intoxicating. Some dipshit tried to cut in and she killed him with a look. "I'm with him," was all she said before burying her face in my chest. I was starting to get aroused and she obviously felt it. One leg moved between mine and she rubbed herself against my growing excitement, her face flushed and her beautiful blue eyes shining. She shook that curtain of hair back, white in the blue lights and rubbed herself on my thigh. She raised her face to mine and I claimed her luscious lips. We kissed deeply and her tongue was a live thing, flicking my lips and wrestling with my own.

"Take me home," she whispered.

"Home," turned out to be my apartment. When I turned onto the way back to her dorm, she shook her head. "Your place," she said. Her seatbelt came open and she leaned over the console, kissing my cheek and her hand running down my chest, opening my pants and slipping inside. She leaned down and took me in the incredible heat of her mouth, nearly causing me to hit a fireplug.

"Jesus, Gwen," I moaned. "You're going to kill us both."

She didn't answer, just exerted an incredible suction as she bobbed her head, bringing me to the edge of an explosion. I pulled over just in time as cum exploded into her hungry mouth. My fingers tangled in the curtain of hair covering us and I groaned as the agonizing pleasure swept through my body. She kept going until the pleasure began to turn to pain and I pulled her up. She looked at me, a glob of cum on her cheek; just a messy angel, and she caught it on her finger. She sucked it off and audibly swallowed. It was the most erotic thing I had ever seen.

I pulled her face to mine as she resisted. "No, Caine, I need to rinse my mouth out before you kiss me," she protested.

"I'll kiss that mouth any time I want to," I told her. "It's my mouth, those are my lips and I want to kiss them." I pulled her in and showed her how much I loved her. When we got to my place, I buttoned my pants and we got out. She was unzipping and unbuttoning while I fumbled with the key before we ever got to the door.

She just attacked me once we got inside. "Whoa, tiger," I scooped her up in my arms and carried her into the bedroom. "Let's make this comfortable." I dumped her on the bed and she bounced giggling to the middle. She was pulling that little dress over her head and working on her bra by the time I was down to my briefs. The yellow lace fell away and my breath caught in my throat. The most perfect tits I had ever seen in the flesh pushed their way out and she gave the little scrap of cloth a twirl and flung it away. There lay my goddess, clad in the tiniest of panties that matched the discarded bra, driving my heart rate over the moon. God, she was gorgeous and sexy.

I looked in her eyes and she crinkled her cute little nose with that sprinkling of freckles at me. My eyes were irresistibly drawn to those breasts. They were incredibly beautiful. She obviously tanned topless, because they were the same golden color as the rest of her. She had brownish areolae and they were small and puffed up a little. Her nipples were hard little bullets, just a shade pinker, and I couldn't wait another second. I jumped up beside her and took that smoldering hotness into my arms. Our lips locked together and her little pointed tongue came out to play. I nibbled on her earlobes and tickled the little hollow behind them with my tongue. She shivered and moaned.

As I nibbled and kissed my way down her long, graceful neck she began a slow, writhing motion under me, sliding against the sheets. She gasped when I reached her breasts, and when I took her nipple into my mouth she went wild, pulling my head toward the firm mound and crying out her passion. Incredibly, she was having an orgasm from me sucking on that delicious little nipple. I found the other and she continued to pulse for a moment before pushing my head up and holding my face in her palms.