One Rainy Afternoon

"Do you remember the last time we all went to the beach together?"

I did. It had been a few weeks ago, on an unusually warm early-spring day. To take advantage of the unseasonal sunshine, Keith, Sarah and I had taken the girls down to the coast. It was a rare occasion for Keith to be home and Sarah not to be working. Usually when that was the case they'd spent time with Jadie and Josh - at least, before he'd gone up to Cambridge - on their own. But over the years we'd sometimes managed to all get together and take the kids somewhere; they'd always enjoyed this as children and it had kind of remained a tradition as they got older. This had been one of those times.

I remembered Jadie being happy and chatty on the way there but then she'd seemed uncharacteristically down once we were on the beach. She'd spent the entire day just sat in a chair alternating between reading a book and prodding at her phone, never even venturing into the sea.

"I do, yeah. You didn't seem to enjoy yourself a lot that day."

"Well, it was a bit of a hard day for me."

"Hard? I thought you enjoyed our trips to the beach."

"I did. But, well, this was after I'd kind of started thinking about you a lot and... seeing you with your top off made me... hot but I couldn't exactly do anything with Kiera and Mum and Dad there."

I swallowed, uncomfortably. I really wasn't used to the idea that she had fancied me for all this time. I reached over and grabbed my body wash. She carried on.

"I didn't want you to see me in a swimsuit in case you thought I was fat."

She saw my face as I was about to point out how ridiculous this was, and cut me off;

"I know, I know," she said. "But next to your gorgeous skinny daughter in her bikini I was going to look, like, short and chunky, whatever. So I just had to sit there and try to read my book. And I felt bad because you were clearly enjoying just being with her and messing about on the beach which, I don't know, just made it more obvious that you were, well, Kiera's Dad. Not someone I should be having those sort of thoughts about. But I couldn't help it, with you walking round in just your shorts looking sexy and hot without realising it as usual."

She rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, in the afternoon Mum and Dad had gone up into the town and you and Kiera were playing volleyball with that stupid net thing you brought that kept falling down. The sight of you leaping around half-naked was... Seriously nice."

She ran her hands over my chest before continuing, "There were a couple of single mums, sat with their kids across from us, who'd had their eye on you all day but you were oblivious as always. I could see they were enjoying the show, too. And it was kinda nice to see you having such a good time with Kiera. I knew you'd both been through a lot all those years ago and seeing you together, so happy now... that was really good. But still... I was just fixated on you really."

"So I was sat there, behind the windbreak. And I started thinking maybe I could... you know... So I grabbed a towel to put over me, propped my book up on top and used my fingers in my shorts, underneath the towel."

She giggled. "I think I came twice in less than five minutes. It was just so... exciting. And you," she was laughing fully now, "...had no idea at all."

She wasn't wrong there. I laughed too. "Seriously, Jadie, every time I think this afternoon can't throw up any more surprises, you somehow manage it!"

I turned the water off and ducked out of the cubicle, to grab a towel. Jadie followed and we gently dried each other, not saying anything for a while until we ended up stood facing each other, still naked, towels by our sides.

"Er, I think it might be an idea to put some clothes back on again, now," I said, whilst looking at her in a way that probably communicated the fact that I was very much enjoying looking at her.

"Aww, do we have to?" she replied, looking me up and down lasciviously herself.

"Well, your mum will be back soon and I don't think she'd be too impressed if you went home naked."

"Oh... I don't know..." she teased. "It'd be funny to see the look on her face."

"Hmmmm," I said, mock-disapprovingly. I wagged my finger at her, "Jadie Faversham, you are a very bad girl."

She giggled. "I think you know that now, Mr Baines."

I laughed. "Ah, fair point, well made..." I conceded. "Now, go and get dressed before I think of all the different ways..."

I gently flicked her thigh with my towel and she squealed.

"...I could find..." I flicked her again on the other side and she squealed again, giggling and turning away and going for the door.

"...to punish you!" I gave one final flick to her beautiful bottom as she dropped her towel and opened the door to escape.

"Okay, okay," she laughed as she went back into the bedroom. "Clothes it is, then."

Jadie collected her shirt from where she'd dropped it in my room, rounded up her pink underwear and went off back into Kiera's room for her trousers. I got dressed as well and sat, once again, on my bed. I still couldn't begin to take in what had happened... what was still happening. I found myself not even trying to comprehend the enormity of what I'd done. And yet, for her, it was almost like it was no big deal.

I listened to her thumping around in Kiera's room again, remembering how the afternoon had started. It seemed like an age ago. I tried to think about what could happen now, so many lines had been crossed. So much of my life - of everyone's lives - could come crashing down. Yet somehow it just seemed... worth it. I tried to push that thought out of my head, and couldn't.

Eventually I heard my phone go off downstairs and went down to the hall to answer.

It was Sarah, calling to say she was home now. I told her Jadie was just finishing some homework and would be back round in a little while.

I turned round to call up to Jadie, only to find she'd come downstairs behind me and was stood tapping away at her own phone. Jesus, this girl knew how to creep about! Back in her full 'smart attire' for school, hair tied back in a simple ponytail, she looked once more like the girl next door I'd always known. Albeit a very pretty girl next door. That familiar guilt washed over me. However much I'd enjoyed it; hell, however much she'd enjoyed it... I couldn't deny that I'd taken advantage of her.

"That was your mum," I said, feeling awkward. "She's back now."

Not looking up, she said, "Uh huh," and tapped again at the screen.

Still looking at her phone, she continued talking to me. "Kiera was texting me, like, all afternoon. She was worried when I didn't reply first time. I've told her about the keys and said I finished that assignment round here with you. Oh, and I had my phone off because you made me so I could concentrate! Just in case... you know... she asks or anything. I mean... I know it doesn't feel right lying to her but... I guess we can't tell her just yet..."

Tell her? Just yet? What the hell did that mean? I looked at her, not really knowing what to say again. She seemed to be so much more in control than I was.

She finally looked up at me, then without warning, came over and threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly. She'd obviously caught a hint of the regret in my face, as she said, happily,

"Hey Mr Baines. Don't look so sad! This has been the best afternoon of my life."

"Yeah. Me too," I agreed. "Except I can't believe anything that's happened today is real. I am going to wake up on that sofa any minute now. It's crazy."

I paused, looking down at her perfect young face, struggling to reconcile what I saw with the foul-mouthed, dirty little minx, demanding my come on her tits, in my bed half an hour before.

"It's a funny old world," I said, sighing softly. "You know, how fate seems to make stuff happen."

Acutely conscious of how fate had smashed into my life ten years previously, I was ready to recognise that it had, once again, turned my life upside-down.

"Just because you lost your keys... Just because it was raining... You ended up here and this all happened. And, well, however much I enjoyed it - which was, er, rather a lot, as it happened - it was wrong for me to... well, take advantage of your bad luck with the keys and the weather."

I sensed her shift in my arms. "Well, uh..." she said, breaking away from me. "Honestly?" she said, as a question, looking up. She bit her lip nervously.

I looked at her, baffled.

"The whole key thing. That wasn't exactly true," she said. She reached for her bag and after a couple of moments rummaging inside, she pulled out her keys and jingled them in front of my face, with a seriously guilty grin on her face.

"What... you..." I said, utterly confused once again for what seemed like the millionth time that afternoon.

"Yes," she said, not smiling now and appearing slightly nervous at my reaction. "Planned the whole thing."

I looked at her, speechless.

"Oh, Mr Baines, I'm sorry I lied. I didn't want to, really. But... well, it was the only way I could think of to get to be with you on your own." Now she looked really worried. A hand went up to her mouth again, then dropped. She was really trying to fight the urge to bite her nails.

I tried to smile reassuringly. It probably just looked crooked. I gave up and looked at her directly; she was now biting her lip once more in consternation as she tried to read my expression. Something shifted inside me. Again, she just looked so adorable with that little frown and those earnest, searching green eyes.

My heart swelled with emotion; the astonishment that this beautiful, clever, funny creature could possibly care so deeply about my reaction to her little ruse. It was so far beyond the realms of ridiculous fantasy that I simply burst out laughing.

She smiled cautiously as I continued chuckling to myself and shaking my head.

"What's funny, Mr Baines?" she queried.

"Oh, you know. Just the idea that someone as... young... as beautiful... as funny... as delightful... as completely and utterly adorable as you..."

I paused momentarily. I realised that in the heat of the moment I had started to forget that she was my daughter's best friend and begun to think of her as my... what? Girlfriend? Hardly. Teenage lover? That sounded more appropriately sordid. I was in danger of falling for her, hard. And that wasn't going to end well. I carried on anyway.

"Well, that someone like you could have actually planned to do... what happened today, with... Well, with someone like me," I finished.

She sighed, shaking her head. "Well, I did!" she said emphatically, before continuing.

"I guess it is kind of hard to explain. I mean, you know about me... fantasising about you. Well, it got to the point where the fantasy wasn't really enough. I've always enjoyed being around you. I love it when we have a laugh together and you always, you know, listen to me. But it was getting harder and harder to be around you because I had started to feel... I don't know, so much more for you."

"And, well, I'd caught you, ah, looking at me, you know, like I said before when you thought I wouldn't notice. And that made it really seem that you must like me if you... I don't know, if you noticed me but tried to hide it. It meant you cared about what I thought. You didn't just... leer at me like other men do. But I couldn't find a way to really know for sure."

She looked up at me, the gulf in our ages once again at the forefront of my mind. She was eighteen but was still a girl, still trying to work her way through the complexities of understanding the opposite sex. Not a woman, who'd have just... asked me out for a drink, or something.

Jadie continued, "Just before the Easter Holiday was when I basically decided that I was, somehow, going to find out if you felt... the same about me as I did about you. It just felt... I don't know. The right time, I guess. Maybe because I knew that I'd been, you know, legally an adult for a while now and you wouldn't get into trouble for saying you did like me. If you did, that is. And it was driving me crazy just fantasising all the time and I was getting a bit... obsessed really, and with all the exams coming up and everything I just... needed to know. One way or the other."

She took a breath, finally.

"I just didn't know how to do it. So the best I could think of was to try and get to be alone with you when Kiera wasn't around and just... I don't know, see what happened I guess. And then I realised we had this afternoon coming up when we wouldn't be at school and I knew you were going to be at home so I thought if I can find a way of coming to see you instead... And the only excuse I could think of was to tell the girls I had to finish coursework and... well, to tell you that I'd lost my keys."

I couldn't help myself at this point; I had to ask; "So what did you think was going to happen once you got me on my own?"

"That's the thing. I... really don't know. I mean I'd fantasised about all sorts of things. You know... maybe you helping me with an assignment and leaning over me and me just kissing you suddenly and you responding. Or us talking about stuff and me getting upset and you comforting me and then ending up kissing. Or me just coming right out with it and telling you and you admitting you felt the same and... yeah, ending up kissing again!" she laughed. "Insert cliché here, I know."

I laughed too. "So... only kissing then?"

"Well... it usually went a bit further than that." She looked up, as if sensing my need for reassurance. "A lot further sometimes." She paused again. "Still, I never imagined I'd... well, end up catching you... you know..."

The fact that after all we'd done together she still didn't like to actually say 'masturbating' was amusingly attractive.

"That was just... wow," she said, shaking her head. "Amazing. I couldn't believe my luck."

I felt my cheeks colour again. I still couldn't believe what had happened really.

"Did you not wonder why I'd come back upstairs though?" she asked.

Truth be told, I hadn't even given it a thought.

"Well, I may have planned the whole idea of trying to get together with you today but... I really hadn't thought it all through," she sighed. "I thought I was so clever with the keys thing, getting you to let me in the house. And getting soaked in the rain was a complete bonus because it gave a pretty good excuse for me to get undressed in front of you..."

I shook my head in wonder.

"I mean, I knew I'd never fit into Kiera's things..." she admitted.

I'd suspected as much. I'd thought at the time that it was a strange mistake for a teenage girl to make.

"But it was too good an opportunity to miss... After that, well, it was just so easy teasing you because you're so nice and I just felt... relaxed in front of you. I could see you looking at me and you seemed so confused which was, like, seriously cute. And then, in your bedroom, I really thought it was all coming together. I couldn't believe it; it really seemed like something was going to happen and I was so happy and excited and then... well, it just didn't."

"And then I had no idea what to say or do. I felt stupid for having put you in that position because you've always been so lovely to me and I suddenly thought I might lose all that just from... you know, misreading it all. So I decided to be strong and walk away downstairs."

"But as soon as I was in the kitchen, I wanted to cry. I was so frustrated. After having got so far... so nearly there... I still didn't know for sure what you felt. It wasn't like you'd... I don't know, rejected me or anything. And the more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself that you had been looking at me like you were... well, you know, interested... but maybe you'd thought it was you who was misreading it."

I shook my head in wonder at that. She was, of course, completely right.

"So once that was in my head, I knew I couldn't just sit there for the rest of the afternoon with the possibility that you actually wanted what I wanted too. I had to know. So I decided to give it one last go. I convinced myself that even if I told you how I felt and you weren't interested that we could still... you know, carry on like it hadn't happened. I knew you wouldn't be an idiot about it. That was it. I was going to go upstairs, just blurt out the complete truth about how I felt about you and... well, basically throw myself at you and hope you responded."

"So I got to the top of the stairs, and your door was open a little, and I went to go in but there you were... eyes closed... doing your thing."

I cringed again at the thought of what it must have looked like.

"And, well, I guess we know what happened from then." She looked at me, almost dreamily. "My little plan ended up working even better than I'd intended. I had no idea we'd end up where we did."

Her look became more intense. "But I am soooo glad we did. It... it's actually kind of scary how it nearly never happened at all. Because it was amazing."

That word, again. I was still reeling from the notion that she'd taken me in, completely. I couldn't begin to process the fact that she'd genuinely, actively wanted things to happen like they did.

She reach up and stroked my cheek, just as I had done to her earlier. "Mr Baines, I really don't want you to think what happened today was wrong or your fault. I know it's a bit... I don't know, strange to think that after all these years we've... done what we just did."

Christ, she wasn't kidding there.

"And I know we can't exactly tell Kiera or... my mum and dad or, well, anyone really," she continued.

I breathed a silent sigh of relief at that. I'd had visions of her wanting to announce it to the world.

"And I'm sorry I tricked you with the keys. I didn't like lying and I'm glad I've told you now. But I did it because I wanted to. Which means if anything is anybody's fault then it's mine, not yours. And... well, it can only be somebody's fault when something is wrong. And how can it possibly be wrong when I loved every last minute of what we did?"

She paused momentarily, looking up at me. "And I think you liked..." She looked down, shyly, "...well, some of it at least..."

I couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I suppose it was... okay, I guess," I teased.

"Well, good!" she said. Again, she looked up at me and then reached up suddenly, grabbing either side of my face as if to ensure that I had her full attention. Once more she was assertive and in control; and this time seemed deadly serious.

"Because I would really, really like to do it again. Soon."

Before I could react, she stood up on her toes so she could reach and kissed me hard on the lips, then swung her bag up onto her shoulder and slipped her feet into the shoes which she'd left when she first came in. And then, she just went to the front door; leaving me standing, speechless yet again. I think my mouth was open, like a retard, just as it had been when I first saw her standing there what seemed like a lifetime away.

Pulling the door open, she looked over her shoulder and said, with a grin, "Thanks for... having me, Mr Baines!"

And then, with a pretty little wave, she pulled the door shut behind her and was gone.