Don't Tell Daddy (25 page)

He kissed her lips and looked at her. “Do I make you happy?” he asked. She nodded. A lie. Her voice would fail her if she tried to tell him that lie aloud.

She kissed him and pressed her body closer to his. He held her, and she watched him fall asleep. She got a text from Jordan asking for a date soon. She agreed to meet him over the next weekend.

Inside, she felt like combusting to be going to see Jordan. She just needed to find some excuse to give her husband for the few hours she would be gone.

Looking over at the man sleeping beside her, she had a better idea. Carmella had been begging to babysit Pilar. She’d go to Jordan while Bryan was working.

Her heart soared at the thought of the few hours she might get to see Jordan. She thought of him constantly although her mind told her to stop. She had made her choice when she married Bryan. Her heart didn’t care.

    *** ***

Pamela slid out of bed and went to shower. She put on a pair of curve hugging slacks and a ruffled blouse, even going so far as to put on pumps. She knew that Bryan liked to see her dressed nicely no matter what, so she held herself back from the comfortable sweats she wanted to wear.

She headed into the kitchen to make chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, and scrambled cheese eggs. The scent of food woke her husband and their daughter. She could hear Bryan upstairs helping Pilar get dressed and ready for the day. “Ow, Daddy,” she complained. He was probably trying to brush her hair. “Stop,” she demanded.

“Pilar, sit still,” he fussed.

“No!”

Their daughter came running down the stairs with the brush in her hand. She took hold of Pamela’s leg and would not let go. “Ma,” she whined, looking up at her with those wide green eyes.

“Did Daddy try to brush your hair, baby?” Pamela asked, scrambling her eggs. The toddler nodded.

“Huwt,” she complained, feeling her head.

Pamela was sure it didn’t hurt Pilar when Bryan brushed her hair. He’d brushed Pamela’s hair plenty of times as a little girl, and she never thought it hurt. Pilar just wanted her mother to do it was all.

“Okay, sweetheart. I’ll do it for you. Just sit at the table and wait for me. Okay?”

“‘Kay.”

Bryan came down dressed for work, and he entered the kitchen and kissed Pamela deeply. She smiled up at him. “Did you enjoy last night?” she asked. He just held her, kissing her neck. She was trying to be happy with him. Sometimes, she felt she was, and they were the perfect two-parent family. Their daughter was happy, and that meant the most to Pamela.

“Tell me, did you?”

“Thoroughly.” She put her arms up around his neck and they shared another kiss.

Pamela got breakfast on the table, and Pilar dug in, completely ignoring the fact that there was even a fork in front of her. Under the table, Bryan was rubbing Pamela’s thigh, getting closer and closer to her hotspot. She shot him a look and looked towards their daughter. “She’s one. She don’t know what we doing,” he told her.

She shook her head no, so he stopped. Bryan finished breakfast and got ready to go. Pamela walked him to the door. “Come see me today,” he said softly.

“Okay,” she agreed. He kissed her lips softly and slapped her ass before he left the house.

She waved as his car pulled out of the driveway before she went and took care of Pilar. “Wanna see my stister,” Pilar told her.

“Okay.”

Pamela texted Jada and asked her to come over but Jada was busy. “She can’t come, mija. I’m sorry,” Pamela told the toddler who pouted. “We can still have plenty of fun, just us, can’t we, Pilar?” she asked.

“I want my stister,” the baby whined.

Pilar had two sisters, but Jada was the only one who came to see Pilar. Her oldest sister, Jasmine had only seen her once, and she wasn’t impressed. Bryan had raised Jasmine, but she wasn’t his biological daughter. She and Marc had both come from Heather’s first marriage.

Jasmine was the reason Heather was married in high school and when her husband died, she had met Bryan, and he took her first two children as his own. That mattered not at all to Jasmine when she found out about his affair with Pamela. She no longer called him her daddy and she wasn’t claiming the baby as her sister. Marc was really nonchalant about the situation. He still was lusting after Pamela, but he didn’t use his sister as an excuse to drop by. Bryan’s two youngest sons did drop by when they came home. Both were older than Pamela and questioned their father’s stupidity. You fuck a barely legal, not impregnate and marry her.

“She’s busy, Pilar. What do you want me to do?” she asked.

Her daughter looked up at her as if she was speaking Chinese. Pamela kissed her forehead. “Let me brush your hair, mija,” she said and Pilar turned around letting her mother brush her hair. Not once did she complain about it. When Pamela finished, her daughter took the brush back to her bathroom and came back downstairs. Pamela put her feet up on the sofa and her daughter came and lay on her chest. She looked up at her with those wide green eyes again, and Pamela just smiled at her. This was her reason to be. Everything else in her life could be going wrong, but she always had this baby.

There was a knock on the door, and Pamela went and opened up for her mother. Pilar hopped up and went to hug her abuela. She grinned up at her, holding her leg. “Hola, nieta,” she greeted, picking the one-year old cutie up. “Did you miss me?”

“Yes,” the toddler said, holding her around the neck.

Pamela took her mother’s coat while she took Pilar to the front. The two of them watched Pilar playing with her blocks. “She’s really beautiful,” Carmella commented, watching her granddaughter.

“Thank you.”

“Is she getting a positive image of marriage?” she asked, looking her daughter in the eyes. Pamela had become so good at lying that she didn’t flinch away from it.

“Yes,” she said easily.

“Pilar, come here. Come sit with Abuela.”

Pilar giddily got up and hopped into Carmella’s lap. Pamela didn’t worry. She and Bryan kept their dirt locked behind the door of their bedroom. Their daughter never saw anything bad between Bryan and Pamela.

“How do Mommy and Daddy act together? Get a doll and show me.”

Pilar got up and went to find a doll. She hugged it and she kissed it and then she set it down and rubbed its leg. Then she picked it up and hugged and kissed it some more. She smiled at her grandmother, showing her teeth. “I heared Mommy scweam.”

“When?”

“Last night.”

Carmella looked at Pamela who rolled her eyes. “She heard me moaning because I was having sex.”

“Okay, Pilar. Go on and play, sweetheart.”

Pilar took her doll and put her in the stroller and walked around the living room. Carmella watched the baby and smiled. “That was you nineteen years ago, you know.”

“I imagine.”

“I can’t believe you’re already twenty.”

“I can.”

Carmella watched her granddaughter before she turned back to her daughter. “Do you ever sometimes think of leaving Bryan? For someone more age appropriate?”

“Ma, I am a grown woman. If I wanna be married to a grown man, that’s age-appropriate.”

“Why get married at all, Pamela? You haven’t had a chance to make but one mistake, and that’s Bryan.”

Pamela was immediately defensive of her husband. “I didn’t make a mistake when I got married, okay? I love him, and we’re happy together raising our baby. Get over it.”

“Do you ever just lie down at night and find yourself thinking this shit is not love? It’s having sex and staying for the sake of a two-parent home.”

“Why not? I had that. The rest of Bryan’s children had that. Why can’t I give that to Pilar?”

“The difference between you and Pilar and the rest of Bryan’s children is that your parents are in their forties and in love. The rest of Bryan’s children have a fifty-three-year old mother. He loved Heather, Pamela. Not you. Anytime a man is divorced and marries his mistress afterwards, shit doesn’t go too well.”

“Shit is going perfectly. I love my husband, and he loves me. Pilar showed you how we are; and if you can’t trust a baby, who can you trust, Ma?”

“Pamela, I know now only what your daughter sees. But I get the feeling there’s more that she doesn’t.”

“Well there’s not. Why can’t you just accept that I’m finally happy?”

“Because you’re not happy, Pamela.”

“Get out. Just get out my house!”

“Pamela Olivia Torres—”

“Valdez,” she corrected.

Carmella closed her eyes and took deep breaths. She took Pamela’s hands. “I’m your mother, Pamela. I just want to look out for you. Facts are facts, and Bryan is near to fifty. You are not even close to thirty. You’re young. What are you going to do in this young body when you’re thirty and in your prime and horny all the time and he can’t even get it up anymore? Better still, you won’t want to be under his ass. What happens then, Pamela?”

“I like to believe God invented vibrators.”

“Are you fucking me right now?” Carmella asked incredulously.

“Can you watch your mouth? Pilar likes to repeat what she hears.”

“Sorry. But Pamela, you have to be kidding me. You can’t honestly believe a toy is going to get you through cold lonely nights. You’re a woman now, and I’m going to be candid with you. There are not enough batteries in the world to get you through your thirties.”

“Well, when I turn thirty, let the game begin. I am not going to break up my daughter’s family because I’m horny.”

“Why not? You did it to your best friend.”

“Yeah, you need to go.”

Carmella got up. “I’m just trying to look out for you, Pamela. I’ve been your mother for almost twenty-one years. I know you’re not telling me something. But whatever it is, Pamela. I just really hope it’s small.”

“Can you walk faster please?”

Carmella left and the house phone rang. It was Bryan’s mother. Although she didn’t really approve of the marriage, she had voiced that only once. She really did still adore her youngest grandchild, and she asked Pamela to bring her by. Pamela asked Pilar if she wanted to go before she agreed to it and packed her daughter up and took her.

After she dropped her daughter off, she went to see Bryan at the office, and her husband was happy to see her. She greeted Jayden, his personal assistant, before she kissed her husband.

Bryan noticed that Jayden was checking out Pamela, eyeing her curves. “Why don’t you take your break, Jayden,” he said, making his order sound more like a suggestion. Jayden left, and Bryan pulled Pamela around and into his lap.

“How is work going?” she asked, playing with the lapel of his shirt.

“It’s going. Where is the baby?”

“With your mother.”

“How long?” he asked, smiling, his hands in her shirt.

“She asked to keep her the week.”

Bryan moved his hands to massage Pamela’s breasts, and she moaned. “Kiss me,” he ordered, and she did so. His tongue explored her mouth, and she moved to unzip his slacks, getting down on her knees and taking him in her mouth. He closed his eyes, feeling through her hair, moaning. She looked up at him, just wanting so desperately to go back to the times when they were happy together.

The door opened, and Pamela continued what she was doing. She was under the desk, so she didn’t notice it had opened. “Mr. Valdez—”

“Get out,” Bryan said.

“But I have the listings you wanted. For your wife.”

He opened his eyes, and there was Jane Michaels standing in the door. Pamela was completely oblivious under the desk, still sucking Bryan off. “Can we discuss that later, Jane?” he asked.

“But I—”

Jane finally noticed the pumps under the desk and left. Bryan closed his eyes and continued to enjoy his blow job. When Pamela got up, she went into the bathroom and cleaned herself up. She went back and sat in Bryan’s lap, and he kissed her. “Is that a preview of what I can look forward to tonight?” he asked her, licking his lips. Pamela still found Bryan sexy. Even at fifty.

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg, daddy,” she said, taking his bottom lip into her mouth.

“Well, I sure can’t wait.”

He slid his hand into her slacks, and she moaned. “Keep it hot for me, baby,” he whispered. She nodded.

When she left the office, she really was hot. She went into her room and found her vibrator. For once in their marriage, she could not wait for her husband to get home.

She made dinner and had the table set by five. She cut out the lights and lit scented candles, laying rose petals over their bed. When Bryan came home, he was a bit surprised. But Pamela stood there in a short dress, her hair up, wearing pumps, standing there waiting for him. She reached for his hand and pulled him to dinner. He watched her hips sway seductively.

They sat for dinner, and she leaned across the table, feeding him, giving him a good look at her cleavage. “You like what you see?” she teased, taking a bite from his fork. “I have dessert.”

“Are you on the menu?”

“I got cookies.” Smirking, Pamela’s tongue slowly traced over her lips.