Meddling, Chapter 4 (M/FF, paternal - eventually)

[beguiling]

interlude ;>

Pam had written back. And she would be visiting the area – Dad’s area – in three weeks. Would I like to meet?

Would I like to meet?!? Do birds fly?!

“Hey, Dad? How about I make macaroni salad to go with the ribs and something for dessert?” I was suddenly in a really great mood, and I wanted to cook!

“Sounds good, baby. Make enough for all of us. Ariel called. She’s coming over, too.”

That worked perfectly … now I had an excuse for the beaming smile on my face. I went back to the e-mail, and re-read it. Yep, Pam was coming to the area for a week, was probably moving back, in fact, and would love to meet me. If Ari was interested, she’d love to meet her, too. Would I send the e-mail to her and ask? The fates were smiling on me, and everything was falling into place.

I sang as I headed into the kitchen to get started, deciding to save the email to show to Ari. The trick now, though, was to really keep it calm and low-key. Dad was already on high alert and suspecting. I didn’t want to set off any more alarms.

So, when he came into the kitchen and grinned at my off-key singing and said, “Well, you’re in a good mood," it was easy this time to divert his attention from any possible plotting.

“Yep!” I finished dicing the tomatoes for the salad, and checked the cake in the oven. “You’re making your patented ribs for dinner, I’m getting to see my sissy – whom I haven’t seen for two whole months, thankyouverymuch – the kids are both off again. And, as much as I truly do adore them, that means that sissy and I have you to ourselves, Daddy. Sooooo . . .” I turned to look at him and let my voice trail off, and he grinned at me, accepting that explanation for my excitement.

“. . . Sooooo, I’m going to have two little ones tonight for a while, huh?” Daddy tugged me into a hug and kissed the top of my head. “I guess I can deal with that. Just make sure they’re two good little ones. Or no cookies, no ice cream, and we’ll find corners for you girls to eat your dinners in.” He made such an exaggerated “mean” face that I burst out laughing and snuggled into him, just cuddling there in the kitchen.

Dad kissed the top of my head and teasingly swatted me, and we both got back to work. Before too long, Ari came in the door, and it was nearly impossible to play it straight just chattering and waiting while she got her snuggles with Dad.

Eventually, Dad went outside to put the ribs on, and start basting them. Ari started to go with him, but I grabbed her arm. “Sissy, c’meerrrrre,” I said in my littlest voice. Dad grinned and went outside, figuring we were winding up to set free our inner kids. Ari looked at me oddly, but followed me. I winked at her, and then grinned myself, showing her the e-mail, and just waited. She didn’t disappoint.

Ari’s reaction was probably what mine was. Her eyes went wide and her voice just about squeaked out. “No way, sis!!”

“I know!!” I grabbed Ari’s arm, trying desperately to contain my excitement. “Three weeks. She even set it up for me. How perfect is that! Three weeks, and she wants to meet both of us. All we got to do is set the day, and get Dad there.” I was speaking in an excited whisper, my eyes practically dancing as I talked to her.

“Did you answer her?” Ari looked at me.

“Unh uh,” I shook my head. “I wanted to show you first. I was going to send it to you, but Dad told me you were coming here, so I saved it. THAT just about killed me,” I told her dramatically, getting a giggle from her.

“So?” she asked, “what’re you going to say?”

“That’s easy. I want to meet her. The question is, do you?” I was serious in my question. I knew Ari wanted to meet her sometime, but she didn’t need to right now. “You don’t have to, you know, sis.”

“Yeah, I know. But I kinda do. Just . . .” Ari paused, then grinned at me. “Just that I don’t know if I wanna be around when she meets Dad. There’s fireworks, and then there’s FIREWORKS.”

Almost on cue, we both rubbed our butts. And then giggled. “Yeah, I do not want to be seeing starbursts.”

“Send it now. Dad’s busy with the grill, and we might not get a chance later.” I really grinned, seeing Ariel as excited as I was. I sent a quick email to Pam, heavy on content from my sister, and said that we’d both love the chance to meet her. I mentioned the diner nearby as a great place to meet, and asked her to pick a date.

We looked at each other, torn between excitement and nervous anxiety and jumped with we heard Dad’s voice, giggling when we realized he was calling us to dinner.

“It smells like ribs!” Daddy called and Ari and I both dove to close the laptop and set it aside. We trotted out to the kitchen, grinning at him.

“Great. You’re both up to something,” he muttered. Uh oh. Maybe being little wasn’t a good enough cover.

“What Daddy?” Ari asked, as we both did our best at innocent expressions.

“Give it up, girls,” Dad said, shaking his head. “You’re plotting, you’re planning, you’re going to get caught, and you’re not innocent.” He walked over and kissed both of our foreheads, wrapping his arms around us so that he could hug us both equally. Then he started tickling. “There will be no salt in my coffee,” he declared, raising his voice to be heard over our squeals and laughter, “no bouncing on my bed, no staying up allll night giggling and talking under the blankets, and absolutely no mischief.” By now, sissy and I were trying to squirm to the floor from his tickling grip, but couldn’t escape. “Otherwise, I’ll eat all of the ribs, and you won’t get any. HA!”

“Noooo, Daddy!! Unh uh!”

“Yeah, no fair!”

And even though we hadn’t actually planned to regress, that quickly we were four years old. Plots and plans were forgotten for a while, and we were just happy, silly and contentedly basking in our Daddy’s love.

We stayed in our ‘little’ personas nearly all of the way through dinner, returning to adult when Dad’s kids returned home, one by one. Ari’d managed to arrange to sleep over that night, so we set up the air mattress in the living room and flipped a coin to see who got it. After the other night, Dad’s command about staying in bed got paid attention to and, since we had to get up early the next day, we didn’t go to bed that late. To make up for the “injustice” of an early bedtime on the weekend, Dad tucked us both in, gently and lovingly.

When I climbed into bed, Ari whispered, “This is it, sis. We’re really going to make this happen.”

“Yeah,” I said, grinning at her like crazy. “You going to say something nice at my funeral, sis?”

She laughed, and then quickly covered her mouth, “I don’t think I can. We’re going to be buried side by side, remember?”

We curled up, slowly falling asleep. Before I did, her words drifted across my mind: “We’re really going to make this happen.”