Free Huddle Up by Liz Matis

said in a huffy voice. “No! I want Daddy to tell me a story.”
    Billy gently pulled the sheet over his daughter and tried not to smile at her pouty face. “I don’t know any stories.” He sat down next to her as Angel stretched out on the other side of the bed.
    “Tell me how you and Mommy met.”
    Angel fussed with the sheet. “Oh, it was a long time ago. Daddy doesn’t remember.”
    “Like it was yesterday,” he said. Over the head of his daughter he gazed into Angel’s shocked green eyes. “Let’s see now. I lived eight hours away but that summer I attended the football camp right outside of your town. The heat wave that hit that summer was one for the record books. One humid night me and some of the guys decided to take a swim to cool off so we headed to the lake.” He left out the part about sneaking out of the cabin. “A full moon shone on the lake and I saw a beautiful creature gliding through the water. I thought, could it be a mermaid?”
    “That’s silly. Everyone knows mermaids live in the ocean.”
    Billy’s heart warmed, glad his daughter believed in mermaids. “True, but I thought she might be lost.” Perhaps it was a trick of the light but the green eyes he stared into as he told the story looked misty and a little sad. Maybe, she’d been a lost soul. Maybe that’s why they connected the way they did. Both were motherless teens, one with a father who didn’t care and one with a father who cared to the point of suffocation. “As she swam away from us, I decided to catch the mermaid to prove she was real.” He paused, reliving the moment in Angel’s gaze.
    “Then what happened?” asked Gabby.
    “The mermaid was fast but I was faster. I caught the creature, kissed her, and then the water churned and bubbled as her tail turned into legs.” He left out the fact that they were both skinny-dipping. “I asked the beauty on a date, and she told me to meet her at the town fair the following night.”
    “Where you won Ellie for her.” Gabby hugged the pink elephant tightly to her chest.
    So Gabby did know. Angel’s dreamy smile told him she was reliving it in her mind.
    Gabby yawned. “Did you love Mommy?”
    “Yes,” he said simply without adding that he never stopped loving her.
    “Then why didn’t you come back?”
    “Gabby, it’s time to go to sleep,” whispered Angel.
    Thinking Angel had left for Vegas he had no reason to come back. “I thought the mermaid swam back to the sea.”
    “But Mommy is a human.”
    Angel mesmerized him like no other girl had in the past or since. Did she cast a spell on him that night? “Hmmm, I don’t know.” No girl back home would swim naked in a lake like she belonged there, that was for sure.
    “That means I’m mermaid too! Like Ariel!”
    “Billy, you’ve wound her all up. Bedtime stories are supposed to lull her to sleep.” Angel stroked Gabby’s forehead, which produced another wide yawn.
    But she didn’t sound mad, in fact she smiled at him. Not just any smile but one that made him think he was dreaming with his eyes wide opened. Or perhaps he was simply hallucinating.
    He realized his mistake so long ago. Inexperienced, he took instead of gave. No wonder he hadn’t satisfied her. Since then, he learned the sex playbook from cover to cover and he had a hell of a lot of practice.
    Angel held his stare as Gabby fell asleep. After they quietly exited the room, Angel turned to him, mischief lit up her green eyes. “You know I let you catch me that night.”
    “I know.” Billy didn’t waste any time. Swooping his head down, he captured her lips with his. Instead of finesse he released his pent up passion to overwhelm her, stealing her breath before she could utter another protest. But she wasn’t protesting. Changing the kiss to a slow and seductive one, it took every ounce of his will not to plunder and take. Her room, just steps away, beckoned but he wanted her in his bed where she belonged. Besides he planned to make her