Gone Country

Chapter 39 (Time To Move On)

"Princess, wake up, we need to talk."

At the sound of my father's voice, I shot up in bed despite that I had gotten up only an hour earlier to see Brant off for work. My father sadly smiled at me, stroking my hair in comfort. The first thought that popped into my head upon seeing that expression was that something had happened to Brant.

"Is it Brant?" I breathed. "Is he okay?"

My dad nodded but nudged me over in the bed to slip in next to me. I didn't complain as he pulled me into his chest, it gave me the safe feeling I got when Brant held me. I guess girls really do look for their daddies in guys. Brant was like my father, but he was more like his own father. That made him a double good man.

"You're my little girl, you understand that it's hard for me to see you as a grown woman, don't you?" he whispered in my hair. I gave a nod, worried as to where this was going. He cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable. "I don't really know how to talk to you about this because I don't want for it to happen period, but Brant told me that he wants to take you to the mountains this weekend and that you two plan on doing..." He pulled a pained face as he stroked my cheek with his thumb. "You know... It."

I love Brant, but I was going to kill him later for telling my father without talking to me about it first. "I'm sorry, daddy," I whispered. "I know you don't like the idea of me having sex yet, that's your job as a dad, but this is the first adult decision I want to make with the one guy I've always loved."

I watched as his glistening eyes looked away from me. "I don't want you to, but I know that if I stop you you're just going to do it behind my back like your mother and I did to our parents for years. Your safety means more to me, and I can't protect you if I don't know what's going on."

He hugged me tighter, burying his face deeper into my hair during the embrace. "I'm sorry, daddy," I repeated. "I'm so sorry, but I love him so much."

"I know, princess, but you're only eighteen..."

"Which means there's nothing you can do to stop me. Kick me out of you life, house, heart, I'm still going to be with Brant."

He clutched me tighter, heavily sighing in my hair. "I just don't see why you two can't wait until you're married, maybe even five years after that." I slightly laughed. "I think that's reasonable."

"I'm sure you do," I smiled.

My father and I laid there in bed, talking until the sun began to slowly rise outside of my bedroom windows. He tried talking me out of having sex with Brant, I understood why, but I already had my heart set on it. This was what I wanted, even if he didn't. A couple of times he was in tears at the thought. I teared up because I felt like I was breaking his heart. I'm not sure how many times I apologized to him, it seemed like a million, but with every time he whispered that it was okay. I've never been closer to my father than I was in that moment. I'm sure it wasn't something that most teenaged girls shared with their father, yet it wasn't nearly as awkward as I thought telling him would be. I was going to tell him what happened regardless, he has always asked that of me. I wouldn't have kept it from him, but I'm so glad that it was off of my chest now rather than later.

I'm not sure who fell asleep first, only that a couple hours later I woke crushed into my father's chest, clueless as to how I slept with how loud he was brutally snoring. It wasn't until after those couple hours of rest did I realize what he had said earlier.

Brant told him that he was taking me to the mountains for the weekend. It really was unbelievable, mostly because he got my father to agree to let me go even after he told him what we planned on doing. I'll never understand how he gets my father to understand the most difficult things. It was like he knew exactly what to say in order to get what he wanted. I was my father's little girl and I didn't even have that authority. How did Brant get by with so much?