Half a F*ck

Chapter 16

Things had changed for the better. Kaia and I knew how much we cared about each other, and that making ourselves a little family was now firmly on the table. It also meant that a lot of our date nights were becoming family nights that included the kids. That meant that Tuesday was pizza and a movie night with the kids wanting to watch How To Train Your Dragon and then Thursday was a night on the boat. I'd invested in an extra car seat for Kassidy, and a smaller life preserver for her that was similar to Connor's, and she was thrilled that they matched. Yeah, they were amazing to see together. I could already see the family coming together, and now it was a matter of making it real.

We got lucky on Saturday, since there was only a six hour charter instead of an eight hour one, and that gave us enough time to find Kaia an outfit for the office holiday party. I had been going out of my way to not buy anything extravagant for her, because I knew she always valued her independence, but she hadn't needed a dress since her junior prom, and I wanted to spoil her with a late Christmas present since I hadn't known her back then. Besides, it was another week till Valentine's Day, and I had every intention of spoiling her then too.

We settled on a backless sheath dress in a lovely purple with a slit up to her thigh that my hands were aching to run my fingers over. With her matching heels, I knew she'd be drawing stares from everyone at the party. I almost had to beg her to let me buy her jewelry too, but she finally gave in because she had nothing except a few things given to her as gifts when she was a kid. Now she had a matching set of amethyst earrings, necklace and bracelet all set in white gold that looked stunning on her. Purple was her color for sure.

When I finally saw her with her hair and makeup done, I was speechless. She had her hair pulled back in a half bun so she could show off her neck and the new earrings, and the slit in her dress helped in showing off her deeply tanned legs. "Damn! Kaia you look like you stepped right out of the sunset. You look stunning!" I took her carefully in my arms and gave her a light kiss that wouldn't smudge any of her make up.

"You cleaned up pretty well too, Cole. Am I going to have to beat up all the ladies to keep them away from you tonight?" I was wearing a charcoal colored suit with a pale purple shirt to match my girl, and I think we made a pretty nice looking couple. You may be shocked to learn that my mom had to take some pictures like we were heading back to a high school prom. Neither of us minded a bit. We didn't have many pictures of us together, and we needed some.

"Nope, I'll only have eyes for you." With her heels she was closer to my height, and the dress hugged every one of her delightful curves. I didn't even want to go to the party anymore, I just wanted to keep her to myself. Oh! But I better warn her about Gina. "There will be one of my coworkers, Gina, who is a major flirt, but she's harmless and I think she just does it out of reflex now. She's one of our most talented workers though, and on my team. I'm sure you'll meet her tonight."

"Thanks, though I don't think I'll have any worries about keeping your interest." She ran her hand inside my suit jacket. "I know what kind of man you are, and I'm not letting you go. I'll make sure everyone knows you're mine."

I chuckled at her statement. "Weren't you the one worrying about my possessiveness?"

"Yes, I was. But I'm not going to make you do anything different than you are already doing, I'm just going to make sure every woman understands that I'm not giving you up."

"And I'm not giving you up either Kaia, so no guy better come flirting with you either."

"Cole, no guy is ever going to flirt with me while I'm on your arm, they'd be terrified."