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Tanner's POV
Two days later Tayzley was pulling into the driveway of my new home. Her and Emerson are now running around the front yard, snow balls in each of their hands, playing till someone calls quits.
My daughter was no quitter that's for sure. Her curly blonde hair pokes out the bottom of my beanie she stole out of my truck.
Tayzley has her now, picking her up and hugging her close, kissing her snow bitten nose.
I haven't been able to bring boxes in because I was to memorized in watching them both. To memorized in watching how Tayzley looked at Emerson with such awe.
Tayzley was mad at me just a few days ago. I get that I shouldn't have went through her phone or even touched it for that matter. It's not like I read her messages.
Okay maybe one. From Carly.
Something about a glow stick party in a few weeks. Wanting to get the girls together for a night extravaganza.
"Tanner?" I hear tayzley call me but I don't see her or Em. I turn around and snow hits me dead center in my face causing me to drop the box on my foot.
Laughter erupts from both Tayzley and my daughter.
Oh, this is war.
I use the sleeve of my coat to wipe off the snow from my fave. Playing it cool as I bend down to pick up the box, but before I even have the chance to get snow between my fingers and into a ball the girls are at it. Tossing as much snow as the can before using my truck as a shield.
"Ha ha daddy we're winning." Emerson brags. I gran some snow and sneak around the other side to where they can't see me and attack.
This time laughter fills my lungs, but soon enough it's a white snow war. Tayzley grabs a hands full smashing it into my hair. Kissing my cheek in the process. When she goes to grab more snow I pull her up and over my shoulder.
"Nope not today." I march up the slight slant to my door step.
"Tanner put me down!" She punches at my back softly. So I put her down, her hair a mess and her cheeks so red. "What did you do that for?" She fixes her coat smoothing it back over her stomach. "How did you do that?" Her eyes glance down at her body and it almost breaks me when that expression of embarrassment washes over her face. She seems to think she's too big, too over the limit for me to pick her up like I did. She's wrong, way wrong.
"Don't think that. Even without you speaking I know what you're thinking. Your body is perfect okay?"
Her eyes shift to mine, her cheeks more red but not from the cold wind. "Okay." I step closer and kiss her softly, holding her cheek in my hand.
"Ewwww," Emerson whines. I laugh turning to my daughter who is now covering her eyes, peeking through the cracks of her tiny fingers. "Get a room. That's what I tell mommy when her and Ma-" she slaps her hand over mouth. I tense slightly but when Tayzley taps my arm and washes away my thoughts. I'm suddenly fine.
"We need get everything in. If I'm going to cook dinner we need to find the dishes."
I nod, calling for Em to follow us inside.
***
Whatever Tayzley is whipping up in my new kitchen smells fucking good. Emerson is in the living watching a movie on the TV, so I take this moment to sneak off into the kitchen.
"Smells good." I walk up behind Tayzley, my hands resting on her hips. One thing I love about her hips is that they stick out the top of her shirt exposing her pale skin in the most perfect way. My fingers trace circles and I feel her tense.
"Here, try this," she turn with a wooden spoon that took us six boxes to find and places it before my lips. "Blow on it, it's hot." And I do. Pursing my lips I blow slowly watching her eyes begin to dilate, I take the spoon in my mouth where my taste buds explode with flavor.
"It's a tomato basil sauce. My grandma taught me how to cook when I was younger." I watch her mouth, her lips are like nothing I've ever seen. They are perfect, pink, not to big not to small. She licks her lips and turns back to mix the sauce. Absently she leans back, pressing her ass against my jeans.
"If you want sauce everywhere, I would advise you to stop what you're doing." I push my fingers into her flesh. The soon hits the pan with a clink and her head Falls back onto my shoulder.
"Why are you doing this to me?" She gathers up under her breath, her eyes closed, and her chest heaving.
"No the question is Tayzley, what are you doing to me?" What is she doing to me? Weeks ago if she wouldn't have been at the bar I'd still be miserable, alone and not giving a fuck.
But she, she had to come and be, well, Tayzley. Exactly how she is. Raw, real and even though she doesn't think so she fights until she gets what she wants she just doesn't realize it.
She has me under this Tayzley trance, that I don't think I ever want to find my way out of.
After a moment, she doesn't answer me, she pushes me back playfully and continues to cook us dinner. The whole time I watch her, every now and again I skim my eyes down her body. She's wearing leggings even though I told her not to around me, today I'm glad she did.
They drive me insane. Just the way they hug her ass, her hips, and her delicious thighs. If Emerson wasn't in the next room I'd have Tayzley bent at the waist on the counter, fucking her till she can't handle it anymore.
Moments pass, she now dishing out the food onto plates. Everything looks mouth watering even the woman serving the food. I call Em into the dining room, she come running in. She glances at her plate and smiles .
"Spaghetti is my favwrite Tazwey." Her little frame trots around the table and hugs Tayzley at the hip. "Thank you."
Tayzley smiles down at the little blonde haired girl, kissing her upon the forehead. "You're welcome sweet girl."
***
Emerson is sound asleep once I finally close the door to her new room. I find Tayzley on my bed with photos in her hand.
"Why didn't you have these hanging up at your sister's?" She flips through them, I sit beside her. The picture she's on is of me my sister and my parents.
It's been so long since I've sat down and looked at them.
Since I've seen my parents.
All I remember is the chaotic mess my sister was when we got the call that they had been in a car crash.
That's one reason why I enlisted. After my father died, I had to live up to his name. Sargent A. Wilson. The toughest asshole around. He was hard on me mostly when we were younger. Always telling me to keep it straight and not to act up or I'd be doing suicides for hours out back.
Always treat the women around you with the utmost respect. My father always said to me.
With faith I failed...but we had been on the rocks for a while because of my numerous deployments.
With Tayzley I can't fuck that up.
I shrug, "I just never got around to hanging them up."
"You look just like him," she tells me running her finger over little me on the picture. "What did you mean when you said they aren't around. I didn't want to assume."
"Car crash." My reply is short. I don't want to go into full detail to her because its been so long since I've talked about it out loud.
She nods, silencing herself as she lays back onto the bed with her hand resting on her stomach. "I can't say I can relate, but I don't have a mother to care for me and teach me wrong from right. She ran out us kids a while back."
Giving her my full attention I rest down beside her as she continues to tell me the exact words her mother said when she left them hanging in the sorrow of their father. How for months her father was in a depressive state and sometimes wouldn't even talk to her. How her father went out and came he drunk almost every night. Waking up and not remembering a single damned thing from the night before.
I had a great run with my parents, never once did they fight around us kids or threaten to leave one another. But Tayzley had to deal with the despair, the heartbreak that is her father watching him slowly crumble to pieces because her mother ripped his heart from the cavity of his chest and stomped on it.
"As far as I know she's in another state with another man." Her eyes close and her bottom lip begins to tremble. The many times I've seen Tayzley cry is not rare maybe three times and most were because of me.
"Hey." I sooth her slightly, running my thumb at the base of her chin and then across her cheek. "She's missing out. Karma will come back to smite her. It always does."
"How can you be so sure Tanner," she sits up on her elbows. "That woman has been gone for almost six years and we have yet to hear a damn thing from her. Not a single birthday card, not a single phone call. Nothing. She angers me to no end." Her range laces through her cheeks, her chest breaking out in little hives. "I hate that she left me there to pick my dad up off the ground. I hate it so much, because all the while I was the one who ended on the ground after my dad finally picked himself up. He blamed me. Even though it was her own decision. I laid there and took his shit because I had no other choice. I want to get out of there but I'm so prone to the actual fact of how I'll feel if I leave him. Will he be okay? Will I show up one day to him dead on the floor with pill bottles sprawled out around his body. I can't risk it, but I need out so bad," she weeps, her eyes swollen and her lips so red.
I do nothing but pull her into my lap, her cries seep into the fabric of my sweater. Drawing small circles on her back begins to sooth her as she finally stops she looks up at me and her green eyes so bright it almost knocks the wind out of me of how beautiful her eyes are. "God Tayzley."
"What?" She wipes under her eyes.
"Even after all that crying you manage to look so fucking beautiful. Your eyes have their own story when you're sad although you inner self is sad your eyes seem to stay bright and alive, almost piercing to the soul."
"What are you Shakespeare now?"
"I was wondering when you'd come back," I laugh, bending down to place a kiss on her neck.
"I need sleep. I'm off tomorrow, but I'm leaving first thing in the morning. I'm going to my grandmas." She purses her lips and waits for me to say something in return.
An apology.
A real one.
"I'm sorry I go into your phone and deleted you grandmother's calls. I don't know what came over me, but maybe the fact we were in the moment. I'm crap at apologies Tayzley." I flip her over onto her back. This is my way of apologizing.
***
The next morning I roll over to the empty spot beside me, the sheet still warm and still fragranced with her scent.
It would have been nice for her to wake me up, but when the door creeps open and a little blonde unruly curly headed girl comes running in and jumps on the bed I'm wide awake.
"Where's Tazwey?" Emerson asks, running her hair back behind her ears.
"She visiting her grandma."
"Can we go visit Grandma?" Her curiosity comes into play. "It's been a long time, I want to put flowers on their house." She never called it a grave or tombstone its always been a house to her. She believe under all the grass and dirt their house lies underneath.
"Of course we can." I pull her against my chest kissing her forehead.
"I love you daddy."
"I love you too baby girl."
(Another Tanner POV for the win! Guys The Bar Stool now has a trailer here is the link: http://youtu.be/VPwXNeyELs8 go watch it!!! Its amazing andallthatjaz1d made it and she did such an amazing job!!! Also go read her 1D one shots omfg they are amazing!! I love you guys so much. Comment and vote please!)