No Longer Daddy's Little Girl

He sat there waiting, in the living room, looking out  the window waiting for his little girl to get home. He hadn't seen her sense she went off to college, 8 mounths ago, and he was growing anxious.

As he sat there he remembered her, around the age of 3, running into the house covered from head to toe in mud. She had just been running through the sprinklers. He didn't even mind that she was covering the floor for the second time today in mud, or that when she ran up and hugged his leg that she was smuthering his clean pants in mud too. All he thought about was her laugh and he smiled down at her as a big grin spread across her little face as she staired up at him with her sparkeling blue eyes.

He thought about the time when she was about 6. She had ran over to her dad with a big mischievous smile spread across her face. she simply pointed over to her bike and looked up at her dad. "Can we take the training wheels off?" he simply nodded at her. When he was done he took her out to the empty street and sat her on the bike. As she pettled he guided her along. "Let go daddy." She squealed with laughter. he hesitated for a moment but, then let go knowing that it was what she wanted. He stood there and watched as she sped along, her blond curly hair blowing back behind her shoulders, with no trouble at all.

As he heard a car pull up he didn't hesitate to get up to run to the door. He watched as she got out of the drivers side of the car. She had looked the same as she always did. Her blond curles bouncing, her blue eyes sparkling with the sun, and the smile that he always loved to see."Daddy!' She quickly ran up to him giving him a hug."Hey Shelby." He greeted as they stepped appart he was shocked to see that she wasn't alone. There, stepping out of the passanger seat was a young man, about 5' 11", he had brown hair spiked up and he seamed to be very a very clean cut man.

The dad ignored him and ushered his daughter into the house sitting her down in a chair knowing the young man would want to sit next to her. "So how's school going?" he asked as he looked back at the door dozens of times waiting for the mystery man.

"Daddy I have..." She then sighed. "It's going good." The dad was a little confused. He wanted to know what she was going to tell him. She had never kept secrets from him so, he knew it must have been serious.

His mind trailed off to a few years ago, when she was 16. He was sitting watching a game waiting for her to come home from a date, when the door flew open and in came his daughter. She slammed the door closed and froze when she saw her father watching her. She ran into his lap and sat there crying. He sat there stroking her hair and whipping away her tears until she was done. "What happened?" He asked not sure if she would want to talk about it. "He dumped me daddy." She sniffled up a couple more tears. "Why?" he asked not sure if she would want to answer again. He watched his daughter play with her nails hesitating for a moment not looking into his eyes. She took in a deep breath, "Daddy, don't be mad." He stiffened but, simply nodded his head letting her continue before he said anything. "It was because, I woldn't have sex with him." he saw her blue, dried eyes as  she looked up at him affraid of what he wold say. Instead of saying anything he just wrapped his arms around her and they sat there together as she cried some more.

When he snapped back he saw his daughter sitting on the boys lap rubbing her hand up and down his arm. "Dad, this is Adam."

The dad made a face descusted at the boy as he watched him rub her thigh with his hand. He watched his daughter take her left hand and place it on top of his to make him stop. "That's a pretty big ring you got there." He said, as he noticed a golden band with one big dimond in the middle and a bunch of little dimonds on either side of it, on her ring fingure.

"Dad, that's what I want to talk about." She then looked over at Adam and smiled. "Dad..." He took in a deep breath knowing what was coming, "We're getting married.

He quietly got up from his seat and walked in to the kitchen getting a drink. He was shocked his daughter would just throw it at him like that. "What happened to asking the dads permission first?" he mmmbled to himself. As he drank the water he heard foot steps coming into the kitchen. He turned around to see Adam in the door way. "Sorry I didn't ask. That's what I came here to do."

The dad just nodded and took another sip of his water. "So... You want to marry Shelby."

"Yes I do sir-"

"Cut the bull shit. That's my little girl in there so I wouldn't be joking around." He said taking, yet another, drink of his water.

"Yes, I understand. Yes I do want to marry her."

"Ok son, you can marry her. Just remember, she was my girl first and she's my girl still." He said walking towards Adam. He put a stong hand on his sconey shoulder and started squeezing. He Smiled as he saw the boys calm face turn to a face of pain. "Now lets go tell her the good news.

They walked in to the living room and as he looked at her he saw that little 12 year old girl sitting on the couch bouncing up and down as she waited for her daddy's answer to see if she could spend the night at her friends house over the week end. He sighed as he watched Adam sit nex to her and watched them kiss. She really was no longer his little girl.