He frowned. “It’s not like she does it all the time, and besides, it’s not boys, it’s just Jamie. I don’t want it to happen again, but surely there can be a little lenience this time considering it’s her birthday,” he countered.

“Oh we’ll see how lenient you want to be when he knocks her up and ruins her life!” Ruth snapped, slamming her hand on the table in frustration.

Michael’s eyes tightened at her words and he looked up at me. I shook my head quickly, feeling slightly scared of him. Not that he would be able to hurt me physically, but he certainly had the power to come between me and Ellie. “Nothing happened, I promise. Ellie’s not getting pregnant,” I assured him, holding my hands up innocently.

He sucked his teeth with his tongue, seeming to think about it before he relaxed. He definitely wanted to believe that his daughter was still his little baby. Denial was a powerful thing. He sighed and frowned. “Just don’t let it happen again, alright? This was a one-time thing, a birthday thing but I’m pretty annoyed that it happened.” He looked at Ellie. “Pumpkin, you know I like Jamie, but just…. You need to respect that this is mine and your mother’s house and therefore our rules.”

Ellie smiled innocently, batting her eyelashes to perfection and I practically saw him turn into putty in her hands. “Okay, Daddy. Sorry, it won’t happen again,” she promised. I nodded in agreement of that, it definitely wouldn’t happen again that’s for sure.

He rolled his eyes and stepped back, seeming to ignore the hard glare that was aimed in his direction from Ruth. He shoved the sleeves of his sweater up and grinned. “Who’s up for pancakes?” he chirped.

Ellie squealed and clapped her hands excitedly. “Heck yeah!”

Breakfast was beyond awkward. Her mom’s face was hard and angry the whole time, she barely spoke apart from to throw some bitchy comment in my direction or answer a direct question when Michael tried to include her in the conversation. I honestly had no idea what a great guy like Michael could see in her - she was nothing like the rest of them.

I wondered what she was like when she was younger; if she was still the same stuck up, judgemental witch that she was now, or if time had made her like that. There had to have been something about her that attracted Michael to her in the first place.

After breakfast and watching Ellie open her presents from her family and friends, I headed home. I needed to get her gifts from me, also the day that I’d planned for us today needed to start too. We had a pretty packed day to get through.

When I picked her up an hour later, she skipped to my truck before I even had time to turn off the engine - she seemed pretty keen to get out of the house, maybe her mom was hassling her about me staying over, I hoped that wasn’t the case. She threw her overnight bag into the back and grinned at me. Her parents didn’t know she was staying at mine, they never did, they thought that she was spending the day with me and the night with Stacey. That was her usual lie when she stayed at mine for the night.

“Ready to start celebrating?” I asked. My eyes wandered over her body appreciatively. She was wearing skinny jeans that showed off her long legs, and a pretty little midnight blue silk top. It was V-neck and showed just enough cle**age to make my heart speed up. She was obviously dressed to impress. “I thought I told you to wear older clothes and that you might get dirty?” I mumbled, my mouth watering at the sight of her. It had been days since I’d had my way with her - something I would rectify tonight for sure.

She looked down at herself and frowned. “This is kinda old. What’s wrong with it?”

“Ellie, that’s like a designer shirt, it must have cost a fortune,” I laughed, shaking my head.

A smiled pulled at the corners of her mouth as she played with the soft material. “It’s not designer; it didn’t cost me anything actually,” she replied. “You like it?”

I grinned and leant in closer to her, her perfume attacked my senses and I was fighting with myself not to just drive to my place and ravage her instead of getting on with our plans. “It’s beautiful, just like you.” She giggled and kissed me quickly, she didn’t have to say the word ‘corny’ for me to know she was thinking it. I smiled against her lips and pulled back. “I have your present but I’d rather give it to you later if that’s okay?” I asked.

She grinned, buckling up her seatbelt. “Sure,” she chirped. “So where we going?”

“Surprise.” I drove to the destination with her singing along to the radio happily, and ignoring her questions about where we were going and were we nearly there - she was like a little kid.

When I pulled up into the parking lot of the zoo she looked at me with one eyebrow raised. “We’re going to the zoo?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.

I smiled. “Kinda. You’re gonna be a zoo keeper for the afternoon,” I replied.

Her mouth dropped open in shock as her breath seemed to catch. She definitely wasn’t expecting that judging by the look on her face. “Seriously?”

I nodded. “Yep. You wanna?” Ellie loved animals; in one of her sleep-rambles she’d said that she had always wanted to be a zoo keeper. I was just praying that was one of the more serious unconscious conversations we’d had, as opposed to when she told me that she wanted to be the first woman to walk on the moon.

Her eyes widened. “Hell yeah! Really? Oh my God, thank you!” she practically screamed. The loudness of her voice echoed in the cab of my truck and made my ears ring. Without waiting for me she sprang out of the door, jumping on the spot excitedly. “Come on, slow poke!” I laughed and grabbed the paperwork for her visit before climbing out and slinging my arm around her shoulder.