Engine revving.

"Car having trouble?"

"Trouble? No, just warming it up."

I leaned against the hood. Mallory planted a quick kiss on my cheek as she pulled the strap of her bag shoulder-level. I followed her figure with my eyes. "See you later."

She gave a cheeky smile. Ducking her head, the thud of the car door followed seconds later. In a blink, she was out of the driveway and the car's rumbling engine was a distant purr.

"Hey Dad." Coming through the grate of the door was Charlotte's voice. "Do you think I could borrow some money? I'm going shopping with my friends."

"Sure," I nodded. It was a reasonable request. She was under my wing. Just missing something. "But first," I pointed to the ground a foot or so before me. "Come here and bend over."

As she did so, a slight frown middled her cheeks. She left the door slightly ajar as she stepped out in a pair of slippers, her breezy shorts dancing enticingly above her kneecaps without showing too much. But that was accounted for. I'd already seen how they slid down said legs when she was sat, one knee up, in the kitchen at breakfast.

They were hiding a nice set of pillars, fact was. Quite nice.

When my daughter was finally in front of me, she turned, bending at the waist. It was a meager thing. Barely forty-five degrees. Her cheeky tush stretched somewhat tightly against the fabric of her pants, however, and that was no meager thing. "Alright, are we done now?" Apparently, she had swung her head over her shoulder to give me a restless, yet somehow still bored look.

I rubbed my chin.