Back to the Garden Read Free Page B

against the material.
    His hands spanned her waist, pulling her close and kissing her navel, just like he used to when she was little—except this time, it was different. His hitching breath, the heat of his lips, the way his hands gripped her sides, all made her feel weak and dizzy and aching for something.
    “Pretty, isn’t it?” Libby asked softly, turning away from him and toward the mirror.
    She put her hands on her hips and arched her back, angling her bare midriff as she looked at herself in the mirror. She touched her tummy, her eyes moving over the smooth skin of her legs, turning so she could see the back and how the mesh panties curved over the rounded swell of her behind.
    “It is,” her father agreed, clearing his throat. His eyes still followed her hands as she adjusted the straps and, looking over at him, Libby saw something that shocked her—he had an erection.
    “Excuse me for a moment.” He didn’t cover himself, but he stood quickly and went out the door and down the hall to the bathroom.
    She stared after him, and then looked back at her reflection in the mirror, the way the crotch of the panties cupped her mound, how the bra pressed her breasts up and together.
    She pulled the dress over her head and found a pair of black strappy shoes tucked away in the corner of the chest that she put on and practiced walking in. Wobbly and unsure, she paced back and forth in front of the mirror.
    “Libby,” her father said from the doorway and she turned, startled. He was flushed, but she noticed his erection was gone.
    She smiled, gathering her hair up and putting it on top of her head. “What do you think?”
    He took a deep breath and let it out with a shake of his head. “I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
    “Daddy!” she admonished, blushing and letting her hair fall to look in the mirror. “Am I really?”
    “Yes,” he breathed, closing his eyes for a moment and then opening them to smile at her. “There’s only one other woman in the world who has ever taken my breath away like you do in that dress.”
    Libby felt something small and tight turn over in her lower belly as she walked, a little unsteady, into his arms, pressing herself against him and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
    “Thank you, Daddy,” she whispered. “I love you.”
    —
    “Well, I suppose my old dress is better than no dress,” Kim remarked, fingering the material and glancing over at Libby. “Does it fit you?”
    “She looks just like you did in it at that age, Kim,” Ed replied, coming into the living room with two diet Cokes and handing her one. “I couldn’t believe it.”
    “So are you coming?” Libby asked as her mother sat at the other end of the sofa.
    “I suppose,” Kim said with a shrug. “As long as I don’t have to go nude.”
    “You’re in luck,” Ed said with a smile. “You picked the one day of the year when we do something with clothes on.”
    “Do you remember the last time I wore that dress?” Kim asked. Libby saw some sort of communication pass between her parents.
    Ed popped the tab on his Coke, sitting next to his daughter. “Of course I do.”
    “The night you were conceived,” her mother told Libby, using a long fingernail under the tab on her Coke.
    Libby looked up at her father, remembering his reaction to her in the dress. “Oh.”
    Kim’s cell phone rang and Libby rolled her eyes, reaching for the remote. It was the fourth time in as many hours.
    “Hello?” her mother said after flipping it open, sighing as Libby turned up the TV. “Hang on, David...”
    Kim scooted off the sofa and went into the kitchen, but they could still hear her talking.
    “No, I told you…Wednesday...” Kim paced, prowling the perimeter of the small kitchen. Libby saw her mother out of the corner of her eye. “Yes, I promise you, I’m keeping my clothes on...”
    Libby snorted, nudging her father in the ribs. He shook his head and shrugged, taking another drink