"Felicia! Come downstairs! Your father is home!"
Ten-year-old Felicia Hardy put down her crayons and ran from her playroom with excitement. Having been gone for two weeks, her father was finally home from his sales call. Equal to her excitement for seeing her father was her excitement to see what he brought home for her. He always brought her all kinds of pretty things.
"Dad! You're back!" Felicia ran down the stairs, her long black curls bouncing down her back from her exuberance.
"And I brought you something even better than the last time!" Walter Hardy's face was lit up to see his daughter. His almond shaped green eyes, the same ones he passed down to his only child, glinted mischievously, and his smile was beaming. Walter had always been an attractive man, with full dark hair (now graying substantially) and sharp, rugged features. His daughter, and the object of his greatest love, was almost his spitting image, but with her mother's full lips and rose hued cheeks.
"Show me show me show me!" Felicia, too big and already tall for her age, leapt into Walter's arms, sending him staggering back into the door. Pauline Hardy laughed.
"Don't knock him down! If he breaks a hip and we have to bring him to the hospital then you won't get to see what he brought you until tomorrow. And I won't get to give him my 'welcome home' present I have waiting for him upstairs." Pauline's suggestive comment went over Felicia's head but Walter's face filled with color and he gave his stunning wife a smirk.
"We'll get to that. But first I have to show Felicia…this!" Walter reopened the front door and brought in a small traveling cage. Inside was a beautiful black kitten, with eyes the same shade of green as Walter's and his daughter's. Felicia gasped with excitement, but Pauline's face fell.
"Oh my god, Daddy! You got me a kitten?!"
"Really Walter, I was expecting something a little shiner than a cat. You could have thought to talk to me about this first."
Walter cast another mischievous look, this time at his wife.
"Pauline, she's already in love! Plus you know it's hard for me to keep in touch on my trips." Pauline rolled her eyes at her husband, but couldn't help but smile as Felicia cradled her new friend, mimicking it's purrs.
"Daddy thank you so so so so so much, I love her! She's perfect." Felicia wrapped her arms around her dad and buried her smiling face in his black leather trench.
"Well she's almost perfect. She just needs a collar so people know she has a home. And I happen to have just the thing…." Walter pulled out a sparkling, flawlessly assembled diamond collar. Every precious gemstone caught the light so vibrantly that it cast rainbows on the faces of the Hardy family. Pauline's eyes widened as she marveled at the beautiful, and clearly expensive collar. Felicia jumped up and swiped it from her father's hand and began to examine it in earnest.
"Daddy it's beautiful. How many watches did you have to sell to afford this?!" Walter's face darkened for only a moment.
"Lots and lots, sweetheart. But don't worry yourself about stuff like that. And guess what? I sold enough the past two weeks to wrangle up a little something special for your mother too." Walter sidled up to his wife, pulling out a velvet jewelry box. Pauline beamed, and opened the box to find a gold pendant, with a massive ruby in the center. Pauline gasped, bringing a hand to her mouth in appreciation of the necklace, and felt her heart surge with love for her already beloved husband. Walter tenderly brushed the hair back from Pauline's shoulders and clasped the pendant in place. The ruby fell in perfect placement right atop Pauline's generous cleavage.
"Mommy you look so pretty! We all look so pretty!" Felicia put a fist around the beautiful diamond on her necklace, a gift from her father's last excursion, and scooped up her new kitten, twirling around with glee. Pauline embraced her husband and pressed her lips to his in a passionate, heat filled moment.
"I love you sweetheart. You do too much, as always."
"Never, Pauline. Nothing is ever too much." Felicia let her kitty to the ground and gave her parents a huge hug. Walter wriggled out, crouching down to Felicia's size, and held his daughter's face in his rough, worn hands.
"Remember that always, Felicia. Nothing is ever too much for the ones you love. And never settle for second rate. That's why I always nick the finest of gems."