Stuart and Jo's daughter takes on Phil and Sam's son in the ongoing competition...
"You'd better show Dad."
"Of course, I'm gonna show Dad." Lily Turner admired her reflection in her sister's mirror.
"Lily Rose Turner, he is going to have a fit when he sees the dress."
"Well, Mai Elizabeth Turner, I guess we'll just have to see about that!"
Mai sighed. It was her summer ball, graduation only a few days away now, and taking her sixteen year old sister with her to the ball on a double date seemed natural, they'd shared a great deal together. Mai had her own boyfriend, of whom Stuart approved, Karl Howard. But Lily's date for the ball was another matter, Dad sees that dress, he's gonna go mad, it was going to end up in one big mess again. But then again, Lily's been winding Dad round her little finger since she was a baby...
Lily put the stilettos on and made her way downstairs. Her dad and Ben's dad were in the back garden, vegetating with a cold beer with some of their old comrades from Sun Hill, hurriedly bypassing the kitchen where her mum, Carol and Ben's mum were discussing after graduation party details.
She reached the end of the garden, to the sun deck, and paused. Her dad, sprawled on one of the sun loungers, scruffy pair of khaki shorts which he claimed were for gardening, no shirt, snoozing under the panama hat that her mum had given him for last year's trip to the vineyard in the south of France. Lily felt a rush of love for her father. They were soul mates in so many ways. She quietly moved up behind the sun lounger, bending over the back, slipped her arms round her father's neck lovingly.
Stuart felt two arms twine themselves round his neck lovingly, and knew without a shadow of a doubt which of his three daughters it was, without even opening his eyes. Mai would have come and sat on the lounger next to him, Kerry would have taken a flying leap and landed on him probably knocking both of us on the floor, his youngest child's tomboyish antics were just a touch wearing, only Lily would sneak up behind, and he knew without looking that she wanted his approval for something that he knew instinctively was going to give him another grey hair.
He removed his hat, and opened his eyes. His sixteen year old daughter had moved round to stand beside the sun lounger, his eyes took in her impossibly long legs and stunning curves, she's inherited her mother's figure, but everything else she had got from him, jet black hair, long and wavy tumbling in a haphazard fashion from a careless ponytail, sparkling brown eyes which could whirl through every expression in a matter of seconds, tanned olive skin tone, her attitude, cocky, fearless, occasionally sneaky, there could be absolutely no doubt who her father was and he adored her, which is why she got away with so much. But not this. Aware that his friends were eyeballing this vision stood in front of them, so sassy and independent, dammit I am not going to start admiring her cojones now.
"Well." She did a slow twirl in front of them. Stuart could almost feel his blood pressure rise.
"Is that the dress, that you are NOT wearing to the ball tonight?" his tone was firm, but he could still see the skeptical looks on the faces of his old comrades, Neil Manson, Mickey, Terry, Max Carter, and Phil, even Jack Meadows now nearing 70, clearly doubted Stuart's ability to lay down the law.
"Of course, Daddy." he was not fooled by her bright innocent smile, nor was he about to be deflected by her calling him Daddy in that soft beguiling tone. The dress was Grecian in design, very, very short, in a soft white material that set off her skin tone to perfection, it should have been demure, only Stuart was certain he could see a great deal of his daughter's body through the diaphanous material, and the skirt barely covered her modesty.
His state of mind was not helped by the derisory snort from the next door sun lounger. He glared at his sometime buddy/rival "I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you, it's your son she's going to be driving up the wall in that get up."
"Ben is big enough and ugly enough to take care of himself." Of that Phil had no doubt, he cringed slightly when he thought of just how cocky his fifteen year old son could be. Phil himself had been a bit of a ladies man okay, slight understatement, and time and Samantha Nixon had done a lot to put that particular fire out, but Ben was something else, he'd clearly inherited his brains from his mother, because Phil had never been that good at school work, and Sam was something of a star, with two degrees, but absolutely everything else seemed to be inherited from his father, including the insanely competitive streak that only ever seemed to surface around Stuart.
Ben and Lily had been keeping up the parental competition since they were 4 and 5. It had started one lunch time when Lily locked Ben in the garage, climbed out of the window and left him bawling his head off unable to follow her. It had carried on in various guises until puberty had struck when Ben was around thirteen. It seemed as though puberty was something that Benjamin Hunter had gone through overnight, he'd gone from being a slightly chubby little boy, to a six foot hunk in one move. His voice had broken and never showed any signs of the usual squeaky transfer common to boys of his age. And he had his dad's gift with the ladies, except for Lily Rose Turner. That was where things got very complicated.
They were still in competition, but they also seemed incapable of keeping their hands off of one another, whilst inspiring each other to greater feats of idiocy, which had their respective mothers in despair, and their fathers exasperated, and secretly keeping score. Old habits die hard.
"You finally ready, woman." his son's voice sounded somewhere above his head, and Phil squinted up, noting with some irritation that Ben had been in his wardrobe again.
Lily giggled, and put her hand out, Ben stepped round the lounger, grabbed her hand and whirled her into his arms, "Looking good, Baby." Flirting in front of their fathers was all part of the game, and Ben enjoyed how wound up his dad and his uncle Stuart could get, especially when they were together. When he was with Lily, they never missed an opportunity. And that was what got him all hot and excited about this girl. Quite apart from her being a major hottie, which made him the envy of every boy from the year sevens to the sixth formers, she was sparky, with a wild streak that could get him into serious trouble, completely competitive and rocked his world. Part of the game had become responding to her without letting her know just how much effect she had on him. The perfect moment to wink at my old man... Ben suited the action to the thought.
Phil sighed. The look in his son's blue eyes suggested that there would definitely be fireworks of some kind before dawn, and he had every faith that his old buddy/rival's daughter would be beside his son every step of the way.
Stuart sat and wondered just how he was going to win this battle. Lily was perfectly capable of changing out of the dress, taking it with her and changing into it once at the college, or worse still finding something even more outrageous to wear. His mostly despairing reverie was interrupted by his eldest child coming across the grass towards them.
"Mai," he smiled at her, now why can't Lily dress like that, his eldest's simple gown was demure and beautiful "you look beautiful."
"Karl's here with the taxi," she took his hand and bent to kiss him on the cheek, "we really need to go." Glared at her sister and Ben, just wish that they would stop winding Dad up, "I need to get some things from my room before we have to sign in."
Stuart sighed, he knew he was going to regret not being firmer with Lily, but he didn't want to spoil Mai's evening with an upset, and knowing that Lily and Ben would be with Mai and Karl was a big help.
He met his middle daughter's eyes, and winced inwardly as he gave in, Lily 573, Stuart 0, she'd won again.