Credit due to the author of these rules.
Set in the same world as The Minor Leaguer, though the events of that story are not entirely relevant to this story right now.
Hope you enjoy this idea! I always imagined Aaron being a protective dad...
If you want to date Aaron Shore's daughter, you must follow ten simple rules. Or you won't date her.
Rule One: If you pull into the driveway and honk, you better be delivering a package, cause you sure as hell aren't picking anything up.
Aaron walked into the living room of his home and took in the silence. It was golden in this house, especially when there were five girls to brighten up the place. Aaron knew from the moment he met Emily Rhodes when he was 18 years old that she was the one for him. They drove each other crazy but they were also their best when they were together. Neither knew that it was possible to love as strongly as they did.
After a year and a half of dating, they married in a small, intimate ceremony in the White House. They celebrated their nuptials like any married couple would, and 9 months later, their first daughter, Sophia Louise Shore arrived. 4 years later after a drunken night in Cabo, the twins, Annabelle and Charlotte came along, then another 5 years later their youngest girl Emma made an appearance. Aaron was outnumbered by the women in his life, but he certainly wouldn't have it any other way. At 16, 12 and 7 his girls were feisty, strong, beautiful, intelligent and loving and all clones of Emily. Aaron was convinced for a while that his DNA had no play in his children, until Emma was born with a head fully of unruly, curly hair.
Aaron sat in his favourite armchair in the living room and opened his book, but was only a few lines in when he stopped to think about the silence he had entered the room to. His house was never silent, which made him worry that his daughters and wife were up to something. Before he could call for Emily, his youngest daughter came sauntering through the room.
"Hey Emmy, where are your sisters and your mom?" Aaron asked as Emma stopped to look at him.
"They're helping Sophia get ready for her date!" Emma said happily.
Aaron froze; "... I'm sorry... did you just say date?"
"Yep! Sophia is going on her first date tonight and she looks so cute!" Emma said with a giggle.
Aaron gulped. Why wasn't he aware that his daughter was going on a date? He should know these things, how could neither of them not tell him?
"Why-why didn't they tell me?" Aaron mumbled to himself.
"Cause you'll get all flustered and freaked out silly!" Emma said cupping her dad's cheeks in her hands with a laugh. "Sophia showed me a picture of the boy, Max, he is so cute daddy, he and Soph are perfect for each other! But... it's a pity that first relationships never last..." Emma said with a sigh before walking away.
Aaron furrowed his eyebrows at his daughter. She was 7 going on 17 and it freaked him out, almost as much as Sophia dating freaked him out. Aaron sat back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on.
He heard someone come down the stairs and turned his head to see Emily approaching him with a smile plastered on her face.
"Please tell me that smile is because Sophia has cancelled her date with... Max." Aaron asked.
"No this smile is because I'm excited for her. This is her first date!" Emily said as she happily stood in front of Aaron.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Aaron asked as he stood from his chair.
"Because you would have gone into protective dad mode, but it's too late for that now because he'll be here in 5 minutes." Emma said.
"That's mean. And what kind of name is Max? I'm pretty sure there are at least 5 houses on this street with dogs called Max." Aaron said rolling his eyes.
"Aaron, I know this is weird for you, but Sophia would really appreciate it if you supported her on this, it's only a date! So when she comes downstairs, you're going to tell her she looks beautiful and then slip her a 20" Emily said lifted Aaron's wallet out of his own pocket and handing it to him.
"This dating thing is going to bleed me dry isn't it?" Aaron said as he pulled a 20 out of his pocket hearing Sophia coming down the stairs.
"Only 3 more girls after this." Emily said kissing his cheek as Sophia entered the room.
"Hi daddy!" Sophia greeted with her best smile.
"Hey honey... you look beautiful." Aaron said with a smile.
"Thank you" Sophia said as she turned to check her reflection in the mirror.
Aaron turned to Emily and mumbled in her ear; "Don't you think her skirt is a little short?"
"Oh come on Aaron I definitely wore skirts shorter than that when I was her age." Emily replied.
"Yeah and I loved you in those skirts, I'm pretty sure Sophia was conceived after I saw you in one of those skirts, you see where I'm going with this?" Aaron asked.
"Oh Aaron stop, you're being ridiculous, it's one date! Now give her the money." Emily said nudging him in the side.
"Sophia, you need some money?" Aaron said handing her the 20.
Sophia gratefully took it; "Thanks daddy!" she said as she kissed him on the cheek. Before anything else could be said, more precisely, before Aaron could find something to protest, there was a honk outside and Sophia smiled before walking towards the door.
"That's me, I'll see you guys later!" she said happily.
"Wait, wait, wait... where do you think you're going?" Aaron asked as Sophia turned and looked at him in a confused manner.
"Uh... on a date? Seriously daddy, where have you been for the past 5 minutes" Sophia said with a little laugh.
"He's not dropping off a package, therefore he doesn't need to honk at the door, he can come to the front door like a normal human being, and ring the doorbell." Aaron said putting his hands on his hips.
"Dad he probably doesn't know to come to the door." Sophia protested.
"Well he can work it out... is chivalry really dead?" Aaron asked shaking his head.
"This is ridiculous!" Sophia said throwing herself down on the sofa and crossing her arms in a huff.
5 or so minutes later, Annabelle and Charlotte came running downstairs.
"Soph, your boyfriend is waiting outside and has been for the past 5 minutes." Annabelle informed her.
"Yeah Annie and I have been waiting at the window for you to leave, we had water balloons and everything!" Charlotte said with a giggle. Annabelle and Charlotte loved playing pranks on people and joking around. Emily and Aaron were sure they would be the death of them.
"Girls what did I say about the water balloons?" Emily said giving them a disapproving stare.
"Not to throw them at people out the window..." Charlotte mumbled as she sat down beside Sophia.
"But mom it's probably best that this Max guy knows what he's in for!" Annabelle justified.
"She's got a point Emily" Aaron said with a smirk that got him a death glare.
A few more minutes past, and nothing, no one rang the doorbell. Emma came into the room next and stared at her family all sitting there in silence.
"Is there a reason you're not leaving Sophia?" Emma asked taking a seat on her dad's lap.
"Dad wants him to come and knock the door instead of honking the horn." Sophia said through her teeth.
"And he hasn't come to the door yet?" Emma asked. "He must be stupid, I think you're dodging a bullet there Sophia."
"She is now, he's driving away!" Annabelle announced as the others came and looked out the window to see Max drive off.
"I think Emmy's right Sophia, he is an idiot." Aaron mumbled, gaining a giggle from his three other daughters.
"Thanks a lot dad, you just ruined my night!" Sophia said before storming upstairs.
Aaron turned around and saw Emily giving him a disapproving stare, like the one she had previously given the twins.
"You happy?" Emily asked.
"He's clearly an idiot Emily, I did her a favour." Aaron said as Emily left the room.
"You got a whole lot of sucking up to do dad..." Charlotte said as his three daughters left the room too after their mother.
After letting Sophia cool down, Aaron went upstairs and knocked on her door. Sophia flung the door open and glared at her father.
"Is that you demonstrating how Max should have behaved this evening?" she asked bitterly.
"Might help for future reference." Aaron said with a smirk, to which Sophia glared further and retreated back into her room. "I'm sorry honey, I didn't want to ruin your date, but he was clearly an idiot!"
"Whether he's an idiot or not is for me to find out dad!" Sophia replied.
"... I'm sorry. This is weird for me, you're my little girl, no dad wants to see their little girl off on dates with sub-par teenage boys." Aaron said sitting beside her on the bed.
"I get that dad but I'm a teenager I need to go out and have fun. I'm sure you and mom had plenty of it in your day."
"Tha-that is besides the point." Aaron said, knowing he and Emily had a lot of fun back in the day. "I'm always going to be protective over you Sophia... and I promise to stay out of it as much as possible, but I feel like a few simple rules isn't too much to ask."
"Like coming to the door?" Sophia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"He's not a delivery boy Sophie, He can walk two feet to the door and knock." Aaron said to which Sophia sighed but nodded her head.
"I suppose it can't hurt to have some standards..." she conceded. "But promise me you'll not go all crazy psycho dad on me, I need to have my independence."
Aaron laughed; "deal" he agreed as he kissed Sophia on the head and walked towards the door.
"Oh and dad? Word of warning, you have three more daughters that you're going to have to go through this with too... so you're in for a bumpy ride." Sophia said before disappearing into her bathroom.
Aaron gulped as it hit him that there were three more girls coming behind Sophia. He left her room swiftly and walked into his youngest's room, to see her colouring in at the table.
"Hey Emmy..." he said walking towards her; "You're not going to start dating till you're at least 30 right?" Aaron asked in his sweetest voice.
Emma laughed; "don't be silly daddy, I already have a boyfriend! Three actually."
"... three? You have three boyfriends?"
"Well yeah! They all wanted to be my boyfriend so I thought why not have three boyfriends!" Emma said happily, as Aaron felt like he needed to sit down.
He turned and left her room and bumped straight into Emily who had been listening in on their conversation.
"Was that a foreshadow of her future? Is my little Emmy going to be worst of all?" Aaron asked putting a hand to his chest. "These girls are going to put me in an early grave."
Emily laughed as she wrapped her arms around Aaron's arm and rested her chin on his shoulder. "You're a wonderful dad to them Aaron, and for that of course they're going to repay you with dating a bunch of dorks." she joked.
"Sophia said to me that she was a teenager and she just needed to have fun, like we did back in the day"
"Oh we had a lot of fun back in the day" Emily said with a giggle.
"Yeah... that's what I'm worried about."
Don't forget to review!