When her father offered his hand and finally addressed Simon by using his first name, AngelFyre knew immediately all was not lost. She truly believed her father to be the wisest and most reasonable man she knew, even if he did have his blind spots and faults, just like anyone. Just like AngelFyre herself and just like Simon. But given his human imperfections, even Grandma Ruth adored him and had said often that Grandpa Ezra would have loved Iain for his own daughter, too, so AngelFyre was well aware that she had not arrived at this opinion of her father through blind love and affection only. He had earned it.

Iain McCubbin was a gentle, soft-spoken, strong, fair, and loving man, husband, and father. He was also a man of unfailing honor, deep faith, and astonishing intellect. In short, he was AngelFyre’s hero and had been her ‘best fella’ the whole of her entire life until one Simon Ezra Kincaid entered the picture. He deserved her respect as her father, of course, but he was also one of the best human beings she had ever known…or ever would know… so it did not come as a total shock to her when her father retreated just a bit and asked Simon to take a ride with him into town on his motorcycle. They were not completely out of the woods, but there was hope. AngelFyre had gotten her father’s attention, but a good part of the peace to be brokered amongst them all would now rest entirely on Simon’s shoulders. She smiled a small smile of hope and relief. If anyone was ever up to such a daunting task, she knew it was Simon.

She felt reassured when her father’s arm tightened around her, drawing her lovingly close, as Simon excused himself to get his sweatshirt. ‘Thank you, Daddy. Thank you for loving me enough to get to know Simon. I know I am biased, but that does not make the things I know about him or feel about him to be untrue or unjustified. He is simply an uncommon, miraculous boy. You will see.” Then she wrapped her arms around her father and reiterated something she had once written to him about Simon. Looking up into his probing eyes and whispering so she knew only he could hear her, she said with a certain sense of wonder in her voice, “I cannot explain it, but I know it as well as I know my name. I am going to marry Simon one day, so my life, and yours, will be much happier if the two of you liked each other.” No response came from her father other than another tight squeeze and a few loving pats.

Once Simon returned, AngelFyre stepped from her father’s embrace and moved toward him a couple of steps. Simon closed the distance between them rather quickly, however, and did the very things that they both knew rankled her father, but she also knew he did not do it carelessly or simply as matter of obstinance. Simon knew exactly what he was doing and AngelFyre could not be upset about it. His gestures in that moment were for her alone and it was important to him that she knew he appreciated her defense of them as a couple, and of him as a person. Turning Simon away was not something she would ever do to please someone else, not even her father. That was most likely going to be a topic of conversation on the ‘Sunny Dunny’ trip as Simon had cleverly dubbed it.

Taking his hand and stepping back away from her parents and the doorway Simon and her father would be leaving through, AngelFyre hurried to say something vitally important to him. “Well, love, that was your first glimpse of your she wolf in action. Now I need.... we need… for you to be the remarkable dove that you are. I could so easily feel your protective and self-preservation instincts surfacing hard and fast during that whole episode, and I so love you for that, but trust me when I tell you I was never in any danger, and neither are you now. My father has not put his best foot forward with you, I know, but please try to wipe the last nine hours from your memory banks and give him a chance. Believe what I have told you about him, because I am not wrong. I know the man and in this instance I need you to just trust me, please. I have just asked the same of him with respect to you.” While she was saying these things to him, she was pleading with both her voice and her eyes, and without realizing it, her hand had moved to the spot over his heart. Simon nodded, his eyes conveying his trust in her as his own hand reached up to cover hers.

As her two favorite men made their leave of her and her mother, AngelFyre felt a great sense of hope and relief. Oh how she wished to be an ear witness to all that was about to be said between the two! Here was to hoping Simon would be a faithful recorder of events so he could relay all the details to her later.

*********

Midway into reaching to get the tarp off of his Indian, Super Chief Limited Touring model, Iain McCubbin chortled a little to himself at the chutzpah of one Simon Kincaid. It was not a bad thing. It was just amusing at this particular point in time. Most young men at his age would probably be a little cowed by the prospect of one on one time with their girlfriend’s father, but not this boyo. He simply exuded an affable confidence. It was not a bad trait, so long as it did not slip into the realm of cockiness.

“There,” he pointed to the back end of the bike, silently commanding Simon to grab the tarp and help him in the removal process. “Silence now. Speak later. Here,” and Iain McCubbin tossed a helmet to Simon. “AngelFyre wears that one when we ride. I think it will work for you as well.” Then he hoisted his leg over the spotless, beautifully waxed, maroon machine and did his first and only kick start. The garage suddenly came to life with the unmistakable rumbling of the engine, which quickly settled into a steady, even, mechanical purr. It was a thing of beauty to the ears. Looking to Simon, Iain McCubbin motioned to him with his head to climb onto the passenger seat. Speaking loudly over his shoulder, he instructed, “Hold on to me and when I lean into a curve, you lean, too. Balance is everything.” And with a few quick engine revs, Iain McCubbin released the clutch and they were quickly headed down the long driveway and off to what might possibly have been Simon’s first ever father/son type-like adventure.

*****
Having collected the new door hinge and the molasses for the horses, the two found themselves outside a little Shop called Rockin’Rolls. Simon was at first very intrigued, thinking it was a music shop, but it turned out to be a small bakery. “I missed my breakfast this morning and am feeling a bit peckish. Are you hungry, lad? Thirsty?” Simon nodded. “Thank you. I ate, but I will take a water, please.”

Iain McCubbin placed the order to go, and the two walked up and down High Street, mostly in silence as Iain ate and Simon drank. The day was growing increasingly brighter, and Simon brought out his sunglasses and readjusted his hooded sweatshirt. Knowing he would never hear the end of it from AngelFyre if he brought her Prince Charming home sunburned, Iain McCubbin smiled. “Come on. You gave me an idea. I know where we can go that will offer you shade and the both of us privacy as we talk.”

Less than 5 minutes later they pulled into the empty parking lot of John Muir’s Birth Place, a small, local museum. As they began to look around the home-turned-museum, Iain McCubbin decided to start from the beginning. Steeling his gaze upon the young man, he asked a series of open-ended questions. “Simon, who are you? I know the top notes as AngelFyre has relayed them, but what I want to know is how have you been raised? How did/do you spend your time? How did a 17 year old Aunt manage to raise a three year old toddler? I am not asking to be intrusive, lad, for the sake of being intrusive. You are quite clearly important to AngelFyre, so as her father, I need to know who you are and into whose care she is asking to be entrusted. There are no wrong answers here and this is not a game of ‘Gotcha’ as her Grandma Ruth likes to say, but I need you to paint me an honest word picture of Simon Kincaid.”

Iain McCubbin listened silently as Simon gave his response. How Simon said what he would say would be just as important, if not more so, than the substance. He watched the boy give careful thought before answering, and was presented with an articulate reply. He did not stumble over his words nor did he make any discernable struggle to find his words. Simon's answer was polished, yes, but it was delivered with sincerity and confidence and not in some oddly rehearsed way. Iain McCubbin also noted Simon met, and held, his gaze throughout his answer.

When Simon had finished speaking, Iain McCubbin regarded him for a moment in silent thought. Then he looked around the room they were in, and a journal in a glass display case they were standing before captured his attention. Well, actually the signage quoting something written on the journal page caught his attention. It was a Muir quote: "Man has injured every animal he has touched." Nodding his head in agreement with the statement, he once again turned his gaze upon Simon as a train of thought was developing.

"I do not know what AngelFyre has told you about me, but I am quite enamored with elephants. I am blessed to have a career that has taken me all over the world, so I have seen a lot in my travels. I once had the good fortune to take a ride through an animal preservation park in Kenya and saw an elephant herd of 12 crossing the road. It was a marvelous sight, and the herd was comprised of the matriarch, the helper females, juvenile males, and two young elephants. The guide assessed the ages of the two young ones to be less than a year. Everyone was taking photos, well, everyone but me," and he chuckled. "Annene, errm, Mrs. McCubbin, is the photographer in the family and she railed on me for a week for that decision. I made the choice to experience it rather than memorialize it." He stopped for a moment and motioned for Simon to follow him out the back of the museum house and to some tables and chairs on the small porch. They were alone there and could speak freely.

"The thing about elephants is that, like people, it really does take a village to raise them. The herd energy is female energy. It is matriarchal. It is protective and nurturing. Females will grow and stay with their herds, but the males will eventually break off around 10 years old or so to establish their own territory. It was once thought that when the young males broke off from the herd, they became loners, but not so. Adult males are a vital part of a healthy elephant society and help keep the hormone flooded young males in check. As much of the adult male population has been decimated, the young males have fewer role models to look to and act out dangerously and inappropriately. This is how rogue elephants are made."

Iain McCubbin looked at Simon most directly, not unkindly, but quite earnestly. When he finally spoke, he was firm, but there was a gentleness in his tone. "You seem like a great lad, Simon. You do. But I have to, as AngelFyre's father, step back and look at you objectively. I love both her and her mother more than any two people on the face of this earth, and I would be failing her as her parent if I simply took you at face value. I do not have that luxury." Then he took in a deep breath and sighed slowly.

"You both have presented me with quite a worry over the number and intensity of physical displays you share. She is so young, Simon. You both are. If this is going on between you now, I shudder to think what it will be like when her brain is flooded with hormones. And you. Maybe yours already is and that is a legitimate cause of concern, not only for her laddie, but for you as well."

He drew back in his chair and looked out to the small grounds of the museum for a brief interval before training his crystal blue gaze back on Simon. "I would be lying if I did not admit part of me is concerned that my AngelFyre is entangled with a teenage equivalent of a rogue elephant. Rightly or wrongly, the largely unsupervised freedom you have been afforded growing up raises a number of red flags, so you tell me, Simon, why should I trust you with my daughter? You wanted your say. Now is your time."

The Trust You Both Get @Simon Kincaid

Iain McCubbin cocked an eyebrow at Simon, turned his gaze downward, and sighed a deep sigh of resignation. “When she was born, her mother and I were simply besides ourselves with joy, as well as filled with a good measure of near paralytic terror,” and he laughed. His eyes always crinkled when he smiled, but when Iain McCubbin laughed, there was an unmistakable merriment released out into the world. His blue eyes always glinted brightly when he laughed, which was actually quite often. That likely would have surprised Simon to know that about the man in that moment, but it was true.

“Annene...” and shaking his head to correct himself, “Mrs. McCubbin, is a bit of a feminist and she wanted a female obstetrician from start to finish.” Iain McCubbin had let his eyes wander off of Simon as he had been remembering, but their focus turned back to Simon here. The focus had softened now, however. There was no more bull elephant trying to keep the teenage elephant in check, at least not so directly.

“I tell you that because it made a deep impression on me that the first male hands to ever touch my AngelFyre were mine. Hands that would love her, raise her in her faith, protect her, provide for her, correct her, guide her, enjoy her, and console her when necessary. From where you sit that may not sound like very much, but it was one of the most humbling moments of my life. Fatherhood, Simon, comes with great joys but also awesome responsibilities. I promised my infant daughter when I first held her in my hands that I would do my very best for her, and it was a promise I made to her mother and to myself as well.”

Leaning forward, resting his arms in a criss-cross fashion on the table with his hands resting on his forearms, he smiled warmly at Simon. “AngelFyre surprised me this morning. She truly did. She has never stood against us like that… ever… so I know this is not a situation I have complete control over any longer. As she rightly pointed out, she is growing up, faster than I would like, yes, but she is definitely growing up.”

He then looked down at his hands and raised them up without blocking eye contact with Simon. “These hands are now having to release their grip a bit on her, but only a bit, and that is as heart-stopping terrifying as coming to grips with her arrival into our world almost 12 years ago.” Iain McCubbin then brought his hands together in front of his lips in a clasped prayer pose and his eye contact got more serious again with Simon.

“I cannot tell you to not to break her heart. Who knows, she may actually break yours, but at least one broken heart may result here. In fact, it is most likely a given at your ages. It is a natural part of growing up. It will be hard on her, and I hope on you as well, should it happen, but I would not hold her having a broken heart against you. Moving forward, know that how you both handle the freedom we are giving you will determine the freedom you continue to get.”

Then the hands moved from their prayer pose and bent almost 90 degrees at the wrists while two index fingers were now aimed directly at Simon. Iain McCubbin’s voice dropped an octave and he did not blink while staring down Simon. “What I will hold against you and absolutely will not stand for from you with her are three things: never dishonor her, never disrespect her, and never….. ever….. raise your hand to her in anger. I hope I am understood. Avoid doing those three things and you and I, Simon, will be good.” Continuing the hardened stare for just a few more seconds, he finally relaxed his posture altogether and his voice modulated to its normal register.

“I hope it may help you feel a little less picked on to know that you are not the only one getting ‘the talk’ from the parents. Mrs. McCubbin and Grandma Ruth are both familiarizing AngelFyre right now with our expectations of her as well.”

Smiling once again, Iain McCubbin then said, “And not to be outdone by a strapping, young lad quoting bible verses to the old geezer of a father, let me just say, ' ¹⁷Be sure to keep the commands of the LORD your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. ¹⁸Do what is right and good in the LORD’s sight, so that it may go well with you….’ Deuteronomy 6:17-18”.

Wishing to Inject Some Fun for @Simon Kincaid

"Simon, I do not know you well enough, yet, to understand how this conversation has gone with you. I have no idea. Perhaps you have had to endure something similar before. It should not surprise you to know that it was the first time I have had to conduct such a discussion, and I quite honestly should have started preparing for it the second AngelFyre mentioned she had a boyfriend. I think it has been well established all of this has been a shock to my system, but that is not on the two of you. That is definitely on me and my futile wish to believe that there was going to be more time. Like years worth of time to prepare. That is where a father's wishes collide with his daughter's biology, and such wishes have a not a snowball's chance, as they say. So, I find myself in the unenviable position of needing to apologize to you for the second time today; this time for not being better prepared. Had I been, this likely would have gone maybe a bit better for us both."

Looking up at the sky as Simon had been doing a minute or so before, Iain McCubbin challenged himself to see what images he could see in the clouds. This too was a dismal failure as there were but only a few clouds, and they looked, coincidentally enough, exactly like puffy clouds.

"You know, AngelFyre has told me on more than one occasion, and I am going to quote her here," and he chuckled good naturedly, " 'how desperately' she wants us to be friends. The lass speaks of almost nothing but you and assures me and everyone else in that household, including Hillary," and he flat laughed outloud at her devoted earnestness, "that you and I are actually more alike than we are different. That being the case, and she would be the one to know, I find that I would be very interested in getting to know the lad who usurped my title as 'her best fella'."

Rising from his chair, he asked,"Are you ready to start back? By the way, if you are interested in getting better acquainted, there is a shaded patch of road on the backside of our property that AngelFyre and her pals have basically turned into a dirt bike track. She suggested weeks ago that it might be something the three of us could do together. She tells me you are quite the athlete and adventurer, and hoped it may be a point of connection for the two of us. Also, full disclosure. AngelFyre wanted it to be a surprise for you, which was fine, but I had to call your Aunt Maggie to get her permission. She was in on it, too," and then he smiled and winked at the boy as he began to walk back through the museum and out into the parking lot. Before they reached the Exit, he turned his head and waved a goodbye to the curator/clerk sitting behind the receiving desk at the Entry.

When they got back to the motorcycle, he looked at his watch and grimaced. "We have been gone almost two hours. AngelFyre is going to kill me keeping you away for so long. I bet she has a worn a stress path halfway to China by now from all of her pacing. Get yourself helmeted and I will get you back to the main attraction, safe and sound."

While digging holes for the spring annuals Grandma Ruth was planting in the landscaping at the front of the house, AngelFyre was glad for the time with her thoughts and the company of Grandma Ruth. Just as her father had taken Simon off for a man-to-man confab about their touchy feely relationship, AngelFyre had been made well aware of the concerns to her virtue if things should be allowed to continue with Simon. At least one part was very settled as far as she was concerned. There was no if when it came to her relationship continuing. THAT was non-negotiable, and unless her mother or father intended on placing her under a 24 hour a day security surveillance umbrella of sorts, she was not certain how they planned to enforce a No Simon Zone in her life. Only she and Simon had any say over that situation. Period.

And why would they place such a draconian restriction anyway? For the first time in her life, AngelFyre was shocked at how little faith they actually had in her. For as far back as she could remember, her parents had told her that when you loved someone, you let them know. Her mother had even told her through the years that more important than what someone would say to her would be how they treated her. Were they not paying attention? Simon, by all accounts, should score a perfect 10 based on those metrics. Maybe they were not aware of how Simon saw her, but AngelFyre was, and every spider hair on her body told her she was safe with him in absolutely every way that mattered.

She wisely kept the thought to herself, but even though the boy of her dreams wanted 12 kids, neither one of them had any thought to put the process in motion anytime soon. She suspected that they would eventually navigate the choppy waters of puberty just like every other teenager in the world before them had had to do, so they were no different than anyone else. She truly believed what would be different for them though by the time that all rolled around was that their deep, mutual faith and strong emotional bond would be so cemented that neither would do anything to jeopardize the other's future or well-being.

Temptation was looming ahead. She knew it and so did Simon, but again, AngelFyre seemed to have a greater faith in their desire to honor one another than in their desire to desire one another. If it came down to it now, and it looked as if it would, the compromise here would be to pull back on some of the public displays and their frequency, but a widescale moratorium was never going to happen.

So basically, that whole lecture boiled down to a rushed birds and the bees presentation. She knew it was coming from a place of love, and not just for her alone. Genuine concern was expressed to her for Simon as well which was, surprisingly, a very strong redeeming point in AngelFyre's eyes. It at least kept the door cracked for consideration of their points of concern rather than having her mind close off to them like a bank vault at Fort Knox.

*********
When Simon and her father pulled up, AngelFyre was still deep in her thoughts. She smiled internally and externally when Simon rushed to her and folded her into his arms, telling her he had missed her and he was hitched to her universe. For the first time in hours she laughed and felt like things were normalizing again.

She looked over his shoulder to her father and waved. "Come on, Mav. Put those shades of yours on and walk with me down to the dock. I want some distance from all of this for a bit. You will not be sun exposed for long and we can watch the river from the boathouse. As we walk, I want to hear your honest opinion of my father and your discussion." She stopped and tugged his hand and he immediately turned towards her as Hillary bounded past them. She needed a few minutes back in the safety and comfort of his arms where she could simply silence her mind listening to his slow, but strong heartbeats. When she felt him envelop her once again, she relaxed and wondered what she would think about her father after she heard what Simon would have to tell her.