It has been six months since Courtney and I had made love for the first time and nearly a year since we had first met. To our mutual pleasure, we had both declared our love for each other that same night and have been inseperable ever since. Courtney completed me in ways that none of my four ex-wives could have ever dreamed. With us, it has never been just about sex. Sure, we both love to please each other every chance we get, but with her there is just so much more.

While we haven’t been too bold, we have gone out to dinner and movies and other recreational activities, but we generally stay close to home. Neither of us wants to take the chance of her getting caught or me being arrested. (Remember…Courtney is underaged and a runaway)

I purchased several textbooks in hopes of learning just where Courtney’s education level was and found her almost where she should be at her age. Now seventeen, Courtney would most likely be a high school junior this coming fall and her knowledge was not far below that level. We began working each evening on English, History, Math and Science as I knew that those were the main topics she would need to pass the GED. Even though my day job is managing a moderately up-scale restaurant, all my college and grad school training is in education. Therefore, I was able to teach Courtney properly and she learned at a surprising rate. In fact, she was ready for the GED at our six-month anniversary.

Over these months, however, Courtney and I had talked about a number of things both concerning her education and us as a couple. We decided that it would be too risky for Courtney to take the GED before she turned eighteen in case someone got suspicious and did a bit of snooping. She asked me one night as we sat across from each other at the table after a wonderful dinner that she had prepared, “what do we do about us…I mean the future?” “What do you mean, Court?” I replied. (I already had the answer…she just didn’t know it yet and I wanted her to inquire. That would make this so much more fun for both us us.) She said, “we can’t pretend to be dad and daughter forever, can we? I really don’t want to do that.” “Of course not, Court. Once you are eighteen we can drop the pretense and just start being ourselves both in public AND in private”.

“I will be so glad when that day comes. It won’t be too long you know”. She smiled in that disarming way of hers and I knew that this was the moment. I reached into the lower pocket of the cargo pants that I like to wear and discreetly removed the tiny, felt covered box that contained the gold and diamond ring I had bought for Courtney about a month ago. I had been waiting and anticipating the moment when everything would be perfect. I felt myself shaking a bit nonetheless as I rose from my chair, came around to her side of the table and dropped onto one knee. That crazy girl thought I was going to go down on her I guess because she stood and started to slip off her shorts and panties. I almost let her do it just for the shock value of what I was about to do, then, thinking better of it, I said, “Courtney, stop”. I knew that would get her instant attention as I almost never called her Courtney….. most always, I just called her Court.

She sat once again and looked at me with both a bit of hurt and confusion on her face until I took the small box from behind my back, opened it and held it up so that she could see the beautiful diamond ring inside. For a brief moment she seemed puzzled and then both her eyes and mouth shot open wide. “Oh my God….does this mean..?”. I replied quickly, “Courtney, you have just turned seventeen and in November I will be fifty.