Author's note: I have enjoyed reading several of the works published here on Literotica, and wish to thank the many contributors for their creativeness and hard work. This story is my gesture of gratitude, a contribution to the community here, and is my first effort at writing in this genre. I hope you find it as enjoyable to read as I have enjoyed yours. It is a stand-alone work, but I envisioned it as the first installment of a three-part story, if there is interest.
* * *
"Daydreaming?"
"What?" I asked. Mia's soft voice had broken several minutes of silence, shaking me from my thoughts.
"I asked if you were daydreaming, Daddy," she replied. "You seem like your mind is somewhere else."
In fact, it was, but it was not a place I could share with her. First, understand that Mia is not my daughter. Kelly is my daughter and only child. Mia is the daughter of our neighbors, Todd and Marie. Just Marie now, I suppose, Todd having died two years ago from an aneurism. Kelly and Mia were lifelong friends, being born only six days apart. They had grown up together and now were inseparable besties. Well, almost inseparable. Kelly was supposed to be with us on this excursion, but a fellow employee where she worked had an emergency appendectomy and Kelly had reluctantly agreed to work his shifts. This was to have been the first time Mia would come with us, and although I had thought to cancel, Kelly, Mia, and Marie had all ganged up on me to go ahead and go through with it.
I was married to the most amazing lady to have ever graced the Earth. Elizabeth and I married while I was still in the Army, not long before I was due to re-enlist for another hitch. I could not bear to be away from her for more than a few hours at a time and left the military for a more comfy, domestic life with the lady of my dreams. We bought the house next to Todd and Marie, and soon became close friends. Todd was retired Navy, and was thirty-seven when he met and fell in love with eighteen-year-old Marie during his final tour of duty in the Philippines. Despite their age difference, Marie was a gorgeous, busty Filipina who stole his heart at first sight. Or so Todd confessed at one of our Sunday BBQs. I had no reason to doubt him.
Marie and Elizabeth quickly became very close friends, much like our daughters had become, and our two homes had seemed like one big home with an air gap between them, where all four females moving freely from one house to the other. Todd had been an orphan, raised in the system and without any relatives, so when he and Marie asked Elizabeth and me to be Mia's godparents, we accepted without hesitation. Three-and-a-half years ago, while sitting at a red light, my beautiful Elizabeth was killed by a drunk driver. Since then, I've had no desire to date other women, content to focus on being the best father possible for my daughter. She is my main joy in life, and my greatest source of pride.
"I was thinking about a couple of birthday parties I attended last month." Okay, maybe that was a half-truth. It's where my daydream had started. Both girls were born in October, and both had turned eighteen this year. They had grown up so fast. Too fast. Kelly would finish up her final year of high school, we'd have the Summer together, and then she'd be off to college. I knew the empty nest was coming, but I dreaded it. Mia would be going to the same college, of course, and I knew her leaving was heavy on Marie's mind, also.
During Mia's eighteenth birthday party, I was struck by the realization that both of these girls were no longer girls. They were now, officially and irreversibly, women. It was an odd, somewhat unsettling new reality. It was the first time I had seen Mia as a woman and not just the neighbors' daughter.
"What about them?" Mia asked sweetly. "Did you forget to give me one of my presents, Daddy?"
I grinned. There was a present I would love to give her, but again, it wasn't something I could share at the moment.
"No, just remembering all the BBQs and birthday parties, and how you two have grown up to be such beautiful, remarkable young women." I confessed.
"Oh," she said with a trace of disappointment. "I thought maybe you were running away with me." Puzzled, I glanced over at her pouting, angelic face.
"What? Why'd you say something like that?"
"Because, Daddy," she said mischievously, leaning close toward me and playfully grabbing my arm, "you passed the exit for the lake about a mile back."
I looked around, realized she was right.
"Shit!"
We caught the next exit, went back, and arrived at the state park campground only ten minutes behind schedule. I pulled into the empty parking area and we grabbed our gear from the back of the Ram. Closing up the truck's shell and locking it, we headed for the camping spot I had taken Elizabeth and Kelly to many times, before. We chatted along the way and the two mile trek went by quickly. This was Mia's first time, so it was all new and exciting for her.
This was a place I was familiar with since my childhood. Kelly had fallen in love with it, too, and my passion for rock climbing seemed to have likewise afflicted my daughter. Mia had never wanted to take part, as her thing was gymnastics. Her little five-one body was powerful for her size and she had excelled at it. Puberty had ended it for her, though, by blessing her with very full, D-cup breasts, almost as large as her mother's. Her thick, muscular thighs ended at hips where a large, round, well-muscled butt began. Her long black hair fell just below her shoulders, and her bangs accentuated a gorgeous face of caramel skin, captivating almond eyes, and the most luscious, kissable lips I'd ever seen. Built for sex, Mia was a stark contrast to my daughter. Kelly was a gorgeous young woman, as well, but at five-ten, she was a good deal taller than Mia. Where Mia's physique was born from years of gymnastic training, Kelly's body was lean and athletic, developed from her dedication to distance running and rock climbing, which never suffered when her C-cup boobs came in.
Mia and I arrived at the camp site, which was just over a mile from Little Flat Top. Mia had spent the last year practicing at a local indoor activity center that had a rock climbing wall. She was anxious to test her new skills on a real climb. Little Flat Top was a great exercise for beginners, with small vertical walls and frequent level spots to catch one's breath and prepare for the next step. On top, the reward was a stunning view of the lake and the mountains on the far side, and the hazy, distant mountains beyond those. The mini-mountain took less than an hour to scale, and the top was flat, running around sixty feet from North to South, and a bit over twenty feet from East to West. It was a perfect place to camp overnight in the Summer, looking westward across the lake. We were making this climb in mid-November, though, so we wouldn't be spending the night.
I dropped my pack and began pulling out what I needed to set up the camp. Mia shed her backpack, too, and stretched her tired back muscles. She looked toward the shoreline, puzzled.
"Is that ice?" she asked.
