“You can look but you can’t touch, Lucas. Just keep that in mind when you’re dancing with my daughter tonight.”
“Justin.” My mom laughs and swats me. “You’re embarrassing them.”
“Da-ad,” Ava crosses her arms, while Lucas sort of stands there, frozen in place, his eyes wide. “Why do you have to say things like that?”
“Hey, I’m just giving the kid fair warning.” I grin and walk over to Lucas, and ruffle his hair. “Don’t sweat it, Luke. I know your father raised you better than that, and of course...I have a shovel and a shotgun in the closet, just in case.”
“Yes...yes sir.”
“Don’t pay him any mind.” My mom smirks again and gets her camera ready. “Now y’all get down in here so I can take some more pictures.”
Ava sighs. “Can’t we just go?”
“Now, Ava, these are precious memories. They need to be preserved.” I try to say it seriously, but find that I can’t.
“She already took a whole camera’s worth! Gramma, come on, please? We want to go.”
“Are you harassing my son?” Marilyn walks out of the house, carrying Carlton in her arms. She got pregnant, a year after they bought the new house, had a son. He’s four now. It’s crazy how fast time goes.
“He threatened my life mom,” Lucas whines. “He said he has shovel.”
Marilyn gives me a playful glare. “Is that true, J?”
“Hey, your husband told me to tell him that,” I laugh. “Blame him.”
“I resent that.” Carter walks out into the yard. “You’re not supposed to tell them all that, Justin. I thought we were close...brothers even.”
“I can’t lie to your wife.”
“See? He has the right idea,” Marilyn smirks, goes over, and kisses her husband on the lips, handing him their son so she can go over and fuss over Lucas. “I can’t believe my baby is going to prom!”
I watch him squirm as she kisses his face and gets lipstick all over, and can’t help but laugh. Ava stands to the side, giving her date a pitiful look. It’s obvious that she wears the pants in the relationship, and she gets that from her mother. She refuses to be pushed around, or have somebody else do things for her. She’s stubborn too, but she gets that from me.
She’s sixteen now.
Sixteen.
Sixteen, and she and Lucas have been dating all year, just like Carter told me they would, way back when. I don’t know when it was that my daughter fell for him, I just know that it happened too fast for my liking, and I’ve been a nervous wreck ever since. I sit that kid down at least once a week and ask him how everything is going, and if he needs to tell me anything. Naturally, the kid is scared shitless.
But that’s good, means he hasn’t tried to...do anything with my Ava.
Christ, that scares the crap out of me. Betsy tells me I need to calm myself down, that she’s had that talk with Ava and I have nothing to worry about.
But I’m a father. I think it goes without saying, that worrying about that sort of thing comes with my job description.
When I caved in a couple of months back and let her get her drivers license, I knew that was it. I’ve officially lost that little girl who used to hold my hand, sit on my lap, and read to me, but...but I’ve gotten through it. I’ve learned to cope, learned how to raise a teenager instead of a little girl. Of course it has it’s good points and bad. We fight, I’m not going to deny that, but at the end of the day, we love each other.
I don’t want to let her go. I just want to keep her close...so close, but I know that’s impossible. She’ll apply to college next year, knows she wants to go into advertising and PR. Keeps telling me that she wants to go to NYU. Fucking NYU. All the way the hell across the country. It’s been the very base of most of our arguments lately.
I don’t know where we would be, if it weren’t for my mother, talking her down...and oh yeah, Betsy too. She’s sort of the mediator, getting between us when we get hot heads and won’t see the others point of view.
I’d be nowhere without that woman. Absolutely nowhere.
I can’t deny her NYU of course. Adam’s college fund will more than provide for that type of education. He continued to add to it, even after he moved his business overseas. We keep in touch by phone, and he’s told me he’ll pay for her school books and living expenses once the time comes. He says it’s to preserve Deb’s memory or something, and while I feel bad, I know it’s what she would have wanted for her daughter, and what he promised her he would do before she passed away.
I know I won’t have a choice in the end. I’ll let her move to New York, because I can’t hold her back, deny my daughter her dreams, even if it means I won’t be able to see her everyday. I can’t be selfish, because I promised myself I would give her the best life I possibly could, the minute that judge gave her back to me.
But hell, I’m going to miss her so bad. A year...a year and a half left with her. That’s all I’ve got.
Even though, I know I’m going to be busy with other things...
“You two haven’t left yet?”
Betsy waddles out of the house, and Craig helps her down the steps leading out onto the lawn, as she braces her back with one of her hands. She’s pregnant, very pregnant, and that’s my doing. “Pictures,” I laugh, when she’s delivered to me. “My mom can’t get enough pictures.”
“They’re going to be late, Lynn,” Betsy sighs, but laughs.
“She’s right,” Craig speaks up.
Our eyes meet, and we laugh to each other.
It’s been good between us, Craig and I. He was stubborn at first. That Sunday I brought Ava and Betsy to dinner, he practically refused to come out of the living room and join us at the table, but my mother had this triumphant bold thing going on, left us all at the table and started to yell at him, practically threatened to throw him out of the house, before he agreed to come to dinner. I guess he didn’t expect to see me there, with my daughter, and Betsy, was now my girlfriend. We talked, for the first time in years, at the dinner table and after. My mom...we seemed to click right away, picked up where we left off before the drugs. It felt great, even though I knew there was a lot more to cover before we would finally be at peace with each other. Betsy reassured me though, told me she would be there for me, and wanted to help my mother and I reconcile if she could.
It’s worked out well. I mean, it’s been five years, and we see each other almost every day. She was at my wedding last spring too, along with Craig. It’s been a huge help having them in our lives, as far as Ava goes. They’ve been there for her, helped her find her way through her teenage years, and I know they’ll be just as sad as I am when Ava leaves for college.
“She’s kicking.”
Betsy pulls my hand down onto her belly while my mother snaps more pictures of Ava and Lucas. It gets me to smile, and I see that excited gleam come back into Betsy’s eyes. It’s been a whirlwind, getting back with her, working out our relationship, and finally getting up the guts to ask her to marry me after everything else. She said yes, even though I thought she was crazy for wanting to do it. I told her that too, but she just laughed and said ‘shut up and kiss me, Justin.’ So I did, and seven months later we were married. We decided to wait a few years before trying to have a baby, figured Ava was enough of a handful for the time being. Then it sort of... happened, she was pregnant suddenly, when we were barely trying.
It’s a girl.
So that means I get to do this all over again. Hold her little hand in mine, teach her everything I know, hold her on my lap while she reads to me, and become a nervous wreck the minute she gets older than ten.
I can’t wait, and I can’t wait to share it all with Betsy.
“Debbie Marie,” I smile, and rub Betsy’s belly. “We’ll be seeing you soon, I guess.”
Betsy pulls me down and kisses my lips. “Let’s get these kids to the prom before your mother blinds them with her flash.”
“Yeah. Then I can take you to the look out point and grope you in the back of the car.”
She swats me. “Ass.”
“I still don’t see why I couldn’t have a limo,” Ava pouts, as we pile into my Honda. It’s new, just got it this year with my promotion.
I just made branch manager, thanks to Carter’s persuasion with corporate. We’ve redone the kitchen with part of the bonus money, and are just putting the finishing touches on the nursery. We don’t have plans to sell Carter’s old place anytime soon. I tell her when we finally have that third kid, maybe we’ll move, and she tells me not to push my luck. That one baby is plenty for now, and I know she’s right. Just gives me more incentive to spoil the crap out of the two of them, because I can now.
I’m financially secure now, and I know that I’ll always be. In fact, I can barely remember that time in my life that I was down and out, cold and sick, with nobody else to turn to.
“It was the limo or the birthday party, Ava,” Betsy reminds her. “We’re not made of money. Now put your seatbelts on, both of you.”
Ava pouts, but does it, and so does Lucas.
“Ava.” I glance at her in the rearview mirror, using that tone of voice that always gets her to pay attention.
“Sorry, mom.”
I smile and nod. “Thank you.”
Carter, Marilyn, my mom and Craig wave at us enthusiastically as I beep and pull out of the driveway. I look over at my wife. She has her eyes closed part way and is leaning her head against the window. Being pregnant tires her out, makes her hot, and uncomfortable. I wish she would have stayed at home, comfortable in the bed I made sure to layer with a thousand pillows and the most comfortable mattress enhancements ever created, but she really wanted to see Ava off tonight. It’s a big thing for my daughter going to the prom, and since she’s taken that role on as ‘mom’, I know it’s one of those sacred things only they can truly appreciate.
“Now, what are you doing tonight, again?”
She rolls her eyes, because it’s the millionth time I’ve made her go over it today. “Carol Anne’s mom is picking us up and we’re going to her house. I’m calling you when we leave the prom, when we get to the house, and when we get up in the morning to go to Magic Mountain.”
I smile. “Good. Your memory amazes me, baby doll.”r32;
She rolls her eyes. She hates when I call her that in front of her friends, but still, I smile. I’ll do it until the day I die, and she knows that too. We pull up to the venue a half hour later. The school went all out this year, picked a really nice place for these kids to have their prom. I make sure to pull right up to the door, even though Ava tells me to drop them at the entranceway. Yes, I’m the ever embarrassing, overly worried, paranoid, father, but I wouldn’t have things any other way.
“Have fun, Ava.” Betsy says, once we’re all out of the car, and kisses her cheek. “Do a few dances for me, okay?”
“Sure.” She grins.
“And Lucas, don’t look so terrified. Justin is crazy, we all know that.”
He stares at me, and I glare at him slightly, before pulling him over and giving him a massive noogie.
“Dad!”
I let him go. “All right, fine. Go on. Have a nice time, guys.”
And I let them walk away, sighing, putting my hands in my pockets as my wife leans into me. There she goes. Taking another step into adulthood that I can’t do anything about.
“Hang on.” Ava says it to Lucas, and then turns, looks at me and walks back over.
“What’s wrong?”I laugh at her. “Oh, you need money right?” I pull out my wallet with a small sigh. It was bound to happen, and I’m a damn sucker.
“No...daddy...” She laughs and smiles up at me.
I raise an eyebrow. She never calls me that. Not anymore.
“Thank you.” She wraps her arms around me. “I love you.”r32;
I hug her back, trying my best not to get emotional. I glance at Betsy as I rub my daughters back, and she’s smiling at us, an ‘I told you she loves you’ expression on her face. Sometimes it’s hard for me to see it. She’s an overly emotional teenager with her own agenda now, and we don’t spent as much time together as I would like. But...but this is how she really feels, deep down. Deep down, she knows I’ll always be her daddy and she’ll always be my baby doll. “I love you too.” I lean down, and kiss her forehead, before handing her a fifty dollar bill, anyway. “But you better go, okay? Your date is waiting.”
She pulls away and shoves the money in her clutch. “Kay.”
Then she’s really gone, pulling Lucas into the place by the hand as a few of their friends greet them at the entrance, smiling and laughing.
She’ll be okay. She’ll be great.
As for me, I’ll be a little lost without her, but I have two people in my life right now, who I know, will make my life as great as it can be, even if Ava is gone.
“I can still remember how little she used to be,” Betsy tells me, once I help her into the car, and get into the drivers seat. “Do you think this one will grow up that fast?” She puts her hands over her baby bump and looks down at it.
“Probably.” I start up the car, and squeeze her thigh. “But at least we’ll be able to go insane at the same time.”
“Sounds like a good way to spend the next twenty years,” she smiles.
I lean in, kiss the love of my life on the lips, and caress her face gently. “I wouldn’t want it any other way, Bets.”
We drive off, back to Santa Monica, with nothing but our future ahead of us, and I know that my life has finally come together, and that I’ll never let anything put a stop to it, or allow myself to spiral down into hell ever again.
Everybody is gone when we get back to the house, but I like it better that way. I help Betsy inside, and sit her down on the couch so she can take a breather, eyeing the jukebox in the corner of the kitchen with a sly smile. Carter got it for us as a wedding present, knowing it would be exactly what we would want. We use it, mostly to watch Carter and Marilyn dance like fools whenever we have a party or something...but at times like these, when we’re all alone, we use it too.
“May I have this dance?” I ask and hold my hand out to her, once I put my quarter in the machine and punch in a selection.
“Oh Justin...I don’t know...”r32;
“C’mon,” I smirk and walk closer to her. “Please?”
“I hate those eyes. My back hurts,” she pouts, but gives in anyway.
I draw her into my arms as the slow, classic tones fill the room, smiling as we begin to dance together, around the kitchen and living room. “It’s nice without kids around,” I laugh, and kiss her softly.
“Well, enjoy it while it lasts buddy.”
“I will.”
I lean my forehead against hers, and feel her smiling. “You know how lucky I am?”
“Pretty damn lucky, Timberlake.”
It’s something we say to each other, all the time, but I know it’s the truth. I’m so lucky to have her, have my daughter. So lucky that I’m about to have a baby with the woman that I’ve always loved from the moment I saw past what I thought she stood for. It’s a miracle that she’s with me at all, and it’s something I’ll always be thankful for.
We kiss, soft and slow. I know I’ve hit it, my ultimate goal. To be in her arms, loving her, having a family with her, forever.
“I love you, Bets.”
“Debbie Marie and I love you too,” she smiles. “She can’t wait to meet you. She told me so.”
“Oh yeah?”
She gazes up, into my eyes. “I can’t wait for you to be her father, Justin.”
I can’t wait either, and I know...I’ll never let either of them go.
“Here’s to the future,” I say, gently.
“No.”
I gaze back at her, confused.
“Here’s to us, Justin.”
And I smile.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Well here you have it. The end :( One of my shorter ones but I had a lot of fun writing it. So glad you all have enjoyed reading! Here's to the next story!
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ialwayzbesingin is the author of 25 other stories.
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