Before he could think to do anything else, Justin rolled off the mattress with a thump, landing unforgivingly on the hard wood floor.  He groaned quietly, rubbing his hip with one hand and reaching for his underwear with the other.  The rest of his clothes were scattered all over the place and, as he now heard the quiet creak of the door, he knew he couldn’t get them.  He just hoped that Cody didn’t come around to his side of the bed.

Her voice came before his little boy’s.  “Morning, baby,” she spoke hoarsely, groggily.  Justin wondered if she had any clue that he’d practically fell out of bed and was now hiding on the floor next to it. 

“Hi mommy,” Cody’s gruff little voice sounded.

She kissed him loud enough for Justin to hear it.  “Why don’t you go downstairs and turn on your cartoons in the kitchen.  I’ll be down in a minute and fix you something to eat.”   Cody had his own small little table in a more kid-friendly corner in the kitchen and there was a small TV built into one of the walls, probably a lot easier for him to operate.  Now Justin understood why.

“Okay, mommy.”   The pad of his footsteps seemed quieter this time.

“Shut mommy’s door, please? 

The door slammed, but Justin doubted the boy had meant it on purpose.

“Justin?” she whispered.  “Are you in here?”

“Down here,” he called out, picking himself up off the floor. 

She peeked over at him just as he started to get up.  Giggles instantly fell from her lips.  He just shook his head.  For some reason, it played at his heart to see her smiling and laughing first thing in the morning.  “I know I can be kind of a bed hog,” she started, “but I didn’t kick you out, did I?”

He plopped his butt down on the mess of blankets and sheets, one knee pulled up with him while his other foot was planted on the floor.  “I didn’t want Cody to find me in here, with you.”

“Well, that was good thinking on your part.”  She patted his bare thigh. 

“So now what do we do?”

Cassidy shrugged, the sheet pulled up to her chest as she was just as naked as he’d been when he’d first awoke.   He was still pretty naked, but not completely.  “Did you want to stay for breakfast, or do you feel like you need to sneak out of here?”

Justin wanted to stay for breakfast, but he didn’t want to act inappropriately in front of his son.  “If I stay will he know?”

She shook her head no and pushed her long, messy hair away from her face.  She had this amazing glow to her, and if it wasn’t for the fact that his son was downstairs waiting for breakfast, Justin would have taken her for a third time in the past nine hours. “No.  He won’t think much of it.  I’m sure he’ll be very happy to have breakfast with his daddy.”

Why’d she have to go and throw that in there?  Now he was smiling—wide.  “I’ll stay.  I’ll stay,” he said, as if he’d had any plans not to.  “Do you think I could take a quick shower, though?”

“Yeah, go ahead.  Help yourself.”

“Cool.”

She rose out of the sheets then, her bare frame waltzing across the room completely uninhibited as she disappeared into a rather large walk-in closet.  He was still sitting there when she came out a few minutes later fully dressed in a clean pair of pale pink sweats and a matching zip-up hoodie.  Fuzzy black slippers covered her feet. 

He felt himself chuckling softly to himself as she strode right past him towards the vanity.  She turned back to look at him.  “Go ahead.”  She pointed behind her.  “Everything’s in there already.”

“Do you need to use it first?” 

She pointed to the right and said “bathroom,” then to the left and said “shower.” 

He understood.  They were separate.  He hopped up, grabbed his clothes off the floor wishing he had some clean ones, and headed off to the left.

Cassidy finished tying back her hair and cleaning herself up a bit before she headed downstairs, leaving Justin in the shower.  She felt this weird sense of belonging, having him there.  She hated to think it, but she’d slept better with him in her bed then she could remember ever sleeping.  And the scary part—she didn’t think it was just because of the sex.  The sex had been great—no doubt about that.  Better than ever, in fact.  And she’d definitely needed it.  No question there! 

If there was such a thing as finding your perfect mate in the bedroom, then Justin had to be hers because the things that happened when they connected were like nothing else she’d ever experienced.  She knew, regardless of the warnings going off in her head, that they’d wind up in bed again—probably several more times.  She just couldn’t say no.  She enjoyed it too much.

Of course she wondered if it were possible for them to have a real relationship, and maybe, even—to live happily ever after.  But Cassidy hadn’t decided if she believed in happily ever after.  Sure, once in a while life worked out that way.  Just look at her parents.  They were a prime example of a successful marriage.  But her experiences so far in the relationship department definitely hadn’t turned out all that well.  Justin was a man, and as far as she knew he wasn’t any different than all the others. He was sure to screw up—or around—sometime.

The last thing she wanted to deal with was another heartache.

Not that she felt all that broken up over Jason any longer.  Honestly, the minute he’d laid that one blow to her cheek, she’d completely fallen out of love with the man.  Anger had stepped in where love had once been.  Now she found herself wondering how she’d ever loved him in the first place. 

And why was it that everyone had known he was the world’s biggest asshole—except for her? 

She shook away the thought as she found Cody sitting at his table in the kitchen, watching Playhouse Disney on the 19” TV in the wall close by.  With a grin, she stopped to plant a kiss to the top of his head as she passed.  “Justin’s here for breakfast,” she told him.

“He is?” Cody asked.

“Yeah.  He’ll be in, in a minute.  I’m going to make your favorite—blueberry pancakes!”

“Mmmmm,” the boy sounded.  “I’m starving!”

“Good,” she chuckled.   “Justin and I have something important to tell you today.”

“Okay,” he said, his concentration more on cartoons than anything else.

“You like Justin, don’t you, sweetheart?”

“Yeah, he’s fun.   I like him,” the boy answered simply.

Cassidy chuckled, she wasn’t sure why she expected to get anymore than that out of a four year old.

By the time Justin made it into the kitchen, she’d had the batter mixed and the griddle hot.  She watched him strut into the room and tried not to think about all the things they’d done to each other the night before.  It was a difficult task.  All it took was one night of amazing sex and just glancing at him affected her in a totally different way.

The more she tried to figure it all out, the more she realized that she had absolutely no idea how she felt about it.  Cassidy had never been shy when it came to sex—obviously.  And she wasn’t afraid of having it just for the sake of having it.  But she’d felt something else with him the night before.  Something that she liked a little too much. 

They had a son together and she didn’t want Cody to miss out on anything about having a father just because she felt herself getting emotionally attached.  But then there was that part of her brain that simply wanted to rationalize it all—to make it all okay just so she could keep feeling this amazing thing she was feeling.

Normally when people have a child together, they have a relationship.  So why would something like that with Justin be so out of the question?

She decided it was too early in the morning to think so deeply.  She’d barely taken two sips of her first cup of coffee!

After a brief conversation with Cody—something about “what’cha watchin’” and a quick explanation on Cody’s part—Justin sauntered over to where she was manning the stove.  “I don’t know about you, but I worked up quite an appetite last night.  I’m starving.”

She found herself grinning at his quiet words.  He’d made sure to say them softly so Cody wouldn’t hear, not that she was worried he’d pick up on their meaning.  “I am pretty hungry,” she admitted.  “I usually don’t even eat in the morning, but—” she lowered her voice—“I don’t usually have sex for three hours the night before, either.”

Now he was smiling.  He patted his chest proudly.  “Next time we’ll shoot for four.”

“You think there’ll be a next time?” she asked with a sly smirk.

Confidence seeped from every pore of his freshly showered body.  “I don’t think.  I know.”

She shook her head at his arrogance and turned her attention to the pancakes.  She couldn’t bare to bolster his arrogance anymore by letting him know that he was right.  “Would you mind getting the syrup out of the pantry?” she asked him after a second.  “Top shelf on the right.”

He did as instructed, disappearing into the walk-in storage space where Cassidy kept all her dry goods.  He came back a second later and set Mrs. Butterworth on the counter.  “So, you are going to completely wonder why I’m asking this,” he started, and she was already wondering.  “But how come you stopped working?  Seemed like you were doing really well there for awhile.”

She had been doing really well—right before she gave it all up because Jason had wanted her to.  It was her last attempt at trying to salvage what little bit of marriage she’d thought she’d had left.  Of course that was before she’d got the confirmation that he was a lying, cheating snake. 

Her eyes rolled automatically.   She didn’t want to answer.  She didn’t want to admit that she’d given up her career—something she’d been so adamant about not doing—for the sake of a man.   But she also felt this weird sense of openness with Justin.  She didn’t have a reason to hide anything from him.  She hadn’t forgot how much his words had helped so many years back when she’d confided in him about her screw-up on air.  He’d been the one man to give her support and encouragement, instead of giving her a bus load of shit like all the other ones she’d known.  Funny, it was someone she didn’t know that had actually made her feel better. 

The more she thought back about their very short time together, the more she wished she would have picked up the phone and called.  But it was too late for that now.  If she believed in those types of things, she would have to wonder if she was getting a second chance.

Inhaling deeply, she let out a quiet huff of air.  “It was my last failed attempt to try and make my marriage work.  It was stupid, I know.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that,” Justin defended, tossing up his hands.  “If anyone can understand that.  I can.  I tried everything to make my marriage work, but when you talk someone into it in the first place—Well, let’s just say it’s pretty much doomed to begin with.”

“You did not talk her into it.”  Cassidy didn’t believe that for a second.  Who wouldn’t want to marry Justin?

As quickly as that thought had slipped into her head, she was shoving it back out again.

“I did,” he assured, glancing over at Cody as the boy let out the most infectious giggle.  Justin perched himself on one of the barstools and folded his arms on top of the counter.  “I tried to make her want the things that I wanted and then I just ended up resenting her because she didn’t.  Very stupid, I know.”

Cassidy smirked.  “Just have to take it as a learning experience, I guess,” she shrugged unknowingly and swiveled around to flip her pancakes.  “These are almost ready.”

“They smell delicious.”

She looked back at him over her right shoulder.  “Did you want coffee?”  She felt a little rude for not thinking to ask sooner.

“I’ll pass on the coffee.  I’d love a big glass of OJ, though, and then of course milk with my pancakes.”

She was smiling even though she wasn’t letting him see it.  She wiped it away before she turned to answer him.  “Both are in the fridge.  Help yourself.” 

He hopped back down and moved over to the fridge, pulling out the carton of orange juice and the milk.  Cassidy couldn’t help but watch him—how comfortable he seemed, how much he looked like he belonged.

Justin ate his breakfast in complete delight.  Across from him sat his boy—this perfect little miniature version of himself.  And very soon he would know the truth, and Justin hoped Cody would be accepting of it.  He tried to throw himself into the mind of a four year old.  What was important?  Toys, cartoons, your parents… But all his life Cody had really only depended on one person—his mommy.  Justin wanted desperately for Cody to depend on him too.

And the feeling didn’t go completely ignored that there was someone else who he wouldn’t mind depending on him.  He felt like he was sitting down and eating breakfast with his family.  An instant family—no doubt—but his family nevertheless.

He wanted to build a relationship with her.  He knew it was soon, but he couldn’t help it.  She was the mother of his son and it only made sense.  He understood that she was afraid things might go sour, but he wanted to convince her otherwise.

This is exactly what he’d wanted.  This is the part of his life that had been missing.  Besides, he truly, honestly felt something with her.  She was different.  She treated him different.  And he liked that.

Not to mention the amazing sex.   That was a huge plus!

Regardless he knew he couldn’t rush a thing.  First things first, they tell Cody that Justin is his father.  And he was ready whenever she was.

He was just waiting for her cue, whatever it may be.

But it never came, not during breakfast anyway.  Everyone finished and Cody asked if he could go play in his room. 

Cassidy nodded yes and told him she’d be up in a few minutes to help him get dressed.  The little boy scurried out of the room and Cassidy rose from the table, gathering the dirty dishes.  “He can dress himself,” she said, “But not usually in anything I want him to be seen in.”

Justin grabbed what he could and followed her to the sink.  “When are we going to tell him.”

She sighed and turned to face him, her hands now empty.  “I know, we should’ve done it then, I just don’t know what to say.”

He was trying his best to understand.  He didn’t know exactly what to say either.  But he realized it wasn’t just that, she was nervous.  This was big news—very big news.

Not thinking twice, he reached for her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.  “Maybe we shouldn’t try to think too much about it.  We should just be as clear and to the point as possible.  He is only four years old and his reaction probably won’t be anything like we think.”

“You have a point.  Let’s just go get it done, shall we?”

He smiled and she kept his hand as she led the way out of the kitchen and up the stairs.  He liked holding her hand, he realized.  He liked touching her anywhere he could.  And he didn’t want to hide that feeling.  He hoped he wouldn’t have to for very long.

Cody’s door was open, but Cassidy knocked anyway as she dropped Justin’s hand.  “Hi baby,” she said as he looked up from his rather large, heaping, oak toy box.  He came up with a plastic lizard in his hand.  “Remember I told you that Justin and I have something important to tell you today?”

Cody nodded.

She walked towards his Loft-style bunk bed and sat down, giving Justin the eye to join her.  Dinosaurs decorated the space in bold splashes of green, brown and orange—little boy written all over it.  Everything was kept very clean and very well put together.  One wall was lined with shelves that were filled with books and toys that were for saving and not touching.  There was a small desk, that held a globe and a lamp, but not much of anything else.  The furniture was all dark oak—rich in texture and very well built.  Cody was taken very good care of, but Justin had known that all along.

He sat down on the bed, giving enough space for Cody to scoot in between them, which he was working into at the moment.   “Remember when I told you that someday you’d get to meet your daddy?” she said.  “When you asked my why Bryant has a daddy and you don’t?”

Justin assumed Bryant was one of Cody’s friends.

“Well,”  she continued.  “Justin is your daddy.”

Without much of a reaction, Cody turned his head to look at Justin.  “Bryant asked me what my daddy does,” the little boy explained, “and I told him I didn’t think that I had a daddy.  Then mommy said I do and that I’d get to meet him when I was bigger.” He sucked in a quick breath.   “If you’re my daddy then what do you do so I can tell Bryant.”

Justin was slightly flabbergasted by the rush of words that had just shot from his son’s mouth.  “What do I do?” he asked, trying to absorb it all.

Cody nodded.  It was obvious that this was a very serious matter to him.   “Bryant’s daddy is a nerosturgen.” 

Behind Cody, Cassidy was grinning while she interpreted “neurosurgeon.”

Justin grinned.  “Gosh, that’s tough competition.  Sounds like Bryant’s daddy is pretty important.”

Cody nodded his head again.   “He does sturgeries and stuff.  Do you do any sturgeries, Justin?”

Justin was too busy loving the fact that his son was adding an extra letter to the word and sounding completely adorable because of it.  “Sorry bud, I don’t do any surgeries.”

The boys head dropped.  “Oh.”

“But I make movies and I sing on stage in front of lots of people.”  He tried to make it sound as exciting as possible.

Cody didn’t say anything and Justin was trying not to let his feelings be hurt over the fact that Cody was obviously disappointed over his profession. 

“You can come with me, sometime,” he continued, trying to think of something that would make him sound more exciting.  “Sometimes I even get to sing at basketball games and football games.”

The boys eyes perked up.   “Really?”

Finally.  Something!  “Yep.”

“Cool.”  His attention was completely focused on Justin, almost as if he’d forgot his mother was even there.  “So do I call you Justin or daddy?"

Justin smirked.  “Whatever you want, bud.  I’d like it if you called me daddy, if you want to.  I understand if you’re not ready to yet.”

“Okay.”  Cody accepted the whole thing with a crooked grin—a Timberlake grin.  Then he climbed into Justin’s lap and wrapped his arms around him, burying his cheek into Justin’s chest.  “I’ve been wanting a daddy for a long time,” he said after a quiet moment.  “It’s okay if you don’t do sturgeries.”   

Justin patted Cody’s back, choking back all the emotions that were desperately trying to surface.  He didn’t say a word simply because he couldn’t.   He just squeezed that little boy as tight as possible.  He was experiencing the sweetest moment of his life and he felt absolutely amazing inside. 

“Dad… guess what?   I have a little boy!…  Hey pops, guess what?  You’re a grandpa!…  Dad, I have some news.  I have a four year old son.  Congratulations!   You’re a grandpa!”  Justin had tried every combination of words possible.  He still felt nervous about telling his dad the news.  He wasn’t sure why.  His dad would be accepting no matter what.  And honestly, they weren’t all that close.  They were, but they weren’t.  His mom and dad had divorced when he was too little to remember, and even though they’d kept a pretty good relationship, the bond he shared with his dad was nothing compared to the one he shared with his mom.

But still, it was big news and his father’s opinion was important to him.  He needed to just get it over with—get it done.

Besides, he was picking up Cassidy and Cody in an hour and he needed to do it before then.  He couldn’t put it off any longer.  He felt this huge relief now that everything had been confirmed and Cody knew the truth.  He felt free.   He felt happy.

Happier then he’d been in forever—it seemed.  Life had brought him something to look forward to.  He hadn’t felt that way in ages.

He’d left shortly after they’d given Cody the news that morning, although he honestly could have stayed all day and been perfectly fine.  But that might have been pushing it just a little.  So he’d told her he’d had stuff to do, said goodbye to Cody and went home.  Then he called Trace, told him the good news and asked if it would be okay to stop by and see the baby.

It was and he did, staying for a couple hours longer than he probably should have.  Then he went to the gym and worked out for about an hour.  He came back home, took another shower, called Cassidy to see if her and Cody wanted to go do something, and now he was pacing back and forth in his bedroom—from the bathroom to the closet, which were on opposite sides of the room.

Tired of procrastinating, he paced his last line and detoured for the phone beside his bed.  But before he picked it up, it rang.  “I hate it when that happens,” he whispered softly to himself right before answering “Hello?”

“Justin, it’s Dad.”

He hated it even more when that happened.  But he didn’t think it was some sixth sense or anything.  He knew better.  His mom must’ve called.  “Dad.  Hi.  I was just picking up the phone to call you.”

“I haven’t heard from you in almost two weeks.  Everything okay?”

“Everything’s great.   Have you talked to mom lately?” He decided to fish around first and figure out exactly how much his father knew.

“About 30 minutes ago.   She said I should give you a call.”

Figures.  “Did she give you a reason why?”

“Nope, just said to call.   So stop beating around the bush and just come out with whatever it is that you need to tell me.”

Justin huffed before he started.  “Well, I have some big news—good news.”

“Okay…”

“Dad…” He took in a deep breath.  “I found out nine days ago that I have a four year old son and, yes, I took a paternity test and the results came back yesterday and there’s no question, he is mine.  His name is Cody, he looks just like me and I am pretty positive that he is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

The line was very quiet, except for what Justin was guessing were very deep, calming breaths on his Dad’s part.   “Who’s the woman?” he finally asked.

“Um, a woman I had a very brief relationship with—well—almost five years ago, now.”

“Brief?  How brief?”  He knew exactly what his Dad was getting at.  So what?  He’d had a few one night stands.  Okay, more like several.  But so what?

“Less than 24 hours brief.”

“Son…”

“Dad, don’t lecture me about that.  It was a long time ago and don’t try to tell me that you never knew those types of things happened.   I mean, come on.”

“I didn’t say that.   But you should at least have been careful enough not to—” He broke off and then came back a few seconds later.  “There aren’t others out there, are there?”

“Dad… no.”

“That you know of.”

“Please don’t ruin this for me.  He is the most perfect little boy and I love him already.”

“Well, I’m happy for you son.  I know how badly you wanted to start a family.  Not sure this was the way to go about it, but everything happens for a reason, I guess…”

“Exactly,” Justin quipped.  “I think it was just meant to be.  This little boy has totally changed my life.  I can’t wait for you to meet him.  Maybe we’ll be out soon.  Of course I’ll have to talk to Cassidy about it, but I’m sure we can work something—”   He was totally rambling.

“Cassidy, that’s her name?  Is she a celebrity or just some random fan?”

“Neither, really.  Actually, she just—She’s divorced, too.  Recently.  She was married to Jason Brown, the quarterback for the Denver Broncos.  But um, before that, she was a sportscaster.  You’ve probably seen her on ESPN.  But that’s not how we met.  It was just sort of a random thing, but she’s not what I would categorize as a fan.”   He didn’t really want to go into anymore detail than that.

“So this woman is not just after huge child support payments?” He asked.  “Because that was my next question.  How come you are just now finding this out?”

He realized he was going to have to explain every detail before his dad was satisfied.  Plopping down on his bed, he started at the beginning nine days before—the basketball game.  And he realized what a whirlwind nine days it had been.

© BrandyRae 2005