Chapter Fifty Four
It wasn’t long before the short-lived romance between Abbi and Nicky fizzled out. She had confided in her teacher that she just wasn’t looking for a boyfriend at the moment. Her teacher, who had had more than enough of all the little “boyfriend-girlfriend” relationships between her elementary students, was more than happy to hear it. After all, they were just kids! They needed to be doing kid stuff! Luckily for little Miss Abbi, her father never knew about the romance. He would have gone ballistic!
Not that JC didn’t have enough on his plate anyway. Jack was quickly becoming his own little person and he was into absolutely everything. And Julie… just thinking about Julie was making him feel more and more like an old fart!
She was just a few short weeks away from her high school graduation, ending a period in her life and beginning another. He didn’t know how he was going to deal once she was off and away at college.
Unfortunately for him, she had chosen a college several hours away. It had one of the best art programs in the country, and Julie had really taken a liking to art. She hoped to one day become a high school art teacher and inspire students as she had been inspired. It was an admirable aspiration, though JC wasn’t quite sure he was ready to let her go!
He was in the living room late one evening, his wife upstairs with his son, getting him ready for bed. He usually helped with the night-time duties but he’d been so out of sorts as of late and he had told Jen he just needed some time for himself. She, of course, understood completely and had let her husband say his goodnight to their son before she took him upstairs for his bath.
JC leaned his head back against the couch and closed his eyes. The house was going to feel so empty without his daughter. Although he had missed her birth and the first couple years of her life, he had more than made up for it in the time that she had been with him. She had told him many times, in fact. He was going to miss her.
The sound of footsteps on the hardwood floor reached his ears, but he didn’t bother opening his eyes. “That was quick,” he mumbled, under the impression that it was his wife returning from putting Jack down.
“Huh?” The sound of his daughter’s voice caused him to snap his eyes open and turn his head, a small smile forming on his lips when he saw her.
“Sorry. I thought you were Jen,” he said quietly as Julie rounded the couch. He patted a spot next to him, and once she was seated, he wrapped his arms around her slender shoulders. “It’s not too late to change your mind on schools, you know.”
With a groan and a roll of her eyes, Julie looked over at him as if he was crazy. “Daaaddy…” she whined, sounding an awful lot like Abbi.
“In fact, I don’t think I should let you go. You never asked permission to go,” he pointed out, ignoring her playful grunts and groans.
“Psh, you’d kick my butt from here to China if I told you I wasn’t going to school!” She reminded him, causing him to groan miserably.
“Smart ass. Can’t we at least pretend for a couple of minutes to make your old dad happy?”
“You sure are old.”
“Hey, you aren’t too big to find yourself over my knee, young lady,” he warned. With a smile, Julie threw her arms around his neck.
“I love you daddy,” she said quietly. “I should probably get up to bed,” she said before she pulled away. He nodded and patted her leg gently.
“Sweet dreams baby,” he said quietly. She kissed his scruffy cheek gently and stood before she headed towards the steps. She paused slightly and turned.
“Hey dad?”
“Yeah?”
“For the record…” she hesitated, “I’m going to miss you too.”
~*~
The next couple of weeks passed by swiftly and as graduation neared, JC became more and more sullen and moody. Jen was immensely worried about her husband. She didn’t know how he was going to behave once they dropped Julie off at college. She found him one evening after dinner out on the back porch, sitting in a lounge chair, just watching the sun set.
“Need some company?” she asked quietly. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at her.
“I could always use some company baby,” he said as he waited until she rounded the chair. He reached for her hand and tugged her down gently onto his lap. He rested is chin against her shoulder and let out a soft sigh.
“You want to talk about it?”
“About what?”
“Come on sweetheart. How long have we been married now?” She laughed. “You can’t get anything by me.”
He let out a soft sigh and rubbed the back of his neck before wrapping his arms around her slender waist. “I’m going to miss her,” he said quietly.
“We’re all going to miss her Josh,” she reminded him quietly. “But it’s not like she’s going away forever, you know?”
“Yeah but it’s just… she’s growing up on me. Before I know it, she’ll be out of a college, married, having kids… it’s just… it’s too soon,” he whined, dropping his head to rest gently against her back.
“Just think of it like this,” she said brightly before giggling. “After Julie, you’ve only got two more to go through!”
“Thanks Jen…. Thanks a lot,” he grumbled.
Number of reviews: 76
Print:
Chapter or Story