After Victory: A Searching for Glory Novel (A Second Chance Love Story) (3 page)

“No.” I had made up my mind. “That’s not necessary. I just need to make sure someone can watch the kids.”

“So… that’s a yes?” She had been staring down at the table, but now she glanced up at me through her eyelashes.

I smiled. She really was cute when she looked at me like that. “It’s a date.”

Five minutes later, the bill had been paid and we were all waiting in the parking lot for a ride home. I felt like a teenager that had broken curfew.

“Are you sure about this ride thing? This feels weird.” I rocked nervously on my feet.

“It’s fine. He’s used to this kind of thing.” John waved to a car that had pulled into the parking lot. The driver stopped in front of us. Their window was open and John said, “Hey, Dad. Thanks for picking us up.”

I was a 35-year-old man about to get a ride home from my best friend’s dad. Not only that, I had just accepted a date with the woman that used to date my best friend. Just when I thought my life couldn’t get any stranger, it did.

CHAPTER FIVE

Glory

Watching five kids always sounded like a good idea until I was actually in the middle of it. My nieces and nephews were great kids and I loved them very much, but after a night alone with them I was ready to move back to Hollywood.

Getting them all to stop yelling and crying was a minor miracle. Getting them to agree on a movie to watch or game to play was cause for a celebration. I found myself wondering if this was what every night would be like when the baby was born and we were no longer a family of three.

“Aunt Gloria. Can I talk to you about something?” Julia looked at me nervously from the kitchen doorway.

“Are the kids fighting again?” I guessed. “I thought they were in bed.”

“They are.” Julia laughed softly. “That’s not why I’m here.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Good. Sit down and I’ll make you some tea.”

Julia took a seat at the kitchen table, pulling her skinny legs up to her chest and hugging them to her body. When she sat like that, she looked like the little girl I remembered curling into my lap for snuggles.

I put the kettle on the stove and joined her while I waited for it to heat up.

“What’s up, kiddo?” It felt good to sit. I couldn’t remember if I had sat at all since the kids showed up at my place hours ago.

“I don’t know if I should be talking to you about this, but I can’t talk to my dad about it and Mom isn’t here so…” She sucked in a deep breath. “I think Grayson and I are ready.”

“Ready?” I asked, wondering if I had missed a few words in her rant. “Ready for what?”

“You know.” She fixed me with a level stare. “Ready to have sex.”

I froze, every inch of my body unmovable for several seconds. My mouth formed a small circle and I let out a rush of air that sounded like, “Oh.”

“We’ve been dating for a while now, and we really like each other.” She seemed unfazed by my sudden paralysis. “The winter formal is coming up, and the timing would be perfect.”

“Slow down.” I managed to hold up a hand. “I need to process this.”

The kettle started whistling and I was glad for the interruption. As uncomfortable as this conversation was for me, I knew that it was important for us to have it. Julia needed a woman’s perspective and she didn’t have a mother anymore. She just had an emotionally damaged, spastic aunt. I needed to get this right, but I wasn’t sure I was qualified.

When I returned to the table with the tea, she looked at me with expectant eyes. It was my turn to talk. “I assume you know about the birds and bees?”

She nodded. “Mom had that talk with me when I was like, 10. Plus I’m a teenager, so I’m not a total idiot about sex.”

“Actually most teenagers are total idiots about sex,” I muttered. “You know that if you aren’t careful, bad things can happen?”

“I’m not going to get any STDs. It will be the first time for both of us.” She wrapped her hands around her mug. “And we are going to use a condom. Grayson already bought them.”

I didn’t know if I was supposed to be proud of her for being careful or horrified that she had already put so much thought into it.

“That’s smart. But you know that condoms aren’t always effective.” I felt like one of those horrible PSAs from the 1980s. “You could still get pregnant.”

“How old were you the first time you had sex?” she asked bluntly. Julia had never been a shy child.

I was trapped. Did I lie to her to help discourage her from heading down this path, or did I tell the truth? I thought about what Vic would do, and I knew I had to be honest. “I was your age. Sixteen.”

“Was it with Uncle John?” For the first time, she seemed a little bashful.

“It was.” I had already started on the honestly path, so I had to keep going. “But we had known each other for ten years. We had been dating for two years. We loved each other.”

“Gray and I have been together for almost two years. We love each other.” She took a long sip of tea, the steam momentarily hiding her face. “Shouldn’t my first time be with someone I love? Do you regret your first time?”

This was the problem with the truth- it sometimes made things much harder. “I don’t regret it, no. And it should be with someone you love. But just because you love someone, it doesn’t mean you have to sleep with them. It’s really important that you understand that.”

“I know, Aunt Gloria. I promise that Gray isn’t pressuring me. This is something I want to do.” She looked at me with unblinking eyes.

“Okay. But you know that sex will change everything? You can’t go back and undo it.” I didn’t want to scare her away from sex, but it was important that she think about all of the consequences. “And you need to know that just because you do it once, it doesn’t mean that you have to keep doing it if you don’t want to.”

She nodded, still clearly not deterred.

“I think you should consider going on the pill, too. It will give you more control over your body.” I even went a step further and added. “You always need to remember that. It’s
your
body. It’s
your
decision. Okay?”

“Okay. I understand.” She looked away, her cheeks turning pink. “How is it? The first time, I mean. Some people say that it’s pretty painful.”

“A little. But if you really love the person, they will treat you right.” I smiled a little remembering how sweet Johnny had been that night. “You just have to be honest about how it feels and take it slow.”

She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “Thanks, Aunt Gloria. I know that you aren’t my mom, but sometimes I just really need one. I could never talk to Dad about this kind of stuff.”

“I understand.” I reached over and touched her hand. “But you shouldn’t discount your father so quickly. He was young once, too. And he really loves you. If you ever needed him, he would be there for you.”

“I know. But it’s not the same as having a mom.” A single tear slid down her cheek.

“You know that you can come to me anytime, for anything? I’m not your mom, but I am your aunt and I love you more than anything. You were my first love, Julia. Don’t ever forget that.” I opened my arms when she got up and came to me, curling into my lap just like she had as a small child.

In that moment I knew that no matter how hard it was raising kids, no matter how much they made you want to tear your hair out, it was the best thing I would ever do in my life.

The next morning, Jake was over early to pick up the kids. Chris, J.J., and Marta had all slept in the guest room. When Johnny bought the house, he had put two sets of bunk beds in the room just for them. Julia had crawled into my bed and stayed for the night. It wasn’t until the next morning that I wondered where Johnny had slept. After I got the kids out the door, I found him on the couch, stretched at an uncomfortable angle.

“Hey, lover boy,” I said, running my hand through his messy hair. His eyes fluttered open. “Sorry you got kicked out of bed.”

“No problem.” He tried to sit up and failed. “I may still be drunk.”

“What the hell did you two do last night?” I laughed softly at his pained expression. “I thought you were just watching the game?”

He groaned. “So did I. But then Kate showed up and they started talking about things that made drinking necessary.”

“Poor boy.” I rubbed his chest. “I’ll get you some Aspirin, water, and a big cup of coffee.”

“You’re the best,” he grunted as I walked into the kitchen.

By the time I came back, he was sitting up with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. I placed the water and coffee on the table in front of him and handed him two pills. “So adult night was a fail?”

“My dad had to drive us all home,” he said, looking at me pointedly.

“Well at least that’s not the most embarrassing time he’s ever had to give a ride in the middle of the night,” I reminded him with a laugh. “You could’ve called me.”

“Jake didn’t want to bother you.” He downed the pills and lay back. “Was that him at the door earlier?”

I nodded. “Picking up the kids. He is fairing much better this morning than you are.”

“He’s probably still riding high on his Kate date.” He made a failed attempt to reach for the coffee. I grabbed it for him so he wouldn’t have to move.

“What the hell is a Kate date?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Wait. Do I really want to know?”

“Hey, this has nothing to do with me. I stepped away from the table for five minutes to call my dad and then after we dropped Kate off at home, Jake tells me that she asked him out.” Johnny took a tentative sip of coffee and sighed.

I wasn’t exactly surprised. I knew that Jake had been seeing Kate recently because of the boys, and he did things like shovel her driveway. In my experience, that meant he was interested in her, even if he didn’t want to admit it. That was partly why I had invited Kate to Jack’s birthday party.

“How do you feel about the whole thing?” I asked him as normally as possible.

“Me?” He gave me a confused look. “Why should I care who Jake dates?”

“Because she’s your ex-girlfriend,” I reminded him. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”

“Of course I didn’t forget.” He shrugged. “That was two years ago, Glor. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve moved on.” He rubbed his hand over the tiny bulge in my stomach.

It was a good reminder. “The doctor’s appointment is in an hour. You need to get yourself cleaned up.”

“I thought you liked it when I look all rough and sexy,” he teased, his hand moving down to my thigh.

“You look like a drunken lush, Carter.” I kissed him gently. “But, yeah, sexy as hell.”

We finally arrived at the doctor’s office five minutes late. Someone made the wise decision that it would be more efficient if we just showered together. That ended up being a bad decision.

“This is your fault,” I told Johnny as we took a seat in the waiting room. “Now we probably got bumped to the bottom of the list.”

“Whatever. It was worth it.” He put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed.

“Your dad looked pretty tired when we dropped off Jack.” I winced as a pregnant woman walked in looking like she was carrying a litter instead of a baby.

Johnny said, “Yeah… I definitely owe him one. Maybe I’ll take him fishing next weekend.”

“How’s the hangover?” I asked. He looked better after the shower and shave, but I could see he still wasn’t feeling great.

“These screaming babies are really helping the headache.” He eyed one of the screamers that was being rocked by a girl that looked to be about Julia’s age.

I remembered our conversation from the previous night and felt a knot form in my stomach. “If one of Jake’s kids told me something pretty important, in confidence, do you think I should tell him?”

Johnny’s eyes widened. “Julia isn’t pregnant?’

“No!” I was quick to deny it. The last thing I needed was Johnny telling Jake that his daughter was knocked up. “But in general, is it wrong for me to keep something like that a secret?”

“It’s not wrong, necessarily. You’re their aunt and it makes sense for them to tell you things. But he’s their father…” Johnny looked as lost as I felt. “I guess it depends what it is that they tell you.”

I thought that we were done with the topic, but after the appointment Johnny stopped me just as I was about to get in the car.

“I think you should tell him,” he said quickly.

“Jake? Really?” I was surprised by how suddenly he had changed his mind. “What made you decide that?”

Johnny’s large hand covered my entire stomach, warming me completely. “We’re going to have a little girl. I don’t even know her yet and I want to do everything to keep her safe. I can only do that if I know the important stuff.”

When the doctor had announced that we were expecting a daughter, Johnny’s face had changed into an expression I had never seen, even when we had found out about Jack. I could tell that learning he would be a father to a little girl had changed him.

“I’m not sure I can tell him,” I said, feeling torn.

“If it was our daughter, would you tell me?” he asked, not in an accusatory way.

“I think I would,” I admitted. “But Julia isn’t my daughter. If she had thought that I would tell Jake, she probably never would have talked to me. She’s a teenage girl and she needs to be able to talk to someone.”

Johnny kissed the top of my head. “I get it. Just do what your gut tells you.”

He might have believed in my natural instincts, but I was less certain. It was still a couple of weeks until the school dance, so I had some time to make up my mind.

We picked up Jack and headed to the park. Johnny had taken off for the entire day so we could spend some time together as a family. I sat on a bench and watched Johnny chase after our son, both of them laughing. My heart felt so full that I was afraid it might burst.

Johnny was truly the best person I had ever known. He loved so selflessly, gave so much of himself. He never once questioned me when I said I wanted to keep working. He offered a dozen times to move to Los Angeles with me if that was what I wanted. Through it all, he had never asked for anything in return. Except for one thing.