Taking Chances (55 page)

My jaw dropped.
That was the first time he’d ever said that to me.

“I’m proud of
the woman you’ve become. You have handled everything life has thrown at you in
a way not many could, and I’m thankful you didn’t let certain things ruin your
life the way I let them do mine. You have a great family, I couldn’t be happier
with your choice in Brandon. It’s obvious how much he loves you and Liam, and
if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here now.” He looked over at Brandon,
“Thank you son, for everything.”

Brandon simply
nodded and continued making lazy circles on my upper arm. Shifting Liam over to
Brandon’s lap, I shakily stood up and walked toward Sir. He stood and stiffened
momentarily when I wrapped my arms around his waist, before awkwardly placing
his own around me.

“I love you
too.” I said through the lump in my throat.

“Oh Harper,”
his own voice was gruff with emotion, “will you ever forgive me?”

A laugh that
sounded more like a sob escaped my throat and I stepped back, “This family is all
about second chances, you don’t even have to ask.”

He hesitated a
bit, but wrapped his arms around me again and hugged me tight, “I have missed
you so much. Nothing was the same after you left.”

I had no idea
what to say. This conversation has been so unlike anything I’ve ever had with
Sir, and it changes everything that’s happened over the last twenty years,
especially the last two. I couldn’t miss my life with the old Sir, but if the
man that just explained his actions throughout my life were to leave, I would
miss him greatly. We stepped away from each other after minutes of holding each
other, “Would you, uh, would you like to meet your grandson?”

Sir’s eyes
filled with tears again as Brandon brought Liam over to us.

“This is your
grandpa, little man.” Brandon said as he held Liam’s squirming body to his
chest. “Can you say ‘hi’ to Grandpa?”

“Go bye bye!”
Liam said with a toothy, scrunched-up nose grin. Didn’t matter if we were
saying hello or goodbye, it was always
go bye bye
with him.

Sir didn’t
respond, his jaw was slack and the corners of his mouth were twitching up.

Liam looked at
me and patted Sir’s chest. I nodded and said “Grandpa” again.

Looking back at
Sir, Liam patted his chest again and said, “Go bye bye Grapa!”

“He’s waiting
for you to say ‘hi’ back to him.” I explained.

“Oh!” Sir
huffed, “Hi Liam. It’s good to finally meet you.”

“He wants you
to hold him,” Brandon said awkwardly, “is that okay with you?”

“Of course, uh
–” he held his arms like he was going to cradle him and I laughed.

“Sir, you can
hold him differently, he’s not an infant anymore, just hold him like this.” I
demonstrated without actually taking Liam.

Sir carefully
took him from Brandon and a large smile crossed his face when Liam started
talking non-sense a mile a minute and looking at Sir like he was speaking
English and carrying on a well thought out conversation. My heart warmed and
squeezed watching Sir hold him. I never thought I would see this, never thought
I would introduce Liam to my cold, distant father, and definitely never thought
I’d see Sir act like this. I didn’t know he even had the capability of smiling,
hugging or crying. And now all of the above had happened within twenty minutes.
I couldn’t be more dumb-founded, or happier.

Figuring Mom
was more annoyed than I had been that Brandon went behind our backs, I left the
three men in the house and went out back to explain everything that had just
been said inside. Like I knew they would, because my family was just amazing
like that, everyone agreed happily to make Sir feel like he was welcome. As the
people I loved started heading back inside, I grabbed Dad’s arm and made him
stay back for a second. When we were alone I hugged him tight and didn’t let
go.

“You will
always be my dad. You may not have raised me, but then again neither did Sir.
You and Mom have shown me love like I never knew, and took me in as another
daughter without question. Because of that,
you
are my dad.”

“Oh baby girl.”
He laughed once and kissed the top of my head, “You really are precious to us.
I love you.”

“Love you too.”
I squeezed him once more and let go to walk back inside.

“Was my
jealousy that obvious?” He mock whispered. “That why you’re giving your old man
some peace of mind?”

I winked at
him, “Not at all.” Yes it was. “Just wanted you to know how I felt before you
could start to have any doubts.”

***

“What a day.” I
said with a sigh as I curled into Brandon’s side that night.

“I second
that.”

Just throwing a
birthday party for my little monster was hard work, but having Sir show up had
taken me on an emotional ride that left me feeling drained yet strangely alive.
The whole family stayed well past midnight and after hours of just talking with
everyone, I think Sir was finally feeling a little more comfortable with them.
His tense shoulders had shown his worry about their judgments of him, but
holding and playing with Liam all night, and my family’s ability to love
everyone, had him relaxing and laughing as the night wore on. He was sleeping
in our guest room now, and we were going to talk in the morning about the
possibility of him moving here. Apparently he had retired from the Marine Corps
a few months ago after twenty two years of service, and with how the day had
gone, wanted to be closer to us. I still couldn’t believe that this wasn’t a
dream.

“Are you still
mad at me?” Brandon pulled away slightly so he could face me on his side.

“No, I’m not.
I’m glad you did what you did, I just couldn’t believe you’d kept something like
that from me.”

“I know I
should have told you about the letters and his coming, but I was afraid I would
get your hopes up and he wouldn’t ever respond or show up. I thought it was
better to deal with you angry for having not told you, than watch you be
crushed if he let you down again.”

“You really are
too good to me Brandon Taylor.”

Shaking his
head, he brushed some hair behind my ear and cupped my cheek, “All I want is to
make you happy. I’ll do anything for you Harper.”

“I know. Thank
you.” I kissed his lips softly and held his gaze, “I love you so much.”

“And I love you.”

Two and a
half years later.

“
C
ome on guys, it’s time to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s.”

Liam and his sister set down their flowers and rushed
back to Brandon and me.

“Bye Unca Chase!”

“See ya Uncle Chase!”

It was the fourth anniversary of Chase’s death, and
like every month, we were here to say our
hellos
and leave orange lilies on his grave. Brandon and I
still told stories of him all the time, and though Liam and our daughter Kristi
didn’t fully understand what we meant when we told them he was gone, or that he
was Liam’s father, they loved hearing his stories. Trying to explain that he
was Liam’s father was even worse than explaining they wouldn’t meet him, so for
now they affectionately knew him as Uncle Chase and looked forward to our
visits every month.

I hitched Kristi up on my hip, grabbed Liam’s hand
and watched Brandon as he said a few quiet words to Chase. He did this every
time, and I loved him for it. I’d asked him a while ago what he always said,
and he simply explained he was thanking Chase for his part in our family and
letting him know he would always take care of us.

Brandon took Kristi and wrapped his other arm around
me as we walked back to the SUV. “How are you holding up Sweetheart?”

“I just can’t believe it’s been four years.” I smiled
softly at my husband and rested my head against his shoulder. “It feels like
it’s been longer, but at the same time like it just happened.” My body shivered
as a flash of that night played through my mind.

He rubbed his hand up and down my arm and kissed my
forehead, “I know baby.” He responded to both my statement and remembrance of
that night, “I miss him too.”

We drove to Mom and Dad’s for our annual night of
celebrating Chase’s life and I took a deep breath before we walked in. Our
crazy family was all already there, as well as the new additions. Kristi and
Liam tried to tackle Sir, who actually preferred to be called Papa now, and he
gladly went down and let them jump on him. He was a completely different man
from the Sir I’d grown up with, but he was great with the kids, and Brandon and
I spent a lot of nights with him. He’d moved to California just as soon as he’d
left from his first visit and after a lot of pushing on Carrie and Mom’s part,
was now dating a great lady named Veronica.

Konrad hugged Brandon and gave me a kiss on the cheek
before rushing a plate of food to an extremely pregnant and moody Bree. Their
little girl Cadence was helping our kids tickle Sir, and girl number two was
due any day. Aubrey and Jeremy were curled up on each other on one of the
chairs and deliriously in love. They were definitely still in the honeymoon
stage…seeing as they’d just gotten back from their honeymoon three days ago.
Carrie’s new husband Bruce was helping Dad bring in the food off the grill and
Kate almost knocked into him as she came storming around the corner.

“Harper! Oh my God, how do you deal with him?” She pressed
the tips of her fingers to her forehead and shook her head, “He’s impossible!”

Brandon and I smiled at each other and rolled our
eyes, “What’d he do now?”

“He wants to name him AIDIEAS.”

“It’s better than freaking Wrinkles!” Carter mocked as
he rounded the corner with their new English Bulldog puppy. “Baby, you can’t
name a male bulldog Wrinkles.”

Can’t argue with that. “What kind of name is Ideas?”

Carter hugged me and clapped Brandon on the shoulder,
“No, it’s said AY-DIAS. All I Do Is Eat And Shit.”

Brandon and I burst into laughter. Oh dear.

Carter set down the squirmy ball of wrinkles and he
took off running toward the screeching and laughing kids, crashing into a chair
on his way. “We can always call him crash?”

“Oh! I like Crash.” Kate said with a little clap.

“Yeah? Well, I like you.” Carter’s voice went deep
and husky causing Brandon and me to back away.

Kate launched herself at Carter and we groaned as we
tried to step around them. Those two couldn’t have been more perfect for each
other. Apparently Carter didn’t learn much since not even a month after their
first date they eloped in Vegas, but at least this marriage was still going
strong. They fought on a daily basis, but their fights never lasted more than
ten minutes and always ended in everyone else within seeing distance yelling at
them to get a room while they attacked each other with lips and searching
hands.

Once we were away from the love fest, we made our way
around the house hugging and kissing everyone as we passed them. Mom’s eyes
were bright with unshed tears and she kept me in a hug for a long time before
sending me to the table with another platter of food. When I was done, I stood
off to the side and watched our large mismatched family and smiled.

“What are you thinking?” Brandon’s deep voice still
made my heart pick up its pace and warmed my body. His lips on my neck and
hands pulling me closer to his body weren’t helping much either.

A soft moan escaped my lips and he laughed against my
skin. “Um – well before my husband started distracting me, I was thinking about
how much I love this.” I gestured out to everyone around us, “I love our
family…I love our life.”

Brandon grunted in agreement and rested his chin on
top of my head. “It took a lot for all of us to get here, but I think that’s
what makes all of us put together, perfect.”

As always, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Turning in his arms, I reached up on the balls of my feet and he leaned down to
press our lips together. I sighed contentedly and rested my forehead against
his, “I couldn’t agree more.”

The End

Acknowledgments

Of course, I have to give a big thank you to my
husband for helping me believe I could do this and always encouraging me in my
stories. He’s put up with the laundry not being done, groceries not bought, and
the house not being cleaned on more than one occasion so I could immerse myself
in my books. I appreciate his bemused looks when I would start fighting with
something one of my characters was currently doing in the book and his endless
patience as I would talk for hours about them like they were friends. Whether
or not I thought he was paying attention, he could always tell me what was
going on between whom, would read any chapter I put in front of him and always
gave his honest opinion. He’s my best friend, and I couldn’t have done any of
this without him. I love you babe!

Don’t judge, but I have to thank my furry daughter
who would lay in bed with me when I couldn’t even waste time getting out of my
pajamas because I was too wrapped up in my writing. Other than the few times
she’d drop the tennis ball next to me, or ask for a belly rub, she would lay
there with her head on my arm and stare at the screen like she was completely
enthralled with whatever was going on.