Once Written, Twice Shy (The Broken Men Chronicles)

by Decevito, Carey

  My heart raced. I felt like I was a car and someone had double-started me. What the heck were they talking about?

  “Daddy should know what?” I asked before I realized that my feet had walked me into the room and I held up my brown paper bag. I kissed Alissa on the cheek and then hugged my son.

  “What you got there, handsome?” she asked as she tried to sneak in behind me and reach for the parcel. I was too quick for her and kept my surprise out of her reach.

  “If I didn’t know you better I’d say you were trying to evade the question,” I said and smirked when she blushed.

  “Allie said-” Jasper started but Alissa rushed him and started tickling him.

  “I told you not to say anything. Now the tickle monster is going to get you,” she said and Jasper squealed.

  “No fair,” Jasper said. “Daddy…make Allie…s-stop!”

  This went on for a few more minutes until Jasper swore he wouldn’t say anything and when Alissa backed up, he blurted it all out in one breath anyway.

  That’s my boy! Hold on…what?

  “Daddy, she wants to be my mommy,” he said. His next few words were what nearly caused me to fall flat onto my ass. “You have to marry her, Daddy. I want Allie as a mommy too.”

  Alissa, bless her soul, steered me to the nearby chair and sat me down. She reached for the brown bag that I clutched in my hand and opened it up.

  “Ooh,” Jasper said and clapped with excitement when he watched Alissa pull out the small tub of ice cream I had purchased for all of us to share.

  “Chocolate chip cookie dough,” Alissa said and handed a spoon to both of us and kept one for herself as she popped the lid and seal off of the container. “Great choice…let’s dig in.”

  A few minutes later, I was snapped out of my shocked reverie by a spoon filled with the dessert being held to my lips. I jumped back, looked up at a smiling Alissa who winked and nodded for me to take a bite.

  When I had done just that, she bent over and kissed me on the forehead and turned to go back to sit beside Jasper who seemed to be going to town on the treat.

  “Hurry, Daddy, there might not be any left for you by the time you get over here,” Alissa said as if what Jasper had blurted out hadn’t even occurred.

  I smiled and shook my head at her; got up and jumped on to sit on my son’s other side. I rubbed his bare head and kissed the crown of it as I started digging in. One thought came to mind when I peered over Jasper’s head and found Alissa smiling back at me—this was home. Home wasn’t about where I was; home was about who I was with.

  ***

  Julie had arrived and I was glad that the ice cream tub was empty and tucked away in its brown paper bag and tossed in the hallway trashcan. The flack I would have received for ruining my son’s appetite for dinner would have been completely worth it for that hour we had just spent together.

  “Alissa,” Julie said, “I have something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

  My head snapped from the quiet conversation I was having with Jasper to my girlfriend and ex-wife.

  “Sure,” Alissa said.

  “Paxton told me that you work for an event coordinating place and,” she said and then looked down at her feet, up to the ceiling, to the side and back to Alissa as if looking for courage from any nook and corner of the room. “I was wondering…”

  Alissa looked at me and me at her with a what the hell expression. I knew where this was going and I couldn’t believe it.

  “I need help planning my wedding,” Julie said and allowed a loud breath of air to escape her lungs as if relieved that her words were finally out.

  “You can’t be serious?” I asked.

  My ex’s eyes narrowed on me. “I can’t-”

  “I’d be honoured,” Alissa said far more quick and determined than I anticipated.

  Julie’s and my gazes snapped in Alissa’s direction.

  “Really?” she asked, clearly as surprised as I was.

  “Yeah,” I said, “really?”

  “Why not,” she said, “it’s what I do. How ‘bout you come in on Monday and we’ll discuss what you and Todd want.”

  I couldn’t believe it. Julie and Alissa would be planning a wedding together? My girlfriend’s planning a wedding for the mother of my son and another man? What the hell was going on around here? And here I thought that Todd asking me for Julie’s hand in marriage had been awkward.

  Truth be told, I wouldn’t have thought it odd had our divorce been amicable. Aside from it being Alissa’s job, I was stunned that she had accepted Julie’s proposal so easily. After being verbally assaulted on multiple occasions, their friendship or whatever you could call it had just begun. My girlfriend was far more forgiving than the average person but then again, I already knew that. Despite any trouble that might brew on the horizon, there was no doubt in my mind that Alissa could handle the task.

  ***

  That night, I watched as Alissa walked out of the bathroom, clad in nothing but a small towel. I lay on my bed taking in the sight before me with my fingers interlaced and tucked behind my head.

  She grabbed her bottle of lotion and walked over to the bed and sat down on its edge with her back to me. She poured a small amount into the palm of her hand and proceeded to rub it into her arm. There was something sensual and erotic in the way her fingers glided across her skin.

  I had watched her over the last few weeks, performing this same ritualistic routine after her showers but for some reason, this time was different.

  I found myself knelt behind her, brushing her damp hair over her shoulder and kissing the nape of her neck. A small tremor ran through her body.

  “What are you doing?” she asked and I could hear the smile in her voice.

  “Need help with that?” I asked as I trailed my kisses outward to her shoulder. Before she could answer, I had her bottle of lotion in my hands and began pouring a small amount to rub into her other arm. “Why don’t you lie down while I do this.”

  “Why, Mr. Lowell,” she said and turned enough so I could see the flirtatious look on her face, “if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to start something.”

  “Me? Never…”

  “Mmm…hmm.”

  I worked her entire backside all the way down to her legs. She was submersed in her own peaceful little world that she hadn’t noticed her towel come undone or the fact that I had pulled it away from her, leaving it on the floor beside the bed.

  “You’re killing me with those low moans of yours, sweetheart,” I said.

  “It’s not my fault,” she said, “you’re so good at this.” Another moan.

  “I had no idea,” I said while kissing her mid-back up to one of her shoulders and positioned my lips right at her ear to whisper, “Flip over.” I felt the shiver pass through her body and the almost inaudible whimper that she emitted.

  She turned for me and I had to fight my urges in order to even get started on applying the lotion to her front. My member swelled larger and the pain from the tightness in my jeans had caused me to reach down and adjust myself.

  “Take them off,” she said.

  I didn’t have to be told twice. Stripped down to my boxers, I assumed the position I had been in prior to shedding my clothes.

  I started with the front of her legs. Her eyes never wavered from my face which made this whole experience even more intimate. Whenever I looked up at her, our eyes would connect and heat would surge.

  The more my hands climbed toward her core, the heavier her breathing became. Her eyes darkened to that classic bright blue, her lids looked heavy and her mouth parted as she licked her bottom lip before biting down on it.

  I worked lotion up from her belly, to her breasts, avoiding her nipples to which the peaks had hardened.

  When I finished, my hands may have left her body but my lips joined in the fun. I kissed up her neck, nibbled her earlobe and gave her a deep kiss on the mouth. Her eyes were glazed with sheer relaxation and her body
lacked any and all tension that it previously carried.

  I pulled back and ran a questing finger over her cheek, down her jaw bone and to her lips. “Come out to dinner with me tomorrow night,” I said before depositing a chaste kiss.

  She nodded her head before nuzzling my nose. “Paxton?”

  “Hmm,” I kissed a trail down to her collarbone before I settled my body over hers.

  “Roll over,” she said and leaned up to kiss me softly. “It’s my turn to have my hands all over you.”

  By the time she was done with her rubbing, my entire body felt like a pile of jelly.

  She crawled her body back up over mine and I grabbed her forearms, pulling her down. My lips collided with hers in a slow lazy kiss that made her sigh into my mouth. I smiled up at her when she pulled away, my fingers tucking a loose piece of her hair behind her ear.

  “That was amazing,” I said and tilted her head down to kiss her forehead. “I don’t know why I’ve never contemplated a massage therapist before but I doubt that they’d be as effective as you.”

  Alissa gave me a perplexed look. “You mean you’ve never had a full body rub from your women before?”

  I shook my head. “You’re the first and only to grace my entire body with your hands.”

  “You’ve been missing out,” she said. “Then again, I’m glad I’m the only one who’s had the pleasure of touching every square inch of you.”

  Her fingertips created electrical currents over my upper chest as she traced an indiscernible pattern.

  My curiosity won over. “So you’ve been rubbed before?”

  “Only once,” she said. “There was this parlour the girls had brought me to, back home. The guy had the most wonderful hands.” I groaned at her dream-like sounding voice. Yes, I was jealous about another man having his hands all over her. It didn’t matter that it was his profession or that it was in the past. “I mean, big hands,” she continued and demonstrated how large they were with gestures. “Hands that knew where to touch me to make me-”

  I kissed her hard and fast to shut her up, laughing into her mouth. “Bullshit,” I said.

  She giggled and sat up over my hips. “Whatever do you mean?” That exaggerated aloof look of hers made me laugh harder.

  “You had me fooled at first until you got to the hands bit,” I said and mimicked her descriptive actions. “Then there was the mischievous glint in your eyes and the upward quirking of your lips that gave you away.”

  “You’re right. It was a massage therapist and she was a very manly looking lady named Gretta,” she said before grinning and laying her head on my chest. “Can I say it’s scary how well you know me?”

  “I’m glad you’re easy to read just like me. Not having to guess is one of the things I love about you, baby.” And I hugged her closer.

  Chapter 28

  In the mood to celebrate, I managed to make a quick pit stop.

  Glad to see that Alissa had gotten out when I arrived home from meeting up with my parents, I headed up to our room and placed my fancy packages at the foot of the bed where I knew she’d see them when she got home.

  I wondered what she’d have to say when she saw my surprise and wished I could be there to see her face when she saw my gifts but my fatherly duties beckoned me.

  I headed to the hospital and stopped in to spend some quality time with Jasper. Julie and Todd were there and a few minutes after my arrival, Doctor Messing walked in.

  “How’re you feeling Jasper?” he asked as he made notes inside the chart he had gathered from the foot of Jasper’s bed.

  “Good,” Jasper said and seemed to look like he had a bunch of ants in his pants, “can I go home now?”

  “I think we might be able to manage that eventually but it’s important to keep you here until we’re sure that you can stay healthy at home. That medicine we’re giving you to make sure you get better can make you feel sick most of the time,” the doctor said. Jasper nodded with a grimace on his face.

  After a bit of whining, he conceded. It took a few promises on my part to get him there but it worked and the fact that Doctor Messing had brought in a boy about Jasper’s age who was a long-term patient helped too. The two boys had decided that they’d have sleep-overs and seemed to be excited at building forts in their joint room.

  “Can I speak with you two for a moment?” Messing asked Julie and me.

  We followed the man into the hall where he led us to a small conference room a few doors down. He gestured for us to take a seat as he closed the door to give us some privacy.

  “Is everything okay, Doctor?” Julie asked.

  “I’ve observed Jasper closely since he’s woken and I have to say that I like his sudden boost of energy. His color seems good and his vitals are strong. His speech is still slurred from time to time and I can confirm that it’s because of the clot he threw in surgery and not because of the medications we’ve given him since those have long since been flushed out of his system. With that said, I don’t think it’ll be a permanent issue,” he said. “All in all, it doesn’t seem like he’s getting worse.”

  “That’s great though,” I said, “isn’t it?”

  “It appears that way, yes,” Messing said. “There will be a series of tests over the next few days, weeks and months to determine if his body is rejecting the transplant or if he’s now making new normal blood cells. I introduced Tyler to Jasper because they both have similar issues and it would be nice for each of them to have a friend during their stay here. Things can get pretty boring and lonely after a while. All I can say is that it’s worth being optimistic about things despite more time being needed to really know if our attempt has worked.”

  Julie squealed and hugged my arm. Somehow, I kept thinking that there’d be a but somewhere in this conversation and I was right.

  “But,” Doctor Messing said, “I think it’s important for you both to know that even though I think Jasper’s speech will make a full recovery, that there is a chance that he may be left with a few challenges. Aside from that, all we need is time to allow the transplant to take hold, for Jasper to regain his strength and hopefully, a clean bill of health that’ll clear him of his JMML, in the end.”

  “Is that it?” I asked.

  Julie on the other hand was now choking back a sob. “My poor baby,” she said.

  I looked at her as if she had two heads. “Julie, it’s a speech issue not a death sentence,” I said. “We can work with people for that. Losing Jasper is what we should be more concerned about.”

  “Mr. Lowell is right,” Messing said with a sympathetic gaze.

  ***

  I walked out the hospital’s doors with no time to spare. What should have been an hour or so visit ended up being closer to the three hour mark. If I wanted to make it to the lawyer’s office, I pretty much needed to hit every green light on the way there.

  I put in a call with Jake from my hands-free system and floored the accelerator thus peeling my car out of the hospital parking lot.

  My day felt like it couldn’t get any better. It seemed like Alissa and her selflessness might have been the ticket to ensure that my son would live a long and happy life. Okay, so I was getting ahead of things but why not? My woman’s optimism was contagious.

  Jasper wasn’t getting worse, if anything, he was looking better, my parents were moving on up in life and I found myself elated that the things I had spent so many years pretending didn’t matter, were happening at a whirlwind pace. Dreams I had long ago stifled were becoming a reality. Yes, there was indeed a lot to celebrate.

  Jake stood in the reception area of his law firm’s suite waiting for me. We sat down in his office and after catching up we got to the business at hand.

  All that separated me from my current life and the one that I had always dreamed of living were a few stacks of papers and an empty dotted line on all of them. Taking my pen, I smiled as I spent the next half hour fulfilling a personal dream with which I knew Alissa would have no problems
following at my side.

  This is going to be great.

  “So whatever happened to that woman?” Jake asked as we headed out toward the parking garage. “Al-something?”

  “Alissa,” I said, “she moved to be closer.”

  “Really,” he said with his casual skepticism, “don’t you think it’s kind of fast?”

  I shook my head. “We’ve known each other for nearly a year before we met face-to-face,” I said. “No, and before you ask, it wasn’t a dating site.”

  “Hey, I’m not judging,” Jake said and held his hands up in a peacekeeping gesture. “I heard about Jasper from your parents when they dropped in earlier. I’m sorry. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I would have…things have been a little hectic,” I said. “He’s doing much better and his doctor thinks it looks like he might just pull through, all thanks to Alissa.”

  Jake eyed me with careful scrutiny. “You’ve really got it bad when you think your girlfriend is responsible to curing everything,” he said. “She might have cured you of a broken heart but I doubt-”

  “Jake, you’re such a fool,” I said, pausing by his car and playfully punched his shoulder. “One day you’ll find yourself at a woman’s feet and when that day happens, I’ll be there to point the finger, laugh and say I told you so.”

  “Yeah, right,” Jake said. “So what did she do?”

  I gave him the quick run-down on what had happened from the time we found out Jasper had JMML, how grim things were, how Alissa had donated her marrow.

  “She did that?” Jake was wide-eyed.

  “Without hesitation,” I said. “I never thought I’d lose hope about anything but she refused to let me fall down that slope.”

  “Wow,” he said.

  I nodded. “I love the woman, man,” I said and slapped him on the back. “Speaking of which, I better get going if I want to make that reservation I made for us tonight.”

  “Give me a call and keep me posted on Jasper. We should get together some time soon,” Jake said in a dejected tone. He seemed to be preoccupied with pondering everything I had divulged about my current relationship.