Brett's Little Headaches(21)

“Thirteen days, six hours to go, damn that seems so long all of a sudden. You said before that you only trust your dad to babysit...”

“Oh that’s outside the babysitter I take them to. She doesn’t work weekends so dad usually helps out then.”

“So you only work during the week?”

“Yeah, which is a bummer because the restaurant gets busier on the weekend, but hey, you take what you can get right.” Not for long, and not if I have anything to say about it.

I felt even surer of myself and what I was about to do when I left her. This had to be right, there’s no way life could be so unfair as to put this woman in my way and not let me have her.

The realtor wasn’t too put out about a last minute call on a Sunday. Especially not when I gave him my name.

After a quick clean up to get the sand off, and a little rough housing with my dog, I was back on the road and headed for her dream house.

The place looked even better up close, and the inside was a thing of beauty. There was more than enough room with five bedrooms and six bathrooms, and the backyard was plenty big enough for my rough and tumble boys to play in.

I could already see us here. I’ll have to give the boys swimming lessons even though the large in-ground pool was gated.

Would she be happy here? She’s the one that would be spending her days here while me and the boys went about school and work.

And I can’t believe that I’m actually standing here contemplating this shit. Just a few short days ago I was ready to write off women.

Someone that I had grown to trust had betrayed me in the worst way and when she didn’t get what she wanted, she’d gone to great lengths to destroy me.

A man in my position couldn’t afford to have certain blemishes on his record and the one she tried to leave me with was a doozy.

It was the last straw in a long line of bullshit that I’d had to put up with lately and I was at the end of my rope.

So it’s amazing that I find myself in the position of asking someone else to trust me with their future, their happiness.

But it felt right; I won’t falter now, I’m gonna go with my gut all the way and see where it takes me.

“We’ll take it.” I’ll leave the decorating and shit to her, but there was no reason I couldn’t get started on some things.

By the time we were through with paperwork and all that we could get done on a Sunday, it was time for me to grab dinner. I called it in and picked it up on the way back to her.

Now how was I going to let her know what I’d done? I’m pretty sure she was going to be pissed if I just came right out and told her that I’d bought us a house, so I have to be slick.

I called her on the way back to her place to let her know I was almost there. I felt more excitement than I had in a long time, which only made me doubly sure that I was on the right track, not much gets a rise out of me these days.

The thoughts that had been plaguing me this last week threatened to intrude again, but I knocked them back, they had no place here.

I pulled up to her place and ran up the stairs, dying to see them again like I hadn’t just left them a few short hours ago.

“Do you ever do anything small?” This was her question when she saw the bags of food I’d brought.

Since it wasn’t dinnertime quite yet I decided to hang with the boys, who were still a little tired from the beach even after their naps.

It hurt my heart a little the way they fought for my attention, the way they sucked it up, because I knew what it meant. They were starved for male companionship. Her father was probably the only one they were ever around.

It hurt because for some fucked up reason I imagined what their lives would be like without me, if someone else came along, someone less trustworthy who was only out to use, to hurt.

The thought made my guts hurt, but it made me even more determined.

We played with building blocks and whatever else they could think of while one or the other took turns sitting on my lap and regaling me with tale after tale.

“Okay you three, time for dinner.”

“Alright boys let’s go wash up.” I herded them into the bathroom that was barely big enough to hold me. I sneered and gritted my teeth, but held my tongue.

I can’t forget how she’d stood up to me yesterday with her cute self, and had no doubt she’d tear me a new one if I criticized her home.

My disdain wasn’t for her, I am proud of her for all that she’s achieved so far on her own. I just wanted to give her, them, so much more and soon.

Almost as soon as we sat down to eat, the doorbell rang and she got up to answer it. Some guy came in, hugged her and kissed the top of her head, and to make matters worse, the boys were fighting to get down from their chairs to go to him.