Chapter Eighteen
Jonah
After a week of awkward moments, we seemed to have settled into an established routine like a well-greased machine. Ally loved the quiet early morning hours and she always drank her coffee at the tiny kitchen table while I got Sam up and ready for school. She had made me a list of foods he did and didn’t like for all meals, including his lunch for school. After I read the short list of foods, I was shocked, and decided that I would try to get Sam to eat better, at least in the mornings.
He was a growing boy. Cereal and milk was not going to cut it. I had almost given up, but on the fourth day I made my mom’s famous bacon and egg sandwich on buttered toast with extra ketchup and Sam was hooked. Each morning after that, I tried a different meat and topping choice on the sandwich. Cheese, ham, sausage, tomato and even avocado and the kid ate every bite. Ally was astounded and complimented me on breakfast skills and for getting Sam to widen his variety of protein intake.
Everyday had been pretty much the same and so were the nights. The nights? The nights were all mine. Pure torture, a living hell. Yeah that old song kept going through my head. I honestly didn’t know how long I was going to be able to hold out behaving as a gentleman. We always went to sleep talking and we each took turns listening to the other’s stories of growing up. She learned all about my parents and siblings and how back then it always seemed like a madhouse, but I wouldn’t change anything for the world.
When it was Ally’s turn, she only talked about Sam and then her grams. Her grams had raised her from a very early age when her parents died in a car accident. She was only three years old at the time and had very little memory of them. It was obvious Grams had been the center of her world growing up and her rock.
She would never say exactly where she was raised just in the Mid-West. Sometimes when she talked about Grams her eyes misted over, breaking my heart. She had no other living relatives, so she and Sam were on their own. The two musketeers, she said proudly. I wanted to wrap her in my arms so many times and tell her that she would never be alone again. But whenever I did try to reach out to her, she would shake her head and tell me she was fine. She was still learning to trust me. I would not blow this with her.
Every morning I woke to her curled up on my chest, snoring away. Yep, Ally snored like a freight train. That however was not the problem. The problem came in the form of her rubbing against me while she slept. Lord have mercy on my soul. She was like a cat. Stretching, sliding, rubbing all over my body. I had learned most of Ally’s tells and knew when she would be waking soon. At that point, I would gently lay her back on her side of the bed. Then sigh while I stared at that beautiful face for a moment before heading to the bathroom like a teenager in high school to take care of business. After my shower, she would be awake and ready to get her routine underway.
Around the end of the second week, I took her for a checkup on her ankle and to have the stitches removed from her hand. She still couldn’t put her full weight on her ankle but had learned to get around a bit with the crutches. Frannie came most days to stay with Ally and do laundry and cleaning, while keeping her company. I came back whenever Frannie had to work. I made dinner and I helped Sam with his homework each evening. That kid was awesome.
I overheard Ally talking to Frannie one day about how she had ruined her surprise for Sam by missing Little League signups. It meant so much to her to give that surprise to him. I called Shane and told him the situation. As always, my baby brother came through by bringing me the paperwork and uniform. Ally was ecstatic and flung herself at me and held on for dear life. Of course, I ate up the attention by the spoonful. All she had to do was fill out the paperwork, then Sam was a part of our team, The Wordly Wild Cats.
After giving her the uniform, I was going to head out, so she could have this moment with her son, but she said, “Oh, hell no! You stay right here, mister. I will give him the uniform. But you give him the hat and tell him all about you and Shane being his coaches. Sam is going to flip when he finds out. You have earned your right to share this with us. Hell, I want you to share it with us,” she stated emphatically.
Sam was over the moon about learning to play baseball and told us he was going to school tomorrow to tell everyone that The Flash was his coach. It was one of the best days of my life. Sam hugged Ally and then ran at me for all he was worth and jumped into my outstretched arms. That’s a feeling I could ride whenever I felt off.
I only left her for a few hours each day, but if I didn’t get out of here soon, I would not be responsible for what I would do when she turned into the snuggling cat that never failed to make a certain part of me purr. A man could only fucking take so much. Frannie called to tell me that they were taking Sam to dinner and movie and he would be staying the night with her. Well hell. I had to get out of there and pull myself together, regain some control. Then an even better idea hit me so I called Frannie back and told her my plans. Frannie was thrilled and said, “About damn time, son!”
Frannie came to Ally’s early so I could run out and arrange for our date. The date we never got to go on because of the storm. We both needed and wanted this. Ally was going stir crazy, being cooped up for weeks so I had come up with a plan. I just crossed my fingers that I could get all the details set with only a few hours to accomplish them. It would be pricey too, but my girl was certainly worth it and more.
I had never been the romantic type, but with Ally I found myself wanting to please her in ways that I never had with any other woman. Was I trying to impress her? Maybe just a little bit, but what I wanted was to give her something special that we could both look back on with fond memories. To accomplish everything though, I was going to need a little help. Shane came immediately to mind but I dismissed it quickly because he would take the opportunity to make jokes. So, I called my baby sis, Shayla.
After calling Shayla and telling her of my ideas, she came up with a few of her own to help her poor older brother, who was a little dense when it came to the area of romance. I chuckled at her idea initially, but then a light went on and I realized if we could pull it off, this would definitely be a night to remember. I whispered to the man above for good vibes and got the show on the road.
As I thought back over the last three years, there had been many woman in my life but I never stayed with just one woman for long. I never felt the need to or the want. But since that very first time I met Ms. Ally Black and she asked if she could have me forever, I knew I was doomed. She avoided me at all costs for years and wouldn’t even wait on me in the diner. I had become so frustrated that this woman would have nothing to do with me, it kind of gave me a complex and I decided that I would throw myself into rapid dating to try and to rid myself of my obsession with her.
It never did work. I continued going to the diner for meals several days a week, hoping that she would finally talk to me. The town had even started a bet, when a couple gossiping little old ladies from the quilt club were eating lunch and one commented, “Honey, take a picture it lasts longer.” I had sat there with my chin on the table and stared at them. “Don’t think we haven’t noticed the way you have been pining over each other for years now. What’s wrong with you boy that you just don’t go ask her out?” I couldn’t reply. They were right. Why hadn’t I just asked her out? Well, for one, she hid from me whenever I was there. Would never wait on me and I just let her get away with it. I knew she felt the same attraction as I did, so what the hell was the real problem?
It was me. That realization had been a bitter pill to swallow. I was scared. But of what? Commitment for the first time in my life? Maybe. That was certainly part of it. There had never been another woman to make me feel like a crushing high school teenager before. I wanted this woman and the thought of her rejecting me, did a number on my ego. Rejection was not something I ever had thrown at me before. So basically, I pussied out and the cat and mouse game played on.
The ladies later told me they started a bet with their husbands who were in a poker club and it just grew from there. Soon half the town was placing bets on whether I would ever get the balls to finally ask her out and whether she would agree. The bet took on a life of its own and was one of the most embarrassing things in my life. But at the same time, it was kind of funny and I had used it as another excuse to not ask her out. But now I was in it for the long haul. She was mine. I would make her mine. There was no turning back and I didn’t want to.
After spending quality time taking care of her and her son, Sam, over the last few weeks, it was clearly cemented in my heart now. They were going to be my family. They were my family. Sam was an amazing, smart-witted young man and he seemed to beam with excitement with every word that came out of his mouth. Ally had done an amazing job of raising the boy on her own, but a boy needed a father and a man for a role model. It would be my honor to be that man for him. By the grace of God, I would be that man. We would be a family. I just knew it in my heart and gut. This was meant to be.