Two lines can change a lot of lives (Part 4)

I like to have a fully written chapter as buffer before I share one with you guys, but the last one was so emotionally charged (I heard it made some people cry…) that I didn’t want to leave you guys hanging for too long.

Just so you know, Wade is not in fact blind drunk in the backyard… Nor is he a violent drunk.

He’s feeling very lost at the moment, poor man, and he was too lost in thought to remember about that bottle he brought out from the kitchen. 

It’s been a long and emotional day for all of them. 

Enjoy.

*** WARNING ***

this is a very smutty chapter.

***

“I’m gonna go to bed, Mum,” Abi said as they walked in the house after dropping Nico home. She looked very jumpy and kept sneaking glances towards the kitchen.

“Okay, honey.” Celia could understand Abi’s reluctance to see her dad after he’d ripped into her earlier. She wrapped her arms around the teenager. “I love you. And your dad does too. He’ll come around, he just needs some time to get used to the idea that his baby girl is no longer a little girl.”

“I know, it’s just…” Abi sighed. “I love you, Mum. Please tell Dad I love him and that I’m sorry I disappointed him. Good night.”

“Good night, honey.” Celia let go of her daughter and watched her make her way down the hallway to her bedroom before she went looking for her husband.

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Two lines can change a lot of lives (Part 3)

There it is.

The chapter I lost and had to write again from near scratch (I’d texted bits of dialogue to my wife so I was able to recover that).

Wade can feel there is something his wife and teenage daughter are hiding from him, but he didn’t expect exactly how his world is about to be flipped upside down.

It got darker than I had anticipated.

Part 1

Part 2

***

Something was going on.

Wade wasn’t quite sure what yet, but he was good at reading body language—a skill that came in handy in his line of work as a lawyer—and the way his wife and their teenage daughter were exchanging glances and clearly having one of their silent conversations when they thought he wasn’t looking left him in no doubt that they were hiding something.

He’d had a great afternoon with the boys at the water park, for their weekly dose of ‘man time’ as they referred to it, then he’d taken them for ice cream. Celia had got home not long after them, without Abi who, he was told, was spending time with her boyfriend, Nico. Wade had gone for a run and, as he was turning onto their street on his way back, he had been surprised to see his sons wave at him from his mother-in-law’s car as they drove past. When he’d walked into the house Celia had told him Nico would be joining them for dinner and sent him off to have a shower after a kiss that caused Abi to fake dry-retching noises.

He’d come back downstairs to find Celia cooking her famous BBQ ribs and special slaw while Abi was getting started on caramel dumplings for pudding. While it wasn’t unusual for their sixteen-year-old daughter’s boyfriend to join them for dinner, the menu struck Wade as a bit out of the ordinary. Added to that the fact that Celia had sent the boys to spend the night at her parents’, something was definitely going on. What, he wasn’t quite sure yet. He knew they would tell him when they were ready; past experiences had taught him that pressing for an answer nearly always ended up in a lot of yelling, tears (theirs) and frustration (his).

So he got himself a beer and chatted with Nico after Celia shooed them out of the kitchen. The boy had a good head on his shoulders, all thanks to his mother and his stepfather, and he had a lot of plans for the future. He was also very respectful of Abi’s wishes and that helped Wade forget the two sixteen-year-olds were sexually active.

Ah yes, that had been a fun conversation…

Two lines can change a lot of lives (Part 2)

Make sure you’ve read Part 1 or this won’t make much sense.

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There was no way she could say anything to Wade until after the boys went to bed and since it was only around 6pm, the next two and a bit hours promised to be trying.

She got home, taking a deep calming breath before she opened the front door.
“I’m home!” she called out as she walked in, hearing a chorus of voices answer back from the kitchen. She stopped in the doorway to take in the scene. Wade had taken the time to change out of his suit and he was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, which was an equally good look on him.

He was still the hottest man she’d ever seen, eighteen years on, and if anything he was only getting hotter with age. He still had that little smirk that made her knees weak and Celia loved nothing more than to be wrapped in his strong arms, where she felt safe.

Two lines can change a lot of lives (Part 1)

My wife, over at Emma Jane Writes, started telling the story of Alessandra and Xavier.

Single mum Alessandra and her best friend of many years, Xavier, finally got together when her son was 13. You can read the bit from that story that Em has shared here.

Three years on, Alessandra’s son Nico has a girlfriend, Abi, who is also 16. I started writing from Abi’s mum’s point of view. This is the first part.

Enjoy.

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“Mum?”

Celia looked up from the patient file she was updating to see her sixteen-year-old daughter Abi hovering in the doorway. She looked nervous and it was not a look Celia was used to seeing on her eldest child’s face.

“Honey? Is everything ok? Was I supposed to come pick you up? What’s the time anyway?” Celia stopped her rambling and checked the time on her phone as Abi made her way into the exam room.

No, she definitely wasn’t late to pick up anyone but Abi looked close to tears which meant something was definitely wrong.

She walked around the desk to her daughter and wrapped her arms around her, starting to really worry when the teenager hugged her back tightly and gave no sign of wanting to let go.

Celia stroked her daughter’s hair in an attempt to soothe the teenager who was now sobbing against her chest. It reminded her of when Abi was little and would come to her for comfort.

The two had always been close and it hadn’t changed when Abi had hit puberty or when she’d started going out with Celia’s friend Alessandra’s son Nico about six months earlier.

“Aww baby girl, what’s wrong? Did something happen at school?” Abi shook her head then looked up at her mother, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“I’m scared, Mum,” Abi whispered and Celia took her over to the chairs and sat her down, taking the chair next to her and keeping her daughter’s hands in hers.

“Talk to me, baby,” she encouraged gently and was rewarded when Abi took a calming breath before looking her mother in the eye.

“You know how me and Nico decided we were ready to… to have sex a few months ago?”