Fool's Gold Ch. 05

Dinner that night turned into a free flowing family discussion. Annie and I told the girls about the plan to take it slow. They listened intently, but failed to butt in the way that I expected. Finally, I cracked and called them on it.

"Okay girls, what's going on?" I exclaimed in exasperated frustration. "You must have a million questions about what's going on between your mother and me, and you haven't said squat. Why?"

Sarah and Lacey looked uncomfortable and had a brief whispered conversation with frequent glances over towards Anne. Anne sat there silently with a slightly guilty look on her face. Finally, Lacey looked up at me with an uncomfortable smile. She had been elected spokesperson. "Mom asked us not to bother you. She told us not to bug you about what was going on."

I looked at them in amazement. I wasn't that surprised that Anne had asked them. It seemed to fit in well with her recent behavior. No what surprised me was that the girls actually listened.

"How in the world did she manage to convince you to do that?" I said in exaggerated wonder, mocking them good naturedly.

The girls giggled. Their penchant for gossip and meddling was well understood by all of us.

"She reminded us of how stubborn you are, Daddy, and how you hate it when someone tries to butt in," Sarah broke in, as Anne flushed in embarrassment. Then she went on in a softer tone. "She told us this was too important to screw up by pestering you, and trying to convince you."

Lacey butted in with a sly smile as she got her dig in at Anne.

"Yeah, she reminded us of how muleheaded you get when someone tries to tell you what to do."

As Anne face turned a color of crimson rarely seen in nature, Sarah, Lacey and I started to laugh. Finally, Anne shrugged, and joined us in relief as she saw that I was not angry.

"Thank you. You're willingness to do this, is a real sign of how much the two of you have grown up. I appreciate your concern," I said. The girls smiled self consciously at my praise and preened a little. "But, while I appreciate your concern, there is no reason to totally ignore what's going on. This is going to affect all of us, so you have a voice in this, too."

I grinned and went on in well honed imitation of the tone they had used on me on many occasions: "Just don't tell me what to do."

I didn't sleep with Annie that night. I wasn't ready to take that step. I was afraid to move too fast. But we did sit and talk for hours, as we discussed how to proceed. Neither of us was ready to move in together, or to commit too quickly. But we did want to move beyond simple friendship. For that night, sitting next to each other was enough. We did kiss and cuddle a little. It felt 'right', to have Annie in my arms again.

Over the following months our relationship slowly grew. It wasn't without some tense moments and setbacks, of course. There were more than a few occasions where one of us would do something that hit a raw spot. The first few times we did make love were not that successful. Seeing Annie in my bed brought back memories that I had thought long suppressed. Similarly, some of my suggestions to Annie brought to mind her suppressed feelings of self-doubt.

The biggest setbacks however, came from a somewhat unexpected source: Annie's efforts to prove herself to me. As our relationship grew closer, Anne had more difficulty in getting over her affair than I did. Despite our numerous talks about a fresh start, she felt a burning need to show me that I had made the correct choice by taking her back. Anne became fanatical about not giving me any reason to doubt her. While I loved to talk with her about her day, I really didn't want or need a minute by minute explanation of her day. Nor did I need the frantic phone calls if she had to go anywhere.

I realized early on, that if our new relationship had any chance of success, I needed to trust Anne. We needed to get back to some variation of the partnership we had enjoyed before. That was the Annie that I loved and wanted, not some Stepford wife who was too frightened to do anything, because it might make me angry.

It took a while to overcome Annie's fears. How do you get through to someone who is getting annoying in their efforts to please you? If you try to argue with them, and tell them to stop, all you do is confuse them and make them feel bad. But, the problem was that this new Anne was not someone I could respect. I needed the Annie that could tell me that I was full of shit, when she needed to. I couldn't respect a walking doormat.

My solution was risky but eventually proved effective. I recruited the girls to help. What I wanted to do was to put Annie into situations at home where she would react without thinking. I needed to show her that I wouldn't get mad and leave her, when she told me to stuff it.

So, for a while, the girls went on a reign of terror. It wasn't just that they would fight or act out. They became demanding in other ways, as well. Then when Annie was stressed to the max, I'd bumble in and do something totally inappropriate. Sometimes, I'd undercut what she was trying to accomplish. Other times, I'd interrupt with a stupid question. The goal was to get her to react and tell me to get lost.

It took a while, but she finally snapped at me a few times. The first time it happened, she blanched when she realized what she had done, and almost fell over herself apologizing. I simply shrugged and stopped bothering her. The second time it was a bit easier for her to tell me to get lost.

The girls and I kept up our campaign for a couple of weeks. She started to figure out what was going on during the second week, and finally blew up at all of us. We simply laughed at her, and told her why we did it. After all, it did kind of prove my point when none of us got upset with her when she blew her top. I think that was what finally got her to realize what was still missing from our new found relationship. After that, she did get better. I did miss the blowjobs on command, though.

By the beginning of summer, Annie and I were spending two or three nights a week together. We still maintained the separate households, but they were fast beginning to become superfluous. We had started to talk about the logistics of moving back in together as a next step. The girls laughed at us and accused us of living in sin, but we just laughed back at them. I wasn't quite ready to ask Annie to be my wife just yet.

The big move came as Labor Day approached again. As a symbol of our new start, we put both my Townhouse and our old home on the market and found a new home that we all liked. The girls didn't mind too much. Their new rooms were bigger than ever, and the new house had a pool that they loved.

One interesting event in our reconciliation was Laura's Thanksgiving Day feast. I hadn't attended the year before because Annie had invited me to join her and the girls at her parent's house. This year was going to be the big unveiling of my new found relationship with Annie. It was also going to be the first time I had seen some of these people since Jean.

It was to be expected; the usual cast of misfits put their feet squarely in their mouths. Jean had been confused for Anne; Now Anne was confused for Jean. Laura nearly split a gut laughing at the confusion. Thankfully, Anne reacted better than Jean had. She found her humor and corrected the mistakes with a self depreciating quip. I did see her spending a lot of time with Aunt Cindy, however, and casting some devious looks my way. I got the feeling that payback would be coming at some point.

In the end, I decided to bring my tale of woe with Anne full circle, in the sappiest way I could think of. I proposed on Christmas Eve in front of the girls, Laura and all of our parents.

The only complaint that I got from Annie was when I removed her old engagement ring, which she still wore on a chain around her neck. She had told me that she wore it as a remembrance of what she had thrown away. I told her that that marriage was over. It was time to start fresh. I gave her a new ring, and placed it where it belonged, on her left hand.

Was it worth it?

Anne and I had spent five years apart, and the pain and tribulations that we went through damn near tore us up. But as the old saying goes, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Now, five years later, our new marriage is going strong. We are more in love than ever. I have the luxury of knowing that Annie will never cheat on me again, or let her fears overturn her life. As she confessed to me on our second honeymoon, not only does she not want to cheat, she now knows that it's not worth it.

After all, why trade in happiness, for a pile of dross that is only "Fool's Gold"?

Edited by TeNderLoin