Happily Ever After... Interrupted

The pair had a very pleasant evening catching up. Jason seemed particularly interested in the children, Traci noted. Although she was curious, she didn't have the courage to ask if Jason had ever married or had kids. A pang of guilt settled in her stomach.

While she enjoyed the evening out, Traci noted that Jason seemed friendly but dispassionate. She had hoped that maybe a little of the love he once had for her remained, and that this could be the start of a way back for them.

Jason, too, enjoyed the evening and the memories. Only once during the evening did the memory of Traci at the door in Evansville pop up in his mind. He quickly pushed that aside.

Traci couldn't help but notice Jason still had the body he first displayed in Washington, DC, those many years ago. The SEALs had been good for him in that regard, she thought.

Jason didn't ask Traci to return to his apartment for a nightcap as she had hoped. He took her back to her house, where Traci invited him in. Although she knew her children would be waiting for the two, she wasn't ready for the evening to end so quickly.

"Well, you two are home much earlier than I expected," declared Leslie.

"Yes, we are," Traci answered quickly. "White or red, Jason dear?"

Both Leslie and Jason noted the term of endearment Traci had used. They grinned nervously at each other before Jason answered, "Red please."

Traci noted Jason had an easy manner around her children. She hadn't expected that considering he'd been in the military that long. He answered their questions easily, and then seemed to pick up on their vibes and asked good questions in return. She was hoping she and Jason could talk more in private, but she got so caught up in her children's reaction to Jason that she ran out of time. At about 10:45, after he had told yet another story from when he and Traci were about 10, Jason said he had to go because he was working the next day at "ten hundred hours."

"This was really great, Trace," he said. "How about next time we do this we take the kids out with us? They do know how to use a knife and a fork, right?"

The kids raised a minor ruckus razzing Jason as he put his jacket back on and headed for the door. After saying good-bye to the children, he put his right arm halfway around Traci's waist and pulled her to him for a quick peck on the lips. Startled by the action, Traci was only able to stammer a weak good night. When she closed the door and turned back into the house, she had three children staring at her red face.

Jason called about a week later to set up another outing, this time for the whole family. The group would go bowling, then decide where to go out to eat. Traci eagerly accepted, although she still would have preferred it had just been she and Jason alone.

The outing went well, both adults thought. Jason was a good bowler as a kid and was still good at the sport. He coached Traci's kids with the ease of a man used to being followed, but he still had enough sense to realize that this was a game, and not real life. At one point while she was watching, Traci grew wistful.

"These should have been his kids. This should be his family," she thought to herself. "I really fucked up big time."

"Penny for your thoughts, Babe," Jason said when he spotted Traci staring at the four of them.

"I'm sorry, Jase. I was just trying to remember the last time we were bowling. That's all."

"Oh, that's easy: about a hundred years ago," Jason bantered back.

"Hey, wait a minute. We're not that old!" Traci commented back.

Two weeks later Jason called and asked about taking the family out again. Traci asked if it could be an adults only night. Jason agreed to dinner and drinks at his favorite steakhouse in that part of Virginia.

Traci hadn't felt butterflies in her stomach before a date in a long time, probably not since she began dating Archie about 16 years ago. She was hoping the night was going to be the start of a new beginning for her and Jason ... a way back. But while she felt the electricity, she couldn't read Jason. He was a long way away from that kid in Indiana ... or was he?

The date started with drinks at the bar and small talk before the pair was ushered to their table. Much of the talk then turned to Traci's children.

"They're great kids, Trace, really they are. You've done a great job of raising them," Jason said. "You ... and them ... what a great package. How could your ex give that up for some extracurricular sex. The man is obviously a moron."

"Where are we going here, Jason? I've got to know," Traci said while she looked down at the table. "I'm so wet right now I might embarrass myself when I stand up. Is there a chance for us? I mean, I know we can never go back to 'Trace & Jase' again, but can't we start anew. I think I'm beginning to fall in love with you again ..."

Traci lifted her eyes to see Jason giving her a sad look. She stopped herself, then looked back down at the table.

"Traci, this last six weeks or so have been great. It's been wonderful to reconnect, and get back a little of what we had lost. And your kids are wonderful ... if you hadn't done what you did they could be mine ... but we can't undo what's been done. I don't have those same kinds of feelings that I had for you as a kid. It took a while, but I don't love you - haven't loved you in a quarter of a century. That part of my life is now just a memory. I was so mad at you. I grieved over you. But then I took my life in a different direction and everything turned out good ... except I never found anybody with whom to spend my life. Since I know what I had once, I won't accept anything less ...

"I treasure the rekindling of our friendship, Trace, but I don't love you and doubt I ever will again. Can't we just accept that and be friends?"

"At least can you accept my apology for how it ended?" Traci asked. "I was stupid and selfish, and that was no way to end it with the person I also considered my best friend. I got carried away with the sex with different guys, and Frankie was bigger and better than the others, so when he asked me to live with him ... well, I was thinking with the brain between my legs ... and I threw away probably the best thing I ever had.

"I waited 25 years to have the guts to say that. I am truly sorry, Jase."

"Thank you for that, Traci. I know how hard that must have been for you. But I wasn't looking for an apology anymore. When I stopped loving you, I was able to forgive you. I'm not sure I would have been able to forgive you if I still loved you. But I am truly glad to have my friend back in my life ... and her great kids."

"I guess if that's all you have to offer me, I will gladly take your friendship," Traci responded. "I probably don't deserve your love."

Jason saw Traci and her children about twice a month. The kids really responded to Jason, maybe even better than they did to her ex, who only seemed to take the kids when he really had to, Traci noted. To an outsider looking in, she and Jason and the kids probably looked like the average American family. But it was never to be, she mused to herself.

++++++++++

Jason was on a deployment two years later in the Middle East when the first bullet found him, shattering his left knee. He gave a terrible growl and started falling forward when the second bullet hit him in the upper left chest near his shoulder. Had he not have been falling forward, the second bullet would have struck him right near his heart, probably ending his life. As it worked out, the injuries ended his career as an operator; he could still be in the navy it he wanted to do a desk job.

Traci got the phone call from Jason's mother, who was informed of the injuries by the navy once Jason was safely in an American hospital. Jason had told his mother that he and Traci had become good friends and saw each other occasionally, so she should call Traci if anything ever happened to him. Traci thanked Jason's mother, hung up the phone, and sobbed before going into the kitchen to tell her children. The four shed several tears for their friend that night, both for his having been injured badly and also because he was still alive.

Jason came back to the United States two weeks later with his left arm in a sling and his knee in a cast. The knee would have to be replaced once Jason got a little stronger.

"Hey, you," Jason said when he called Traci from the hospital. "Tell the kids I'm sorry but bowling is out this weekend," he joked lightly.

Traci involuntarily inhaled when she heard Jason's voice. She started to sob over the phone, making incomprehensible noises as she tried to speak. Getting herself under control, she answered, "Tell them yourself, you coward. OK to take a couple of bullets; not OK to tell three teens that he's ruined their plans."

"OK, OK, I'll tell them myself. How soon can you guys be here?"

Jason was sitting up in his bed when Traci and the children arrived 20 minutes later. The girls kissed Jason gently on the cheek and Chris gave a gentle high-five to his right hand. Traci stood by the bottom of Jason's bed fighting back tears. When the children had finished, she walked up to Jason and gave him a gentle peck on the lips. Jason didn't pull back. As the tears fell down her cheeks, Traci gently curled into his right shoulder, the same way she did so many years ago when she needed comfort from him. Jason put his arm around her waist and let her cry.

The children stood quietly by as the scene played out for about a minute. Then youth trumped the moment.

"So did they give you the bullets they dug out of your body?" Chris asked with enthusiasm.

Jason removed his hand from around Traci.

"As a matter of fact, they did, Chris. I asked the docs for them because I knew you'd want to see them."

Jason reached over to a table and picked up a small jar containing two bullets. He handed the jar to Chris, who looked duly impressed.

Traci and the kids were regular visitors to the hospital during Jason's stay there. Most of the nursing staff assumed they were a family - a happy family.

As soon as Jason was healed and rehabbed enough from the chest injury, the doctors replaced his left knee. Three weeks after that, the Navy determined that Jason could begin earning his keep while rehabbing the knee. He got transfer orders back to Coronado, CA. Traci and the children took the news hard. Jason, too, was disappointed, but he accepted the news for what it was - part of the life he had chosen.

Two weeks before Jason was scheduled to depart, Leslie called him and asked if she could meet with him privately. When he said yes, the 16-year-old asked him not to tell her mother about the meeting. Jason agreed, somewhat confused.

The pair met one afternoon after school at a Starbucks. Jason bought them both salted caramel lattes and joined Leslie at the table she had picked out. As he placed her drink in front of her, Jason couldn't help notice how much Leslie resembled her mother at that age. He smiled at the memory.

Leslie was not smiling. She had something to say, and the look on here face vacillated between anger and sadness, Jason thought.

"Look, Jason, I probably have no right to say this, but I'm going to anyway," she started. "None of us want you to leave, but this is probably going to crush Mom. This is the happiest she's been in years.

"I know you men are often clueless, so that's what I'm assuming you are. Otherwise I'd just have to think you're cruel and heartless, and I can't believe that. If you can't tell, Mom's totally head over heels in love with you. I know you two decided long ago that you didn't want to ruin a good friendship by being involved, but neither of you are 25 any more. She loves you, Jason, and so do we. Can't you do something to get yourself un-transferred, or make some plans for the future?"

Her words came out quietly and in a rush. Jason sat stock still, with a look that Leslie couldn't read.

"Hooooo," Jason sighed. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

"Leslie, I love you kids almost like family ... and if things had turned out different we might even have been one. And while I love your mother like a best friend ... I don't love her like that. I'm not in love with her like I once was ... and never will be again ...

"But why not, Jason?" Leslie interjected, a look of extreme pain on her face. "Isn't it supposed to be best when lovers are also friends?"

"Yes, it is, Leslie, b-b-but ... you really need to talk to your mother about this. It's not my place. I'm sorry."

Leslie started to sob quietly at the table. Jason got up from his seat, reached over to the girl where she sat, lifted her gently to her feet, and hugged her in what he hoped was a fatherly way.

"I really am sorry."

Traci noticed Leslie was much quieter than usual at the supper table that night. After supper, Traci approached her oldest.

"Something you want to talk about, Les?" Traci inquired.

Mother and daughter went off to Leslie's room and Leslie closed the door behind them.

"What could you have done to the sweetest guy in the whole world to make him never want to love you anymore?" she hissed in question to her mother.

Traci's face lost all color. She knew it was time to tell her secret to her daughter.

"Oh my God, Mom!" wailed her daughter when Traci finished her spiel. "What a terrible thing to do to a guy who loved you that much. I thought he was just totally clueless about how you felt about him, so I went and spoke to him today; tried to get him to change his transfer orders. He told me that all you two could ever be was good friends because he could never love you again. He wouldn't tell me why; said I had to ask you.

"You threw that man's heart in the trash, Mom, and barely gave it a second thought. For what, some smooth talker who was better in bed ... at least more experienced? What a whore! What a slut!"

Traci looked at the disgust on her daughter's face and dropped her eyes to the floor. She had nothing left to tell. She couldn't even admit to her daughter that the sex really wasn't better after a few months with a new partner. Once she had gotten over the newer stuff, it turned out not to be any better, just different, but by that time Jason was long gone. So she stayed with Frankie, wound up marrying him and then three years later got a divorce when Frankie told her he found someone else on whom to work his magic.

Traci quietly got up from her spot on the bed and walked out of the room wordlessly.

++++++++++

Jason slowly adjusted to life behind a desk. The southern California weather agreed with Jason, and with a rigorous physical therapy program his body returned to the conditioning he had before being shot. His hair was graying down the sides as he approached 50, but he still cut an impressive figure. Dating was not a problem, nor was the amount of sex he was having. What was a problem, however, was not having a family around, even if Traci's family technically wasn't his. They still kept in touch by Skype every week, though, and Jason took leave when Leslie graduated from high school two years later.

The family had saved Jason a spot in the auditorium so he could sit with them. Leslie had specifically asked Jason to wear his dress uniform, and Jason figured out why when he saw Traci's second ex and his new wife seated with the family. Archie Ingram was about two inches and 20 pounds of muscle smaller than Jason, and even in a good suit he was nowhere near as dashing as Jason. Jason guessed that Leslie wanted to make a point on her mother's behalf, and Jason, now a lieutenant commander, was up to the challenge. Chris introduced the two men, and Traci noticed that the smug look on Archie's face that was there since he introduced his beautiful, younger wife, had suddenly disappeared. Traci also spotted the look on the face of the new Mrs. Ingram. Traci didn't notice that the temperature of the room suddenly get much warmer, but Amanda Ingram flushed as if the temp went up appreciably.

Just then Leslie, who was getting ready with the others in the gym, entered the auditorium to take a peek at the crowd and spotted Jason. She practically ran to him and threw herself into his arms, giving him her best "dad" hug. Jason instinctively gave her a strong, appropriate squeeze back, and the scene wasn't lost on Archie. Leslie leaned in to Jason and whispered into his ear, "Thank you, for so many reasons."

Jason had reservations for five at one of the best restaurants in Virginia Beach after the graduation, but he figured he could wrangle two more places at his table if he used his rank when he called, so he invited Archie and Amanda to join them for dinner. Archie seemed uncomfortable, but Amanda spoke up quickly and accepted.

Dinner went off without a hitch. Jason noted that on the few times Traci seemed nervous, she reached for his hand, and he obligingly took hers. The children, he thought, spent more time talking to him than their own father. He came away from the dinner unimpressed with Archie, and wondered how Traci ever chose him in the first place.

After the dinner ended and Archie and Amanda left, Jason drove back to Traci's house with Leslie as his passenger. Leslie thanked him for coming, and thanked him for being such a good friend to her mother, despite what had happened in the past.

"Thanks for showing Dad that Mom's not a loser. I knew she would be intimidated by 'Wife No. 2,' but I think having you here really helped Mom's confidence. And besides, we all wanted you here," Leslie said.

++++++++++

Jason hit his 30-year mark and retired from the navy as a commander. He went to work for a defense contracting firm based out of Washington DC. Since he didn't have a family of his own, Jason often took on assignments that had him travelling the globe for months at a time. But he always found two weeks every summer for a vacation with Traci's family. He and the family would fly someplace together, or he would have them fly to meet him in whatever city he was then in. Traci and the children were always impressed that Jason seemed to know many of the local customs of every place they stayed, and seemed to know a lot of the restaurant and café owners as well. He always seemed to get a great table, and he always seemed to be able to speak the language of whatever country they were in.

"What did you want to be when you were growing up," Nancy asked one night at a restaurant in Jerusalem, Israel.

Jason studied Nancy's face for a second, noticing how much the now 16-year-old resembled her mother at that age. He glanced over at Leslie, who looked like a slightly older version of Nancy. He smiled to himself as he remembered when the only dreams he had were to build fancy new buildings as a structural engineer, marry his sweetheart and soul mate, Traci, and raise a family. How his entire life changed in the blink of an eye. Subconsciously, he tapped his heart and rubbed his artificial knee.

"I just wanted to live a simple life and enjoy my family," he answered. "Then life got complicated, but I was lucky enough to travel the world, make new friends all over the globe and find you guys to make a sort of a family."

The family-type vacations stopped when Nancy, the last of children, graduated from college and got her first real-life job. Still for the next few years, Jason found time to get away for a couple of long weekends with Traci, all very platonic.

Jason retired for good a few days after his 60th birthday, and moved back to Fort Wayne. Traci, too, moved back to Fort Wayne, renting an apartment about 20 minutes from Jason's house. The two were frequent visitors at each other's abodes for about six months.

"Trace, this is really stupid, you living in that small apartment, when I've got three empty rooms. Besides, you're over here most of the time. Why don't you just move in with me?"