New Man Pt. 10

Isaac grabbed her in a hug. And for long, long minutes, minutes when I went and grabbed his luggage, all he could do was bury his head in her coat and cry.

* * *

Jump forward.

He's sitting with his class now in front of the podium. His tiny sixth-grade graduation gown is a foot too long for him and bunched up with bobby pins. My heart swells like it never has before. Just a year ago, I grumbled to Christy and Garth about how unnecessary a sixth-grade graduation was, and now I'm the proudest goddamn father in the world.

Beside me was Morgan, sans our toddler. The little guy made it five minutes into the ceremony before he was making too much noise, so Sarah and Yvonne took him outside to play. Their own little ones are with a babysitter. Sarah and Morgan are both pregnant again, Sarah just staring to show, Morgan complaining that she looks like a blimp. I disagree vehemently. I don't think she's ever been more beautiful, save when she was pregnant with Caleb. Our second's going to be a little girl. Good God, I'm outnumbered.

Morgan and I married a week after her divorce was finalized, a short service at a classy little church. Tina and Rupert showed up, the only ones from her side to do so. It broke my heart, but Morgan has so many sisters-in-lust (her words, not mine). The reception was something else, full of dancing, laughter, good food, way too much champagne, and more cake stuffed in people's faces than we actually ate. Everyone got in on it, even the pastor and his wife.

For a while after she came to live with Lionel and me, Morgan tried to find a job. She worked for a few months as a teller, and it was okay, but her heart wasn't in it. Over a long night's talk, just the two of us, we finally brought up the idea of her becoming a stay-at-home mom. Being a mother's what she's always wanted most in life, and I was happy to support her decision. She's occupying some of her free time -- not that there's much -- by writing a children's book about a mother and her adopted son and daughter. She and Rupert are thick as thieves on that front.

And speaking of, I wasn't the only one to get remarried. Tina and Rupert tied the knot the spring after Morgan came to live with me. They're not at the graduation. I love them dearly, and Isaac does too, but they've been pulling away from our lives slowly. They're going to Europe for a month-long vacation soon, and asked Isaac if he wanted to go. He didn't. There wasn't much of an explanation on his part, but I think when Morgan came to live with us, he started letting that part of his life go, including Tina.

He called Morgan "Mom" three weeks after she came to live with us. It was a slip of the tongue, and it upset him when he realized what he said, but Morgan embraced him and told him with an absolute onslaught of tears that if he felt comfortable with it, so did she. For the most part, it's been Mom ever since.

Jenna's modeling career has continued to take off. She was even in a movie -- you might know her as Cyborg Shark Victim #2. Yeah, the topless one. That got her some attention. Too much, even. Her shoots took her from home for longer and longer periods of time. Yvonne's baby changed that, despite our blonde girlfriend protesting that it shouldn't. Jenna might not have wanted to be a mother, but she wanted to be there for the woman she loved, and she took on fewer shoots for a few months. Nowadays she's back at it with a passion, even dragging Yvonne across the world -- not that taking her and the baby to the Bahamas is exactly "dragging her," but hey.

Victoria and I finally could be public about our relationship when Isaac passed her class. We arranged a meet-cute at the grocery store when he was around, and he even asked me afterwards if I was going to date her too. I chuckled and asked him if that would be so bad. He told me no, that he really liked her. He even sent her an email saying his dad thought she was cute and they should have a date. Victoria laughed about that one until she was nearly hoarse. Of all my girlfriends, save Morgan, obviously, I think she's his favorite, just because of the closeness of the teacher-student thing.

She and Sarah are also now officially a couple. Some relationships build off the page, and I didn't even know they were kind of dating back when we all hooked up at Christmas. I mean, we were all dating, but within the group, they definitely began to develop ties with each other. Victoria's thinking about a baby too, and maybe quitting her job. She's earning peanuts as a teacher, the stress is killing her, and Sarah makes incredible money. Plus, she and Morgan talk a lot about the joy of watching a kid grow for the first few years. I think ultimately she might try to do that, and see where she's at career-wise in a few years. Whatever she decides, she'll kill it.

The twins graduated too. They're already in grad school. Dakota will have a few more years of education beyond that for her physical therapy degree, but London and their father have begun some tentative groundwork of setting up a branch of his office there. Things are kind of wild when it comes to their family. Try as they might to keep their relationship with each other a secret, things did get out, at least with their parents. There was some drama there, but not as much as you might think. The truth is, their father loved them very much, and despite not understanding or approving of their closeness, he didn't want them out of his life. I could respect that. It would be a difficult thing to hear, and not a little bizarre, but even without his backing the twins would have had lives with us on the street.

One name you notice I haven't brought up is Jessica, my former babysitter. There's a reason for that. Jessica is a great person, absolutely fantastic. But one night, shortly before my wedding, she came to me and me alone. We made love, and she asked me questions I couldn't say yes to. Did I love her? And would I consider marrying her, not Morgan? I didn't realize the depths of her feelings for me. It's why I've refrained from talking about her overly much in this story. We broke things off at that point. I hurt her, and I'm sorry for that.

But she does keep up with the rest of us, especially the twins, and I bump into her on occasion. We had coffee the other day and boy, does Jessica have a strange story of her own to tell. But it is her story, and I'm not going to relate it here. She is happy and that's enough for me. It has to be.

As for me and Isaac, life continues being strange and wonderful. He has a girlfriend of his own now, a fiery young thing a year older than he is, and does she ever have him wrapped around her finger. They ran into each other -- where else? -- at the bookstore, and recognized each other from school. Now they ride bikes and talk books and play video games. He is good to her, and she is his fire. I am so proud of him.

He controls his anger these days by working out and swimming. He and Morgan have an "anytime" invitation to come use Garth and Christy's pool, and in lieu of their talks together on the phone, it's their bonding time. He's also become something of a baker, thanks to his residing closeness with Sarah, who loves teaching him to cook.

His name is being called now, and I'm on my feet, holding back tears as I cheer his name. He looks at me, embarrassed, but he waves and gives me that goofy grin of his, and we're all cheering him and clapping. Junior high next year. And soon, college, or trade school, or... well, whatever my wonderful Isaac decides he wants to do in life.

Is it a strange thing, having a father with a wife and six girlfriends on the side? Undoubtedly. Is he loved? Unquestionably. He is surrounded every day by a family that neither of us could have expected, by women who help him become the finest young man I could have ever hoped for. Isaac is my everything. But he is their everything too.

He is loved. He will always be loved.

He throws his cap in the air.