The Barbeque

"This is your last chance, James. Screw up again and not only am I kicking you out but I am going for your jugular. Not only will I divorce you but I will take every fucking penny you have. You cannot sweet talk me or Daddy Dom me into blindly believing you anymore. These past few months might have been hard but I have fucking grown up. And let me tell you what I have learned."

She studied his face as she continued her diatribe, "I don't fucking need you. Not your money. Not your domination. Not even your cock. I can and have survived without any of those things. So if I do take you back, you remember for the rest of your life that it was my choice. And you be damned fucking grateful I did too. That's means showing it too. Understood?"

She watched the color drain from his handsome face. For a moment her courage faltered. He was her husband, the father of her children. Did he really deserve that kind of dressing down? We all made mistakes, right?

Then she remembered all the lonely, long nights that she had spent crying in this very bed. Damned straight he deserved that...and worse. He was weak. He had been willing to throw away a decade and a half of love and marriage, their children, everything over a younger, prettier woman. He did not deserve her forgiveness, let alone a second chance. He might as well know the score and learn his place in their home...on her terms.

"I meant it Georgia. I know that I don't deserve this second chance. But if you give it to me, I promise that I will shine on you every day like the summer sun. No more cold snow. You have my word. Please, baby girl, please take me back. Let me be your Daddy, your husband, your lover, your friend again," he lifted her hand and brought it slowly to his lips. He pressed a kiss to her knuckles as he pleaded, "Please, Georgia."

She sighed. This was a huge risk. Could she trust this man? Despite her brave words, could she really survive another betrayal? Of course, there were other things to consider too like their children. She had never wanted them to grow up in a broken home the way that she had, which was why she had tried so hard over the years to keep her marriage fresh and alive. What now? Could she do this? Could she find it in herself to forgive him? It all weighed upon her. It truly was her choice to make.

In the end, she simply nodded her head. It was all he needed as he drew her into his strong arms. Her head found that sweet spot on his chest that she had been missing all these months. Not even the soft tickle of his chest hair under her nose could stop her from falling into the deepest slumber she had had in months. Her final memory as she drifted into dream land was of him kissing the top of her head and whispering 'I love you.' Or perhaps she already was in dream land, because he so rarely said those words.

***

Mildred Stein was on the phone bright and early the next morning. "Jill! Jill, wake up. You will never believe what I saw." Without waiting for a response, she launched into her tale. "Well, last night after we all left, that man scooped her up and carried her into the house like Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara. Yes, yes...carried her inside in his arms. But it gets better...this morning he came out to get the morning paper...in his birthday suit. No, not that one, silly girl. His birthday suit! Naked as the day he was born. And let me tell you, if that woman don't take him back, I'm going to have to find out if he might be into GILFs."

Oh, the joys of living in the South...where summer days are long and summer nights have a life all their own.