Unforgivable

"Well, it looks like we'll both find out together," Colby said as they went to sit down.

"This is good!" Bianca announced after trying Kung Pao Chicken for the first time ever.

"That's my favorite," Drew told her.

"Okay, so...spill it!" Colby finally said, unable to wait another minute.

"Well, you know about Hawaii, right?"

"Drew! Of course I know about Hawaii," Colby said.

"And you know that's not the only place that has F-22s."

"Uh-huh. And your point would be?"

"Well, Tyndall also has Raptors. And it's only about two hours away."

Colby's heart started beating fast as she said, "And?"

"And a friend of mine from flight school, a guy who's wanted orders to Hawaii more than anything..."

"Drew!" she said again.

"He and I made some phone calls today, and since I want to stay here now, we uh, we kind of swapped."

"Wait. You're not going to Hawaii?" Colby asked, barely able to breathe.

"Nope."

"And you're going to Tyndall?"

"Yep!"

"Oh, my..."

Just like in the car, only worse, Colby launch herself at Drew. This time, the chair, with both of them in it, went over backwards and when it hit the floor, Colby freaked out.

"Are you okay? Please tell me you're okay?" she said as Drew opened one eye and then the other.

"I...think so," he said.

He then smiled at her and the moment he did, she started kissing him. It wasn't for 3-4 seconds that she realized Bianca was watching and suddenly stopped.

When she looked over her shoulder her daughter was standing up, her hand over her mouth, and she was laughing so hard it made Colby laugh. That made Drew laugh and that cause Bianca to come over and join them on the floor where they all kept laughing until they couldn't laugh anymore.

"So you're okay with that?" Drew asked once Colby slid off of him and he could breathe again.

She gave him the skunk eye then started laughing again.

"I can probably live with it," she told him, as though it was no big deal, before kissing the younger man she'd fallen in love with again.

"Yeah?" he asked as Bianca sat there smiling from ear to ear.

"Uh-huh," Colby told him with the best smile Drew had ever seen.

"Well. Then let's finish eating!" he said before getting up then sitting back down.

"I want more Kung Pao Chicken!" Bianca said the way she used to talk before things went south in her life.

Colby was on the verge of crying again, but those would have been tears of joy as she realized the significance of this news. The man she loved was staying in the local area, and she was almost finished with college. And perhaps most importantly, it seemed like Bianca had been pulled back from the precipice of disaster before getting too close to the edge.

Colby passed all of her finals, and Drew was there with Bianca for her graduation; a graduation that took place with people Colby had never seen before with one or two exceptions she'd met on test or lab days.

Drew not only wasn't surprised when the older woman he was falling in love with was announced as a 'cum laude' graduate, as she received her diploma, he stood up and hollered out, "We love you, Colby!" with Bianca hollering along with him and waving like fools.

"I love you, too!" she called back as she held up her long-awaited-for diploma.

"So what now?" Colby asked after going out for a celebratory dinner, courtesy of her new boyfriend.

"We spend every minute we can together before I have to report in, then we see each other as often as possible after that."

"You know, with my degree, I could work anywhere," she casually threw out.

"Oh. Like say...Panama City?"

Panama City was right next door to Tyndall, and Drew smiled at her and said, "Hmmm. I kind of like that idea."

"Just...kind of?" Colby asked with a smile.

"I'll never try and tell you what to do, Colby. But nothing would make me happier if we were together."

"As in...together together? Like maybe in the same apartment? In Panama City?"

"Bianca has the summer off now, right?" Drew reminded her.

"Wait. What are you guys talking about?" Bianca asked, suddenly aware it might be something important.

"Nothing. At least not yet," her very happy mom replied.

"Are you guys like in love or something?"

"Or something, right, Drew?" Colby said with a smile.

"Or maybe something not just...something?" Drew suggested, knowing it made very little sense and not caring at all.

"We shall see!" his girlfriend replied before leaning over and kissing him.

A week later, the two of them having kept their word to spend every possible moment together, Colby was looking at city, county, and federal jobs in the Panama City area.

"How much does a GS-7 make?" she asked Drew during one such search.

"I don't know, but it's easy to find out."

Within seconds, they found the GS pay scale, and that gave them both a pretty good idea.

"With what I make, we could really do quite well on that. For that matter, we'd do just fine on my money alone," Drew mentioned.

"Wait. I thought people in the military lived on food stamps," Colby told him.

"Seriously?" Drew replied before realizing some people had no idea how much anyone made. They heard reports on TV about very junior enlisted folks with several kids and assumed that applied to nearly everyone.

When he showed her the DFAS website with the military pay scale, she said, "That's way more than a GS-7 makes."

"And that's just my base pay. Here, let me show you."

After explaining housing allowances, food allowances, flight pay, etc., Colby was stunned.

"I...I had NO idea," she said very quietly.

"And yet you loved me when you thought I lived on food stamps," Drew teased.

"I never even thought about it. Ever," she admitted. "But if I had, I'd have just assumed I would have to work for us to even get by."

"I like the sound of 'us', by the way," Drew told her.

When Colby smiled, he kissed her, and she said, "Yeah. Me, too."

"So, have you decided where you might want to live and/or work?" he asked.

"Drew, if I did move, I'd want an apartment off-base. Just in case."

Drew didn't laugh as he explained there was no housing allowance unless they were married, and on-base housing was also only for married personnel. Plus, Irma had damaged so much of the base, there might not be much housing, if any, even left there.

"Oh, I never thought of that," she said. "But I'm more than willing to relocate so we can be together. My family lives up in Michigan, so there's nothing here to tie me down, and it's not like we're moving to, I don't know, Hawaii."

Drew laughed, kissed her again then said, "Then let's go find an apartment."

"We just need to get my house cleaned up and rent it out. And if things work out like I think they will, we can sell it down the road."

"Do you know how sexy smart is?" Drew asked before kissing her again.

"I may never understand why you like me so much, but I've learned to accept it."

Drew got serious then sat down in front of her.

"Colby? I do like you. A lot. But well, the truth is I've fallen in love with you."

Tears welled up in her eyes so fast it surprised Drew.

"I love you, too, Drew," she told him before sliding over on his lap to hug him.

"I know another couple that does this all the time. In fact, I think it's time you and Bianca met them."

"Will they like me?" a now-worried, 35-year old Colby asked.

"They will. I promise you that. And they're going to love Bianca, too."

The following evening, Colby and Bianca met Martin and Sybil for the first time, and by the end of dinner, it felt like they'd all known each other for years. They discussed their plans when Bianca was watching something on TV, and after getting nods of approval they sat down with her and told her what they'd be doing.

"Really? I get to leave my crummy old school?" she said, surprising them both.

"Well, yes. You'd be going to a new school somewhere near Panama City," her mom told her.

"Then let's go!" Bianca said as she hugged her mom and Drew.

On the ride home, Bianca surprised them again when she asked Drew a question.

"Drew? Will you be my new dad?"

The question had two possible meanings, so he gently probed to see which one she meant.

"Well, since my dad is going to be in prison for a long time, and since you're like the nicest man I've ever known, and since you love my mom, would you be my dad?"

"I want you to know that I love you, too, Bianca," Drew told her first.

He saw her smiling in the mirror then said, "And nothing would make me happier, honey."

When they got home, Bianca asked if she could hug him again, and he told her she could do that anytime for any reason.

"Okay," she said with a sweet smile before hugging him tight.

"Drew?" she said when she let go of him.

"Yes?"

"Before you, you know, saw me at the party? I was so sad and unhappy all the time."

He didn't say anything. He and Colby just listened.

"Well, ever since, I feel happy again. I mean, I'm sad about my dad, but I don't think he really even loves me."

She wasn't sad this time, she was just explaining how she felt.

"But I know you love me, because of the nice things you do and the way you talk to me. And that makes me really happy."

For the first time since he was a little boy, Drew Gillis teared up.

"Wow. That may just be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, sweetheart," Drew told her as he dried his eyes.

"Don't be sad!" Bianca told him. "My mom and I both love you, right, Mom?"

"Yes, we do, sweetie. Very much. And Drew and I love you even more, okay?"

"See, this is why I'm happy all of the time now," she told them as they all hugged each other.

By the time Drew had to report in, he and Colby had found a very nice, furnished, three-bedroom apartment they leased for six months. She quit her job at IHOP so they could get her house ready to rent, and while Drew was in-processing to his unit, Colby started getting serious about finding a job. But because Bianca was out of school and still too young to be left alone all day, it took her mom awhile to find something she could do from home.

She found a part-time job she could do using her laptop that paid $20 an hour. It was only 20 hours a week, but it was ideal for their new situation. It let her work when she wanted, spend time with her daughter as needed, and still have dinner ready by the time Drew got home.

The first time Colby saw him in a flight suit, she nearly swooned.

"You look so masculine and handsome!" she told him before whispering, "I want to rip this thing off you and..."

"Patience, Grasshopper," he told her with a smile as Bianca tried to figure out what they were doing.

By the end of July, Drew was established in a fairly normal routine in his squadron, one he really enjoyed being part of, and flying the Raptor was a dream come true. But so was coming home to Colby who was genuinely excited to see him each and every day.

As much as Drew enjoyed both of those things, and he really, really enjoyed them, watching Bianca become a polite, well-mannered young lady was perhaps his favorite thing in life. Like his own dad, Drew knew he would never be her father, but each time he saw some positive change in her, he mentioned it then praised her and made sure to hug her, as well. Bianca, in turn ate up the positive reinforcement she'd so desperately needed from a male role model, and Drew Gillis provided that in spades.

Bianca went back to school, a school where she felt safe and where she able to focus. Her grades came back up and she made several new friends who were also thoughtful, conscientious young girls who loved coming over to have dinner or even spend the night.

With her daughter back in school, Bianca was able to take a full-time job that paid about the same as she making part-time, and get home just two hours after Bianca, who could now be trusted to be by herself for that amount of time. Colby loved coming home to a clean house where her daughter had taken care of things or seeing her in her room studying or just listening to music.

As she thought about how their lives had been just a few short months before, it nearly brought tears to her eyes to see the dramatic difference. And no small part of that difference was the way she felt. She had never been so in love or so happy in her entire life, and she found it hard to imagine being any happier.

That was true until Thanksgiving Day when, after having dinner with Drew's mom and dad, he proposed to her surrounded by the people they loved the most. Colby tried not to cry when Shelby started, but it was a losing battle as she happily said 'yes' to the very handsome, younger man she so dearly loved.

Colby only visited her ex-husband once while he was in prison. And it was then that she asked him to let Drew adopt their daughter. He was now sober and realized the best thing for Bianca was a stable, loving family; something he knew he could never provide. He not only signed away his parental rights, he even apologized to his former wife and told her he wished he could have been a better husband and father.

"What I did was unforgivable," he told her with tears in his eyes.

It was, and yet Colby forgave him and thanked him for being so understanding, and she even cried when she left. But that was a chapter of her life she needed to permanently close, and now all that remained was presenting this option to Bianca.

"So my last name would be the same as Drew's?" she asked.

"Yes. And so will mine once we're married," her mother explained. "You don't have to do this, honey. It's 100% your call."

Drew never tried to influence her, but there was no need to do that. Bianca took one look at him and said, "I would love to be Bianca Gillis. On one condition."

"What's that?" her mother asked, so happy she was about to burst.

"Can I call you 'Dad' now? Please?" she asked Drew.

"Come here, sweetie," he said to his beautiful daughter who would turn 13 in another month.

"Nothing would make me happier, Bianca," he told her as he held her hands.

"Me, either, Dad," she said as she put her arms around him.

Colby's parents came to visit over Christmas and fell in love with the warm weather. And truth be told, they loved Drew almost as much as their daughter and granddaughter did after seeing the way he treated them both.

They flew back down the following April for their wedding, and a year later when Colby gave birth to a second baby girl.

As she lay there holding her precious baby, she looked around at her mom and dad, Drew's parents, and Bianca, and realized this was the way life was meant to be. Had her husband done something so unforgivable, none of this would have ever happened. But he had, and this was now her new reality. A life with a loving husband, a teenage daughter who was a pleasure to be with, and a beautiful new baby who would always be loved by everyone standing there 'oohing' and 'awwing'.

Colby's thoughts were interrupted when Martin said, "Okay, everybody! Group photo!"

He'd grabbed one of the nurses to take same happy snaps as everyone took turns getting near little Ava Michelle Gillis, who'd stolen the show.

Just five short years later, and orders to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, Captain Drew Gillis and his beautiful wife and little Ava, flew to Colorado Springs, Colorado, together to leave their other beautiful daughter, Bianca Gillis, in the hands of the United States Air Force Academy with a dream of one day flying the F-22 Raptor just like her dad, the man who'd turned her life around, and her mother's as well.