Page 20 of Dragon Daddy's Second Chance

After putting on a pot of coffee, he stood looking out of the window at the jungle slowly waking up, thenremembered that Wren had something to tell him, something she thought was bad enough he wouldn’t want her anymore. Shifting his mind from the engagement ring, he poured himself a cup of coffee and took it out to the porch, searching his mind for anything that could be so terrible that he’d turn his back on the woman that he loved.

After coming up with and then discarding several possible scenarios, he finally gave up with a sigh; he was just driving himself crazy thinking about it. Wren would tell him when she woke up. Deciding that talking was easier on a full stomach, he went back inside and searched for something to make for breakfast. Finally settling on a cheese omelet and toast, he got to work. He was just beating the eggs when the sound of tires on the gravel of the path in front of the cabin caught his attention, and he froze. The sound was so foreign on the island that it took him a second to identify it.

A second later, a happy voice broke the morning’s silence. “Good morning, I’m home,” Susan called. “And I’ve brought company.”

He set down the fork and walked over to the window, surprised to see Susan riding in the golf cart with the doctor, but even more alarming, another cart was parked behind it. Wanting to believe he wasn’t seeing what he was, he closed his eyes then opened them again, but Wren’s parents were still sitting in the second cart, her sister and a little boy behind them. Tearing himself away from the window, he hurried back to the bedroom and sat down on the bed next to Wren. Then, he gently shook her until she groggily opened her eyes.

“Sweetheart, you’d better wake up,” he said. “Susan is home, and she brought your parents with her. Your sister is here too; she has a little boy with her.”

Wren murmured something he couldn’t understand and for a second he thought she’d gone back to sleep, but shesuddenly sat up in bed, her eyes frantic. “Did you just tell me that my parents are here?” she asked. “Or did I just dream that?”

“Wren, they’re right out front,” he said, then jumped up from the bed. “I need to put my shirt on; your father is going to kill me. You should get dressed. Maybe they won’t know I’ve been here all night.”

He turned back to the bed, surprised to find Wren still sitting there. “Sweetheart, they’re right out front. Maybe you should get out of bed,” he coaxed. “Maybe put on some clothes before they get inside.”

“They weren’t supposed to be here. I can’t believe Susan and my sister did this to me,” Wren said, shaking her head, then looked over at him. “We never talked, you don’t know…this wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen.”

“Hey, calm down; it’s okay, sweetheart, we’re both adults,” he said, suddenly worried when all of the color drained from her face. “I’ll help you get dressed, and we’ll face them together; there’s nothing wrong with us being together.”

Several loud thumps followed by the sound of Susan laughing got Wren moving. “I can get dressed by myself,” Wren said, jumping out of bed. “Why don’t you go to the kitchen and wait for me there? I won’t be long.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, noticing that two bright spots of color had appeared on her cheeks. “I’m worried about you. First, you were white as a sheet, and now your cheeks are bright pink.”

“I’m fine, I just need a few minutes to compose myself,” she said, searching the dresser for clothes. “I promise I’ll be right there.”

Not satisfied but not sure what else he could do, he went back to the kitchen and started a new pot of coffee, listening as Susan came hobbling into the cabin. “Wren, are you still in bed?” she called. “I have a surprise for you.”

There was a second of silence, and then he heard Wren’s voice. “I’m coming. I just got out of bed. Give me a second,” she called, and he winced. What are you doing home so early?”

“I brought you a surprise,” Susan said. “Come out here and see.”

The silence lasted even longer this time. “Mom, we thought we’d surprise you,” the little boy said. “Aunt Lisa said it was okay since I was missing you so much, we get to stay with you until you leave. Isn’t it that great?”

“I missed you too, kiddo,” Wren said, a warmth in her voice he’d never heard before, and he stumbled back a step. “I’m so excited that you’re here. You’re going to have a lot of fun.”

“Can we go to the beach right now?” the little boy asked. “I want to play in the water. Aunt Lisa says it’s really warm, and the waves are fun to play in. Can we build a sandcastle?”

Wren laughed, “Of course, but first…well, maybe you should get settled in. You must be tired after the long trip,” she said. “Maybe you should go lay down for a little while and rest.”

“Mom, I’m not tired,” the little boy said. “I slept the entire time we were on the plane, but I am hungry. I want something to eat.”

He heard the sound of little feet coming his way. “Theo, hold on a second. You can’t just go running in there,” Wren said. “Come back here…”

The little boy came around the corner at a run, but when he saw Blake, he abruptly stopped with a little gasp and then stood staring at him. “Well, hey there…” he started to greet the child, suddenly understanding what Wren had been trying to tell him.

The two stared at each other for several long seconds, then Wren came running in and froze, looking from one ofthem to the other. “Ummm…Theo, this is Blake,” she finally said. “We were going to have breakfast together.”

Completely tongue-tied, feeling like he was looking at a picture of his younger self, he could barely draw in a breath, let alone speak. “I think I’d better go,” he finally said, desperate to get out of there, the truth of what he was seeing more than he could take. “We’ll have to do breakfast another day.”

***Wren***

Inwardly cursing herself for not telling Blake about Theo sooner, Wren started to follow him, hoping to make things right, but a tug on her arm stopped her. “Mom, who was that man?” Theo asked, looking up at her, his face full of confusion. “Have I met him before?”

“No, sweetheart,” she said, trying to hold back the tears that stung her eyes. “He’s an old friend of mine, I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

Theo studied her for a second. “You like him don’t you?” he asked. “You’re sad because he left.”

“Well, that’s part of it,” she said, ruffling his hair. “But it’s nothing for you to be worried about. I believe you said that you were hungry.”

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