Double Daddy Trouble

“Look, Jules. What happened…”

“I don’t care. You up and left out of the blue. Two years and not even a goodbye. I don’t care, though. I am past it, and I appreciate it if you would just drop it too.”

“Okay, if that is what you want, fine,” I said trying to calm the anger I could see brewing in her.

She may have said she was past it, but it was easy to see still that it was raw.

“Just tell me. Is she mine?”

Julie sank down on the bed she had just quickly made. I was prepared to hear her say what I knew deep down.

“It was right after you left,” she said softly. “I was heartbroken. I went to a party with Savannah. She thought it would get me out of my funk. It was just a one-night thing that didn’t mean anything. But I found out a month later something more came of it.”

‘Bullshit,” I said not believing her.

I thought back to the girl laying on the couch. It wasn’t just her matching black hair that made me think she was mine. There was a connection I had with her. I felt it, I was sure of it.

“I’m serious Hawk. I’m sorry, but she isn’t yours.”

“Okay, then tell me who the guy was.”

“I don’t remember his name,” she said slightly hesitantly.

It was the chink in her armor I was looking for. It was easy to see she was making it all up. Julie was not the type of girl to have a one night stand, especially with a guy she didn’t know even his name.

I got down on my knees in front of her. I hesitated for a few seconds before taking her hands. It felt so good to touch her again. It was like electricity waking me up anew.

“I know you are lying,” I said softly. “She is mine. I know it.”

Though it looked that Julie had too soften at our touching, her honey eyes narrowed on me now.

“Even if she was yours, not that I am saying she is, what does that matter? You have no right to come here out of nowhere and ask me that.”

“Jules, if I had known…” I started.

“You would have what?” Julie stood up and put some space between us. “Turn around and come home?”

I took a deep breath and sat in her spot on the bed.

“Honestly, no. I wouldn’t have been able to.”

“You know I had to find out from Mrs. Jennings that you left. You never even told me that you were interested in the military. Then I go and find out you joined the SEALs? You threw us away like what we had was nothing. I don’t owe you anything.”

I waited for her to get it all out of her system. I knew I deserved it too.

“I didn’t tell you because I was too afraid I wouldn’t go if I did. You meant everything to me, Jules.”

“So totally disappearing without a trace to go to fight in a war seems like a logical way to show how you feel.”

“I needed to get out of here,” I said waving my arms around the room, but meaning the whole town. “I wanted to experience some life.”

“Why couldn’t we experience it together? I would have gone with you,” she finally said more hurt than anything else now.

“Where I went,” I said struggling to find the words. “I wouldn’t wish that on you.”

I did my best to hid the demons I held inside me, but I could tell she still saw them.

“Your dad would tell me stuff,” she said softly. “Just from time to time. He told me when you got in with the SEALs, when you to deployed to Syria, and that you got hurt," she finally ended softly.