—- Current Day —-
Tyler’s Son Liam’s POV:
My friend James had gotten sick overnight so I called my sister Ashley to come pick me up and drop me off at home on her way to work in the morning. We had both spent the night at our friends houses and I knew she had to work int he morning, so I knew it wouldn’t be too much of hassle as her and I are really close, especially after mom passed and dad had been in that funk. 8:05am Ashley drives up and picks me up and we head to the house so she can drop me off. We pull up to the house and we notice another vehicle in the driveway behind our dad’s truck. “That’s odd…” Ashley says to me. “Dad never has anyone over this early unless it’s grandma and grandpa and that’s not their truck..” I agree and tell her “yeah that is odd…oh do you think dad finally dipped his toe back into dating and has a lady friend over?” I chuckle at my use of words. “I don’t know, maybe one of his friends from work slept over on the couch after having a few drinks..” Ashley says. “Well I guess we will find out, I’m tired and James was sick all last night and that couch of theirs isn’t the most comfortable so I’m ready to crash in my own bed sis.” The both of us get out of her car and head inside. “Don’t you have to be at work soon?” I ask her. “Shut up Liam…I’m just as curious as you are so I want to know before I head to work dork…” I unlock the front door and all of the lights are off and nothing seems amiss in the living room…there’s no one sleeping on the couch…odd. We slowly made our way up the stairs and we stop outside our dad’s room. We hear unusually loud snoring coming from his room. “Oh my god is there someone else in there?” I ask..Ashley shook her head and was like “nah there can’t be…is there?” Only one way to find out, I know this is odd but after my mom passed away, our dad was a complete nervous wreck and I know it had been four years now and I know our mom would have wanted dad to be happy and not be sad the rest of his life, but my sister and I weren’t expecting this already….
“Dad? Are you awake??” We announce after knocking while slowly opening his door…
Tyler’s POV:
The morning sun was peeking through the curtains and starting to light up the room. I heard a knock at the bedroom door and froze…”Dad? Are you awake??” I heard both my kids ask as they opened the door to find me in bed with another man…
Well that was certainly NOT on my bingo card for starting today…at all.Holy shit…here we go…dear old dad not only finally started to move on finally, but with a man and not just any man, his old best friend from over twenty years ago… Let’s see how this plays out…
“Dad…oh what…the…umm…whoa!” I hear both kids say. I sat up, trying to make sure my naked bottom half was still covered by the covers on my bed and also I glance over to make sure Tim was still covered. “Umm..hi kids…yeah I would say I am awake…” The look on both of their faces when they walked in a saw me not only butt ass naked in my bed but also with another man in my bed, was a shock to them both. This was not the way I wanted any of this to go. I was wanting to ease them into this new step of my life and this new relationship that Tim and I had agreed to slowly dip our toes in. Well fuck all of that because that idea flew out the window the moment my kids opened that door. Fuck…I thought both of them were sleeping over at friend’s houses and Ashley had to work so Tim and I would have time alone and not be caught. Back to my shocked kids…
“Dad…um who is that? Why are you two in bed together? Are you gay?” I’m sure there were a million more questions coming my way but I just went blank and it was all a blur, by that time Tim had started to wake up and realized that we were not alone in my room. “Good Morning babe…what did I miss? Why are you awake already?” He turns over and sees both of my kids standing at the door like they’ve seen a ghost and me petrified next to him. “Oh shit….” He whispers quietly and pulls the covers up over him a little more. I noticed that my son was the one with most of the questions, but my daughter, I could tell she was slightly amused with the situation that she caught her dear ol’ dad in. “Dad why don’t we let you two guys get dressed…we will be downstairs…” She says with a wink and pushes my son Liam out of my room and closes the door.
“Oh fucking shit…I was not ready for that, they caught us in bed together, I hope they aren’t freaking out and…” My brain was scrambling and I was panicking. I hadn’t had a panic attack in a few years, and this one was coming on strong. “Hey hey Tyler…” I heard Tim say and grab my hand and squeeze it. “I’m right here..I got you…let’s go ahead and get dressed and face your kids…can’t hide in here forever from them.” I smiled and could sense my nerves calming. Damn you Tim why do you have to be so fucking sexy and know how to calm me down? “Yeah you’re right. I mean we need to have this conversation a hell of a lot earlier than I thought we would need to but I guess now or never huh?” Tim just smiled at me. For someone who just got caught by his new lover? Boyfriend’s? Kids, sure was mighty calm. He certainly had changed from the boy and the man that ran away from me those last two times. My heart felt full knowing that he was going to be right there beside me while I tried my hardest to handle this situation with my kids. Damn Tim…damn you…
Tim’s POV:
I heard some noise in the room so I started to wake up and asked Tyler why he was already up and then I realized that we were not alone in his room and that both of his kids had just walked in and found us both naked asleep in their dad’s bed. Well that was fucking awkward. Something like this happening ten years ago, hell even just five years ago, I would have bolted like I did to Tyler both of those times before. Not this time. I knew that Tyler came with baggage, I mean I wouldn’t call two wonderful kids baggage but yeah I wasn’t going anywhere. Especially when they walked out of the room and I saw the fear and panic splashed all over his face. I grabbed his hand and made sure that he was ok and that he knew I wasn’t going anywhere and I was here, together with him, we could handle this. It was a lot earlier than expected and not how I wanted to actually introduce myself to his kids but here we are. We got out of the bed and got dressed and brushed our teeth. Tyler looked over at me with a weak smile and goes “are you ready?” “Ready as I will ever be babe” I respond and shoot him a smile as I grab his hand and pull him in for a quick but deep kiss on those sexy lips of his.
Liam & Ashley’s POV:
“Ashley what the hell did we just walk into…I would’ve been not as shocked if we had caught him with another woman…but a dude…I didn’t realize dad was gay…” Liam said clearly shocked but not mad. “Liam…you and me both bro…you and me both. But who are we to judge dad if he wants to explore himself? I know he was great to mom and doted on her hand and foot while she was alive and…” Ashley clearly was a little choked up and Liam came over to hug his big sister. “I know mom would want him to move on and be happy. I want him to move on and be happy. Poor dad has been miserable and working his ass off while suffering for the two of us and hardly ever did I see him give up no matter how hard he wanted to.” Liam just smiled at his sister and shook his head agreeing. “Yeah you are right, I want dad to be happy and I can’t stand to see him sad, I know he thinks he doesn’t show it but I know you know as well I do that he wasn’t that great at hiding it these past few years as he thought he was.” Ashley shook her head and agreed. “Let’s see what dad has to say…I know in the end I will be ok with it as all I want is him to be happy.” Ashley says. “Yeah me too.” Liam adds.
Tyler’s POV:
Tim and I head downstairs but I stop him when I hear the conversation that is going on between Liam and Ashley in the kitchen. We both sit on the step and listen to them talking. I hear all of the wonderful things that they are saying about wanting me to be happy and how they could tell I was sad but didn’t want to say anything to me. “Your kids are pretty damn wonderful you know?” I heard Tim whisper to me and I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah they are aren’t they?” I respond and lay my head on his shoulder for a minute while he kissed the top of my messy blonde hair. “I guess we better get up and go in there and see how everything stands…” I tell Tim. We get up and he shocks me with his next move…he grabs my hand and intertwines his fingers with mine and gives me a big tight squeeze and god I couldn’t help but melt a little for this man. “You got this. We got this.” Tim tells me before giving me a quick kiss as we walk into the kitchen holding hands and my kids notice immediately. “Good Morning again you two.” I start to say. “I first want to say, I’m sorry that you walked in and found us like that and that is not the way I wanted to tell you guys about Tim here.” Both of them just look at the both of us and smile and I couldn’t tell if they were trying not let out a laugh as well. Ashley looks at the both of us and does a double take and then starts to speak. “Wait a minute…I know who you are…” she says staring at Tim. “You’re our dad’s old best friend from high school aren’t you?” Tim chuckles and responds “why yes I am. I’ve known your dear ol’ dad here since we were in the first grade when he was new to school.” Tim smiled and looked at me. “I thought you looked familiar from dad’s picture of the two of you in his office.” Tim looks at me and I smile back. “Yeah I have a picture of us from back in the day in there along with other important photos.” I tell him. “So dad are you gay?” Liam just plainly asks. Tim laughed and so did Ashley. “Well son…yes and no. I would say I’m bisexual but here lately, I’ve been pretty darn fond of this guy right here.” As I nod my head in Tim’s direction. “I still don’t get it dad, you were married to mom, were you always this way and did you ever do anything behind her back while you were married and before she passed away??” Ouch that one stung. Where the hell was all this coming from, but I figured this wasn’t going to be easy so I kept on with the conversation. I was not about to tell my kids that ten years ago Tim and I had hooked up while their mother was still alive, that would kill them. So I simply answered “no I did not.” Tim looked at me and wondering what I was doing. “Now I did one time way back in high school make a move on this one and while we enjoyed it, it messed with our heads and we went our separate ways.” Ashley looked at the two of us and was already late for work. “Dad…” She came up to me and grabbed my other hand. “Are you happy? Does Tim make you happy?” I could see tears forming in her eyes, the same sapphire blue eyes that I have. Tim lets go of my other hand and I wrap my daughter in a big embrace, as tears start to fall down my face. “Yes…yes I am for the first time in a long time, I am happy. You two are my life and you always make me happy, but honestly Ash, after your mother passed the way she did so fast and unexpectedly I was a nervous lost wreck. But I had to put on a brave face for you two. You were only twelve and Liam was only eight at the time, so I put my happiness on the back burner to make sure you two were as happy as two kids could be that just lost their mother. And to answer your second question…yes Tim makes me extremely happy.” I look at Tim and can’t help but smile. “Daddy…I love you and all I want is for you to be happy at the end of the day, you’ve been through so much and done so much for Liam and I and I have noticed here recently you’ve been much more lively and happy and I was wondering why. Well now I know.” I just grabbed my daughter and gave her the biggest dad bear hug I could. “Thank you Ashley, I am so happy right now that you feel this way and this is all brand new and Liam…are you ok son?” Liam was leaning against the counter quiet but I could see tears forming in his eyes. “Dad…I love you and if you’re happy and Tim makes you happy…that is all that matters to me.” He walks up and hugs me and Ashley. I really couldn’t ask for better kids and my god I was so grateful things worked this way. I was so scared coming down here. Tim was standing there with a big smile on his face watching me with my kids. “If I could say one thing to you two, if you don’t mind?” Tim spoke as Liam and Ashley looked directly at him. “I have known your dad for pretty much my whole life and while there was a good amount of time in between then and now that we didn’t talk, just know that I have always loved your dad, in ways that not always made sense to me, but I have always loved him. I will always try to make him happy as long as he lets me.” I smiled back at Tim and he smiled back. “You two are so damn mushy…” Liam says laughing. “But dad seriously I am happy for the two of you. So I guess we will be seeing more of you around here huh Tim?” Liam asked. “As long as that’s cool with your dad and the two of you?” Ashley shook her head and said “of course who are we to tell our dad he can’t have his boyfriend over..” she chuckled and then looked at her watch. “Oh crap…I’m late for work. Nice to meet you Tim and I’ll be watching you making sure you treat my daddy right! Love you daddy, I’ll see you later after work.” Ashley gives me a peck on the cheek as she rushed out the door. “Well I’m going to go up to my room and sleep. James got sick last night dad, hence why I am home now, didn’t want to catch whatever he has. Love you dad and nice to meet you Tim, see you around.” And with that Liam ran up the stairs to his room and shut the door.
“Well that went way better than I ever expected that to go…” I told Tim. “See I told you. They just want to see dear old dad happy and apparently it doesn’t matter if it’s with another man or not.” Tim pulls me in and grabs my cheeks and kisses me hard. I kiss him back and then lay my head on his shoulder. “Yeah that was way better than I thought.”
