Violet Bk 02 Pt 01

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful feedback to the first part of Dan and Violet's story. As promised, there's more. It starts after they return home from the Dells and explores the next phase of their relationship. You might be able to read this if you haven't read the first part - I mean, you certainly

can

, because there's no rules about it, and if you're capable of reading this, you are more than welcome to do so - but I guess what I meant is that you can probably read it and understand it, but it's not the first part of the story, so you'll be missing stuff.

It's Book 2 part 1 because I don't really think Book 2 is done, but we're at a good place to take a breath, and for anyone who liked Book 1 and wants to read more, this will give you a chance to read more about what the characters are doing.

Note: The main characters in this story are flawed. They've had some shit done to them and they've done some things that they regret. There's a lot of adulting in this story - Dan and Violet are single parents. No one here has an 8" cock or gigantic breasts or can fuck in 23 positions all night. Dan isn't some alpha man out to dominate women. If you need those things in your story, please do read something else. It's unrealistic enough in other ways because, y'know, it's a fantasy.

As always, if you read, I'd appreciate votes, comments, feedback, or thoughts. I'd also appreciate it if the world was filled with more love, for all of us. If *that's* a problem for you, you need help.

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1.

I had spent the last two hours cleaning an apartment that I'd already cleaned twice that day, asking myself how big of a moron I was. I wasn't trying to impress anyone or anything like that. It was Monday, December 30. I'd taken the day off work because, well, none of my clients were working the day before they all took two days off for New Year's. Technically, I was on call, but how many accounting emergencies were we expecting? None. The kinds of companies I worked with all essentially shut down for two weeks at the end of the year.

I should have gone to the office. Not because there was anything to do there, but at least I'd have different walls to stare at.

No, I was home. And the reason I was potentially a moron was that my ex-wife and my two kids were hanging out for the afternoon with my new girlfriend. Who I'd met - and fallen in love with - only a week ago. And it had kind of been my idea.

To my credit, Liz (my ex) was completely supportive of me being with someone new. She'd started seeing someone fairly seriously herself, although she and Liam had known each other more than a week. He'd even gone with her and the kids on a trip to Florida over Christmas to see her family. And my kids, Millie and Adam, had met Violet and her little guy Alex a couple of days before, and that had gone...well enough.

Millie, at almost 10, was enraptured with the quite cute toddler. Adam didn't much care, but he was polite. We'd all been on our very best behavior, and it was all...fine. Later in the day, Liz had called me to tell me that the kids had nice things to say about Violet and Alex. I'd been surprised, citing the whole 'best behavior' thing and wondering aloud if they'd been afraid to really talk to her out of fear of upsetting me. And then yesterday, I said the same thing to Violet (admittedly, my mind was a bit squishy because she'd just blown me to an extremely intense - and extremely messy - orgasm) and followed it with "Hey, maybe you should take the kids somewhere without me."

Since Violet's brain was still functioning, she suggested that Liz might not quite be ready for me to send the kids off with my new girlfriend, and then I suggested that they all go out together.

As it turned out, they'd independently been planning on visiting the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza before it closed, and that's how my ex-wife and new girlfriend ended up spending the afternoon together. I'd steadfastly not texted to see how things were going. I'd even left the phone plugged in while I was cleaning so I couldn't obsessively check it. But I got a message from Violet that they'd be on the 3:45 train and would be meeting me for dinner at Liz' house. What used to be Liz' and my house. The kids would be picking a few things up and then coming over to my apartment for New Year's.

I drove the ten minutes over to my former home hoping things had gone well. Since Violet had said "We're having dinner at Liz' house," I assumed that it had, but I wanted to be sure. Still, I'd been doing this "trusting my heart" and "jumping in with two feet" thing for a week now, and I was getting used to it.

I rang the doorbell (which was still weird, but it wasn't my house anymore) and Millie answered it. She was wearing a new red and white winter hat with a big puffball on the end that read "Deutschland" and had a hot chocolate mustache. She gave me a big hug and told me that we were having pizza for dinner. I followed her up the half-flight of stairs to the living room to find Liz changing Alex's diaper on a blanket on the floor while Violet sat in the recliner holding a mug of something warm. Both women smiled at me, and Violet opened her arms for a hug.

I leaned down and felt her pull me in tight. "Mmmm. You're so warm! It was chilly downtown today."

"It gets like that. How crazy was it?"

"A zoo," Liz answered. "But the kids loved it and I got to eat a raclette with some glӧgg, so it was all good."

"Adam was a hoot. Did you know he has every train station memorized?" Violet asked.

"Really?"

"Yeah! And not just on this line. He walked us over to the blue line map that's near Daley Plaza and talked about each of the L lines and what was special about each of them."

"That's really cool! I'll have to talk to him about that some more when I get a chance. I guess he outgrew Thomas, but not trains." I paused. "So, uhhh. It went well?"

The two women laughed.

"Yeah, Dan. As weird as it was for you, it did," Liz said as she finished up with Alex and set him free. "Violet, the house isn't really childproofed anymore, so you'll need to keep an eye on him. We haven't had to worry about Millie and Adam and stairs for a while."

"I figured." Violet climbed down off the recliner and Alex toddled over to her. Then she looked up at me. "It really did go well."

Liz headed off to the bathroom to wash her hands and I snuck a quick kiss in on Violet while we had the room to ourselves. "She wants what's best for you. The kids do too. They're a little confused right now, still trying to figure out what having mom and dad in different homes means, and what it means if mom and dad have other adults they bring into the family, but you are both such strong presences in their lives that they're doing well. And given that Liz is with someone and no one's been trying to replace you, they don't see me as a threat to replace her."

"Good."

"Millie told me that you've been happier the last few days. She loves you, but she's always seen you as 'quiet dad.' Quiet dad is great, but quiet dad that smiles more is something she likes. She said to me, 'If you help make my dad smile, then I like you.'"

"Oh god."

"Yeah, I melted."

I wanted to kiss her again, but we were in Liz' house, and I didn't want to risk upsetting things. Too many things were going well, and I didn't see any reason to tempt fate. I settled for smiling at her and helping her corral Alex until the doorbell rang. I hopped up to answer it and brought it to the kitchen, where Liz was getting plates and cups out. Her eyes were a little red and she looked like she'd been crying.

"Hey. Umm, are you okay? Do I even get to ask that anymore?"

She wiped her face with her sleeve and sniffed. "Oh. I don't know. Are there rules for this?"

"Hell if I know. Look, I can go. I'll get the kids later, and..."

She cut me off. "It's not that. Well, not entirely that. I'm not sure what it entirely is, to be quite honest. It's just hard not to think of the what-ifs, you know? Of the what went wrong here's and there's and what would have happened ifs? There was a time where you and me and the kids having pizza for dinner in this house would have been the most normal thing in the world. And then there was a time where all it would have done was lead to another argument. I ordered a whole pizza of the kind you like just to avoid that again, and..."

"Thank you."

"You didn't used to say that."

"I used to be an asshole." I laughed. "Well, more of an asshole. Hey - can we put a pause on this, feed everyone, then we'll get out of your hair for the night. Then if you have time tomorrow, you and I can meet up for coffee and we can have that conversation I offered when I was at the Dells? There's things I think you want to hear - that it did me a lot of good to hear, and they're about both of us. I can see if Violet can hang out with the kids for a while, or we can bring them and distract them with screens."

"Ummm, Liam is coming over later, but I can meet you maybe around 11?" She blushed a little as she said this. I laughed.

"You don't need to be embarrassed about your boyfriend coming over. Or is he your fianceé yet?"

She flashed her hand at me. "No ring."

"Well no, but he could be non-traditional. Anyway, you spent the day with my girlfriend. You get to have him over here whenever you think is appropriate. We haven't quite figured that part out when I've got the kids - there's no room at my place for three kids plus two adults. But you've got a whole house here and everything." I winked. "I should know."

2.

Dinner went fine, and then I packed the kids up to head over to my apartment. I told Vi about my late-morning plans with Liz, and she offered to watch the kids before I could ask. I had a feeling the three of them were up to something, and I thought that was wonderful. I hugged her for a long time before she headed home. I was already looking forward to a time where I didn't have to spend nights away from her, but neither one of us had a home that was compatible with all of us. I thought it was something I should start looking into not that long after the New Year. I had a little while to go on my lease, but there were ways out of these things for reasons.

I awoke on New Year's Eve Day to two very giggly children. I'd promised them they could stay up til midnight, or at least they could try, but they had made things difficult on themselves by waking up entirely too early. I hoped I could get them to rest later. Staying up too late on New Year's Eve as a kid was a lot of fun, and I thought they were old enough now to give it a real try. It doesn't count when you're awake at midnight with a wet diaper, after all.

Adam had been up coloring pictures of their day at the Christkindlmarket the day before, and the big smiles he put on everyone's faces put one on mine. I put my favorite (well, they were all my favorites, but my favorite-favorite) up on the fridge and set about making pancakes for breakfast.

Violet showed up with a toddler and two giant shopping bags in tow, but she refused to let me see what was in them. All she'd say is that she and her assistants no longer needed my services for...two hours. Or more. I was to text her when I was ready to come home and she'd let me know if it was safe. I gave everyone a hug (and snuck into the bedroom to give Violet a kiss full of promises) and headed out to meet Liz.

To my surprise, she was early - that was something that had caused no end of trouble between us, especially near the end. But I reminded myself that saying something about it wouldn't be a good way to start, so I just smiled. Liz had also gotten us a coffee cake, but she wasn't sure what I'd wanted to drink, so she'd held off on that. I ordered and joined her at her table. We talked idly for a couple of minutes, but I didn't want to waste this opportunity, so I took a sip of my drink and jumped right in.

"Do you remember why we got married?"

Liz was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"When we were dating, did you picture us growing old together? Sitting together at the old-folk's home? Dancing away the night at our 50th anniversary?"

She looked defensive. "Did you? As I recall, you weren't exactly Mr. Romantic your own bad self."

I shook my head. "I didn't. I couldn't think that far ahead. I tried to think about the future sometimes and it was all static."

Liz' expression turned dark. She opened her mouth to speak but didn't say anything. Instead, she took a bite of the coffee cake and had a sip of her coffee. After swallowing, she said, "I've learned to pause before I speak when I'm not sure if what I'm going to say is going to come out right."

I laughed. "My counselor tells me to do the same thing."

"Do you do it?" Her voice had an edge.

"Okay. I admit I didn't start this the right way. I had a vision for this conversation in my head, and it's not going that way. Let me say this. When I was talking to Kit and Megan about this up in the Dells, they shocked me to get me to listen, and I guess I thought 'Hey, that worked really well! I should do the same thing!' But you're not me. Can I try again?"

She took another sip of her coffee and looked at me, her expression neutral. "Okay. But remember, I'm the one who asked you for the divorce. I put up with a lot of your shit for a long time. Yesterday was great, but I don't need more of you being superior."

"You're right. And I'm sorry."

Liz just looked at me.

"Okay. Trying again." I took a deep breath, let it out. "What my family reminded me of is that you and I had been in a holding pattern for a while. A lot of people we'd known were getting married, and we'd certainly been together long enough that it would have been more likely than not for us to join them. But we didn't. Remember how you used to keep getting bouquets at weddings and hating it but trying to make jokes about it?"

She snorted. "They wouldn't let me avoid the damned things. I think they threw them right at me."

"They probably did. As drunk as most of us were, I'm sure it seemed like the height of humor. Anyway, do you remember what got us out of that holding pattern?"

"You proposed to me, you dork."

"And you said yes."

"Well...yeah. I did love you."

"And I loved you. I still do, not that it really means the same thing anymore. But what happened right before I proposed?"

"Why the questions? Just tell me."

"Humor me. Please. It's important. We got some really big news just before I proposed."

Liz raised a hand to her mouth. "Oh god. Your mom's diagnosis."

"Yeah. She was getting worse and in a lot of pain."

Liz' eyes filled, but she didn't cry. "Yeah."

Then she paused. "Oh, shit. The dress."

"The dress. And what you don't know - and that I'd forgotten - is that my dad was putting the full-court press on me for Mom to see all her kids married before she died."

"Really? Is that why you proposed? Did you even want to?"

I took a chance and reached for her hand. She let me take it. "When I did, I sure as hell did. But they'd...prepared...us? I'm not sure what the right word is."

"He made you feel like you had to, and then by getting me in that dress, he made it so both of us could suddenly picture our wedding day."

"Yep."

"So you asked and I said yes."

"Yep."

Liz took a long sip of her coffee. "Christ, what an asshole."

I laughed. "Yep."

She looked at me for a long moment. "Do you regret it?"

"Getting married?"

"Yeah."

"I knew you'd ask that. So here's the thing. I don't want to live in a world without Millie and Adam, and this is the only world that has them, so no, I don't regret it. But I think that if we'd been true to ourselves, we never would have gotten married. Hell, we probably should have been broken up by the time they put us in that position."

She cocked her head and gave me a funny look. "Why?"

"You weren't happy."

She did the "opening her mouth but not saying anything thing" again, but this time she wasn't angry. More...surprised. "How did you know?"

"My sisters reminded me of the wedding where you puked your guts out at the thought of marrying me."

"Ow."

"Yeah."

"Why didn't we break up, then, oh Mr. Suddenly Has Insight?"

"Sex, mostly."

Liz had just taken a sip of her coffee and managed to spit it out all over me.

I grabbed some napkins and wiped it off. "I deserved that."

"I was expecting something else, but you're basically right. I just was surprised." We were both laughing now. It felt good.

"I mean, it wasn't just that. We were in love, or at least some form of it. And we were used to each other. That's not nothing. But things were really good that way before we had the kids. And that covered up a lot of cracks in the foundation."

"I seem to recall you liked the crack in my foundation." Liz smirked. She hadn't smirked at me like that in forever.

"I don't recall you complaining."

Liz paused. "Were you happy?"

"I don't know. I didn't used to think about that kind of thing. I thought a lot about obligations. As long as I was with you, that was one thing I didn't have to worry about, so I didn't. And then we were married, and then we had Millie, and then I learned what a real obligation was."

"Did you feel trapped?"

"Yes, but not by you.

With

you. The people who'd trapped us were dead, and I hadn't even realized what they'd done. Had we figured it out sooner, could we have maybe made it work? I don't know. Maybe. But I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"You know the old song, 'There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys, there's only you and me and we just disagree?' I'm not saying that I didn't have my share of bad guy days..."

"Or me mine."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Really, Mr. Spock. Neither one of us was an innocent in any of it."

I just nodded. "It's not that we didn't have bad guy days, but I think that when it came down to it, there was just us, and it just wasn't right. And that's okay. We can't go back and undo it anyway, and I don't think that either of us would trade the kids in exchange for any of the pain either or both of us went through -"

"That's for sure."

"And...anyway. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

We talked for a while longer, but mostly about unimportant things. After a bit of a bumpy start, it was good to see that Liz saw a lot of the same things I'd been made to see. She even gave me a quick hug when we left, which was something I wasn't expecting to ever get again, even through two winter coats.

3.

While we'd been talking, Violet had texted me a list of New Year's Eve and NYD snacks to pick up from the grocery store, so I braved the chaos before going home. Seriously, something gets into people around New Year's that turns them into demons of some kind in the middle of the afternoon. They were predicting the temps to drop as well, with a chance of some ice later in the evening, and I was glad that everyone I cared about (including Liz) would be somewhere safe well before that happened.

It took me way longer than it should have to get through the grocery store, and then the second grocery store because the first one was out of a couple of things, and then the good liquor store, but finally I was home as the sun was starting to disappear from the sky. Sunset was only at 4:30 that afternoon, so it's not like that was some excessively late hour, but it was already getting pretty nasty out, weather-wise, and soon, the drunks would be out on the road. I was really glad to pull up to my apartment building and see Violet outside waiting to help me bring things in.

She threw her arms around me when I got out of my car and kissed me hungrily. She tasted of cookies and smelled of pine and her tongue was hot in my mouth and her hips pressed hard against mine. I almost laughed in response to her passion - it was so unexpectedly wonderful - but then she pulled away. "Holy fuck, it's cold out here!"