(Complete)Patrick Bennett promised his wife lots of things before she died. He lied when he agreed to look for love. Two years later, he is ready to start dating, but dating with three teenagers is not easy.
Tessa Simon has spent six years sweeping...
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Patrick Bennett woke up early, even though it was his day off. With a sad thought, his position in the middle of the bed meant he had grown accustomed to sleeping alone. Erica had been gone for just over two years after a long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor. His brave wife fought it for almost three years, but the prognosis was never promising.
Three years of trying to hope when there was little reason too, yet trying to prepare for the inevitable was brutal. He missed her every day, but he had made a long list of promises to her which he intended to keep. The first was to live every day to its fullest. He'd be lying if he said he never had bad days.
He had done a load of laundry and paid some bills online before it was time for his kids to wake up. Hannah woke first because she liked to shower and do all the things girls did to primp. At seventeen, she already had one foot out the door. Her college applications were complete, and she was waiting for her acceptance letters.
Four days a week, he was already in surgery when his three teenagers woke. Thankfully, they were responsible enough to get out the door on time. He knew they had squabbles, but it was typically worse when he could hear.
"Gabby! Get out of my room!" Hannah's voice carried down the stairs into the kitchen.
Gabby, his middle daughter, had just turned sixteen, so she was a sophomore. Like her brother Kevin, she showered at night and slept a little longer. She also liked to borrow her older sister's clothes.
"Ten minutes to AIS!" He called up the stairs. AIS stood for 'ass in seat'. It was originally coined for Erica, who was never on time. If he told her they had to leave at a specific time, she would start to gather what she needed to bring. He started specifying that was the time she needed to be in the car. It was hard when they had three little ones in under four years. What had they been thinking?
Kevin ran by and grabbed a package of Pop Tarts on the way out the door. He'd eat in the car. Most of the time the girls skipped breakfast or purchased something at school.
The noise and confusion intensified until the rumble of the garage door going up and the last door slammed. He looked around his kitchen. The silence seemed deafening. Strange how it hadn't bothered him an hour before when they were still asleep.
In four years, they'd all be out of high school and out of the house. That thought caused him to miss Erica more. Empty nests were for couples. Sighing, he cleaned up their mess before getting himself ready.
His favorite thing to do for himself was surf. With a wet suit, he surfed year round, and he wasn't the only one. He hadn't surfed in Maine in weeks, but he had in Florida. They went away for four days over February vacation. He and the kids hadn't stayed home for Christmas since their last one with Erica, and so they spent the last week of December in Hawaii. Kevin liked to surf, and the girls loved the beach.
One part of their trip, his kids knew nothing about, was when he had met a woman in the hotel bar and being two consenting adults, he relieved some pent up sexual frustration. Although he had thought Erica would be his last, she wasn't his first. On his list of promises, one was not to be a martyr or a monk. Trying to make light of a devastating conversation, he had joked. "So I have your permission to be a slut again?" When they met, she teased him because he was more experienced. She had reminded him he had teenagers. The reality was not only did he have teenagers, but he was forty-four.
