Second Chance at Love

Chapter Six

CHAPTER SIX

ELLA'S POV

Ella spent the rest of the day and Friday cleaning house. When she finally woke up Saturday morning, she was smiling at the prospect of having nothing to do except go over to see John. To talk to John about why she had left him out. Despite the fact that she had already told him in a manner why she hadn't come straight out with it. The least she could do was tell him that the only protection that they had been guarded with was the condom. That Ella hadn't been taking her birth control at the time since she hadn't been having sex. She had only ever had sex with John, as a matter of fact, since she wasn't the type of girl to sleep around. The person had to have meant something. John had, so far, been the only person that Ella had wanted to be with. The only person she had wanted to touching her so intimately.

And she still felt attracted to him. Very much so.

Ella cooked eggs and toast for breakfast, with half of a banana on the side.

After breakfast, Ella and Christopher were buckled back in her mother's car, heading toward John's beach house for a day of catching up. Of talking about what had been left alone for much too long. She pulled into the drive way next to John's Honda Accord, the very same he had been driving just over five years ago, and noticed John sitting in one of the rocking chairs that was on the front porch. He stood when they had climbed the steps.

"Good morning," John said. "Would you like a cup of coffee?"

"I would love one, though I'm surprised you have coffee since I thought you hated the stuff."

"I did, but I've learned to love it because it wakes me up in the morning."

"I want coffee."

"No, Christopher, you don't," Ella said. "It'll stunt your growth, besides you spit out the one taste I gave you."

"I have some orange juice."

"Orange juice will be perfect," Ella said, following John through the front door and into the kitchen.

"How was the rest of your week?"

"All right," Ella said. "Tiring, though, since I spent the rest of Thursday and all day yesterday cleaning my mother's house. She had basically only surface cleaned, therefore it was in desperate need of a good spring cleaning."

"I helped," Christopher said.

"Did you really?" John asked, already easing so well into his new role.

"Yep."

"Yeah, he was my helper," Ella said. "Though, he didn't help much when I was raking up the leaves in the backyard, did you, Christopher?" Ella gave her son a cross look, though was still smiling amusingly. "He kept jumping in the piles."

"So much fun."

When John finished getting the cups down and filling the two mugs with coffee and the short cup with the orange juice, he carried the mug handles in one hand with the fingers of his other hand wrapped around the other glass as he brought them to the table where Ella and Christopher were already seated. He then sat down across from Ella with their son between them. It almost felt like they were a family.

"Of course it was fun," Ella said, smiling, "because you didn't have to rake them up again."

"I made a leaf angel."

"Oh, yeah," John said. "I bet your mom liked that."

Christopher nodded solemnly. "Then she made me take a nap," he scrunched up his nose.

"No, you ate lunch and then fell asleep while you were watching a cartoon," Ella said. "I didn't make you do anything you weren't ready to do."

"But I wasn't tired."