Learning To Fly

Happy New Year 2018

I’m under the strictest of instructions to meet Marshall on the beach at 11pm, he’s disappeared and I have no idea where he is, after our nap he spent a little more time with Archer and got him ready for bed, I could tell it wasn’t only Archer that was stressed about his dad leaving, Marshall was feeling it too.

He’d picked out clothes for me to wear tonight, there was a white floaty dress laid out on the bed along with some very lacy black underwear, typical guy.
I switched out the underwear for a white bikini, determined to keep up the tradition Jack, Sarah and I had begun since we’d moved here and that was a new year’s swim at sunrise, the island was beautiful at dawn and I wanted one last shot at it.
It wasn’t summer weather here by no means but it wasn’t cold ass Michigan either, I’d have to get used to that again, the thought made me shiver.
I’d been allowed a light meal is how I could best put it, so as to not ruin my appetite for later so he told me, I could only wonder at whatever he was cooking up, I couldn’t see him anywhere but my car was still here so I guessed he was too.

I had something I needed to do first, I needed to talk to Jack and Sarah, I wasn’t taking all of this negativity into a fresh new year and mostly needed to tell them about my house and see where we went from there, so I took the monitor from Archers room and headed across the beach to their house, there were plenty of lights on to let me know they were up and about.

Knocking on their door felt strange, I’d gotten so used to just walking in whenever I wanted to that this felt wrong but it was what it was, I supposed. I stood back away from the door and waited until Jack opened it, his smile quickly turning into a frown at the sight of me “Hey, so I just wanted to make you aware of my plans Jack and ask you about the house if you have a little time please?” I feel like I’m talking to a stranger and not the man I’ve considered to be my brother for most of my life.

I don’t hold out much hope of him letting me in to talk but to my surprise he steps aside and asks me inside, my heart races as we walk through to their kitchen and Sarah looks up at me, she doesn’t speak and I notice how tired she looks. “Hey” I speak first and she sighs before getting up and taking her glass over to the sink. My heart falls a little.

“Take a seat JJ, what did you want to talk about?” he asks calmly, sitting beside me, Sarah sits beside him pretending to watch the television on the opposite wall, “Well I just wanted to let you both know that I’ll  be leaving here at the end of January or just a little bit after that maybe. Archer and I are going to live in Michigan with Marshall, its been long enough now, I think its time” I smile broadly at them both, wishing they could see just a fraction of how unbelievably happy I was.
Sarah scoffs at my announcement but doesn’t remove her eyes from the screen, I smile as Jack reaches over and strokes her back tenderly trying to calm her.

“Are you planning on leaving for good Jaime” He asks quietly and Sarah visibly tenses up, “Honestly yes” there’s no point lying to him that’s my intention and whether I set foot here on this island again depends very much on them right now.

“Until he fucks her over again anyway and she needs somewhere to run too” Sarah gripes and I hold my tongue if I didn’t know she was pregnant I’d fucking fly at her for that comment.

“Obviously I’d have preferred to leave here on better terms with my family but I know you guys don’t want that and I can’t change the fact that I love Marshall and he loves me” I pause, feeling my emotions beginning to take over, I fight them off before continuing.
“But I do love you guys, I just want you to know that and that I’ll always think of you both as my family” shit I start crying and I notice Sarah is trying to hold back tears but her eyes are watery so I know she’s hearing me.
“Jack I’m not intending on selling my house and I realise I’m leaving you an instructor short so I thought maybe you could use it for whomever you hire. I don’t want any money from it, if you decide to charge rent you can put that money back into whatever you want”
The room is deadly silent but it’s Sarah that breaks it “I can’t believe you’re leaving us for a man that cast you aside like you meant nothing to him, a man who tried to make you terminate your baby” she’s not shouting for once and I think she genuinely just doesn’t understand my actions and willingness to trust him once more.
I try my best to explain for the thousandth time.

“Sarah, Marshall is a good man, he made a mistake, a fucking stupid mistake but I made them too and if you remember, right up until I got to the clinic that day, I wanted a termination too. You don’t know him the way that I do, you don’t see what I see because you won’t let yourself. I forgive him and he forgives me”
I’m so beyond tired of defending my relationship to her, tired of defending Marshall it should be good enough for them that I forgive him, they don’t have to like him but they could choose to be civil for mine and Archers sake.

I really dislike the fact that they can’t like him, there’s nothing to not like about Marshall, when I think back to how he was when we first started this years ago to the man he is today I feel nothing but proud of him, he fucked up badly in the middle there but we’re all human and none of us is without fault. I just loved the bones of him. His impatience, his short fuse, his jealousy and possessiveness, his loud raucous private laughter and his ability to try and charm or joke his way out of any given situation were all things I loved about him.
I loved that he worried about my leaving here on bad terms with Jack and Sarah, there was nothing either of us could do about that seemingly.

“I have a chance to give Archer a life with his Mom and Dad together and he has three half-sisters that he’s absolutely besotted with. I don’t want him to have to travel back and forth between Hawaii and Michigan, it’s not fair on him or us and mostly I don’t want to be away from Marshall any more. “

That’s it I can say no more, I’m quiet hoping one of them will speak but there’s nothing just a wall of silence so I make to leave.

“Thank you both from the bottom of my heart for everything you’ve done for Archer and I, I couldn’t have got through that time without your love and support, we love you both. If you want to spend any time with Archie before we leave, all you have to do is say so. I have no issues with that at all” and I leave.

I feel like going home, throwing myself on my bed and howling into my pillow until I can’t howl any more, I’ve tried my best, laid it all out and now I feel like I can finally break the chain that has been holding here. It’s absolutely gut wrenching though. My heart feels like it’s about to implode with agony.

Walking back slowly I finally spot him to the side of my house, swearing quietly at some fairy lights he’s trying to string up between two palm trees, they are wrapped around his body and he turns round and round in circles trying to find the end, wrapping himself up in them even more and just like that he cheers me up instantly without even realising it and I walk away laughing to myself, leaving him to his secretive dealings and head back inside.

An hour later and I receive an impatient sounding voicemail from Marshall telling me I’m late for our date, heading out to the side of my house I saw him at I stop in my tracks looking around at the setup he’s got going on, twinkling lights, candles flickering on the ground, there’s flowers, blankets laid out on the sand and some pillows, there’s food spread out making me salivate, I’m starving after our light meal and there he is standing with his hands shoved deep in his pockets, looking good enough to eat.
“Baby, this looks amazing” he takes my hand, leading me onto a blanket and I sit down looking up at the palm leaves entwined with the fairy lights he was struggling with earlier, it’s beautiful.
“I love this Marshall, its beautiful” he turns shy at my compliment and shrugs his shoulders as if it was nothing.

“I just wanted to make this New Year really special for you Jay” Urgh he’s too perfect right now, I pull him by the hand down to join me, he drops to his knees and sets about feeding us both.

“This romantic side of you is so cute Marshall” he grumbles beside me at being called cute and moves before I can blink sitting behind me, legs either side of my body and pulling me back tightly against his chest, the only noise around us for the next few minutes are of waves gently lapping at the beach, I’m reminded of the sound of the lake the first time we had sex, funny how things come full circle.

A warm hand tilts my chin to the side and he devours my lips, he’s hungry and passionate for me and I find myself trying to turn in his tight hold but he won’t let me “kneel up Angel” he tuts when his hands find my bikini bottoms instead of the lingerie he’d put out for me, but he takes advantage of the string holding it together and frees me in seconds, I hear movement before feeling his hand on my lower back applying gentle pressure “Sit back” he whispers and I do slowly, feeling his cock nudging at my entrance, I push down until I feel him deeply inside of me “Marshall” I whimper out before he turns my head kissing me deeply once more, his hands snake around to my front, one of kneading my breast, the other stroking my clit.
Our movements slow and gentle until I can’t take it any longer and pull away, leaning forward I rock my body on and off of him quickly, he hangs onto my hips, the cool evening air filled with our heaving breathing as we both reach our peaks, his head pushed against my back as he fills me with his hot cum causes me to fly over the edge, shaking and quivering on top of him. He pulls me back on him again and remains inside of me, more silence until the sky above us is suddenly lit up by fireworks “Happy New year Angel, thank you for loving me and for looking after our baby so well” I could cry, everything about this has been so damn perfect.

“Happy New Year, I love you and I can’t wait til we can wake up every morning together” his hand runs over my belly tenderly “I can’t wait for this, Jaime” I think he’s going to have to a little more patient in that area but he’s not to be swayed.

“Are you sure this is what you want Jaime? I feel like you’re giving up everything for me yet again and all I’m doing is gaining everything I ever wanted. I’ll understand if you want some more time to think some about this.” I need to put him straight I can’t have him thinking like that for the rest of our lives.

“Marshall I’m gaining too you know and Archer, we’re gaining a family and I’m not giving up everything. I have my baby and my man, we have our health and that’s all I need.”

“You know you don’t have to work any more don’t you,” he tells me quietly, I think he knows I won’t go for that.

“Actually, Marshall I had an idea about work” it’s time to tell him my idea and hope he doesn’t see anything wrong with it. “Okay tell me Angel.”

“I want to go back to teaching, I realise a school is out of the question and I never really enjoyed the confines of teaching in a school, so I was thinking about home schooling”

“How would that work?”

“Well I’d go out and teach in students homes, there’s a lot to think about with that but I’m sure I could do it a couple of times a week and I want to use a day helping out somewhere with disadvantaged kids for free you know, give something back to my new community.”

“Angel that’s a fucking awesome idea” he whispers in my ear.

“I’m ready baby, more than ready.”