Meeting Dad
“Chelsea!” Her roommate Lisa called. “Phone!”
“Who is it?” Chelsea called as she dropped her gym bag beside her bed.
“Says he’s your mom’s boyfriend.”
Swiftly the girl snatched the receiver. “H—hello?”
“Hey, Chelsea. It’s Josh.”
Holding her hand over the mouthpiece, the girl squealed and did a little dance — then calmed herself. “Hi.”
“I know this is kinda strange, but I wanted to put a voice with the pictures I see – and to say ‘hi’.”
“Well...here I am.”
“Kristin okayed my calling...”
“She mentioned it. I guess I forgot.” JC Chasez calling her dorm room to say ‘hi’. Any sixteen year old would be in heaven.
“How’s school?”
“I—um…good. I work hard.”
“Your mom is proud of you.”
“I’m proud of her.” Chelsea couldn’t prevent the possessive tone. She had never shared her mother’s affection...
“I expect you are an awful lot like her – which is way cool by me. I think she’s fantastic.”
“This is a little strange for me – you calling me like this – being who you are.”
“I am the man who wants to marry your mother,” JC told her.
“You’re not just that.”
“I hope to be your friend too, Chelsea. I want to make a life with your mother – that means the three of us.”
“You’ve had plenty of girl friends...”
“Kris is it for me.”
“You break her heart, I swear all those big body guards you have won’t save you from me.”
Chelsea warned.
His laughter came over the line – warm and friendly. “You are like Kris! Guess I’ll have to call you ‘baby boss’.”
The girl allowed herself a smile. He seemed more like her mother’s boyfriend than a star. “This is still hard to wrap my head around. I’ve been a fan forever.”
“We’ll have to get past that for your mother’s sake.”
“Yeah...”
“I’ll let you go. If you want, we can email and IM.”
“Really? Awesome!”
“We can exchange that info through Kristin.”
“Okay! I think I like you!”
“I think I like you too, Chels.”
“I—um—Josh?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I tell my roommate? I mean I will explode if I can’t tell somebody.”
JC chuckled. “If you can swear her to secrecy until your mother officially announces our engagement, I’m cool with it.”
“Cool! Bye!”
“Bye.”
Chelsea rang off and let out another squeal of delight.
Her redheaded roommate looked at her as if she were insane. “What can you tell me?”
“I have to make you promise on the threat of slow, tortuous death never to tell another soul.”
Lisa crossed her heart. “I swear on the threat of slow tortuous death.”
“I mean this is a big, huge, monstrous secret. If it gets out we’re both dead twice.”
Lisa’s big blue eyes were like saucers. “Wow.”
“You know my mom’s seeing someone...”
“Josh. He’s sent flowers too.”
“He’s Josh to family and friends. To the rest of the world...” Chelsea paused for a deep breath. “He is JC Chasez of *NSYNC!”
Both girls screamed and jumped up and down.
“I actually said ‘hi’ to JC!” Lisa cried.
Chelsea rolled her eyes. “He is seeing my mother, sending me flowers, calling me and wants to email me.”
“But you never liked him best – that doesn’t’ seem fair.”
“Spoken like a true JC teenie. He’s hot for my mom so I think we’re outa his league!”
They grabbed each other’s hands and gave one last thrilled squeal. “JC calls this room!”
It had only been a month, but Kristin didn’t believe how hungry she was for JC. The sight. The touch. The taste and smell of him. She paced her foyer in her scarlet satin gown and nothing else. The minute Mr. Chasez arrived; he had better plan on getting naked – fast!
When at last the doorbell rang, she froze. What ifs assailed her. What if he’d changed his mind? What if he had decided she was too much work? What if?...
The doorbell chimed again – almost sounding impatient!
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door. There he stood in all his male perfection. The tight white tee shirt. The snug jeans with proof of his manhood obvious. The flip-flops and toe ring. She came back to his face; he still wore that trucker's hat...
“I hate that hat,” was all she could think to say.
JC grinned and tossed his bag inside. “I missed you too, baby.”
Then they were in each other’s arms, mouth and bodies clinging hungrily. Burying her hands in his hair as he lifted her off her feet, the hated hat fell unnoticed to the floor. JC kicked the door shut and leaned against it as she moved her hands over his back to his chest and her greedy little mouth sucked and bit at his tongue. Tearing his mouth from hers, he gasped as she put her pretty pink tongue in his ear.
“God, baby, I want you!”
“Take me,” she commanded huskily.
JC shivered as she bit and licked at his ears and neck. “Where’s the bedroom?” he panted. He’d never been this turned on – not even on their first night.
“No. Here.”
“Kris–ah!” he cried out when she sucked the pulse beat above his medallion hard. Reversing their position, he pinned her to the door so he could shove his jeans and shorts down. With less than gentle hands, he yanked the skirt of her gown to her waist and pulled her legs around his hips. With no preliminaries he plunged deep within her welcoming heat.
“Yess!....” Kristin hissed in pleasure.
As he slammed into her, he nipped and sucked at her breasts through her gown. He could feel her already tighten – which was good because he was losing it fast. He drove into her, working in and out like a frantic piston.
“Josh!”
“I know, baby. I’ll get us there,” he growled his promise against her neck as his hands moved to her rump to shove her into his thrusts.
“Ah!” She’d never needed him so much! “Please, Josh!”
“I’ve got you...”
They cried out in unison. Holding on to each other as they were sucked into the vortex of wild rapture.
They were both soaked in sweat from the exertion and totally breathless.
“Damn!” JC panted when he at last found enough oxygen to speak. “What in the hell was that?”
Raising her head from his shoulder, she nuzzled his ear. “Hi, Josh.”
Chuckling, he shook his head in disbelief. “Hiya, Kris.”
“I—I’m sorry...”
“Oh, hell, I’m not.” He let her slide down his body so he could fasten his pants and smooth down her gown. “I kinda like my bossy girl wild.”
Kristin wrapped her arms around his waist, her head on his chest. She reveled in the solid feel of him.
“Krissie, baby, it’s okay,” he assured her gently.
She sighed happily. “Yes, it is.”
“Kristin de Carlo,” JC announced from the master bathroom, “you gave me a hickey!”
She came in from the bedroom, wearing his tee shirt. “I what?” She saw his neck in the mirror just above his medallion was a faint purplish ring. “Oh, my God! I didn’t do that – did I?”
He chuckled. “I can guarantee you I haven’t been making out with a vacuum hose – no matter how much I missed you.” He turned and tugged at the V-neck of his tee shirt she wore. “These’ll be out for a few days. I don’t remember packing any turtlenecks...”
“Oh, I’m sorry! I never... I—oh, my God, I...” she stuttered in embarrassment.
“Whoa, baby! Don’t stroke out on me.” Smoothing her hair with both hands, he tried to calm her. “Chill, sweetheart. Believe me, I knew I’d been missed. It was great to see the ‘Velvet Fist’ from Breton and de Carlo, Inc. so starved for me, she couldn’t control herself. Great for my ego.”
Kristin touched his throat tentatively. “Does it hurt?”
“Nah. You didn’t bite down and suck; now those can hurt.”
“You’re an expert I suppose,” she quipped.
“Not really – not on the receiving end anyway.” He grabbed her and started nipping at her neck.
Laughing, she shoved at his chest. “Oh, no, you don’t!” she warned. “Give me a hickey and you’re out of here, Mister Chasez!”
The bites turned to soft kisses and tantalizing licks until she was melting against him. His lips found their way to hers. They shared one sweet, lingering kiss after another.
“Kris....”
“Oh, yes...” she sighed into his mouth as he lifted her into his arms and carried her to bed.
JC saw the pride in Kristin’s face as she watched Chelsea’s ballet recital. The girl had talent; it was easy enough to see – even to the untrained eye. When the program was over, the parents and talent scouts went down the hall for refreshments while they awaited the students. He felt like asking where he should sign-up for PTA. He planned on a father’s interest in Kristin’s daughter.
“She’s good,” JC offered to Kristin as they sipped punch. “And she looks nothing like you.”
Kristin was striking in her dark looks – Chelsea had inherited her father’s wavy brown hair. Chelsea had large, expressive green eyes, unlike her mother’s exotic, cat-like dark blue ones. Chelsea was a good three inches taller than Kristin’s five-two. The one fantastic thing the girl had inherited from her mother was her killer smile. Chelsea was gonna break hearts with that smile.
“She wants to be a dancer. That’s all she’s wanted to be since she could toddle – and as active as she was before she was born, I swear she was practicing then!” Kristin mused. “I promised Peter his child could choose her own path – and I plan on keeping that promise.”
“Did you want me to ask Wade if he’ll coach her a little?”
“Don’t you dare! I want her to focus on school...”
“Hi, Mom!” The graceful dancer immediately snuggled her head on her mother’s shoulder, despite the height difference. Chelsea de Carlo was still her mother’s little girl. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too, baby.” Kristin put her arms around the girl. “Say the word and I’ll take you home for good.”
“I can’t. I need to be here.”
Chelsea’s green eyes peered at JC. She didn’t know what to call him. Mr. Chasez seemed too formal. JC and Josh were too familiar. Her mother loved the man and was going to marry him. That made her decision. “Hi, dad,” she said impishly.
“Hi, princess.” JC returned with a smile.
“I like him already.”
“I’m glad.” Kristin realized her lover had passed Chelsea’s first test with flying colors. “Want to mingle or shall we drive home?”
“Home.”
“Do you mind Josh being there?”
Chelsea straightened, suddenly a young woman instead of a child. “No. You’re an adult.”
Kristin looped an arm around her daughter’s waist. “How nice of you to notice!”
Kristin was pleased to see her daughter displayed no possessiveness towards JC as she had other men her mother had dated. The girl chatted excitedly and openly about all she had done since she had seen her mother last – despite the fact a man was at the wheel of the car and she had been relegated to the backseat.
“And I am pulling straight A’s,” Chelsea announced proudly. “You know what that means.”
JC caught her eyes in the rearview mirror. “No, what does that mean?”
Kristin groaned and Chelsea giggled gleefully.
“Family secret or can you share?” he asked anyone who would answer.
“You’re family,” Chelsea reminded him. “Well, almost. Can I tell him, Mom?”
Kristin sighed in defeat. “You might as well. I have a sneaking suspicion Josh is going to end up paying for it.”
Chelsea gave a squeal of delight.
“Paying for it how?” JC demanded.
“In blood.” Kristin muttered.
Chelsea released her seat belt to lean over the seat. “You see we’ve had this deal ever since I started getting actual grades. If I kept above a B average, I could keep dancing – But if I got straight A’s with no minuses, mind you, at the end of the semester I got to pick something to do or some place to go.”
“And unless it was dangerous; illegal or immoral – I have no veto power,” Kristin added.
JC caught the drift and laughed. “I’m gonna be calling Wade, right?” He caught Chelsea’s big grin in the mirror. The girl squealed and clapped. “Now, you put your seatbelt back on,” he told her firmly – but the wink in the rearview mirror was for Chelsea alone.
It felt wonderfully like family, JC decided as the three of them sat on the comfortable sofa after dinner. Kristin sat next to him while Chelsea stretched out her legs on her mother’s lap and her heels resting on JC’s knee. Without thinking, he began to rub the calloused toes and arches.
“Oh, yeah, Dad! Keep that up,” Chelsea purred. “Oh, he’s definitely a keeper, Mom,” she declared.
“As you see, Josh, my daughter is horribly shy.” Kristin shook her head.
“A lot like her mom who was barking orders at me ten minutes after we met?” JC reminded her.
“You too?” Chelsea asked.
“Hey!” Kristin protested.
“There-ah-there...” Chelsea directed when JC hit a particular sore spot.
“Poor feet,” he crooned.
“Dancer’s have ugly feet,” Chelsea stated. “Of course, I’ll never have dainty feet like Mom’s.”
“I like your Mom’s feet.”
“I have to name you, you realize. I refuse to call you Uncle JC – that sounds like some guy who hangs around awhile then leaves.”
“Chelsea, whatever you are comfortable with. Family calls me Josh.”
“I know you aren’t really old enough to be my dad...But I’ve never had a dad...and when you and mom have kids they’ll call you ‘dad’...”
“Are you asking permission to call me ‘Dad,’ Chels?” As her mother had said, Chelsea could turn from 10 to 30 on a dime. Evidently, the reverse was true as well. JC met the big green eyes of a hopeful child. “I’d be honored to be your Dad.”
The teenager abruptly stood up, bursting into tears. Without a word, she ran upstairs.
Bewildered, JC asked, “What did I do wrong?”
Kristin patted his cheek. “It’s called parenthood in the teen years. You did nothing wrong – and something very right.”
“Should I go talk to her?”
She shook her head. “No, Josh. She’d be embarrassed. I’ll give her time to calm down, then I’ll talk to her.”
“How long does it take to get the hang of this?”
“You never do – ask your parents.”
When Kristin went to check on her daughter, she was sitting in front of her vanity mirror brushing her nearly waist length hair carefully.
“Can I come in?”
“Sure, Mom.”
Chelsea waited until her mother appeared in the mirror before speaking again. “He thinks I’m a lunatic, right?”
“Not exactly. He wondered what he had said to upset you.”
“That he’d be my dad.”
“He thought that’s what you wanted.”
“It is...”
“And I think that’s what he wants too – deep in his heart.” Kristin took the brush from Chelsea and began to brush the girl’s hair for her as she had done when she was little. “I think for all the people that surround him, he’s been very alone.”
“He’s a doll.”
“He can be.”
“I don’t have the hots for him.” Chelsea grinned. “Now, Wade or Justin on the other hand...”
“Watch it, brat,” Kristin warned. “That can be all three vetoes – dangerous, illegal and immoral!
JC tapped lightly on Chelsea’s bedroom door before he headed for bed. “Chelsea? Can I come in?”
“Sure.”
The girl sat in the middle of her bed in an oversized tee shirt and shorts flipping through a magazine.
Leaving the door open, he came into the room and turned her desk chair around to straddle it backwards as he faced the bed. “I’m sorry if I upset you.”
She waved it off. “Teenage hormones.”
“I don’t know about that except what I went through.”
“You’ll get the hang of it.”
“That’s not what your Mom says.”
“What does she know? I’m her first kid,” Chelsea teased.
“Mine, too.”
“I realize you aren’t old enough...”
“I told you I’m cool with it, princess. I want to know how cool you are with it.”
She pointed to the picture of Peter de Carlo on her dresser. “My father is just a picture to me. I know everyone says he was a great guy, but he can’t be here now. You are.”
“I want us to be a real family.”
“So do I.”
JC rose. “I’ll call Wade tomorrow.”
“If you really don’t want to...”
“I like the idea of a smart daughter. I’ll stick with Kristin’s incentive program.”
“When are you two getting married?”
“Ask your mother.” It bothered him that Kristin hadn’t set a date, like she could still back out...
“She’s gonna marry you, JC, or she wouldn’t have let me call you ‘Dad’ If she wasn’t sure, you wouldn’t be sleeping in her bed with me in the house.”
“Uh-thanks... JC?...”
“I was testing it out. Doesn’t sound as good as ‘Dad”, but until you’re married...How much can I tell my friends?”
“I’ll have to trust Kristin on that one too. I think maybe tomorrow we all need to sit down and discuss a lot of things.”
“I’ll prod her for you.” Chelsea offered with a big grin. “Do you realize how hard it is to keep this secret? That not only is my mom getting married –- but to a guy most the girls in school think is a total hottie?”
“I-uh-I think a lot of them got the idea when I came with her this afternoon.”
The realization dawned on her and her grin grew. “Hey!” She giggled and clapped.
JC laughed “Night, Chelsea.”
“Night, Dad!”
Kristin waited in the bedroom, the lights dim and her, for all the world, appearing naked beneath the sheet. JC closed the door and approached the bed.
“What took you so long, Mr. Chasez?” she asked.
He began unbuttoning his shirt slowly. “I stopped and talked to Chelsea. She assured me you have every intention of making an honest man out of me.” He gave her a small smile.
“Tonight, I just want to make you,” she announced huskily.
“I see you have some expectation – what if I have a headache?”
Kristin snorted inelegantly, disbelieving he could be out of the mood.
Leaning over, he brushed a kiss across her lips. “I know, Krissie, I want you so much.” He dropped his shirt as she worked at his belt.
“Women hit their sexual peak at 30 – and I’m long overdue. I needed someone I could never exhaust.”
“I was a late bloomer so I got a few good years left in my legs.”
They laughed together and it felt wonderful.
“Marry me,” he grew serious as he knelt on the bed.
“I already said ‘yes’,” she reminded him.
“No, I mean let’s set a date.”
“Why?”
“Please, for me baby. Until we both have wedding bands on our fingers I feel like it could all disappear on me.”
“Oh, no, baby!...” she put her hands on his clean-shaven cheeks and gazed into his eyes. “Do I make you feel like that?”
JC put his hands over hers. Turning his head, he placed kisses in each of her palms. “No, Kris...but what I have with you is so right and so real...I feel like maybe it’s on loan, that somehow, it’ll be taken away. I can’t go back to before, feeling empty, writing about love when I hadn’t experienced soul-deep love yet.” All his insecurities tumbled out – and in the end, he handed Kristin his heart and soul on a silver platter. She had the choice to love him or destroy him.
“No, darling, don’t you see? I don’t want to be without you either. I mean we have to be apart because of obligations now, but we’ll never truly be apart again – ever.” She gave him that soft womanly smile that made him melt. “You weren’t the only lost soul. I thought my life was fine, perfect career, perfect house – even the perfect daughter – but somewhere along the way Kristin got buried as surely as Peter did. I wasn't looking for anything in Chicago. I was doing my job and giving Aunt Marti a vacation at the same time. The last thing I was looking for was a scruffy, blue-jeaned man who was eight years my junior who tended to party too much.”
He rubbed a cheek in one of her hands. “I didn’t think I impressed you much at first sight. I was expecting some uptight, dour-faced widow in a baggy tweed suit. I opened that door – oh, God, I loved you then and you tried to look noncommittal. I couldn’t believe you agreed to see me. You surprised me at every turn – being more than I expected, more than I’d ever dreamed...”
“You have so much passion. It made me breathless. I -- I hadn’t known it could be that way until I looked into your eyes. Even muted by a hangover, they blazed hot.” Kristin leaned forward to kiss him hungrily. “I’d never known love could be so…so physical, so wonderful, so exciting, so...immediate. Peter and I never made love until we were married and then he was tender and sweet but not terribly imaginative.” She shrugged. “I wanted to be taken, to be ravaged, to be worshiped – and I knew you were capable of all those things and I also knew that you were just as capable of deep love as well.”
“Then set a date,” he demanded.
“End of summer? Before Chelsea goes back to school, on her summer break. We’ll have all summer to learn to be a family.”
“Baby, that’s months,” JC complained.
“We have the rest of our lives...”