Family Found
Something woke him. JC was warm and pleasantly weighed down. Easing his eyelids up, he found Spring’s espresso-colored hair directly under his nose. In sleep they had turned more into each other, pressing close. More than just Spring warmed him. Sammy had climbed into his lap. The child curled up and was using JC’s chest as a pillow.
The rush of love and possessiveness would have flattened him had JC been standing. This woman and this boy were his. No one else could love and protect them as he would.
Trying not to jostle Sammy too much, he reached back for his wallet.
“Wha?…” Dislodged from her resting place beneath his chin, Spring straightened. Blearily focusing on JC, she asked. “What happened? Did we miss our flight?”
“Not yet,” he answered with a big smile.
“Yet?”
“Read this,” he commanded, handing her a piece of paper.
This was a worn piece of ivory stationery that had been folded and put in his wallet for years. Despite the passage of time, she recognized it.
“I don’t need to. I know what it says,” she whispered tearfully.
“Not all of it, you don’t,” JC told her softly.
Unfolding the aged note, Spring skipped to the bottom of her good-bye to JC to find he had written his own reply in his bold, sloppy script.
She could see where his tears had mingled with hers on the paper.
“I wrote that and waited for you to come back,” he said quietly.
“I didn’t know how.”
“You do now.”
“But so much time has passed—”
“Too much, but maybe we needed to wait. I’m in a better place now. I have the time to be what you two need.”
The tears in her eyes sparkled as she smiled.
Sammy squirmed and gazed up at JC. A recognition of blood dawned on him. “Daddy?” he asked tilting his head to study JC’s smiling face.
“Yep,” JC confirmed.
In a flurry of motion, JC had them in their feet. “Put your coats on,” he commanded as he tossed his bag on top of theirs.
"I didn’t hear our flight—” Spring slipped on her coat as JC assisted Sammy with his.
“You’re gonna miss it.”
“We are?”
Shrugging into his heavy leather jacket, he grinned at her, a delighted, boyish grin. “Yep,” he answered as he commandeered the baggage cart and herded them towards another corridor. “You said you have no where to be until January second, right?”
“Well, yes—”
“Good.”
“JC, where are we going?”
“To rent a car.”
“Dad, you’re walking too fast,” Sammy complained.
Barely breaking stride, JC scooped up the boy and put him on the cart. Grabbing Spring’s hand, he began fairly sprinting towards the car rental terminal.
“Faster, Daddy!” A giggling Sammy urged. “Faster!”
“Screeee-ch!” JC imitated the squealing of brakes as they came to the counter he sought. “I want a car,” he announced in breathlessly rush to the bored young man in the chair.
The man tossed papers on the desk. “Credit card. We accept Master Card, Visa, Discover, American Express—”
JC tossed all four out of his wallet. “Pick one.” He began scrawling on the forms.
“Where are we going?” Sammy demanded.
“I think it’s about time you meet your grandparents, young man.”
The child hopped up and down on the cart in delight. “I got gran’parents?”
“Yep.”
“JC...” Spring sought his eyes, worried.
“No worries, honey. How do you feel about adding Chasez to your and Sammy’s names?”
Blinking back more tears, she replied, “I feel wonderful about it.”
Once seeing and recognizing JC’s name the man became more attentive. “A SUV, Mister Chasez?”
“Please.”
Sammy launched himself at JC, confident his new father would catch him. “I have a dad and gran’parents!” he cried happily as JC swung him up on his shoulders.
“And an uncle and aunt and bunches more.”
“Mom,” Sammy announced with pride and joy, “we got family!”
“Yes, sweetie. It looks like we do.” She hugged JC’s lean waist.
“It’s gonna be the best New Year ever!” Sammy cheered.
JC brushed a soft kiss over Spring’s soft lips. “Oh, yeah.” Wiggling his eyebrows naughtily at Spring, he said, “I know just how to celebrate.” He leaned over and whispered into her ear, for only her to hear. "And we won't need to worry about the condoms failing, because we won't use any."