The Right Life
The Right Life
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Author’s
Note: I got a lot of feedback
and e-mails asking for a sequel to “Struggle for Control”…so, like a bad girl
(but an author who wants to give people what they want – hee hee), I abandoned
other things and I started to work on this fic. Now, for an explanation:
If you
didn’t read “Struggle for Control” slowly back away from this fic and read
it. Why? Well, this may not make sense without reading it.
of “Struggle for Control.” And this
means what? Well, Shooter was never
around, thus Amy, Chico, and Ted, and everyone else, are alive and well.
died of natural causes…but I digress.
No Shooter, got it? Good.
relationship that didn’t involve Shooter still happened.
Alex needed to take, and there was still much sexual tension…anyhoo, remember
everything Shooterless still happened.
All that
being said, I now must say that this chapter holds a bit of a recap, just in
case there are people that either forgot what happened, or didn’t read the
first fic and are confused. O.K., are
we ready to go?
Ooo, and reviews keep me going, as
you found out with the last story. They
make for fast updates and more chapters!
And I really really appreciate them!
Ready…Set…Read!
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Alex let out a soft moan around
three A.M. on a Saturday night. Right
away, Mort’s ears perked and he sat up.
“Everything all right?” he asked gently.
Alex smiled
in the darkness. “Sweetheart, I’m fine,
I swear.” She shifted herself the best
that she could red reached up for his face.
“There’s no reason for you to be so ‘on edge.’”
“I’m sorry,
baby, but you’re due so soon…”
“And I’ll
tell you when it’s time, I promise.”
She kissed his lips. “Back to
sleep?”
Mort
settled himself onto his back again.
“Back to sleep.” He placed
han
hand on Alex’s stomach, then closed his eyes.
Sleep had just begun to settle in on him when the ringing of the
telephone cut through the tranquil silence.
Mort jolted again, his brain not fully registering what was going
on. He felt around for the cordless
phone on the nightstand, finding it on the third ring.
Silence.
“Hello?” he asked again.
disconnected. He put the phone down and
yawned.
“Nobody?”
Alex asked.
“It was somebody,”
Mort yawned. “They just didn’t care to
say anything.”
“Daddy!”
Alex’s side of the bed.
Mort didn’t
groan in the least. Instead, he
lovingly kissed his wife and rolled out of bed. He made his way to Julia’s room and found her sitting up in her
“big girl” bed. “Hey there, angel,” he
said softly. Normally, Julia smiled at
the sight of her father, but, being the middle of the night, the toddler had a
groggy look in her eyes.
“Daddy,”
she whined. “No seep.”
“I know,
honey, that mean phone woke Daddy up too.”
Mort sat on Julia’s bed and tried to coax her to lie down.
was now technically Sunday, it was today.
Thinking about this, Mort said, “You need to get back to sleep – your
birthday party is today.”
Julia
smiled at him. “Gamma!” she said
excitedly.
Mort
nodded. “Hm mm, Gramma and Poppy will
be here, but only if you go to sleep.”
Julia
furrowed her tiny eyebrows. “No seep,”
she said, repeating her earlier statement.
“Want Daddy
to stay?” Julia nodded happily.
stretched out. Julia immediately
cuddled into him. Very gently, Mort
stroked her soft curls and, his voice almost in a whisper, began to sing her to
sleep. “Isn't she lovely? Isn't she
wonderful? Isn't she precious?
far too content at the moment. He
looked at Julia, curled up next to him, and let his mind drift off.
A fender bender changed my entire life…
Being rear-ended by Alexandra Leidy gave Mort another chance at having a
truly fulfilling life. The momthatthat
they saw each other, a connection had been made. Mort never would have gone to a hospital looking for a stranger,
but something inside had told him to go to her…he hadn’t looked back since.
the easiest thing for either of them, but after a slightly rough patch of fear
– more from Alex than Mort – things couldn’t have felt more natural.
Alex, but with her daughter, Julia, as well.
He spoiled her as much as he could and, eventually, took care of her
while Alex was at work. Then something
unexpected and truly wonderful happened: Alex became pregnant.
proposed, and the two were wed in a small, simple ceremony.
A husband,
a father, a new baby on the way, and a new book due to hit the shelves any day
now. Life was as good as it could get.
When Mort
had first found out about Amy’s affair, he was convinced that certain aspects
of his life had ended. At thirty-five,
he thought that his family should already have been established – instead, he
had moved out of a house that he loved and left a woman he he felt he no
longer knew. Scared, he started over,
convinced that, perhaps, he was trying to live a life that was not meant for
him. Only after meeting Alex did he
realize that he had the right life all along, but Amy happened to be the wrong
woman.
Mort hadn’t
given Amy a single thought since meeting Alex.
He had thought about she and Ted often when he was alone, but now, they
simply didn’t matter. He didn’t let Amy
know about his second move (to Alex’s house) or about their nuptials.
seeing his new book on the shelf and reading his ted ted biographical blurb on
the dust jacket – as well seeing as a much happier looking picture.
He looked
at Julia one last time before sneaking out of her bed.
the covers. Closing his eyes, he heardex sex say, “I still don’t think you sing off-key.” He smiled and rolled over to kiss his wife before falling asleep.