United

by A. Aubry

  “Good point. Go get our pizza.”

  Julianna got up from the couch and began walking to the front door. I took a second to watch her beautiful ass in those jeans as she walked away from me. When she was finally out of view, I got up and went into the kitchen. I put some ice cubes in two glasses and quickly filled them up. Just as the second glass was full, Julianna’s voice came from the foyer.

  “Finn? Baby? Some guy is here to see you.”

  I wasn’t expecting anybody. Nobody but our family and friends really knew where we lived because I liked to keep my private life private. Especially with having a child and another one on the way.

  Then again, Julianna’s friend Shane had talked me into letting him publish an article on how we were expecting our second child. That was the extent of what I let him publish, really. I carried our glasses into the foyer with me but the second I saw who she was talking about, they fell out of my hands and broke as soon as they hit the floor.

  “Dad?”

  There was no fucking way he was here. He was only lucky that I recognized him from a few pictures that Cooper and Ashton had shown me when we were younger.

  “Hi, son.”

  This was the man that abandoned my mother, my brothers, and myself twenty-five years ago, and he thought it was okay to just show up on my fucking doorstep? Was he harassing my wife? Julianna looked okay, but my instincts kicked in and I made my way to her, careful to avoid the glass, and put my arm around her, bringing her close to me.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Remember that article I was just talking about? Yeah, that was what my dad had in his hands. The fucker didn’t even live here, as far as I knew, so how could he have gotten ahold of that?

  “I thought it’s about time to finally come and speak to you.”

  Speak to me about what? How to leave my family? That was the only thing you were good at, old man. Leo’s cries floated down from the upstairs and in from the living room where the baby monitor sat. My attention turned to Julianna, technically it was my turn to go get him.

  “I’ll go get him, honey,” Julianna brought her lips up to my cheek and my heart couldn’t take it. Even the sweetest little moment like that made my heart beat that much faster for her.

  She left us in the foyer and walked up the stairs. I let my dad take a step inside because I had to clean up the glass and water that was all over the floor. It was dangerous for Julianna to be around that when she came back down.

  “You can talk to me while I clean this up, I don’t want anyone getting hurt,” I said as I quickly went to fetch some towels and the broom.

  When I came back into the room, my dad was looking around the foyer before focusing back on me. I began my clean up.

  “So, why do you want to talk to me now? Why not any other time in the last twenty-five years?”

  He sighed, “I know that I hurt you and your brothers, but I couldn’t be with your mother anymore. I was an unfit parent, there was no way I could have helped to take care of you three.”

  I rolled my eyes. Likely story.

  “I saw this article, and I knew that I should come and see you.”

  After I cleaned up the mess, the doorbell rang once again, and I went to fetch it. Julianna’s pizza was finally here, and I signed the receipt before bringing the pizza and my father into the living room. We both sat down on the couch.

  “Why do you care about me or what that article says? You left me, Cooper, and Ashton a long time ago. Now, I have a career and a family. Neither of which I want you to be a part of.”

  He held up his hands, “I understand. I was just hoping that we could go out for dinner. I’ve been keeping up with your career as well as your both of your brothers’ careers. I’m only in town for a short period of time, though, because my business trip isn’t very long.”

  “I don’t even know if I could do dinner. Cooper, Ashton, and mom are coming up tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with us. I don’t exactly have a free calendar since it’s the holidays.”

  My father’s mouth opened but it was Julianna’s voice that came out.

  “Finn, somebody was asking for you.”

  I looked up from the man who abandoned me to my beautiful wife who stood at the threshold of the living room with our son in her arms. She wouldn’t have brought him down here if he really wasn’t asking for me. He looked tired as his head rested on her shoulder before he brought it back up and held out his hand for me. Well damn, that pulled at my heartstrings. I got up and went over to my little family.

  “Was big bad mommy mean to you?” I teased Julianna and took Leo out of her arms, putting him on my hip and pressing soft kisses against his head. His head immediately rested on my shoulder as I rubbed his back.

  “Oh really? Well the next time he makes a diaper sag too low that it soaked into his onesie and onto his sheets, that is all you,” she crossed her arms playfully and rolled her eyes.

  “You know that I’m just teasing,” I chuckled as I gave her a soft kiss.

  I had almost forgotten that my father was there until he cleared his throat. The man pissed me off for just showing up out of the blue, and now he wanted to meet for dinner? He had some big fucking balls to ask me for such a thing. I looked over at him as he stood up from the couch.

  “Dad, as you know from the article, this is my wife, Julianna. This is our son, Leo,” Leo’s little hands grabbed onto my shirt as I slowly ran my hand up and down his back, soothing him in any way that I could.

  My attention went back to Julianna who had been watching me and Leo, “Julianna, this is my father, George McAllister.”

  She nodded at him as her lips turned into a straight line. I knew she was fighting to be nice. The only time that she would go off on someone was if they deserved it, and Julianna knew that my father deserved it.

  “Finn picked a beautiful woman to be his wife,” my father smiled at Julianna.

  I mean, yes, I knew that she was beautiful, but it made me feel awkward that he said it about her. My eyes never left hers as I was thinking about exactly what I wanted to say to him.

  Julianna brought her hand to my cheek and ran the backs of her fingers over it, something she always did to keep me calm, “He did alright.”

  I smiled shyly, I did far better than alright.

  “Well, I should head out. I can see that your family needs you. Keep in mind what I said about getting together for dinner. I’m in town until after the holidays,” my father’s voice pulled me out of my gaze with Julianna.

  My father walked to the front door and I walked close behind him, making sure he actually was leaving. I opened the door to give him that little extra push, “I’ll have to get back to you on that. Like I said, mom, Cooper, and Ashton are all coming in tomorrow.”

  He nodded, “Okay, let me know as soon as possible.”

  Before I had a chance to question as to why, he disappeared out the door. I closed it behind him and locked it, not really trusting that man. Leo was still, and I knew that he was asleep. I shifted him in my arms so that his head rested on my chest. I looked back at Julianna.

  “I’m gonna go put him down, then we can eat that pizza,” I smiled and went back upstairs.

  Leo woke up momentarily as I put him down in his crib, but he closed his eyes almost as soon as he opened them. I pressed a kiss against his head, knowing that I would never do to my son what my father did to me. How he could ever abandon his family was something I could never even fathom. I closed the door to the nursery behind me and went back down to the living room.

  Julianna was devouring a piece of the pizza that had come. She couldn’t wait for me so that I could eat too? Her mouth hung open, the slice of pizza about to go in her mouth for another bite as she finally realized I was standing there.

  “I meant for you to wait for me,” I teased, coming into the room and taking my place beside her.

  She put her pizza down and wiped off her hands, putting her hands up after they were clean, “T
his was all your daughter’s doing!”

  I laughed, “Sure, blame it on my sweet angel.”

  Julianna’s lip pouted out, “I thought I was your sweet angel.”

  She had a point.

  I brushed my lips against hers, “You are. You are my sweet Julianna.”

  Her hand came up to rest on my cheek, her thumb slowly grazing against my skin, “Are you okay, sweetheart? I know you definitely weren’t expecting that to happen tonight.”

  “Yeah, it surprised the hell out of me,” I turned into her touch, it was exactly what I needed right now.

  “What did he want?”

  I sighed, “He wants to get together for dinner and talk. Said he’s been keeping up with my career for a while now, even keeping up on Cooper and Ashton back home. He’s up here for some type of business trip. I don’t know what to do, Jules. The man abandoned me when I was two years old, I don’t know anything about him.”

  My eyes burned as tears threatened to come out. This was the last thing I wanted Julianna to see me as.

  “Baby, if you don’t want to talk to him then you don’t have to. He had no right to show up here like that. I don’t have a good feeling about him being here and trying to weasel his way back into your life,” Julianna said softly.

  “I know. I guess I’ll have to talk to Cooper, Ashton, and mom when they get here tomorrow. Get their opinion on it. I’m just afraid, what if I’m meant to be exactly like him?”

  Her other hand quickly came up to my free cheek as she pulled my face closer to hers, “Finn Walker McAllister, you listen to me. You are nothing like that man who was just in here. You haven’t turned your back on your son from the second he came into this world. You love him more than anything in the world. You also love me. You came back to me, you were so damn stubborn and set on fixing things with me when shit hit the fan. I didn’t hear about him doing that for you and your mother. You will never be like him because I will never allow you to be.”

  Well if that wasn’t a proclamation of love, I didn’t know what was.

  “God, I love you and Leo so much, even our little girl who I haven’t even met yet. I love you all more than anything,” I admitted softly.

  “And we love you, Finn,” she smiled shyly as her whispers met my ears.

  Julianna brought my lips to hers and I knew that I couldn’t wait for her any longer. I laid her back against the couch and covered my body with hers. As the kiss progressed, our articles of clothing came off one by one, until nothing separated us. I proved to Julianna that I loved her, the only way that I knew how. I gave her everything I had to offer…myself.

  “Can I just say again how happy I am that my three boys made it out to dinner with me?” My father smiled as he took a sip of his third jack and coke.

  It was two days before Christmas and Cooper, Ashton, and I had come to the consensus that we should all go to dinner with the man who abandoned us. That way we could support one another, but also appease him so that he would leave us alone. The dinner had been going well, talking about our families and our careers. Now that it was winding down to a close, I was almost thankful. I wanted to get home to Julianna and Leo who’d been spending the evening with Amelia, Violet, mom, and our nieces and nephew.

  “You can, but that doesn’t change the fact that we still have no idea why you’re here,” Ashton rolled his eyes. He was ready to head out too.

  “Okay, well, I guess I should be honest with you three,” my father sighed as he spun his straw around in his drink.

  “I think you owe us that much,” Cooper admitted.

  Cooper’s pager beeped, and he excused himself to make the phone call. Violet began to call Ashton, so he excused himself as well. Silently, I willed Julianna or someone to call me so that I could excuse myself.

  “Finn, I know that I haven’t seen you since you were very young…”

  “I was two.”

  He nodded, “I know, and I am still very sorry. I also know I don’t deserve this, but I was wondering if you could help me out. I’m in a bit of a bind with money at the moment. One of my business deals is still pending on going through but it has to wait until after the holidays. If you could just loan me a little bit of cash, it would really mean a lot to me.”

  Yeah, and it would’ve meant a lot to me if you wouldn’t have abandoned me when I was a toddler.

  A part of me wanted to tell him to fuck off, the other part of me just felt plain bad for the guy.

  “I’m not sure, I’d have to talk to Jules. She handles all of the financial aspects of the house since she’s a much more organized person than I am. It’s something that I would need to discuss with my wife.”

  He nodded and was going to say something else, but Cooper and Ashton returned to the table. No mention of money happened after they returned, and we quickly finished up our dinner before taking our leave. When I got home and had Julianna back into my arms, all worries that I had had over the course of the night instantly dissipated.

  “Yeah, I got the last of them,” I said from behind a pile of Christmas presents that I grabbed out of mom’s rental car.

  We filed in and everyone said Merry Christmas to Julianna as she held onto Leo on one hip and the door with the other. The dress she’d chosen to wear made her look sexy as ever, it hugged her body and it made me want to ravage her all over again. I winked as I walked past her, remembering exactly what happened a half an hour before my family showed up.

  “Well damn, Julianna, are you trying to make me hard?” I teased as I walked into our bedroom after lying Leo down for his nap.

  She looked over her shoulder and smiled innocently, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  I came up behind her and snuck my arms around her waist, “I think you know exactly what I’m talking about. This dress makes you look sexy as hell.”

  Her cheeks turned pink, “And why do you say that?”

  My hands traced her curves, “Because it hugs you in all the right places, and it shows the little baby bump where our daughter is growing.”

  “I wanted to look nice for everyone coming over to celebrate.”

  “Oh baby, you look much more than nice. I approve of this dress whenever you want to wear it.”

  “How much do you approve?”

  My hand reached under her skirt as I pushed her panties to the side and began to rub circles around her clit. My hips pushed against her back to make her feel just how hard I was getting.

  “Let me show you.”

  Julianna closed the door behind us and my mother eagerly took Leo from Julianna in his Santa suit. My wife had been sitting with our son in front of the Christmas tree trying to get pictures of him before everyone came for at least ten minutes. I was hoping she got a few good shots because he did look pretty damn adorable. Violet hugged Julianna excitedly, saying something about her dress. It wasn’t until Julianna said something that I really started to pay attention.

  “Thanks, it’s kind of hard to find something cute to wear in the holiday style when you’re pregnant. Either the dresses were too low-cut, or I looked like I was wearing a square sack.”

  There were even more low-cut options? Hot damn, I would’ve had her wear that.

  I wrapped my arms around Julianna from behind and splayed my hands on her small baby bump, “I voted for the low-cut option, but I was turned down.”

  Julianna giggled, catching onto my act, “You’ll take anything where my boobs are spilling out.”

  I brought my lips flush against her ear, “I’ll take them completely uncovered.”

  Her hand tapped mine, chastising me for what I’d said. Hell, I didn’t care what my family heard. My brothers already knew that I had amazing sex with my wife, so it wasn’t exactly news to them. When the sound of the doorbell filled the room, I realized I hadn’t exactly told Julianna about my father coming over for Christmas.

  Cooper and Ashton had told me last night that I should invite him over. They had no idea that he asked me for
money, so I told them that I would. I left Julianna to go open the door, silently ushering my father into the house. Cooper and Ashton immediately brought him over to their families and Julianna, who looked very pissed, pulled me aside.

  “You didn’t tell me that he was going to be here, Finn.”

  My hands shot up in surrender, “Cooper and Ashton asked me to do it last night.”

  She glanced back at my father before looking back at me, “I don’t trust him. I don’t like this at all.”

  When Julianna didn’t have control over a situation, it caused her to panic. This had to be one of those moments. If I would’ve told her sooner, then she wouldn’t be worried about this like she was.

  “Baby, it’s okay. Let’s just enjoy Christmas with my family. It’s Leo’s first Christmas and we don’t want any drama…right?” I asked as I tried to comfort her as best I could.

  Her arms folded over her chest, it looked like she was ready to throw a temper tantrum, “Right.”

  Sassy girls weren’t going to be welcome at Christmas. Sassy girls were supposed to be left in the bedroom.

  “Don’t make me send you to your room, young lady,” I smiled slyly.

  “I’d only go if you were going to be joining me,” she raised an eyebrow and smirked.

  I tugged her closer to me and grinned, “Someone is definitely on Santa’s naughty list this year.”

  “That’s enough you two, come on,” Cooper yelled from the living room.

  “Damn it, Coop. Way to ruin a moment,” I pouted.

  I gave Julianna a chaste kiss, silently telling her that this wasn’t over, and we walked hand in hand back to the living room. When it was dinnertime, I was starving. Julianna had gone above and beyond for dinner and I couldn’t believe she pulled it off all by herself. As dinner progressed, everyone seemed to be getting along nicely.

  Mom vowed to be polite since dad wasn’t exactly her favorite person in the world, and the rest of our family was as animated as ever. It was Julianna that I couldn’t keep my eyes off of though. She looked beautiful as always, but her dress was still making me want to do things to her. Just when I considered sneaking away with her for a few moments, Julianna had said it was time for presents.