A Second Chance, Part II -- Life Goes On
By: Tickie
(© 2007 by the author)
Editor: Radio Rancher
Co-Editor: HetepHamaMeret

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...


Chapter 14

Well I can’t say who woke up first 'cause there was so much giggling and horsing around going on, Mike was tickling Colt, and Matt was on top of them. It kind of scared me, a little, with all his surgery, not completely healed yet. I spoke up and said, “Hold it, guys, cool down a bit. Don’t you all remember, Matt, here, just had a lot of surgery, last Friday night?”

Mike said, “It’s all their fault, they both were tickling me awake.” He was laughing so damn hard, I thought he was going to fall out of bed.

Colt said, “I’m sorry, pop; I forgot about that.” He had a real sad look, on his face.

Matt said sheepishly, “I shouldn’t have been messing around; I’m sorry, pop. I won’t do it again.”

I spoke with a smile on my face and said, “It’s ok; I know everything is new and fun, but you just have to be careful until you get all healed up, OK?” And no one is mad at you, I promise. “Now you two munchkins, get your little butts in gear and get cleaned up, and dressed.”

They left the room in a flash. So Mike looked at me with a grin on his face and said, “I thought you were going to chew my ass, for a minute there.”

I looked at him with an evil grin, and said, “That might just taste pretty good, this morning, yum!” I then slid over onto his side of the bed, and as he started to get up out of bed, I bit him right on his cute ass cheek. Just a loving bite. He didn’t see it coming either, so he turned on me, and started tickling me, relentlessly, until I was about ready to pee myself. I yelled, “Quit it, or I’m go'na pee myself.”

He said, “Better you then me, love.”

I said, “Happy Thanksgiving, love, I think today we both have something to be really thankful for.” Then I got up, and headed for the bathroom, to take care of the necessities of life, and Mike followed suit.

As I headed toward the kitchen, I overheard the boys talking, so I stopped to listen, in the hallway, and Mike was right behind me. I heard Matt saying “Geez, you have a lot of nice clothes.”

Then Colt said, “Yep my pops are great, they got me all that stuff.”

Again Matt said, “Golly, I ain’t never seen so many cool games for a play station, either.”

Colt replied saying, “Yep, I think I have every game they make, and they are yours, too, now, OK?”

I was so proud of our older son right then, I could have shouted to the world, “See, gay parents can be great parents, too.” But all I did was walk into their room and say, “Happy Thanksgiving, sons, I really have something to be thankful for today; I have two wonderful sons.” Then I hugged them both.

Mike just said, “Me, too!” Then he hugged them both, as well.

The smell of fresh coffee brought me back to earth, so both Mike and I continued our trip into the kitchen. When we got in there, we found Julie, all dressed up, preparing our breakfast.

She said, “Good morning, my two big boys; how are you today?” She had the cutest little grin on her face that I had ever seen.

Mike said, “Just doing and feeling great, Julie.” Then he got a couple of cups of coffee and headed into the dining room.

I walked up and gave her a little hug and said, “Smells great, as always.” Then I followed my lover into the dining room.

I looked out the window; to see what I always loved about this place; it had snowed during the night, a lot of snow, but with the bright sun, shining on the fresh fallen snow, it was truly a sight to see and behold. You can’t describe it; there's just no way. It’s just breathtakingly gorgeous. Even Mike fell in love with our little heaven on earth, because of how beautiful this place was at this time of year.

The boys soon joined us, and Julie served a great breakfast. Colt wanted to take Matt out to see the horses, so we told him to be sure they dressed warmly, because it had snowed a lot last night; even though the sun was out this morning, it was still very cold. So the boys went to their room, and put on parkas. Colt and Matt were close to the same size, so Colt’s clothes would fit Matt ok until we could get him into town and really outfit him properly. The boys took off, and were out the door in a flash.

I just looked at Mike and said, “Aren’t those two a wonderful pair, together?” I was beaming like any proud father would be.

Mike said, “They sure are; of course we had a lot of help finding them!” As he said that he came up behind my chair and placed both his hands on my shoulders and began to massage my neck and shoulders, and, God, did that ever feel good. I always loved it when he did that to me.

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Colt...

It was cold out, Matt and I kinda shivered a bit, when he said, “This sure is a nice place! You have so much room, and no one is close to you. Look at all those black cows out there.” I chuckled at him.

Then I told him, “I said the same thing to our pops and they told me -- just like I’m go’na tell you -- they aren’t cows; they're steers; cows are female and steers are male.” Then I laughed at him.

“Quit that, you’re makin’ fun of me.” He blushed a little, and I just grabbed his hand and said, “Come on, now; let’s go see the horses.” Matt followed with excitement; he seemed to be happy, and I sure was happy; he was my brother, now.

As we got closer to the corral I heard Star, Ginger and Darkstar whinnying. Matt looked at me and said, “They're talkin’ about me.” He looked happy and shocked at the same time. Ginger was tellin’ Star and Darkstar, “That new boy is cute, and I like him a lot.” Star said, “I like him too.” However, Darkstar spoke not as well, ‘because he was too young yet. “Can I have him?”

Matt said, “My goodness, the little colt over there is named ... Darkstar?" He understood as much as I could, now; it was fun to hear him talk to me, about what the horses were saying. “And they like me, too!”

I said, “Well, maybe our pops will let you have Darkstar?”

“You have to be kiddin' me; don’t do that; why would they give me a horse? No one ever gave me anythin' that nice before, not even my real parents.” Matt said with a rather, 'I was a bad boy' look.

I just told him, “Your real parents are now OUR dads, and you can bet they will give you Darkstar, if you just let them know you would like to have him. They gave me Star, and I didn’t even ask for him. And I love Star, and my pops, too. And … you … too, little bro.” When I said that, he reached down and picked up a bunch of snow then rolled it up into a snowball and through it at me, it hit me on my shoulder, so I grabbed some snow, and we had a great snowball fight, for about a half hour. By the time we were finished, we were standing in front of the airplane hanger. Even though it snowed a lot, the runway and all the roads around the ranch were all plowed, before we even came outside.

I asked Matt, “Would you like to see Little Colt?” He looked puzzled. “Oh, Little Colt's our airplane, and Richard is teaching me to fly it. And maybe he will teach you, too.” I opened the hanger, and it was a little warmer inside.

As Matt came inside and saw Little Colt, his eyes got as big as baseballs. And he said, “Oh, that’s a big airplane, and you can fly that?”

“Sure, I can even fly it all by myself. But I can’t take anyone up with me unless they are a licensed pilot. But if Richard comes out today, maybe we all can go for a ride in it?” Now you could see he was really excited, but scared too. So I asked, “Why are you acting scared, Matt?”

“ 'Cause I ain’t never been in an airplane before, that I can remember. Can I look inside it, please?” Matt asked.

“Sure we can.” I opened the door and we got inside the plane; I showed him everything; all the controls, and all the other stuff, too; then I showed him my logbook, and he was kinda quiet, after that, so I asked, “What’s wrong bro?”

“Nothing; just thinkin’ how much fun this might be, if I get to do what you said.” Then Matt thought for a few minutes, and said, “I love you, Colt.” Then we got out of the plane, and started walking away.

I yelled at Matt saying, “Come back here; I love you, too. Why are you leaving?” I was scared that maybe I'd done something wrong.

Matt just looked back and said, “Nothin’s wrong; I just feel funny inside, and I wanta go back to the house now.” He just looked different, all at once, so I followed him back to the house, not knowing what was really wrong.

We got to the front porch, and I stopped him, turned him around and said, “I didn’t hurt your feelings did I? I’m sorry if I did!”

“No, you didn’t hurt nothin’. Ok! I just need to go lay down, a bit, I don’t feel so good, right now. Please, just let me go lay down now, please.”

“Ok, I’m sorry, bro; I really am.”

“Damn it, that ain’t nothin’ to be sorry about. I just need to lie down, I’m tired. Ok!” He was walking faster now, almost a run into the house.

We both went inside, and saw both pops, sitting in the living room, watching something on the TV, they were cute, too; pop was sitting up and poppa Mike was lying on the couch, with his head in pop’s lap.”

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JC…

The house smelled of Thanksgiving turkey and all the fixings. God, it smelled good. Julie was busy in the kitchen, getting our feast ready. She told me, though, that today she would not stay for dinner. She had her own family that wanted her to come over to their home. We agreed that she should spend time with her family for the holiday, but she was going to have everything on the table, for us, so all we would need to do was basically sit down and eat. We kinda liked that idea anyway, 'cause this would be the first Thanksgiving that we would be together with our two sons. Not that we wouldn’t have welcomed Julie; we would have, in a heartbeat.

Mike and I were watching a college football game, when we heard what seemed to be the boys, coming in, but they seemed to be arguing about something -- couldn’t quite make it out. Then the door opened, and Matt came in, not saying anything, and headed straight for their bedroom. Then Colt came in, and came over to us. He looked worried and scared.

Mike asked Colt, “What’s wrong, son? Do you and Matt have a problem?” God, is this their first fight? I thought, I looked to JC, and I could see he was a little concerned too.

“I don’t know, poppa Mike; we were in Little Colt and I was showing him all the stuff, and then I showed him my logbook, then he just got up and started back to the house. I kept talking and asking him what was wrong, and he just kept saying nothing was wrong," Colt said, looking very upset.

Mike said, “Let me go see what I can find out.” As he started to get up, I told him, and I motioned for him to stay with Colt, that I would talk to Matt. Therefore, Mike agreed and kept Colt in the living room. I then went into the boy’s room to see Matt lying on the roll-a-way bed. I thought, now that’s strange, after sleeping in the big bed last night, with Colt. I knew something wasn’t right. I calmly walked over, and sat on the edge of the bed, and said, “What’s wrong, son? You don’t look so good.”

“Ah … Ah … Nothin’s wrong, pop.” He was scared, and blushing, at the same time.

“Come on, son, we have no secrets in this house; you don’t have to hide anything from me or your poppa Mike.” I was talking softly, and gently, to him. “Now, come on and tell me what’s the matter, OK?” He still just tried to hide his head and not speak. So I lay down beside him and started running my hand through his beautiful chestnut brown hair, and looked into his beautiful brown eyes, saying, “Now, there’s nothing that can be that bad; come on now, please tell me, son, I'm here for you and I always will be, and so will your poppa Mike, if you need him. Would you rather talk to your poppa Mike?” I was trying to get him to open up, and say something.

"No, pop, I'd rather talk to you, right now, if that's ok?" He was now a deeper shade of pink, blushing.

"Sure son, you just tell your pop what's wrong, ok?" I was hoping that he had started to open up to me.

"I don't know how to say this, really I don't. It's kind'a like ... like ... Colt, told me he loved me ... and ... I kinda said I loved him, too ... and that's what got me beaten by my foster father last Friday ... and ... Colt told me that someone, he called Richard, would ... teach me how to fly Little Colt ... that the little colt, Darkstar ... if I asked, would be mine ... and ... "

My god, he was crying uncontrollabl; at times, he was sobbing and gasping for air. Matt continued through his tears, and his sobbing. "Then ... Colt kept tellin' me ... he was ... sorry ... and stuff like that ... and I love him ... and my new pops"

He wasn't even able to say anything else. He was crying so hard and his poor little heart was pounding so hard I could feel it. And I was crying, too; I looked up from the bed to see Mike standing in the doorway, crying, too. I was hoping Colt wasn't there, but again maybe he should have been.

I spoke saying, "Mike the poor little guy is having an emotional overload. Where is Colt?" I wanted him to come in now, and see his brother; this was an important time in Matt's new life with us.

"He stayed in the living room, hon," Was Mike's reply. "Do you want him to come in here?"

"Yes, please, I think I need to talk to them both, right now." God, I was thinking, now what do I say to make things better. Help me, please.

Mike and Colt returned, and now Colt was upset, not knowing what had happened. As he came into his room, he first looked at Matt, then at me and I know he saw that we were all crying, and he, too, started getting glassy-eyed. Not saying anything, he just stood close to Mike, almost saying with that 'help me please, I didn't do anything' look on his cute face.

"Colt, first off, you didn't do anything wrong." With that said, you could see the relieved tension vanish, that was built up in Colt's mind. "Now we have a small problem here. It's nothing to be scared about, either. It seems, our newest son here, has had a lot of new things thrown at him emotionally; no, son, not the snowballs you guys where throwing at each other earlier. Colt ... Matt has never had much in his life, and seeing all the cool stuff you have, well ... that was just too much for him to think about, all at once. Then you told him about Little Colt, and that Richard might teach him how to fly. That's a bundle of emotions in itself. Then you told him you loved him, and he feels the same way about you. He was beaten for saying that to someone else, last Friday, and you can see where that landed him -- in the hospital. Well ... that was just too much, too, for him to comprehend and understand, so naturally, his system went into overload ... making him feel upset inside. Again ... neither of you two, did anything wrong. OK? Now maybe you two can just play a game, or something, and kinda forget about all the other stuff you did, today. Then, later, we can have a nice Thanksgiving turkey dinner, OK? How does that sound to you guys?”

"Ok, pop." answered Colt." He was looking at Matt, and then he said, "I didn't think all this would upset you, Matt, but I am ... not go'na say it ... you already know what I was go'na say, anyway."

"Oh ... OK, pop; that sounds good, too." Matt just turned over in the bed, to face Colt, and smiled at him.

Both Mike and I just left the room, and headed into the living room again, not saying a lot about what just happened, knowing our son was adjusting, but what a hard adjustment that was.

My, the smell of the food was making me hungry, and I know Mike was feeling the same, because he kept dropping hints that if he didn’t eat soon he would take me and get some protein from the source. Now that intrigued me somewhat.

Well, Julie came out and said, “You all need to get cleaned up for dinner. As soon as you are all here, I will serve your dinner, and then I have to go.”

Mike went back, and told the boys that they needed to get washed up and get ready for dinner. He and I washed up in our bathroom, but before leaving, for the dining room, we both hugged each other, and shared a deep, passionate, kiss, that lasted a minute or so. Then we broke it, reluctantly, and commented on how much less time, we seemed to have alone now, but we both laughed about it, as we headed back, into the dining room.

Colt and Matt soon entered, and sat down. Mike sat at one end of the table, and I sat at the other end. Matt sat to my left and Colt sat to my right. Julie came in, with all the fixings, first, then she brought out the turkey, and, my God, it looked beautiful, for lack of a better word. Then she wished us all a Happy Thanksgiving, and we all wished her the same, then she left. Mike wanted me to carve the turkey, but I told him he could have the honors. So he did, and did a great job of it, too. I was just scared I would mess it up, but, of course being a man, I wouldn’t admit it.

Colt commented, “This is the best turkey, I have ever had; Julie's a great cook.” I was surprised he even stopped eating, long enough to say that. The way he was chowing down, I wouldn’t have wanted to get between his mouth and the food. I might have lost something important.

Mike said, “She sure is! I love the sweet potatoes, too, with all them marshmallows all over them; they are so wonderful.

I said, “I’m glad we didn’t use'em all up last night,” laughing at the thought.

Matt didn’t say anything -- he was just a little eating machine -- but he was eating very politely.

I got up, got the digital camera, and put it on a tripod; setting it up so it would take a picture of the whole family. Then I set the timer to start, and got back at my place at the table, telling everyone to look at the camera and say cheese. That brought out a big laugh, from both boys, and Mike laughed because they were laughing. Of course, that made the picture come out fabulous.

We all ate so damn much food, that none of us wanted to move. Before we left the table, however, I told everyone that we were going to draw straws. Matt was the only one excused, because he was the newest member of the family. The straws were in three lengths; long, medium, and short. The person drawing the short straw, would have to speak first, and say to all present, what they were thankful for, then the person with the medium straw would speak, and the one with the longest straw would go last. We had Matt hold the straws, so there was no cheating, we all laughed at that remark.

Well, Colt got the short straw, Mike got the long straw, and I got the medium one.

“Ok, son, you go first.” He was blushing, and looked at everyone, for a few minutes.

Colt, finally, after what seemed like five minutes, but it wasn’t, began to speak, saying, “This is hard. I ain’t never done this before, but here goes. I guess what I'm thankful for is having a nice home, and being able to go to a nice school, learning how to fly a plane, having nice clothes. Gosh there are so many things to be thankful for, so I guess what I am the most thankful for is having two of the bestest pops or dads in the whole wide world. Sorry ... and a great new brother, too. And I'm sorry I had to say I'm sorry, again, Matt; I do love you.” Then he looked at me and said, “It’s your turn now, pop.”

I just looked around the table for a minute or so, and then said, “Just look around this table, and see the love that’s sitting here. How could anyone not be thankful for that? But there are other things, that I'm thankful for, as well; one of those is ... that someone once loved me enough to leave me this ranch, and a company that cares for us. Then ... for someone that loves me enough to make me happy, and wants to be beside me for the rest of my life. And then ... there are two great sons that I love dearly. And last but not the least ... our two guardian angels, that watch over us all the time.” I looked at Mike and said, “Now follow that my love. I dare you,” looking at him with an evil grin.

Mike cleared his throat and said, “Ok, it seems that JC, sitting down there, at the head of the table, stole all my thunder, so I will just say this ... I'm so happy just to be part of this family, and to be given the opportunity to love each one of you, in my own way. I'm very thankful, to have a man, that loves me, for who I am, and not for what I am; for two of the cutest boys in the whole world, and ... well ... for having a wonderful ranch I can call my own. What more could anyone want in life? Thanks to all of you, for just being here for me.”

We started to get up and clear the table when Matt spoke up and said, "Can I say something, now?" He was kind of blushing, but you could see he wanted to talk.

We all sat back down, and I told him he could say anything he wanted to. Then I told him, that he didn't have to ask to speak in his own home. Then I thanked him for being polite, in asking to speak.

Matt fidgeted with his fork, for a bit, then stood up like all the rest of us had, and said, "Well ... I want to say thank you for bein' there for me the other night, and savin' my life, and helpin' me. Then I want to thank that man, James, for gettin' me out of that nasty house I was livin' in. Then I want to thank Colt, for wantin' to be my brother. And I want to thank pop and poppa Mike, for just wantin’ me to be their son. I really, really love you all, very much." He wasn't blushing now, he stood tall, and you could see the pride in his eyes. It was almost like he had just became a true Andersen.

I couldn't help but stand up and go to hug him but it seemed that was catchy, because by the time I got there all of us were in a four-way hug. Moreover, I could say a very tearful, happy, loving hug. Then I added, "Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!"

To be continued...