4 Years later- June 7th, 1947
"Higher daddy!" Alana squealed excitedly as Randy pushed his daughter on the swing.
"Are you sure?" Randy chuckled. "You're pretty high already."
"Higher!"
"Alright... but we'll be leaving in five minutes to head to Lisa's Cafe for some lunch."
"Okay!" Alana smiles.
Randy gives Alana one last big push and grins as she squeals with delight. Ten minutes pass before Randy finally grabs the swing and slows it down.
"Aww." Alana pouts.
Randy circles around to face her and kneels down. She looks at him with her big brown eyes. Her deep brown hair is about shoulder length and wavy with light blue barrettes. She's wearing a white sundress which rustles softly in the warm summber breeze. He smiles at her. She looks just like Melina when Randy first met her.
"Ready to go?" He pouting she nods.
Randy stands up and lifts her off the swing and sets her down before she grabs his hand. They start to walk up the sidewalk away from the park when Alana lets out a "Oh!" She lets go of Randy's hand and runs back to the slide.
"What are you doing?" he calls after her.
"I forgot my bunny!" She says as she disappears behind he wood and metal jungle gym. Randy chuckles to himself.
"Wow... She's beautiful." A woman's voice says from behind him. He grins and nods, his back to her.
"Yeah she is." He replies, turning to face the woman. "She looks just like her..." His voice trails off as he sees her. Navy blue sundress with white polka dots, matching navy blue ribbon in her deep brown wavy hair, bright brown eyes, ruby red lips... his beautiful Melina.
"Melina..." He whispers.
She gives him a shy smile. "Hello Randy."
He stares at her for a moment before his eyes were so many questions running through his mind but he asked the one question that plagued him these past 4 years. "Why?"
Her smile falters. "What do you mean?"
His breathing got shallow and he looked off in the distance for a moment. "Why did you do it?" He asks softly. He looks up at her with his pale blue eyes.
Sighing, she looked over at Alana. "It was a mistake Randy... I didn't mean to hurt you." She steps forward but stops as she sees his body stiffen. "I just wish I could tell you what had all happened while you were gone..."
Randy opens his mouth to speak just as Alana runs upto him, her stuffed rabbit in her hand. She looks from her father to the stange woman then back to Randy. "Daddy?"
Trance broken for a moment, he looks down at her. "Hey sweetie. Ready to go?"
She nods and hugs his arm, tugging it slightly. Randy kneels to her level. "What's wrong?"
She looks at Melina who smiles at her before whispering, "Who is that, Daddy?"
Randy's gaze flickers over Melina. "Who's this?" He asked. "This is..."
"I'm a friend of your father's." Melina says.
Randy looks at her for a moment before slowly nodding. "Yeah...she's...a friend." He stands up and takes Alana's hand and looks down at her. "So ready for a grilled chesse sandwich?"
Alana gives him a big toothy grin. "Yes!"
Melina crosses her arms and rubs them as if she suddenly became cold and looks off into the distance. " Well, I should probably get going..."
Randy frowns. "Oh..." He looks at Alana then Melina. "Do you have any plans for lunch?"
She shakes her head. "Not really... I was thinking about just going back to my little apartment and making some lunch..."
"How about you join us?" He suggests. "Afterwards we can head back to house and talk while Alana plays outside."
Melina smiles and nods. "That would be wonderful."
After lunch- Back at the house
While Alana played outside, Melina and Randy sat at the kitchen table.
"Alright..." Randy said setting two glasses of sweet tea before them. "What happened?"
Grabbing a glass of tea and moving it closer to her she sighed. "Well... I missed you terribly and my friend, Angie, was tired of seeing me moping around the house...
*Flashback- Melina POV*
My friend had taken me out to this bar for a some drinks. We were having a wonderful time just talking and drinking when my friend looked past me and grinned. "What?" I asked.
"That man over there is looking at you." She tittered.
I look behind me and sure enough a young man a little older than me smiled at me. I turn around and look down at my drink. Even in my tipsy stsate I noticed she was right. Angie giggled.
"Go dance with him!" She urged. I looked over at him once more. He was quite handsome. Short black hair, dark olive skin, great smile, slightly built wearing a somewhat tight button up shirt and slacks. I look back at my table again shaking my head, blushing.
"I can't..."
"You can!" She urged again. She looked up. "And here he comes!"
I don't even need to turn around to know he's right behind me. "Excuse me Miss." A deep voice says behind me. I slowly turn to him.
"Hello..." I smile.
"Hi." He grins. "My name is Tony and I was wonderin' if you'd care to dance?"
"Um..."
"Of course she would!" Angie eclaims. "She'd love to!"
I send her a look before turning to see Tony hold out his hand. I hesitantly take it and walk out to the dancefloor with him. We dance a lot of the night and the more I drink, the more he looked like Randy. I knew the alcohol had to be messing with my head.
He spun me around and then whispered in my ear. "Shall we leave?"
My mind thinking he's Randy, I nod. "Let's go back home."
We head out and the last thing I remember was waking up the next morning unclothed, in an unknown bed on 1st street. Embarrassed, I gathered my clothes, redressed and quickly scampered home. I saw him later that day when I was out running errands.
'Sorry for leaving you this morning." He said shyly. "I got a call and had to report down to the Military office. I'm being drafted."
*end flashback*
After a week after he was sent out, I found out I was pregnant with Alana." Melina finishes. She slowly looks purses his lips. "I never meant to hurt you, Randy." She says quietly.
Randy thinks about all this for a moment. "Why did you tell me Alana was mine? Does he know? Where is he? Why isn't he taking care of her?" He asks.
A tear slipped down her cheek before she brushed it away making Randy's heart melt. Why did she have to be so devistatingly beautiful? "He never found out since he was killed in battle a month later. I found out about you still being alive and... I knew you'd be a wonderful father." She looks him in the eye. "I always knew you would be and now I'm seeing it."
"But what about a mother? Sure she has a father now, but what am I going to tell her when she gets older? She already asks about her mother." He says.
"I don't know..." She saysas another tear falls. "Maybe you'll remarry..."
Standing from his seat he kneels before her and takes her hand. "I don't want to remarry. Regardless of what happened, I want you. Please...stay. If not for me, at least for Alana. She needs a mother."
Melina shakes her head. "But... I'm a terrible person! Look what I did!
Cupping her face like he used to, he slowly kisses her teardrops as they slide down her cheeks before looking into her eyes. "What you did?" He whispers. "What you did is give me the greatest gift a man could ask for. You gave me the gift of hearing a child's voice every morning. You gave me a little girl that makes every day a day worth living for."
"But I cheated." She sniffs. "How can you forgive that?"
"I forgive you because you're human and I love you, Melina." You made a drunken mistake but I got a beautiful daughter out of it all."
"Really?" She says.
He leans in and presses a small kiss to her lips before resting his forehead against hers. "But I just ask one thing..."
"What is it?" She whispers.
"Will you come back to us? Make us a family? Help me raise Alana?"
She pulls away to look at him. "Of course." She smiles. "I love you Randy."
"I love you too." He says before kissing her again. As they break away he grins and grabs her hand. "Now come on. Come meet your daughter."
With a smile of her own, she follows Randy out to the yard.