~Okay I have to say that I finally looked up some of the characters in the show and realized I got a lot of everything mixed way up. Sorry about that. My bad.~
He knocked gently on his bedroom door and put his ear on it trying to figure out if either Max or Ava were up yet. When he slowly pushed open the door he immediately spotted Max sitting up leaning over his mother softly playing with her lips. Ava turned her head several times but obviously both were very old players to this game and good in their assigned roles. When his daughter first told him about her convoluted plan to trap Bill Lewis in marriage he'd gasped in horror. How could such a beautiful and smart woman sell herself so low to settle for a man that didn't love and never would. Jeffery had been even more disgusted that an innocent child was going to be victim to this plan as well. He did everything he could to try and change her mind but in the end Ava got exactly what she'd wanted. She always did. Looking back he didn't think anything but heartache and pain would come to everyone involved. Yet now he was standing in his house watching his grandson playing with his sleeping daughter. If he'd succeeded in changing Ava's mind Max wouldn't be here today. He'd never been so grateful to have a hard headed child. Max didn't seem to be upset that his mother wasn't giving him any reaction other than batting his hand away and only looked up at his grandfather when a phone began to ring. As soon as the boy spotted him his arms immediately threw his arms up and began to crawl to the edge of the bed.
They ended up at a park across from his building after the boy was fed and changed. Never ever in his forty eight years of life did Jeffery picture himself playing holding little black boy swing in the middle of a children's park but here he was. Happy. There were a couple of odd stares but mostly he found the boy to be the best chic magnet known to man. They weren't there five minutes before several young hot single mothers came his way to comment on how beautiful his child was and most importantly none seemed to be turned off when they found out he was a grandfather. Max played with the children while he chatted up the gushing young woman. He caught himself several times on the brink of casually suggesting he and the prospective mother get the children together over dinner but each time stopped himself. Regardless of how turned on the woman made him he refused to risk what he had with Mel. As they walked back to his place Jeffery was amazed just how much he had changed. "I guess old dogs can learn a few things" he thought to himself as they walked up the stairs.
"Have you been using my son for evil?" Ava asked as soon as the door opened.
"Excuse me?"
"I read your note and I know how women attack single men with cute babies at the park. So did you"
"For your information I'm very much involved in a relationship" he teased and watched Ava play with her son. He thought about how worried for him she'd seemed last night. Most of the time he secretly blamed Olivia's genetics for Ava's impulsiveness. The local papers were filled with hundreds of Olivia's thrown together plans that quickly fell apart landing herself and all those around her in chaos. Ava had been in the city for only a few years but was quickly following in her mother's footsteps. He'd always blamed the craziness as inherent from Olivia but now he wondered about himself. There was certainly a few things in his past that raise a few eyebrows and red flags. Maybe he was just as much a drama whore as Olivia but refused to let himself wallow in recriminations. "I was thinking I'd give your idea a try" he said blandly.
"What hiring a maid? Cause seriously dad some of the stuff in your refrigerator could be studied at NASA"
"No smartass the other one. I'm thinking about seeing someone about you know everything"
"Really dad?"
"Yeah. I think I could use some help so yeah. Why not everyone is doing it" Ava had jumped into his arms and hugged him tightly. Even Max crawled over to wrap his arms around their legs. They spent the rest of the day talking and laughing over all the trouble they could expect from a teenage Max. How he'd ever lived without them Jeffery didn't know but he knew he was blessed to have them in his life and he would do whatever it took to be what they needed.
Ava and Max left and a few seconds later his doorbell rang he fully expected his daughter coming to retrieve some forgotten toy or piece of clothing and was shocked to find his exgirlfriend standing on the other side. "Reva?"
"May I come in?" she asked glancing in his door.
"Of course come in" he said automatically but his mind was running a thousand miles an hour trying to figure out what the hell Reva would be doing at his door when she'd ignored him for months. He didn't think she was there to try and work things out because both had seen the other very happily involved with another for a while. There wasn't even a point in hiding it. Reva and Josh were meant to be the entire town had warned him repeatedly and he was starting to think that he Mel could have something just as strong given time.
"I know I'm the last person you expected to see but there isn't a good way to say this other than to just spit it out. I'm pregnant" It was a good thing he wasn't eating or drinking or he think he would have choked to death. Of all the things she could have said only telling him she was in fact a reincarnation of Elvis would have made it more surreal. Had he fallen through a rabbit hole and he almost started to looking around for hidden cameras to signal an elaborate prank. "Will you say something!" Reva screamed at him as she paced up and down his living room floor.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure you dumb ass do you think I'm some silly teenage girl! And no it's not Josh's before you ask. I went to the doctor for my cancer screen when I got that little happy surprise. I thought I was going through God damned menopause. I made the doctor give me the pregnancy test three times and they all say you are the daddy" she said as she watched his blank face, "Hey its not like this it was in my plans to find out I got knocked up by my exboyfriend a few months after I got back with Josh but that's how it happened!" Could his life get anymore bizarre?
"How the hell do I get myself into these situations?" he wondered aloud as he drove toward his office to meet Mel. There was no way whatever they had would survive something like this. She would think another man she was involved with having a child with someone else. There was no way he could hide the truth from her especially if Reva was months into the pregnancy and it wouldn't be long before the whole town knew. But there was a spark of hope even as his body filled with anxiety and dread. Here was his chance to be the father he should have been to Ava. He'd pictured how different their lives could have been if he'd been in her life at the beginning. When he took her hand and sat on her desk spilling his heart he couldn't help but be amazed at the range of emotions that flitted across the woman's beautiful face but never did he expect her to do anything but end what they had.
"So what are you going to do?" he heard her ask.
"There's nothing to do. I wait until she has the baby and be the best father I can be"
"But what about you and Reva. Are you two going to try and make it work for the baby?"
"No. She's in love with Josh Lewis and I don't see her kicking him out of her bed anytime soon. He's willing to make it work"
"I'm sorry"
"I don't want you to be sorry I am the one that's sorry. If I had any idea that something like this would happen I never would have started anything with you"
"Because you still love her?"
"Because I love you! I can't stand putting you through all this I saw what it did to you when you watched Beth and Rick on the sidelines"
"If you still want to be with me there is no other man I'd rather be with than you" and for the second time that day he was shocked with amazement.
