Chapter 18

Looking at the clock and seeing that it was still early he placed a call to Jessy's house to tell her the progress he'd make. He asked her if Danika was still up and if so could she get the names of her parents from her.

Jessy asked him to wait a minute and went to ask Danika what AJ wanted to know. She came back and told him that her mother's name was Valinteen and her father had been Daniel Elkins as close as she could come to the date was the he'd died when Danika was a baby. AJ told her he would pass the information along to Bud and then asked her how full her morning counseling appointments were. Jessy reported that she only had one appointment scheduled and that was at eleven am. He asked her if she could possibly pick up the marriage certificate and told her they could get married Wednesday evening if she could.

She was happy to do that and then AJ told her the three of them had been invited to the Roberts' for dinner on Thursday. Jessy wanted to know if they should tell his friends about the wedding on Wednesday or should let them keep thinking October date was still the offical one.

AJ told her that Bud would have to know because he was going to help with the adoption. She said in that case she didn't mind them knowing early. But she told AJ she was a little worried about Danika keeping the secret. Even though Jessy hadn't told her yet Danika was already eager to tell all the kids at school she was going to get to go to the wedding when they couldn't and she was also talking about telling them about moving in with Jessy and maybe even getting adopted.

"Should I come over for breakfast so we can talk to her together about those things?" he asked.

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Okay then I will see you in the morning but I should go now so I can call Bud back and give him the names."

"Alright, good night darling…oh and Danika says good night too."

"Good night to both of you."

Passing on the names to Bud, AJ let Dammit out for the evening, then packed a lunch and went to bed. His last thought before falling asleep was that he would be a married man in two days time.

At breadfast both AJ and Jessy tried to explain to Danika why she needed to keep the events taking place quiet for the time being. She reluctantly agreed not to tell anyone until Jessy and AJ said she could…

They traveled to school together in AJ's Escalade. When they arrived AJ asked Danika to wait a minute then pulled out his wallet to give her some cash, "If you need anything today."

"I get a free breakfast before I was at Ms Roth's house and a free lunch too so I'll be fine til dinner Coach AJ," she told them both with a wink at using the 'school' names because all morning to getting to school she''d been calling them mom and dad. Giving them both a quick hug she headed into the building.

AJ and Jessy chuckled all the way to the teacher's lounge at her antics. Before the bell sounded for class AJ gave Jessy the keys to the Escalade so she could go to the courthouse and pick up their marriage licence.

Arriving at AJ's place that night Danika got out to meet Dammit for the first time. She couldn't stop laughing over the dog's name. AJ was going to make dinner for them and he'd just started cooking when the phone rang. Jessy said she would take over in the kitchen and Danika asked if she could help while AJ answered the phone.

He found it was Bud on the phone with a question about Danika's father. Bud wanted to know if her father had been a Marine. AJ asked why Bud thought that.

"The only Daniel Elkins I could find anything about was a Major in the Marines. He died in the Persian Gulf sixteen years ago. Does that sound right to you?"

To be continued…..