Well today was the day Madison had called him earlier saying that she wanted him to meet her. He didn't tell Ashley because he knew she would want to go with him and he wanted to make sure everything was ok before bringing Ashley into the picture. But John being the smart man that he was knew that Madison wanted him back and he knew the reason why she wanted him back, so he decided to bring the boys for insurance. It was long before John and the boys met Madison and Gracie at a little out door cafe.
"Hey" John said as he sat down across from Madison.
She smiled at him but it turned into a frown when she saw the boys.
"Who are they?" she asked.
"These are my sons Talon and Christian" he said. He took pride in seeing the angry look that crossed her features.
Talon was sitting on John's lap and Christian was in his stroller he was just about ready to fall asleep.
"Daddy me want icey cream" Talon said.
"Ok we'll get ice cream but daddy has to talk to his friend first ok" John told him.
"Okie dokey" Talon said as he started coloring with the paper and crayons John had given him.
Then was the first time John noticed Gracie. She had been quiet this whole time. She looked a lot younger than 9 she was small and thin. She had dark brown hair and brown eyes. John could see right away that she looked nothing like him.
"Hi you must be Gracie" he said.
She nodded nervously and returned her attention to the book that she was reading.
"So how old are your sons?" Madison asked. John had no idea why she was asking this but he could hear the hint of jealousy in her voice.
"Talon is 2 and Christian is 15 months" he said. "listen if this is what we are going to be doing you asking me questions that you really don't want to know the answers to then I'm going to leave because I have better things to do"
"So is this how it's going to be John?" Madison asked. "you don't even want to take time out of your busy schedule to spend time with your daughter"
Madison and John both knew that Gracie wasn't his but John wasn't about to say anything with the girl sitting right there. Madison knew this and savored it.
"Of course not" John said. "Gracie how would you like to spend the day with me and my sons?".
"Is it ok mom?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah it's fine" Madison said.
"She can stay for dinner and I'll drop her off at your house later" John told her.
Madison nodded and wrote down her address and then left. John stood up and put Talon in the stroller with Christian.
"Do you like ice cream Gracie?" John asked.
"I guess I've only had it a couple of times" she said.
"Really?" John asked. "these two are junkies my fiancée likes to say we started them out early"
John noticed that Gracie seemed to be very quiet and rather skittish. She'd flinch if John accidentally moved too fast. He could tell that she had been beaten on more than one occasion.
"So what kind of ice cream would you like?" he asked her.
"Vanilla" she replied.
"What kind do you want Talon?" he asked.
"Red" he said
"So you want strawberry?" he asked.
"Yep" he said.
As they ate their ice cream John tried to get Gracie to talk but it was harder than he thought it would be.
"So what grade are you in school?" he asked.
"I'm in 5th grade I'm supposed to be in 4th but I skipped a grade" she said.
"Wow that's cool" he said.
"Is Talon and Christian's mom going to be mad when she meets me?" she asked nervously.
"No" John said "I told her about you and she wants to meet you"
"Are you really my dad?" she asked.
"To be honest honey I don't know but if I am I want to be in your life" he said.
"You seem nice so it's ok if you are my dad" she said. "plus it'd be cool to have brothers"
"Well let's be getting on home it's almost dinner time and Ash is going to kill me for feeding you all ice cream" John said.
"Is she really gonna be mad about us eating ice cream?" Gracie asked.
"She'll probably be more annoyed we didn't bring her home one" John replied with a smile. Gracie smiled back at him.
'Maybe this won't be so bad' he thought.