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Chapter 14: Mark It

About a week later Julie stood at the stove making dinner. Tyler was sitting at the kitchen table, doing his very simple math homework when Charlie walked in. Tyler smiled at him and Charlie ruffled the little boy's hair and he giggled. He walked over and put his arms around Julie's waist and she shrugged him off. Ever since the fight they had they'd barely touched, or spoken for that matter.

"Julie," he whispered.

"Not in front of Tyler," she murmured.

"We have to talk eventually," he said. She bit her bottom lip.

"I have that PTA meeting thing tonight, after, I guess." She said simply. "Tyler, baby," Tyler looked up. "Are you all done?"

"Almost," Tyler screwed his face up. "I ran out of fingers to count on for one," Charlie laughed and walked over.

"Let me help you with that buddy," he sat down. Julie sighed and looked at them. She knew that she shouldn't be pushing him away. She knew it, but she couldn't help it. She was just so sure that he was going to get tired of playing house and then where would they be? "Julie?" He looked at her.

"I'm heading out," Julie said softly and kissed Tyler and then Charlie softly. "I love you." She whispered. He smiled softly and she walked out.

"Why are you two fighting?" Tyler asked. Charlie looked at him.

"Because she doesn't want to marry me," Charlie shrugged. Tyler nodded.

"She will," Tyler said. "Mommy's slow at stuff." Charlie laughed.

"Yeah, I'm learning that kid," he said. "Hey," Charlie said. Tyler nodded. "You know even if this whole thing with me and your mom doesn't work out exactly how you and me want, I'll always be here for you right?" Tyler shrugged. "I mean it, OK? My mom had a boyfriend too, who loved me and who I loved and he's still a really important part of my life."

"Even though he didn't marry your mommy?" Tyler said. Charlie nodded.

"Yup, she married someone else," he explained. "And I love my step dad too, but not the same way I do Coach. So, no matter what, I'm always going to be here for you."

"OK," Tyler nodded. He really wanted Charlie to marry his mom, but this was OK. "Charlie, I love you." Charlie looked at him. Tyler hadn't ever said it before.

"I love you too buddy," Charlie whispered.

Julie sat in the meeting, bored out of her mind. She was listening to the thirty something woman in the front talk endlessly about some fundraiser they were having. She was glad that Scooter had agreed to pay for Tyler to go to private school, but this part of it was just so dull. Couldn't he and Dawn do this part? They were more suited to this kind of thing.

"So that just leaves the key note speaker," she said. "Because it's a night on ice, I thought maybe we could find someone that fits into that." She looked at Julie. "Julie? Any suggestions?"

"Hm?" Julie said. "Oh, I um," she looked down. "I don't know, I've never done this kind of thing before, really, I think someone else would know better."

"Well," another one of the women said, "none of us are gold medalists in anything." Julie frowned. How did they know about that?

"Oh, you mean," she laughed. "Well, I guess I could," she said. "Do you want Coach Bombay?" She knew Charlie was itching for a visit from his mentor anyway.

"Could you?" The head woman asked. "I mean, are you still in touch?"

"Personally?" Julie laughed, "no, I'm not. But he and my boyfriend are still really close."

"Your boyfriend," another one of them said.

"Um, Charlie Conway?" She said. "He was our captain."

"Well, then," one of the other women said. "That settles that, Julie will take care of the speaker." Julie nodded. That made life easy. They adjourned the meeting and Julie wandered over to the refreshments table.

"You did well," Mr. Thurston walked over. She laughed and looked at him. "Really, I mean Gordon Bombay, that's quite a coup."

"I try," she said. "Actually, it's not that big a deal. Coach and Charlie are insanely close. It'll be good for Ty to meet him too." She looked at him. "I didn't realize you'd be here, Mr. Thurston."

"You can call me Joe," he grinned. "And it's my turn to be the T part of PTA." She laughed. "You Ms. Gaffney,"

"Julie," she said. He smiled.

"Julie," he nodded. She looked at him. "Tyler's really a great kid. I mean, I'm not supposed to pick favorites, but he's definitely up there." She smiled. "Do you mind me asking, I mean, about you and him?"

"Oh God," she sighed, "You mean like, the why I had him, why I kept him conversation?" He nodded. "I'm Irish Catholic, the a word was not an option."

"Ah," he nodded, "but the other a word?" She smiled.

"I considered it," she said, "and then my parents were going to take him, so I could go to college. But then I just couldn't give him away. Do you have kids?"

"No," he said.

"Then it's hard to explain," she said, "I mean, I'm not saying it wasn't hard, and there are times when I think I did the wrong thing. I mean, like, life would have been easier for both of us if Ty had grown up in Maine with my parents, and I'd gone to Princeton."

"Princeton?" He said. She nodded. "You got into Princeton?"

"Yes," she nodded, "I got a full ride, actually." He nodded, impressed. "I was going to study history." She smiled.

"Do you every think about going back to school?" He asked.

"It's never really been in the cards," she shook her head. "Lately though, Tyler's father has been stepping up a lot, and Charlie," she stopped. She found herself really not wanting to talk about Charlie with Joe.

"What does he do?" He asked.

"Charlie?" She said. "He's in stocks," Joe nodded. "I don't know exactly what he does, but I know he brings a really big paycheck home."

"So he's in the mob?" Joe teased. She laughed.

"That's what my older brothers said," she said. "What about you? What in the name of God possessed you to become a first grade teacher?" He laughed. "I mean, I love my kid, but I could never spend all day everyday with twenty little kids."

"I always wanted to be a teacher," he shrugged. "I thought I wanted to do high school for a while. But then my sister had a kid, and I really liked hanging out with him when he was like six or seven, and I was good with him. I taught him to read, and it was the most rewarding thing that ever happened." They walked outside and they sat on the steps talking for a while. She hadn't been this comfortable with someone in a long time.

"So do you chat up all of the single moms this way?" She asked. He laughed.

"Only the really beautiful, super smart ones," he whispered and pushed her hair off of her face. "It doesn't hurt when they're only twenty four," he kissed her softly. While they were kissing, she started to cry. She pushed away and wiped her eyes.

"Oh God," she whispered, "I'm sorry, I mean, I can't." She stood up.

"No," he said, "I shouldn't have, I mean, wow, it's just," he sighed, "look, I'm not a bad guy."

"No I know," she said. "It's just, I shouldn't have," she closed her eyes. "Charlie and I have been having problems and I've been avoiding it, and that's kind of why I let you talk to me tonight. I mean, I like you but I love Charlie and you're Tyler's teacher," she stopped. "Oh God, you're Tyler's teacher!" He looked at her. "I have to go." She got in the car and drove home. She walked up to the apartment and saw Charlie sitting waiting.

"You're late," he said simply.

"Charlie," she said softly. "Is Tyler in bed?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Where the hell were you?" She looked at him.

"I was talking to Tyler's teacher," she said. "We got caught up," she looked at him. "I'm sorry, OK?" He nodded. "How long are you going to punish me?" He shook his head.

"I'm not punishing you," he said. "But either you want to do this, you want us, or you don't," he shook his head. "I'm kind of sick of waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"I kissed him," she said softly. He looked at her. "Joe, Mr. Thurston."

"Tyler's teacher?" Charlie said. "You kissed him?"

"Well, he kissed me," she said, "I think, I don't know, it just sort of happened. But I came right home, after," she looked at him. "Charlie, I love you. I want to be with you, but you have to stop pushing me forward when I'm not ready for it," he looked at her. "I get to decide when I'm ready to go back to school, I get to be not ready for marriage, and I get to make outrageous demands like you calling Bombay and asking him to talk at some stupid fundraiser for Tyler's school and you don't get to say anything about it." She walked over to the fridge and started looking through it.

"Run that last one by me again," he said as she handed him some water.

"You're going to call Coach," she said slowly, "and you're going to ask him to speak at a fundraiser at Tyler's school." He looked at her. "You said you wanted to introduce him to Ty, and this way, we could do that and I could get in super good with the PTA ladies."

"Julie," he looked at her, "Coach doesn't do the inspirational speech thing. You know that." She sighed. "Orion would be better and you're on better terms with him than I am." Julie bit her bottom lip.

"I'm promised them Bombay," she said. "I need this, Charlie, for Ty." He sighed and looked at her.

"If it's really for Ty," he said. "Then yeah, I'm in."

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