Tired of Teaching

Before she could answer Mike told her he didn't scare easily.

"I think I'm done," she said as she looked into his eyes and felt almost dizzy.

"Good. Because unless you turn out to be some other person altogether, nothing is going to make me change my mind."

He touched her face then said, "Nothing."

"Okay," Cheri nearly whispered as Mike's lips pressed against hers.

"Cmon. I want you to meet some more of my friends. A couple of them are actually civilized."

Cheri laughed, mostly out of relief, just as Mike took her hand before introducing her to his closest buddies in the squadron. And as he'd said, some of them really were civilized. All of them were nice, but a couple were Duke clones, and they, too, reminded her of her former husband and his pilot friends. And yet, to a man, every one of them mentioned, in some way or another, that she was an attractive woman, and by the time Mike told her that was it as far as his friends went, she wondered if somehow this might work out even though what it was hadn't exactly been established yet. Even so, she was no longer overly concerned about...dating?...a younger man. Even one who was a lot younger than her.

It was around midnight when Mike drove her home, and the silence in the car was deafening.

"Is everything okay?" he asked after about five minutes.

"Mike? Do you honestly believe you and I could, you know..."

"Work out?"

"Yes. Or...more?"

He saw her hands in her lap and reached over and took one of them then smiled at her.

"I do. But I have the feeling you're about to tell me you don't agree."

When she only stared at him for several seconds, Mike felt defeated. The post-acquittal high he'd been on vaporized as reality hit home.

"No. I'm not going to say that," Cheri quietly replied as she squeezed his hand.

"No?"

"Uh-uh. Just the opposite, in fact."

"Oh?"

Again, she didn't say anything, and now Mike needed to know what she was thinking.

"Please talk to me."

Another several seconds passed before she said, "I'm afraid of what you'll think if I do."

"Afraid? Why?" Mike asked as he glanced over at her.

"Because...because this just doesn't happen."

Even though he was driving he stared at her for a couple of seconds before asking her be a little more specific.

"I...I'm not sure I can say it," she replied so quietly he barely heard her.

"I'd really like to hear it, Cheri. So...please?"

He saw her look down into her lap before looking at him again.

"I'm very aware of how long I've known you, but..."

She drew a deep breath, exhaled, the told him, "I...I think I'm in love with you."

They'd just turned onto the street where she lived, and Mike scared her to death when he pulled the car over and stopped it so fast it locked up her seatbelt.

Before she could ask him what he was doing, he leaned over, put his hands on her face and kissed her. It was a long, deep, and very passionate kiss. When he finally pulled away, he told her he loved her, too.

Tears welled up in Cheri's eyes when she saw the sincerity in his. She unbuckled her seatbelt and nearly hopped up on the gearshift area to hug him.

As she held him Mike asked, "So I'm not too much like your ex?"

Cheri laughed and pulled back to look at his handsome face.

"Beyond the wings you wear...no. You're nothing like him, Mike."

He saw a tear fall and as it rolled down her cheek she said, "You're everything I ever wanted but never had. He...he was all...swagger. Just a caricature of a real man."

She managed a smile as she told him, "You, however, are the real deal."

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh."

A few more seconds passed before Cheri asked something she had to ask even though he'd already made it clear.

"Am I really not too old for you?"

Now he pulled back as far as the headrest would let him then said, "I'm gonna say this one last time. Are you listening?"

"Yes," Cheri said, her eyes still filled with tears.

"No. You are not too old for me. You are everything I've ever wanted in a woman but never thought I'd ever find. You're smart, supportive, kind, caring, and...drop dead gorgeous."

He saw the relief on her face and smiled at her again.

"Okay?"

"Okay," Cheri told him before kissing him one more time.

"Cmon. We need to get you home," Mike told her.

"Or...you could stay with me," she quietly replied, a smile of her own on her pretty face.

"I like the sound of that."

"Me, too."

"I want to warn you, I could get used to that."

"I'm willing to risk it," she said, trying to sound serious even as her heart sang with joy.

******

Mike not only did stay with her that night, he spent every night he wasn't deployed with her. The unlikely couple became inseparable from that moment on in his car and 'dated' for the following year even though dating didn't come close to describing the closeness of their relationship.

Mike proposed to her eight months later, and four months after that, on the one-year anniversary of his acquittal, they were married in the MCAS New River chapel.

On Cheri's 43rd birthday, she returned from the doctor, and her handsome, young husband knew something was going on just by the way she was looking at him.

"So?" he asked as he put his arms around her.

"So...are you ready to be a father?" she replied with a smile so big it made Mike smile, too.

But it was her words that sent him over the moon. He picked her up, swung her around, then kissed so hard she could barely breathe.

"I take it that was a 'yes'?" the happy, expectant mother-to-be asked.

"I am more than ready, honey. I can't wait to be a dad."

When she saw tears welling up his eyes for the first time, she got concerned.

"Mike? What it is it? What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong. I...I just realized that if I'm gonna be even half the dad to our child mine's been to me, I've got some huge shoes to fill."

"Michael? You are going to be the best dad ever. I promise you that," his beautiful wife said.

"Thank you, honey. I already have the best wife ever, and with her love and support, I might turn out to be a fairly decent dad after all."

"Decent. You're gonna be amazing, honey!" she told him as she put her arms back around him.

As she held the younger man she so dearly loved, she thought back to that on the bench near the water and how a handsome Marine captain had quietly sat down beside her. She'd been so tired of teaching she couldn't stand it, and then, thanks to him, her perspective and later her entire life turned around. She now loved teaching again, but she loved her amazing husband even more and knew he'd be just as wonderful as a father.

And with his love and support, she thought she might even make a fairly decent mom herself.