In a lifetime

Chapter 67: Joseph Flores

I wake up from my short nap rubbing my eyes and staring off to the distance from the car window.

Daniel grabs my hand when he notices I'm awake.

I smile at him and turn around to check on the kids, "oh did they pass out?" I say laughingly turning back to the front.

"Yeah they did, I guess their excitement for finally meeting their aunts and uncle knocked them out," he says and we both laugh.

I still can't believe I declared Veronica, Eli, and Nessa their Tias and Tío.

We're still a few hours away from my old home so all I can really do is just stare off into the distance again until I either get bored or pass out again.

When we pass the town's welcome sign it was almost like a rush of emotions, everything that happened fifteen years ago just came flooding back but it doesn't make me feel bad or anything like that, instead I'm kind of happy to be back.

The kids begin to wake up saying, "are we there yet?" And I can finally say yes.

Pulling up to the driveway of my old house, I get out of the car looking at it with nostalgia.

The kids race out of the car and wait at the front door saying, "dads hurry up" Daniel holds my hand as we walk up. 

I take a deep breath and unlock the door.

"Wow, this place looks exactly the same" Daniel says helping the kids inside.

Walking in it's almost like I can clearly see the memories that I have of everything that happened in this house, all the meetings we had and the scares, it's all so vivid.

I look at Daniel and scoff at him while saying, "I'm not surprised, I didn't really put it up for sale and we did just wait for fifteen years for this moment" 

He looks at me with bliss and I can tell he's happy to be back.

The kids feel the same way, even though they have never been here. Daniel and I have shared a little bit about our past with them, and when we mentioned that they would be coming with us to see our old home they were more than excited.

Since we're staying here for a while to determine whether or not living here will be good for the kids, we get our bags from the car and we help fix the guest room into the kid's room.

After we finish settling in we all relax in the living room until we hear a knock on the door.

When I open the door I have the biggest smile on my face like the days when the kids entered my life and the day I married Daniel.

Seeing Eli standing there like the moron he is I hug him and he hugs me back. 

"Where was this affection when we were dealing with life," he says trying to be slick but I push him back giving him a sarcastic look.

He walks inside while holding hands with a woman. It takes me a while to remember that she's Eli's new partner.

I forgot that Eli broke up with Tristan a few years back, saying that they both no longer had that connection with each other but at least he's found another person to be happy with.

"You must be Cory, Eli has talked a lot about you," I say greeting her and she smiles at me.

She grabs my hand and holds it for a while as she says, "all good things I hope, and you must be Joseph, Eli has also talked a lot about you" I look at her surprised and I look at Eli who looks embarrassed.

We all laugh and that's when the kids run up to Eli saying, "Tío Eli, we've missed you" 

I can hear Cory gasp and I turn to face her to see if she's okay.