Road To Recovery (A "Living With The Choices We Make" Sequel) ✔️

16 - Bumps In The Road - Part II

As promised, here is the second part of this chapter. It is dedicated to AngieSSearcy who has been following the series and has provided me some great feedback. Thanks for all your support :)

16 - Bumps In The Road

Charlotte's POV

Since I had spent a lot of time over the summer in Virginia, Tivon had taken the rest of the week off to take Noah and me fishing out on the lake. The boat was actually more like a small yacht, complete with living room, kitchen and bedroom in the back.

It was a beautiful September morning when we took off and we were able to sit out on the deck. The wind was playing with my hair and Noah whooped when the boat picked up speed. His cheeks were flushed as he sat in his special seat with his orange life jacket, the spray twirling up a few droplets once in a while as the bow broke through the waves. Tivon stood relaxed at the wheel, navigating towards open waters. The grin on his face was so wide that it could only be described as beaming – I had rarely seen him happier.

When the trees at shore were reduced to small dots, he cut the engine, the yacht bopping slightly up and down on the calm lake. He got the fishing gear ready, explaining to Noah every detail as he was going along. The boy watched him intently with his big blue eyes, soaking up the attention though I doubted he had a clue what Tivon was doing. With his nine months, Noah was like any average child – eager to learn and explore the world, but with the limitation of age. Tivon had always refused to treat him like a baby, talking to him like he would to any adult. He said it was a matter of respect.

Once again, I couldn't help for my mind to drift, thinking back to the times when Jared and Brent had been little. Ryan had only babbled incoherent words in their presence–if he had even paid any attention to them at all. He had always insisted he had no time for babies. His interest in them hadn't started until they had been able to talk and then things had quickly escalated when they hadn't complied with his demands or had talked back to him. Once he had hit Jared so violently in his mouth that he had knocked out a baby tooth just because his son had used the word 'no' with a frown.

Noah clapped excitedly when Tivon tossed the line with the bait into the hungry lake. After securing the fishing rod in the holder, he flung his arm around my shoulders.

"Now, woman, you have to wait until your man catches dinner."

I giggled. "Isn't that a little old fashioned?"

The smile brought a sparkle to his eyes. "I suppose it is. Truthfully, I kind of suck at fishing, especially once it comes to gutting the things. Hannah is an ace, she always knocked the fish on the head and cut them open when we were growing up."

My fist nudged him playfully in the side. "I hope you're not expecting me to do this. I can't kill an animal."

He rubbed his chin. "That could be a problem. We might go hungry tonight." He turned to Noah. "What about you, little fella? Can you take care of that?"

Blown bubbles from Noah's mouth were the response.

I laughed. "What do you normally do when you catch a fish?"

He clicked his tongue. "Truthfully, I haven't been out on the lake in ages. Too much work and no one who goes with me. Since Hannah met Rachel, she flies pretty much below the radar and my best friend Matt moved to Iowa to raise cattle when the profession got to him. Since then, I pretty much work most weekends and fishing has been the last thing on my mind."

"Oh, poor thing." My hand slid under his shirt. "Maybe we should move on to Plan B with respect to dinner."

"Oh yeah." He pulled me into his arms, gazing down at me. "And what is Plan B?"