Taking Aim

"Not this morning."

Jaycee laughed then turned around and hugged him.

"I really do love you."

"And I love you," he told her.

"What about me?" Isabella asked as she finished the milk in her bowl.

"Come here, silly girl!" her uncle said.

She slid off the chair and stood between them as she put a tiny arm around one leg of each adult.

"That's better. And yes, we love you very much. So so much," Jaycee told her.

"I love you, too," Isabella told them as she buried her face in their legs.

Jaycee smiled happily then said, "I think now is the appropriate time to say how much I love this."

Brandon laughed then said, "You know, I couldn't agree more."

With the issue of temporary custody behind them, Brandon's focus turned to permanent custody and adoption, and time permitting—darts. But no matter what his focus was Jaycee was there with him as the two of them grew closer the more time they spent together. And they spent every evening as well as every day off Jaycee had together.

A bittersweet moment came which was mostly bitter when Brandon's attorney informed him the death certificates were available; paperwork he'd need to be able to transfer the title of Will and Donna's home into his name. Her parents had no desire to try and lay claim to the home since it was Will's elderly grandparents who'd paid off the home for them as a very generous wedding present.

Legally, they had a right to do so, but morally they wouldn't think of it. Brandon didn't tell them, but he intended to find a way to give them as much money as he could should he ever be in a position to do so. And the best way for him to do that was to get into the CLD tournament that was still eight months away and win it.

With his current ranking, he was now eligible to do that, and after paying the hefty entrance fee, was formally signed up. He would have to fly to the UK which was no small expense, but for now he was juggling about as many balls as he could keep in the air. But no matter what else went on in his life, the satisfaction he got each day from raising Isabella and loving Jaycee made any other challenge seem a little more pleasant.

Two months after bringing Isabella home, Jaycee's divorce became final, and she and Brandon felt comfortable enough to finally leave Isabella with a babysitter Jaycee had known for years. That gave them their first opportunity to go out on a formal date, and Brandon took her to the nicest restaurant he could afford to celebrate.

One of the things he loved the most about Jaycee was that it took so little to make her happy. After so many years of verbal abuse and deprivation of intimacy, the smallest thing like a sticky note or a...sweet-sounding...text was as effective as some expensive gift.

By this point, the sexual tension building between them was on the verge of exploding so this evening alone was exactly what they needed.

They'd told the babysitter they'd back in six hours, and they only spent two of them at dinner. From there they checked into a three-star hotel which was clean and more than adequate where they were finally able to express the love they felt the way any two adults in love would. In fact, they expressed their love three time in just three hours leaving them time to shower and get home with ten minutes to spare.

Isabella was sound asleep when Jaycee drove the babysitter home, and when she got back, Brandon suggested they move in together.

"Are you sure it's not too soon?" she asked as they cuddled on the sofa.

"Isabella loves you. I love you. What more do we need to wait for?" he said with a smile.

"That sounds like enough," she replied happily before kissing her young, handsome boyfriend and telling him how much she'd enjoyed being 'alone' with him.

"It was pretty great for me, too," he said quietly as they looked into each other's eyes.

"I can't believe how wonderful my life is compared to the way things were just a year ago," she said rather wistfully.

She looked at Brandon then said, "I hope you know I never, ever say or think something like that without remembering why it's so different."

"No. Of course not. I know you, sweetheart. You're the kindest, most-loving person I've ever met."

"Hmmm. I could say the same thing about you," she said with a warm smile.

"Okay. You can say that," he told her as he tried not to smile.

"Stinker!" she said as she pushed him backwards then climbed on top of him.

As she looked at him she said, "Do you think it's okay to...you know...here in the house?"

"You know what? I believe it is," he told her with a smile of his own.

"We could have saved a bunch of money then, huh?" she mentioned.

"Uh-uh. No way. I wanted you all to myself our first time."

"Times," she corrected. "Times as in—plural."

"Ah, yes. You are insatiable, aren't you?" Brandon teased.

"Ha! You laugh," Jaycee said as she slid off the couch and stood up.

She reached for his hand then said, "Come on. I'm ready."

"Again???" Brandon said as though it would be such a chore to oblige her.

"Uh-huh. And you better get used to this, because I've got a lot of love stored up to give, and you're gonna get it all."

"Okay. Fine. If I have to make love to you again, I guess I have to," he said causing Jaycee to laugh then tell him how much she loved him.

Out of respect they still wouldn't use Will and Donna's room. Perhaps at some point they could remodel it and make it their own—if they stayed there, but for now, there were two other bedrooms to choose from and both had locks that worked, so the only choice was which one to try first.

By the time Brandon's hearing for permanent custody rolled around, he and Jaycee were not only living together but deeply in love. When the judge granted his petition and Isabella was now his to raise, he immediately had his attorney file another petition to adopt her on their way out of the courthouse.

And that very same night, with Isabella sitting on the couch next to her, Brandon got down on one knee and asked Jaycee to marry him. Isabella got so upset when Jaycee began crying that she cried, too, until Brandon explained that Jaycee was happy and not sad.

"I'm not sad anymore, either," the little girl told them both as Jaycee admired the ring on her finger and basked in the feelings of love in her heart.

"No?" Brandon asked.

"No, 'cuz' I have a new mommy and daddy," she told them in no uncertain terms.

Brandon put his arm around his niece then told her, "Yes. Yes, you do, sweetheart."

He kissed the top of her head then said, "And I..."

He glanced at Jaycee who was crying again, then said, "We...have a new daughter."

"Yay!" Isabella said as she clapped her little hands and smiled happily.

"Is...that what you want, sweetie?" Jaycee asked. "For us to be your mommy and daddy?"

"You already are my mommy and daddy," she informed them.

Jaycee couldn't stop crying but leaned over the top of her 'daughter's' head to let her new fiancé kiss her.

She nearly stopped crying for a moment until he said, "I love you—Mommy."

Through her tears she said, "I love you, too—Daddy."

Then she pulled Isabella up on her lap and hugged her so tight she cried out, "Owww!"

Jaycee loosened her grip but not her love for this little girl or the younger man sitting next to her who'd just asked her to marry him.

****

One Year Later

It was a crazy first year together with her new husband and daughter.

Jaycee and Brandon had decided to get married before the adoption hearing so that Isabella could legally become their child.

Brandon's parents had flown back into town for the wedding and Donna's parents came, too, to show their support for their only granddaughter in a small ceremony in the home they now owned together.

An added benefit of marrying then was that Mrs. Brandon Green could keep Isabella when her husband traveled for various tournaments too far away for them to travel together. And she could also do that because they'd put her home up for sale and used her half of the profits to allow her to quit working and stay home with their daughter.

Brandon finished out of the money in his first tournament after all the life-changing events of the past year, but he won his next tournament and finished second in the next.

Nine months to the day after proposing to Jaycee he and his 'girls' flew to Cardiff, Wales, for darts biggest event. The odds of him taking home any money were stacked against him, but there was one person who never doubted, and that was his beautiful, older wife, Jaycee Green, who was there with their daughter cheering Brandon on with every shot until he found himself playing for the championship.

The fact that he lost and ended up the runner-up was a surprise to Jaycee for the opposite reason it surprised every else in the world of darts. Of particular note was that even though he lost, Brandon 'checked out' in one leg by tossing a 'nine dart'.

The prize money of just over $65,000 US, was a distant second to the pride Jaycee felt in the man she loved, and who'd taken her from rags to riches. Not so much financially, as they'd likely never be rich in that sense, but from the standpoint of having endured a dreadful marriage to a dreadful man for so many years to giving her more love than she could have ever imagined.

But even more love came her way when, later that night, with Isabella fast asleep, she and her handsome, younger husband created another life; a boy they named William, III, in honor of the uncle he would never know.

Isabella doted on her little brother they all called 'Will Trey' as though the 'III' which stood for 'the third' was a 'three' in a deck of cards while Jaycee loved them both just as much along with the man who'd made her happier than she'd ever been before.

Lastly, they never did redecorate the master bedroom. They decided instead to remodel the house and turned that room into two smaller bedrooms, one for each of their two children and combined two other bedrooms into a master suite where Jaycee kept her promise to give her new husband all of the love she'd stored up all those many years when she had no one to whom she could give it.