Second Time Around

"You're not kidding! I need a Brandy myself now. I just saw how much that bottle put on my tab," Ronny explained.

After filling the glasses Gloria went over and sat on Ronny's knee. "I think after hearing your story I need to learn how to hold on to this one very tightly," she said as she did so. Then she lent down and kissed him.

"Hang on and don't let go, no matter how bad things look at first sight," Kathy told her. "I only wish I'd had the sense!"

"Is that what you really wish you'd done?" I asked her.

"You'll never know how much, John. I made a complete hash of everything."

"I don't think so. Yeah, you could have given me the benefit of the doubt, but you thought I'd put Samantha's life at stake. Come to that, so did I. All I can really fault you for is marrying that damn creep Frank so bloody quickly."

"I just piled mistake on top of mistake on top of bad judgement, John. What else can I say?"

"Well, you could say I love you!" Samantha said.

"Pardon?" both Katherine and I said in unison.

"Well, you do," Samantha insisted. "I've always known it, and Frank did as well. Shit, mum; gran and granddad knew it and your sister. It's written all over your face every time dad's name is ever mentioned. And the look on your face when you saw dad at the airport the other day was a complete classic."

Ronny and Gloria were staring at Kathy, probably waiting for a reaction from her and I was staring at Samantha trying to comprehend what the girl was really saying.

"Well, tell him now whilst you have the chance. Damn it, if you two had been honest with each other when you were young, I might have had a couple of siblings."

"What are you trying to say, Samantha?" I asked.

"Dad, it's Sam, okay! What I'm trying to get you two to admit is that you are still in love with each other. Don't look so surprised, dad. I know that mother still loves you; she's been wearing her heart on her sleeve for years. And you, well, you're one fine looking dude and you've kept yourself in good shape; everyone can see that. Nice clothes and plenty of money, a damned fine catch, wouldn't you agree, Gloria?"

"Yeah," Gloria said, "Quite a few of the single women in the office have tipped their hats in John's direction."

"So why hasn't any one been able to throw a rope on you, father? You'd make a perfect catch. Why? Because you aren't interested in any of them and the way you reacted when mother spoke to you in that bar earlier told me, at least, who you are interested in."

I looked at Katherine and she blushed and looked down at the floor.

"Now you drink those brandys and, mother, you'd better fix your make up. Then I think the pair of you should take a nice stroll around to the upper deck and talk things over by yourselves for a while," Samantha suggested. "I'm sure Gloria won't mind chaperoning me for the rest of the evening. I've got a couple of lads who think they might get lucky."

I must have turned to look at Samantha a bit quickly. What expression I had on my face, I don't know.

"Don't worry, dad; I'm not stupid and Gloria and Ronny will keep a close eye on me. Sorry, folks I hope I'm not cramping your style," she said to them. Both of them acted as if they had no idea what she could be referring to.

After Katherine had repaired her makeup, the two of us left the room and headed for the stairs to the upper deck. We didn't talk at first but as we reached the stairs Kathy took my hand. When we finally reached the top deck, we found Samantha waiting there.

"How did you get here?" Kathy asked.

"The lifts are quicker. Sorry, I forgot something," Samantha said. "Give me your handbag please, mother!"

Without a word Kathy passed her handbag to Samantha who turned her back to us and quite obviously put something in it. Then she turned around again and passed the bag back to Katherine.

"See you in the morning," she said laughing, and ran off back inside the ship.

"What did she put in there?" I asked Katherine, who was hunting through her handbag looking for some clue.

"I have no idea," she said at first, but then suddenly she stopped rummaging. "Oh, god, this isn't my key card!"

I looked closely at it. "Um, no, it's mine, or rather Ronny's. It seems that our daughter doesn't expect you to return to your cabin tonight."

"Well, is she right in that assumption?"

"I don't know, perhaps we'd better talk about it some whilst we walk," I suggested, slipping my arm around Kathy's shoulder. She slipped her arm around my waist.

"I'd hate to disappoint her," she said as she did so.

"Don't know about disappointing Sam!" I replied.

--------------------------

Epilogue

Katherine and I strolled around the deck with our arms around each other. I can't tell you anything about what we talked about; I think it was of no importance anyway. I can't even tell you who made the first move when we eventually kissed. After the first kiss we did a lot of that though.

"Practice makes perfect!" is the one comment that I can remember Katherine did make in reply to something that I had said.

Some time later, much later we seemed to walk, talk and kiss for hours, getting some strange looks from some of the fuddy-duddys and even some of the younger courting couples we passed. Well, look, we were almost forty and we must have been behaving like a couple of teenagers.

There was no discussion about it and I can't explain which one of us steered the other towards the lifts either. Yeah, I had to steer Katherine to my cabin, but I don't remember consciously doing so.

Once that cabin door closed though, it was like the first night of our honeymoon. That was a night I'd never forget. We had the bridal suite with a big flash four-poster bed and Katherine had brought a very expensive negligee to wear. We tore each other's clothes off just inside the bedroom door and made out on the damned carpet for most of the night.

We didn't spend much time on the cabin floor though; there wasn't the room that that bridal suite had had.

"So what happens now?" Katherine asked, sometime after we'd climbed into the bed.

"Don't know, Kath. Get married again, I suppose."

"Just like that you're happy to take me back, as if nothing has happened?"

"Nothing has, has it? We've lost more years than I would like to count and I figure we've got a lot of catching up to do," I said, giving her breast a little squeeze under my hand.

"Nearly twenty years. John, you don't know me anymore. I could have changed in ways you don't like. And I was married to Frank; I was unfaithful to you!"

"Kathy, I'm nearly forty years old. Damn it, we're... I'm probably nearer to the end of my life than the beginning. If thing had gone the way I'd planned, we'd be coming up to our..."

"Twenty-third wedding anniversary!" Kathy completed my sentence, whilst I was still trying to do the calculations.

"Yeah, our twenty-third wedding anniversary. In those twenty odd years, you would have changed anyway; Christ, I know I've changed. But we should have been married and, I hope, we would have taken those changes in our stride. So, if I do wake up in the morning beside a dragon, I'll just kiss her on the lips, and turn her back into my sleeping beauty."

"And, Frank, what about me being married to Frank longer than I was married to you?"

"Who the hell's this Frank guy you keep going on about? I don't think I can remember him. And, Kathy, you must realise that I haven't exactly been celibate since our divorce by the way; I just couldn't find anyone who matched up to my first choice for a wife."

"Didn't beauty turn the beast back into a prince when she kissed him, in the fairy tale?" Kathy asked.

"I think so, why?"

"Damn, remind me not to kiss you in the morning; I think I like my beast in bed! Now come here, and show me what I've been missing," she said, dragging me on top of her.

--------------------------------------

Did you think that ships' captains could marry folks - or remarry as in our case -- at sea? We did, but it turns out that they can't; well, not on most ships and that included ours anyway.

The captain was very apologetic when he told us, but explained that any ceremony that he performed would be invalid in the eyes of the law. And just to complicate things, when we checked the possibility, we didn't have the relevant paperwork with us to get married on any of the islands the ship stopped at either.

Once the party I was with discovered what had happened they did throw a massive party for us though. I think Gloria and Ronny must have explained things because no one asked any awkward questions. Ronny -- after asking Katherine's permission, because it was supposed to be our night -- went down on one knee during the evening, and asked Gloria for her hand. Of course he didn't ask me; I'd pushed the bugger into buying the ring!

The rest of the cruise was great fun and not only in bed either. It was a new experience for me, having some young man approaching me and asking my permission to take Samantha to dinner or to one of the ship's nightclubs. Christ, those boys must have thought I was a real ogre. Sam thought it was a great game; of course what she was really doing was showing off her father.

Sam and Kathy joined me on my morning runs around the upper deck. Even Ronny and Gloria got in on that one. Something about finding an urgent need to get fit enough to... well, they didn't spell out what they wanted to get fit enough for, but I think I can guess.

To start with, Kathy couldn't keep up with Sam and me for long and she'd drop back, jogging with Ronny and Gloria, after our first lap. She was doing pretty well on our road runs when we got back home though, but suddenly and very unexpectedly had to take a break from running for a while; she's out with me again most mornings nowadays though.

There had to be another party when we finally got home and did the registry office bit, for all our friends and relatives. It was a shame that the parents weren't alive to see us back together again.

I moved in with Kathy and Samantha for a little while, whilst we found a house to call our own. I have no idea why we didn't sell Kathy's house or my flat. They were both paid for so we rented them out for a while, until Samantha got married and we gave my flat to her and her husband.

But as these things do, our life took another unexpected, or should I say unplanned turn; shortly after Kathy and I did the registry office bit. Kathy woke up one morning and threw up all over the bed. Yeah, well, she said she thought she was well past the making babies stage, so we hadn't taken any precautions. That was Kathy's story and she has firmly stuck to it; at least Samantha was happy she got her sibling at last. But Kathy and I spent the next nine months on tenterhooks.

We took Elizabeth (that ship was called the Caribbean Queen) with us on our twenty-fifth wedding -- well, counting from our first wedding anyway - anniversary cruise. Sam and her new husband were on the same ship on their honeymoon; they'd timed the wedding to coincide. And Ronny, Gloria, Carol and her husband, Ernie - yeah, no kidding, medallion man's name turned out to be Ernest -- were all on the cruise as well. Not that we saw much of Sam and Clive.

Have there been any recriminations between Kathy and I? Well, there's been a lot of regret for the years we could have spent together, and don't think that we don't go at it hammer and tongs now and again. What married couple don't have a falling-out now and again?

But we both know life's too short to waste any more than necessary arguing. I have my Sleeping Beauty every night and she calms her beast every morning.

Oh, one other point before I go; in theory I'm banned from all Hilton Hotels. I was coming out of a lift in one of them one day with Kathy on my arm and who should be waiting to get in but Frank with his latest dolly bird. Honestly, I'm not a violent man by nature, so I only hit him twice. Once for stealing my wife from me, and once more for... well, for fucking around on her and my daughter.

No, it didn't come to court; Frank would have had to explain to his then wife what he was doing in the Hilton with a young dolly bird on his arm. Mind you, she did find out about his liaison in the end; some dirty rotten bastard rang her and told her about it. He even sent her a copy of the security tape from the hotel, showing her old man being taught how to box.

Life goes on.