When One Door Closes...

"Hey! You've never going to guess who I ran into tonight. My brother, John, snuck into town without telling me, and after I got done working he took me out to dinner. I figured since you guys were getting pizza it would be OK for me to grab a meal with him ..."

She stopped speaking when she saw the look on my face.

"That's the story you're going with?" I asked quietly.

Cherry looked stricken as the reality of what I said played back in her brain.

"You went to Salvatore's for pizza tonight ... and you saw me with him, didn't you. And you thought ..."

"You son of a bitch!" she yelled at me.

I was more than a little surprised. Here I was expecting guilt ... and contrition ... not an attack. Must be some sort of new way to apologize, I thought to myself. Cherry had never sworn at me before, but I was starting to see that she might have good reason.

"You don't even trust me enough to give me the benefit of the doubt, you bastard!

"I know I lost my husband because I cheated on him. I told you all about that. I didn't hold anything back. And I told you I'd never make that mistake again.

"I get that your ex-wife left you with trust issues, but that's your problem with her. Don't you dare treat me that disrespectfully ever again, or I'll be out of here so fast your head will spin!"

Mrs. Olivares had apparently let herself out quietly when Cherry blew up, and I saw Maddie slink off to her room. I was wishing the sofa I was sitting on would swallow me up, but no such luck.

"You're right," I said quietly. "I let the mistrust that Traci planted in my head spill over to you. You are your own separate entity, and if I can't see that, then that's on me and I don't deserve you."

I wasn't planning on telling her about the ring just yet, but after screwing up so badly, I had to play my best card. She was glaring. If looks could kill, I don't think I'd be walking the earth any longer.

"So ... I know this is probably the wrong time for this, but I need to show you how much I truly treasure you. Give me your left hand."

She came over to me slowly and stuck out her hand, palm up. I turned it palm down, slipped a piece of paper around her ring finger and secured it with a rubber band from my shirt pocket. She looked puzzled, to say the least.

"What the ..." she said as she slipped the paper off of her finger, unfolded it and started to read.

"You lousy asshole!" she squealed. "Seriously?"

Cherry then planted the most passionate kiss on my lips that I've ever had, including anything that Traci had ever done. When we were done, she called for Maddie to come out of her room.

"Look, Baby, look!" she said to Maddie, holding out the receipt for the ring. "I'm going to be a Rogers, too!"

The squealing laughter of a pair of joyous females is in a pitch too high for males to hear comfortably, but I managed to hang on to my hearing as they jumped around the room. After they had separated, Cherry punched a button on her cellphone and exclaimed loudly, "You'd better get on over here and meet your soon-to-be brother-in-law!"

Maddie went and got Mrs. Olivares back so Cherry could show off her "ring," and it was still pretty much Christmas morning crazy in the apartment when Cherry's brother showed up. He was every bit as handsome of a man as Cherry was as beautiful as a woman. Looking at him again, I couldn't even begin to be thankful that he was her brother, and not a suitor as I had thought.

We shook hands as Cherry did the introductions, but then he reached forward and grabbed me in a bearhug.

"Shaking hands is for friends, and while I want us to be friends, hugs are for family, man" he said. "And they're also to show you that should you hurt her, I'll crush the life out of you. You got that?"

He squeezed just a bit harder when he said that last part. I wasn't breathing all that good, and I got the message.

"Uh huh," I sort of stage whispered back to him.

Cherry gave him the short version of what had transpired leading up to my giving her the "ring." He looked at me in mock surprise -- I think -- and said that he was glad I was still alive.

"She gave you that laser death stare, didn't she?" John asked. "Yeah, she's killed people with that look."

Maddie and Mrs. Olivares both noted they were smart enough to get out of the room when they saw that look.

He then turned to Maddie, looked her up and down, and said, "So this is the famous Maddie Rogers. I've always wanted some nieces and nephews. I think you'll do nicely."

Maddie smiled shyly, then her face lit up like a sunny day.

"Does this mean I get to call you Mom?" she asked Cherry.

Cherry didn't answer as she dissolved into tears. She reached for Maddie, and the two stood there in a long embrace, each crying their own tears for their own reasons.

Even with Darlene's help, the state made us wait until Maddie was 16 before we could legally adopt her. At that time, she actually could have filed emancipation papers and gone out on her own, but neither Cherry nor I was worried that was going to happen. All the state did was sanction what Maddie, Cherry, and I had formed years ago. Family isn't always about blood ... and legalities.

And then, out of nowhere ...

I hadn't heard a word from either of my children since our last meeting more than six years ago, so I was more than a little surprised when it was Haley on the other end of the line. I didn't look first at the caller ID and just picked it up with my usual, "Alex Rogers."

"Dad, it's me, Haley," she rushed out quickly. "Please don't hang up."

"Relax, Kiddo. I would never hang up on your or your brother. Is something wrong?"

"No, Dad. Everything is good ... great really. I'm going to get married next month, and I'd like to invite you to the wedding."

I guess I was shocked as much as anything. This was my little girl, and yet I was so removed from her life that I hadn't even met the man she was going to marry in just one month.

It was just after Ethan's 16th birthday when I last talked to my kids. We went out to Ethan's favorite restaurant for a birthday meal. As usual, neither kid was very talkative, despite my repeated attempts. Finally, right after we ordered dessert, Ethan came out with it.

"Dad, I'm 16 now, and the court ordered visits are over. Haley and I don't have to see you anymore if we don't want to ... and we talked it over, and we don't want to see you. You abandoned us to keep your silly pride intact. Well you can take your pride and shove it up your ass."

I had to hand it to my son: he was a cool customer. Although he couldn't look me in the eyes while he was talking to me, he never raised his voice.

For her part, Haley kept looking from Ethan to me and back again.

I sighed, having expected this one day. This was Traci's handiwork; had her fingerprints all over it.

"I'm assuming that you realize what wedding vows are, and that your mother not only broke ours, she threw them in my face. But she's apparently convinced you two that I'm the bad guy here, and nothing I say is ever going to change your minds. But to me, breaking our wedding vows is not something I can just overlook, like say ... wrecking the family car. This goes right to my soul, and while I knew that my leaving was going to hurt you two, my staying would have been worse, because it would have crushed my soul and made me less than the man I am. Then we wouldn't have been the same, and you would have come to realize that when you'd matured and lived enough to see things for what they really are. This was your mother's mistake ... and she has done a good job of transferring the blame to me. Well, I won't accept the blame. If this is what you both want ..."

"Dad. Dad," Haley said, bringing me back to the present. "Don't you want to come?"

"Very much so, Haley-child. You know, I even put money aside for the day when this would happen," I responded.

"You don't need to worry about the money, Dad. Bob has that taken care of."

"Bob?" I queried. "Wild guess here, but we're talking about Robert Goldstine III, aren't we?"

She started to get an exasperated tone to her voice, then it changed to one of pity.

"You didn't know then, apparently. Mom married Bob about six years ago, after we stopped seeing you," she said.

"So the fucker breaks up my marriage, breaks up my relationship with my kids, half-ruins me financially, and then marries my ex-wife. And it was all about my pride, Haley? Anytime my son wants to apologize to me ..."

"Don't be that way, Dad. I'm not inviting you so you can cause trouble. You won't be giving me away; you won't be sitting up front with the family. I just want you to be there, OK?"

"Allright, Haley, on one small condition ... that I get to bring my family with me."

"Your family?"

"Yeah, even a loser like me gets to have a family, Haley. I've got a wonderful wife and we've got an amazing daughter. You'd like both of them if you ever get to spend any time around them."

It was Haley's turn to be lost in thought. I had never told her or Ethan about Cherry and Maddie. Quite honestly, I didn't want their mother to know.

"You've got another kid? Does she know about me and Ethan?" she asked almost trancelike.

"Maddie's 16. She's adopted. She and I have been together for nine years. I almost literally found her on the street. She knows all about you two ... what we once had ... and what we don't have anymore.

"She's fun, and full of life. She, too, had a setback, and we were there for each other at a very bad time in both of our lives -- almost like it was scripted to be."

"Well, then I look forward to meeting the rest of the family," Haley said as she appeared to recover from her shock.

The wedding was on a Saturday night in a fairly posh setting, as would befit the daughter of a fairly successful lawyer. I had to give old Bob credit, he didn't skimp on his stepdaughter.

The actual service itself was done in a beautiful old church in the city. The girls and I timed it so we got there just before the service, and sat in the back row. Yes, I spotted old friends and relatives, but getting there just before the service meant that we didn't have to do any socializing early. And when Haley and Mark led the procession out of the church, I got a kiss blown in my direction.

We got to the reception in good enough time to get a table toward the back of the hall, which, in truth, was probably not fair to Cherry and Maddie, who had done a girls' spa day on Friday and then both bought new dresses. Cherry's was sophisticated and sexy, and Maddie looked 16 going on 21 when she put on full makeup for the first time: every father's nightmare. But they both respected my wishes and didn't complain when we sat down after I hit the bar for glasses of wine for Cherry and I and a Coke for Maddie.

As I figured would happen, various friends from the old days started dropping by the table to say hello and catch up once they spotted me. Then Traci's parents, Rhonda and William, stopped by. Rhonda cried as soon as she leaned in for a kiss. William embraced me more heartily than when Traci and I were married. I introduced Cherry and Maddie. Both Rhonda and Bill seemed a little uncomfortable, but I supposed that was understandable -- I had been married to their daughter for 18 years.

Since I had no say and no pay into the affair, I didn't think it would be right of me to move around and "work the crowd," so to speak, so the girls and I mostly stayed at the table as people came to us. But I'm not stupid, and I could see the reaction of many of the people who knew me that I was with a gorgeous black woman and a Hispanic princess -- in particular the reaction of the wives of the former friends. You'd have thought I brought a trophy wife to the party.

And right on cue here came Traci and Bob, our congenial hosts.

Being married to someone for almost 20 years gives you an insight into every nuance of someone's personality, and I could see from the first moment Traci saw Cherry that she didn't like her. Could Cherry have been too black? Maybe. Could Cherry have been too beautiful? Most likely. Could Cherry have had a flat stomach and great legs and looked about 10 years younger than she was? Most definitely. Could Cherry, with all that she had going for her, just been with the one wrong guy in the room? Hell yeah.

With everything that was running through her mind with Cherry, Traci wasn't even paying particular attention to the fact that this was the first time in about 10 years that we had seen each other up close. She almost literally seemed to wake back up when I moved in and kissed her cheek in greeting.

"Oh, Alex, I'm sorry. I was having a little problem navigating on these new heels," she apologized.

"No problem, Babe. You're looking fabulous," I lied. "Come, meet the new family."

I made introductions all around between Cherry, Maddie, Traci, and Bob, shaking Bob's hand about as warmly as I could while introducing him as the instrument to my eventual good fortune. Everyone except Maddie kind of winced when I said that, but my daughter shot me a devious look and grabbed my left elbow in a squeeze. Did I tell you this kid is perceptive?

We small-talked for about five minutes, not really saying anything, before Traci and Bob moved on and the bride and her new husband approached. As Traci and Bob moved off, Maddie gave me a small headshake that told me she was no more excited about meeting them than I was about introducing them.

My other daughter -- the bride -- greeted me a lot warmer than I expected, wrapping me up in a big, long hug and starting to cry while my new son-in-law, Cherry, and Maddie stood there quietly. I was completely flummoxed by this and didn't know what to say when she finally turned me loose.

"I'm sorry, Daddy, for everything," she sniffled. "I never really understood where you were coming from, until I repeated my own vows about two hours ago. Right in the middle of saying my vows, it struck me like a kick to the face what you were going through when Mom cheated on you and broke her vows. I never understood. I blamed you and your damned pride, the same as Ethan did. And now I get it ... totally.

"You were completely right to do what you did ... and she was so totally wrong to not only do what she did, but to pin the blame on you. How can I ever make up for the pain that Ethan and I have caused you?"

There was a lump in my throat the size of a football. I haven't cried since I tore cartilage in my knee playing football in 10th grade, but I came awfully damn close standing there with family gathered around.

"How about by first introducing me to this handsome stud you made those vows with, and then giving me the honor of a dance," I responded.

"Oh yeah, right," she said somewhat embarrassed. "You haven't met the man of my dreams. Mark Westinghouse, meet your other father-in-law, Alex Rogers, my real dad."

We shook hands sincerely, and then I did my fatherly duty and threatened his life should he ever hurt my daughter. I introduced him and Haley to Cherry and Maddie, and while everyone was getting acquainted, the band started up.

"Daddy?" Haley queried, tilting her head toward the dance floor.

"Enchanted," I said as I took her arm.

The crowd, which had started buzzing louder when Haley gave me her big welcome, went into a higher drone when I walked Haley to the dance floor. I knew at that point I was starting to show up Traci and Bob, but I had a lot of years to make up for. The band was playing what I like to call kid music, and while I really hate it, I knew how to dance to it, thanks to being married to a goddess who loves to dance.

Haley was shocked that her newly-rediscovered father was such a renaissance man, and we actually stayed out for two songs. By then, much of the crowd was gathered around the two of us. When the second song ended, Haley gave me another big hug, the crowd applauded, and Cherry and Maddie were waiting for me with bright smiles on their faces. I grabbed their hands and pulled both of them onto the floor with me, and the three of us did our thing while everybody else joined in.

"Well, look at you, Mr. Rhythm," Cherry said in my ear when she got close.

"Who knew that marrying off a daughter could be so much fun," I said to her, while quickly turning to Maddie, "That said, let's wait a few more years on another one. I'm not sure my heart can take all this fun."

"Spin me, Old Man," Maddie smiled back at me.

All three of us stayed out on the floor for another six songs, then I left my girls, hit the bar for a Jack over ice and sat down at my table to rest. I was watching Cherry and Maddie totally enjoying themselves on the dance floor and didn't see Traci walk up and sit down next to me at the table. She touched my shoulder and I knew whose touch it was in an instant.

"This should have been our day, instead of mine and Bob's," Traci said as she leaned into my ear. "You threw 18 good years away -- for what? You obviously didn't love me enough."

I never turned my head toward her.

"No. You obviously didn't love me enough not to do it at all, especially since I told you what would happen if you did. You didn't love me enough nor respect me enough.

"But hey, you wound up with Bob out of the deal, and he's quite the catch, I'd say. And I wound up with Cherry and Maddie. To quote the Rolling Stones, 'you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you find you get what you need.'"

"You were an asshole then; you're an asshole now."

"May be, but I'm a happy asshole who's never lost a minute of sleep over your bad decision. And no, I wasn't expecting an apology. I'm good."

Ethan came back into my life when he got serious with a woman a few years ago. Seems that fidelity is a lot easier concept to understand when you have some skin in the game, so to speak. He called me out of the blue and said we needed to talk, so I invited him over to the apartment.

He was carrying a bottle of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey when I opened the door.

"Haley said you really like this stuff, and she figured I needed to bring you a peace offering," he said as I ushered him into the apartment.

We had only talked a little at Haley's wedding, and we were on shaky ground at best there. That had been over two years ago, and while Haley and I had reconciled, Ethan and I hadn't at that point.

"So I've asked my girlfriend, Sasha, to be my wife, and that got me thinking about you and Mom. Haley's been telling me for a couple of years now that you were the injured party in this, not Mom, but I really didn't see it until Sasha and I had 'the big talk,' which included our feelings about fidelity. I'm sorry, Dad. I've been a complete idiot. I get it now. I just didn't want to hate Mom."

"I never asked you and Haley to choose sides," I responded. "I just wanted you to know why I had to leave ... had to ... leave."

Ethan and I discussed a lot in the next few hours, punctuated by killing off the bottle of whiskey. Cherry made all of us a great dinner as the four of us caught up. Ethan wound up sleeping on the sofa in the living room because Cherry wouldn't let him get behind the wheel of his car after splitting the bottle of booze with me.

Cherry, Maddie, and I were seated at the groom's family table for this wedding, along with a pregnant Haley and Mark and our first grandchild, 2-year-old Brent, who sat next to Traci. That at least would keep Traci from feeling left out of things since she was now alone, Bob having kicked her to the curb in favor of a trophy wife about a year ago.

The kids had kept me up-to-date on Traci with occasional snippets of news about her. I had told both of them that it was not smart to be the communication bridge between Traci and me. We were adults, and if either one of us wanted the other to know something, we could pick up the telephone.