If by Chance - A Jonathan Knight Fanfic

Chapter 11

Jon knew he had to let everything go. All of his strong feelings towards Vanessa, whatever was going on between him and Harley, and anything else he could possibly worry about, because right now, he was about to see his daughter for the first time. His daughter. He had to make a good first impression, especially since he had unknowingly been absent for so many years.

His fingers shook as he picked up his phone, just to double check the address, making sure the house he was at was in fact the right house, despite the fact that he had already checked nearly 50 times, at this point, it was more of a stalling technique than anything.

For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to get out of his truck, because if he did, it meant starting a whole new part of his life that he wasn't sure he could completely deal with yet. Deep down, he had always wanted kids. He was great with them. A loving, kind-hearted man, who everyone always said was the 'nicest man they had ever met'. He was a natural with kids, and had always thought about having his own when he was able to see his nieces and nephews, he just felt like it wasn't the right time. But it was never the right time.

The door of the truck finally swung open as Jon stepped out, putting his phone into his back pocket and adjusting the sleeves of the jacket he had on. His hand paused for a minute, before knocking on the front door.

A nice looking elderly woman, who Jon recognized as Vanessa's mom from pictures he had seen, opened the door, and smiled at him. "You must be Jon, Vanessa told me you'd be here to pick Bailey up. Come in, dear, she's just finishing packing her stuff."

Clearly Vanessa hadn't told her mom what had happened between the two of them, because if she had, this woman wouldn't have been so nice to him. After a little hesitation, he stepped inside. It didn't take long for him to figure out that Vanessa and Bailey still lived here, and didn't have a separate place like she said they did.

"Would you like anything to eat? Perhaps something to drink?" the old lady asked, causing Jon to shake his head. "No, I'm alright. Thanks for the offer though.

Not even a second after he had finished replying, the loud sound of someone running down the stairs could be heard. "Grandma! I'm ready!" A young girl called, as she came down the stairs, jumping down the last few steps, and landing on the hardwood floor. Her demeanor immediately changed though, when she saw Jon in the room. She moved closer to her grandma and grabbed onto her hand. "Is that him?" She asked in a quiet voice.

The old woman nodded. "Yes, that's him. Why don't you go ahead and say hi? I'm sure he'd love to talk to you." She said before gently putting her hand on Bailey's back and urging her toward Jonathan.

Jon crouched down slightly so he could be eye to eye with the girl. "Hi, I'm Jonathan. It's nice to meet you." He said, as softly as possible, sticking out his hand for her to shake.

The smallest of smiles appeared on Bailey's face. "I'm Bailey. It's nice to meet you too." She grabbed onto his hand and shook it, before grabbing her bag of clothes for the night that her grandpa had brought down for her.

Jon took this opportunity to get a good look, a good read, on this young girl. As he looked into her soft eyes, which happened to be the same color as his, as well as her hair, her nose, and her build, it was undeniable.

For the past few days, since he had found out, all he could think about was how badly he messed up. He knew he messed up. There was never a time where he remembered being drunk enough to make this kind of mistake. But, here he was, face to face with this sweet, beautiful girl, and only one thing kept playing in his head. How was he going to tell Harley?

He surely couldn't keep it a secret forever. No, not if he wanted to be an important part of her life. And despite all his thoughts about how badly he messed up, and how much of a mistake he had made, those all went away as he got to look at her, meet her, see her.

Even if she didn't come from perfect circumstances, this was the most perfect girl he had ever laid his eyes on, and he knew he was going to protect her, care for her, raise her, as much as he possibly could.

Her smaller hand grabbed onto his bigger one, and he looked down at her with a smile.

"You ready to go?"