The next morning I woke up earlier than I normally
would have and just laid in bed watching Justin
sleep smiling to myself. I had waited so long for
things to be like this. I had dreamt of Justin being
Brayden’s dad and there for me, with me, ever since
I found out I was pregnant. Ever since I moved
back down here and found out he was my neighbor
I’d been so stressed out that I had trouble focusing
on everyday things, but it seems like now after one
night it all went away and everything was falling into
place the way it should be. Of course that made me
have my doubts too. It was one good night, but did
that mean that everything was magically better?
God, I hope so, for my sake, and for Brayden’s.
Brayden’s becoming attached to Justin quickly and
although I’m glad for it, I really hope Justin meant
it when he said he was planning on sticking around.
I sighed as I looked at the clock. I better get up
before Brayden does and comes barging in finding
Justin and I here together. I smile at the thought of
that as I slowly creep out of bed and put on some
clothes. I give Justin one more glance before
sneaking out of the room to let him sleep. I
bounced downstairs humming to myself as I made
my way into the kitchen to see my mom sitting at
the table reading the paper an amused smirk on
her face. “Well you seem to be in a better
mood?”My mom questions as I sit down beside her.
I just grin not being able to hide it. “Justin and I
talked last night and I think everything’s okay with
us now.”I beamed up at her as she set her paper
down giving me her full attention. “Oh really?”She
questions still smirking at me. “Yes.”I roll my eyes
at her. “I told you he’d come around.”My mom
laughed as she got up and put her coffee cup in the
sink. “Yeah…Yeah…You and everyone else…”I
sighed as Brayden came into the kitchen. “Morning
sweetheart.”I said as I kissed his head and got up
to get his breakfast. “Morning Momma. Can I have
some cereal?”Brayden asked looking up at me.
“Sure.”I smile at him as I went to get his cereal
ignoring the ‘I told you so’ looks from my mom.
Just then Justin groggily makes his way into the
kitchen with a half grin on his face too, as my mom
just turns to me with raised eyebrows and an ever
bigger smirk on her face. “Dad!”Brayden exclaims
momentarily forgetting his cereal and jumping up to
greet Justin. “Hey.”Justin smiles as he picks
Brayden up and spins him around. I smile at the
two of them before interrupting. “Would you like
something to eat Justin? Brayden just wanted
cereal, but I can make you something if you’d
like.”I said as Justin sat Brayden down in his chair.
“Cereal’s fine.”Justin grins as he sits down beside
Brayden and I nod. “Well I’m off to work.”My mom
calls to me still smiling as she floats out of the
room and I shake my head at her. “You’re really
lucky that your mom works so you can stay home
with Brayden all the time.”Justin noted as I handed
him his cereal and sat down with my two boys. “Oh
yeah I guess.”I said dismissing his statement “She
really just works because she wants to. My dad left
us a great deal of money when he died.”I shrugged
as Justin looked up at me. “Oh? I mean I knew he
died when you were younger, but your mom has
always worked so I didn’t realize..”Justin started
before I cut him off. “Yeah, she just gets bored
easily.”I laughed. “She didn’t really work while we
were in Washington. She stayed home with Brayden
so I could finish school.”I said as Justin nodded.
“That was nice of her.” “Yeah. She just wanted me
to have as normal of a life as possible. She still
feels guilty that I had to grow up without a father
and so I think she was trying to make up for it all.”I
sighed “She even tried to get me to date and stuff
while I was in high school, but besides having no
desire to I couldn’t picture going out when I got to
see so little of Brayden anyway.”I said as Justin
studied me intently.We sat in silence for a minute
before Brayden spoke up. “I’m done! Dad do you
want to come play with me?”Brayden asked with
wide eyes as Justin and I both smiled at him. “In a
minute.”Justin said as Brayden just nodded and ran
out of the room. “Knowing how guilty your mom felt
about you not having a father how could you do the
same thing to Brayden?”Justin asked as my heart
fell. Things were finally starting to get good with us
and now this. I sighed “I don’t think any of that
really registered with me at the time. I was so
shocked over the situation; I just wanted to do
whatever I could to protect him. Granted looking
back on it, running from the situation wasn’t the
best thing I could have done. Honestly that’s the
biggest mistake of my life.”I said looking down
choking back tears. “What was? Me and you? I
mean obviously it wasn’t the ideal situation, but
look at Brayden, how can you say that?” Justin
asked confused as I looked up with him with a
small smile on my face. “Not that. I mean I thank
God for him every day, the mistake was leaving and
not telling you about him as soon as I found out.”I
said looking down not able to meet his eyes. Justin
reached across the table and took my hand in his.
“Hey, look at me.”Justin urged and I did so, not
able to ignore him. “I don’t like the fact that you
ran, but there’s a part of me that knows that you
had a reason for it and I can’t be upset with you
over it. The only thing I can do is make up for lost
time now, and I plan on doing just that.”Justin said
staring at me with those gorgeous blue eyes and I
couldn’t help but to believe him. “So do you want to
do something today? Just the three of us?”Justin
asked grinning at me. “Well actually I promised
Brayden we’d go find him a Halloween costume
today, but you’re more than welcome to come.”I
said as Justin just grinned. “I totally forgot
Halloween was coming up. I have to get my
costume too!”Justin exclaimed making me giggle.
“Oh you have to get one too!”Justin said grinning at
me. “What? No.”I said dismissing his comment.
“Yeah. The guys and I are throwing this Halloween
party and you can’t come unless you’re in
costume.”Justin teased as I rolled my eyes at him.
“Oh really?”I asked amused. “Exactly, and if you
don’t believe me you can ask the other guy’s they’ll
back me up.”Justin said as I just shook my head at
him.