"You can't keep doing this,"  

"Doing what?" 

"Showing up here, sleeping with me, and then leaving like nothing happened,"  Lesly turned away from him and pulled the covers over her shoulder.

She felt his lips on her shoulder and resisted turning to kiss him back. 

"C'mon, Les, you know we're just having fun-"  

Lesly sat up quickly and pushed him away from her. "Leave," she demanded. 
Chris looked at her incredulously. "Les, you know-"  

"Go. I can't keep doing this. Sleep with you and then not see you for however many weeks or months and then wonder what you're doing when you're not here. No. I'm done. I'm too old for this," she got up from her bed and threw her tank top over her head, rummaging through a drawer until she found a pair of sweats. Chris was still sitting up in her bed when she turned around. 

"Lesly," he nearly whispered. "Lesly, you know that I care about you. I just, I can't commit right now. I think you're amazing. Really and truly amazing. But I-" 

"No," Lesly cut him off. "Seriously, Chris. This has to stop. We've been on and off since Josh and James got married and that nearly a year ago. If you really care about me, just go. I can't do this. Not without a commitment. And you're not ready for that." 

Chris slowly turned and stood from the bed. He got dressed at a snail's pace, glancing at Lesly every so often. She was facing the window, not bothering to look at him. He couldn't tell if she was crying or not when he walked over to her. "Les, I'm sorry. Look, I have to figure some stuff out. You know things with Stephanie-" 
Lesly groaned outwardly and turned to face him. "Chris, you and Stephanie broke up last summer. The fact that she still has some sort of pull on you is sick. It's disgusting, really. You said so yourself that she didn't love you, that you two only were together because of convenience. I can't do that. I'm not Stephanie. So if you want her back, then go back to Orlando and please for the love of God don't come back to Grayson." 

Chris was speechless. She had spoken so calmly that he couldn't tell if she was going to implode on the inside or not. "I don't want to not see you-" 

"Well, until you decide what it is you want in life, I can't help you out there. I'm 33, Chris, and you're almost 41 for crying out loud. Grow up!" Lesly turned on her heel and headed out of her bedroom. Chris followed her into the living room. 

"Les, I'm sorry. I'm an ass. I know it," he grabbed his jacket off of the back of the recliner. "I'll see you later." 

Lesly didn't respond. Only watched him as he walked out of the front door. In a few seconds she heard him pull out of her driveway. She sunk into her couch and let the tears she'd been holding in for the last 24 hours finally fall. 

**

JC slowly opened his eyes and listened to the sound of silence. It was a beautiful thing and also, quite rare nowadays. With eight-month-old twins and a six and a half year old at home, silence was golden when it was able to happen. He looked over at his wife who was sound asleep next to him. Her brown hair covered part of her face but even then, JC thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever been with. He gently kissed her cheek and she stirred, cuddling closer next to him, but not waking up. He selfishly wished she would. It was pretty rare that they got in any sort of intimacy now. Trying to have sex was like a game. Them against the kids and the kids somehow knew how to win almost all the time. 

James opened her eyes and looked up at her husband to see him smiling at her. "Hey," she said, groggily and kissed his arm. "Are the babies awake?" her eyes were closed now as she spoke. 

JC grinned at her. "Nope," he kissed her lips softly, then more fervently. "And neither is Sutton. C'mere." 

 James gave a soft groan and looked pitifully at JC. "Baby, I can't. I'm so tired. Just please let me sleep a little longer-" 

"James," JC sighed, a hint of frustration in his voice. He pulled her close to him and she rested her head on his chest, closing her eyes yet again. "No, don't go back to sleep. We don't ever -" 

And then, just like that, a cry was heard from the twins' room. Landon. 

 JC groaned and threw his head back on his pillow. James sat up and looked down at him. "Are you coming? There are two of them, you know."  Another wail came shortly after. Olivia. 

JC rolled out of bed, following James out of their bedroom. "Right behind you..."

**
Lesly Parsons had grown up in Grayson, attended high school at Grayson County High, and had graduated with honors from the University of Georgia's Fashion Design School. Her dream was to open a boutique in the Five Points area of Atlanta called "Les Design" and create and sell unique accessories for vintage fashion. Her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the month after she had graduated. Lesly's plans were thwarted when she moved back to Grayson, because her mother was worse off than she thought. Her father, already deep in debt and quite depressed was of no help and when her mother took a turn for the worse, only then did her older brother, Dane, decide to come out of hiding from wherever he'd been the last five years to come home and help her out. 

Her mother died exactly six months to the day that Lesly had moved back. Her father had shut down emotionally and her brother took his pain out at the local bar, Ruby's, and was basically just another body in the house. Her Aunt Kathleen, her mother's older sister, had come to the rescue and helped Lesly with the funeral arrangements and burial. She also got Mr. Parsons - Lesly's father - to see a psychiatrist twice a week for the next year. It helped somewhat, but her father was never the same and Lesly found it impossible to talk to him. Her brother moved in with a woman he'd met at Ruby's and almost nine months after they'd buried her mother, Dane's girlfriend gave birth to her nephew, Griffin.  

By this time, Lesly had resorted to just staying in Grayson. She found a small two-bedroom home near Main Street and it was around that time that she noticed James Ryan (now James Chasez), a girl she had graduated with from high school, was looking for an Assistant Manager at Brewster's the coffee shop that James had opened. Lesly had applied immediately and was almost hired on the spot. She got along well with James and had considered her one of her closer friends in Grayson, especially since most of their friends from high school had moved away. 
In the last year, James had met and married JC Chasez and it was through JC that Lesly had met Chris Kirkpatrick, her on again/off again boyfriend for officially over a year now. When they were on they were awful together. They fought constantly and made life miserable. When they were off, he somehow ended up in her bed more often than not, but they had never come to a resolution. Except for that morning. Lesly had had enough. 

She'd often asked James how it had worked with her and JC so fast. Literally within a month, JC and James had basically moved in together - he was living with her at his cousin Chad's, who just happened to be James' best friend-and two months later, James had found out she was pregnant with the twins, they'd had a wedding in October. Lesly had met Chris that same summer, but nothing had really sparked until the wedding. He'd been off and on with her since then. They kept it on the quieter side, knowing that Grayson was small and people liked nothing more than to talk. Not to mention Chris was still dealing with issues from his past relationship, a girl named Stephanie, who he'd met in Orlando and had a rocky relationship with for 4 years. JC and James were never on and off. In fact, Lesly wondered sometimes if they ever fought-James swore they did-because their relationship seemed perfect more than half the time she had seen them together. She'd often have to tell herself to stop comparing. It would only be bad in the long run and her relationship with Chris didn't have near the maturity of James and JC. Probably because Chris still acted like he was 21. 

James was wiping down the counter when Lesly arrived at work. It was the end of her shift, but since James owned the shop, she sometimes stayed on to help if it was busy or do office work in the back.   "Hi, Les," James greeted her, ringing out the dish rag in the sink. "How are you?"  Lesly sighed and pulled her blonde hair quickly up into a loose bun. "Chris left this morning," was her response. 

 James cringed at Lesly's downtrodden face. "Not good, I take it?" 

 "I'm just tired of being his back-up," Lesly went behind the counter and grabbed a green apron with the Brewster's logo on the front that was hanging next to the door by the office. "I told him we were done today. It's just too much." She tied the apron around her middle and then looked at James. "Seriously, James, I'm pretty sure you took the last available, decent man on earth."

  James chuckled and shook her head, turning to finish the counters. "He has his faults, trust me,"   

"Really? Is he wishy washy? Does he only want sex when it's convenient for him? Is he still in touch with his ex-girlfriend?" Lesly felt herself getting snappy and backed off a little. "Sorry. Just been a rough morning." 

"No, Les, I understand. I'm so sorry Chris is being a douche. I thought for sure his little games would be over when you two got together," James shook her head and let out a yawn. She looked at Lesly and then said, "I'm a little jealous I have to say. At least you had sex last night." 

Lesly sufficed a grin and raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Really?" 

"Are you kidding? With twins and a six-year-old, it's quite a rarity. He wanted to do it this morning. I was like 'Are you serious?' I didn't get to bed until after 1 because Olivia's cutting her first tooth so she hardly sleeps now. I'm just waiting for Landon to join her. And instinctively I woke up at 5 and Josh was awake and ready to go!" James took off her apron and hung it up, then pulled her hair out of the pony tail it was in.  She sighed and looked thoughtfully for a minute at Lesly. "I wish we could just go off on a vacation. We need one. Not that we don't love our kids, but-"

 
Lesly put her hand up, "No, girl. I can understand. Why don't you mention it to him?" 

James shrugged. "I might tonight. We've got dinner at Chad's and Lane's. Maybe they'll offer to watch the kids. Or at least Sutton. My parents could take the twins." She shook herself out of the daydream she was having of her and JC lying on a beach in the middle of nowhere. "I better go. Sutton gets out of school soon and my mom has the twins. Jake and Emily should be in in about an hour." Jake and Emily were the two high school students who had taken the place of James' former employees, who were all off at college this fall. 

"Have fun," Lesly waved at her as James collected her things and went out the door. She felt her phone vibrate and pulled it out of her pocket.

It was Chris. 

I'm sorry. Please can we work on this? C. 

Lesly stuffed it back into her pocket and sighed for the umpteenth time that day. He wasn't going to make this easy.