Earth2Mama: Your sixth sense could very well be right.
Philip and Diane are playing favorites and it’s nothing new. Max and Tess grew up knowing that Andrew was the favorite, followed closely by Max. Someone might go off on them.
Natalie36: You could be right about that.
begonia9508: No, Sam’s mom isn’t dead. When Sam was four days old her mom gave her to Alex and just took off.
You’re right, Diane shouldn’t be sticking her nose in Maria’s business like that.
keepsmiling7: That first car is obviously something of great importance and most men seem to share that sentiment.
Yeah, Diane’s about to stick her nose in where it doesn’t belong. And Liz, she just wants some time alone with her husband to share news she’s afraid he isn’t gonna take well.
Rodney: Lol, yep, we knew you’d comment on that one!
You’re probably gonna luck out and get to hold onto that paycheck.
Somebody’s needin’ some K/T… comin’ right up.
sarammlover: Nope, definitely not easy.
Liz is kinda stuck in the middle. As if she doesn’t have enough going on right now, huh?
We’ll see what happens when Kendra shows up.
Eva: Oh, they’re definitely interfering in things that’re none of their business. Lol, we’re all glad to not be in Max or Liz’s shoes right now.
Kendra’s arrival is gonna shake things up.
Maiqu: Oh, she’s gonna stir things up in Roswell, that’s for sure.
Hmm, that’s definitely one possibility.
Part 81
Kyle pulled the tray of pot roast out of the microwave and cut it open, letting the steam escape and sniffing it cautiously. Huh, it smelled pretty good. He had offered to make dinner while she took a bath and relaxed. They had spent the afternoon working downstairs and he had run to the store while she was busy with a call with their equipment supplier. When he got back she had been going over a few last details before disconnecting and he had taken a few minutes to hop in the shower.
“Babe, you almost done in there?” he called.
“Be out in a few minutes,” Tess yelled back.
It felt good for them to be back on track. He knew eventually they would need to talk about them being unable to have children of their own. He didn’t even know why she couldn’t have children, if something happened or if it was just a genetic thing. That seemed unlikely considering both of her brothers had produced children, but he wasn’t an expert on biology either. He didn’t really care what the reason was, all that mattered was they were together and children would be a part of their future.
It was amazing how many things could be made in a microwave these days, Kyle thought as he dumped the pot roast into a serving dish and placed it in the oven to keep it warm. Just about the entire meal had been cooked in the microwave. He pulled a vase down from one of the cabinets and grabbed the flowers he had bought, pulling the wrapping off of them and shoving them into the wide opening. He added water and pushed them around a few times, trying to make them look like they had looked before he had unwrapped them. He finally gave up on that and just put the vase in the center of the table before going to grab a couple of wine glasses.
“Five minutes!”
Kyle grinned at her announcement and pulled the dishes out of the oven and sliding the pan with rolls inside and closing the door once more. He filled the plates with pot roast, mashed potatoes and brown gravy, and broccoli and carrots with a cheese sauce. He set them on the table next to the napkins and silverware and pulled the rolls out just as she walked into the kitchen. He placed the rolls on the plates and then grabbed the salads out of the refrigerator. They were premade in the deli at the supermarket but they looked homemade now that they were on their own plates. He put them on the table along with the salad dressing and then grabbed the wine to fill their glasses.
“Kyle… wow, you didn’t have to do all this.”
He smiled at her and shook his head. “I wanted to. You need a good meal, you busted your ass today.”
“I admit I am starving,” she smirked.
“That’s good... I went all out.”
“Uh-huh, bet ya cooked all this in the microwave,” she said knowingly.
He stuck his tongue out at her. “Hey, at least it’s a hot meal.” He held up the pot roast package. “Mrs. Shelton over at the store assured me it’s the best brand on the market for people who are challenged in the kitchen. And since we both have difficulty doing much beyond boiling water, I figured it was the safest direction to go.”
“Don’t worry, I have the microwave for a reason,” she winked at him and took a seat at the table, her stomach growling in anticipation when she smelled the food.
“Microwave and takeout menus for every place that delivers in town,” he said with a laugh. “Trust me, I know all about it.”
Tess smiled and lifted her glass to him. “Cheers to that.”
He tapped his glass against hers. “The supplier have any good news?” he asked, referring to her earlier call.
“They said the stuff will be here during the week, probably Wednesday or Thursday.”
“You think they’re gonna stay on schedule this time?” He took a bite of the pot roast, nodding to himself when it tasted pretty good.
“I told them if it wasn’t I’m cut the bill in half.”
He smirked. “Good. I know you’re ready to get that started. What about your stuff back in California? I know you’ve bought new furniture and stuff but there’s gotta be personal stuff you need to pack up and bring back here, right?”
“Yeah, I need to go back there this week anyway. My landlord called yesterday to let me know that he found a new tenant and I need to move the rest of my things.”
“So... road trip?”
“If you wanna come?”
“Of course I wanna go with you. Dad’ll probably let us borrow his truck so we’ll have plenty of room for your stuff.”
“It’s not really that much, but okay.”
“Would you rather take my car?”
“I’m good with either one.”
“Okay.” He took a bite of his mashed potatoes. “We could leave out early Monday mornin’, be back by Thursday or Friday.”
“You wanna stay that long?” she frowned.
He chuckled. “Babe, I’m FBI but I wasn’t plannin’ on burnin’ rubber there an’ back. The drive both ways will take a couple of days and then I figure a couple days to get your stuff together. Unless you’ve already got everything packed up?”
“Yeah, like I said, it’s not that much. It’ll probably only take about two or three hours to get it all together. The rest is already gone.”
He shrugged. “Okay, so we’ll be back by Wednesday night. Let’s spend Tuesday there, get a room down on the beach.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“We could go out to dinner, go to a club and dance for a while.” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully.
“Getting all excited about the trip, huh?” she teased.
“Hey, I love goin’ out, but it’s all about the company.”
“I guess I can show you a few nice places there.”
He grinned. “Only if you want to. I’m good with indoor activities too.”
“Uh-huh, no doubt.”
He nodded, satisfied with her answer. “Wait, do you need to be here if that shipment of equipment comes in?”
“I’ll have to talk to Maria, but I guess she can do that... if it actually gets here anyway.”
“It’ll do her good to get out of the house.” He stared down at his plate for a minute, slowly chewing his food. “I was thinking maybe it’s time to have another talk with Andy. He’s lettin’ his temper get the best of him again and he went after Michael the other night.”
Tess stopped with her fork right in front of her mouth. “What’d he do?”
“He misunderstood when he saw Michael with Chrissie and he shoved him... Michael hit the side of his head, cut him up pretty good.” He rubbed one hand over his face. “He was doin’ so much better when he was talkin’ to Michael. I know he couldn’t stay on as his counselor with the situation, but damn, he was finally startin’ to open up.”
“Grief isn’t something you get over abruptly; you have good and bad days,” Tess said, speaking from experience. “I’m sure Andy will come around.”
“If it had been anyone else he had gone after he’d probably be facing charges right now.”
“I know, he seems to be so full of anger sometimes and I wonder why.”
“Just part of the grieving process.” He took a drink of his wine. “He wasn’t like this before Andrew’s accident.”
“You think you can help him?”
“He was listening to me before, but now that Michael’s in the picture, I don’t know. He’s got it in his head that Maria shouldn’t be interested in another guy and I don’t know how to make him understand that her interest in Michael’s a good thing.”
Tess reached across the table to cover his hand. “I doubt anyone other than him can make him believe that Michael’s good for his Mom.”
“I just hate that they’re all hurtin’ over this and there’s nothin’ I can do about it.”
“You do a lot more than you know.”
He smiled at her. “You think so?”
“Yeah,” she answered honestly.
He nodded and scratched his jaw. “I just hope that boy gets his head outta his ass before Maria lets Michael get away.”
“You think Michael will give up at some point?”
“Not right away, no. He’s at a place where he wants a family though so I don’t know how long he can sit on the sidelines.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s understandable.”
“Not that he’ll give up anytime soon. He’s never been the type to just give up when he wanted something.”
“I think he’s the right guy for Maria.”
“Yeah, I think she knows it too. She’s just gotta get past Andy’s behavior. I know she’s just doin’ what she thinks is best and tryin’ to keep him from fallin’ back into old behaviors, but...” he shook his head. “I just wish she’d see that she’s not helpin’ either of them by lettin’ him get away with it.”
“You’ve gotta see this from her side, Kyle. She’s already lost her husband even if they were having problems or whatever. She and Andy went through hell all alone in Florida and I can understand that she’s scared to take a step that could hurt Andy again.”
“I know, and I can understand that. I do,” he stressed. “I just worry that she’s gonna let a chance to be happy slip through her fingers because Andy doesn’t approve.”
“You think she’ really be happy if she was with Michael but Andy started to pull away more?”
He sighed and shook her head. “Well, no, but... I don’t know what the answer is and I’m not sayin’ she’s wrong in her decision to back off. I guess I just wish there was a way for all of them to be happy.”
“Maybe Andy will come around. You can talk to him; maybe it’ll help him just a bit.”
“Yeah, maybe I could go by and take him out for breakfast tomorrow mornin’.”
“Oh, yeah, about that... Liz called earlier. My parents are in town and they’ve invite everyone over tomorrow, so that includes Andy and Maria.”
“Your parents,” he mused slowly. Her parents who barely seemed to realized she existed. “We don’t have to go.”
“I know, but maybe you’ll get the chance to talk to Andy over there.”
“Tess, if you don’t wanna go over there, we don’t have to go. I know things with your parents have always been... difficult.”
“I know, but it’s not my fault and the others will be there. I’m not hiding because of them.”
His lips curved up in a grin. “That’s my girl.”
“Looks like we’ve got some plans, huh?”
“Yeah, looks like it.”
*****
Andy carried the last stack of dishes to the counter next to the sink and grabbed a dishtowel, leaning back against the refrigerator and waiting for Mom to start handing dishes to him to dry. He had watched her all evening, uncomfortably aware of just how lonely she seemed to be. He cast about for something neutral to talk about, something that wouldn’t end with them in an argument again.
“So, how’re things with Aunt Tess goin’? Are you guys gonna open the shop soon?”
Maria tried to hide her surprise when Andy started to talk of his own will. It was the first time since last Sunday. “We’re still waiting for a lot of deliveries. They’ve postponed them again.”
“Oh. Well, that sucks.”
“Thank God we’re in no hurry,” she said and placed the first clean plates on the counter next to the sink.
“You think it’ll be open by Christmas?” he asked. It would be the first Christmas without Dad. Well, he’d been in the hospital last year, but at least he’d still been alive.
“I don’t know yet, but I think so.”
He nodded and bit his lip as he dried the pan she handed him. “You wanna do the whole Christmas thing this year?” he asked. Last year she had tried and he had fought her on it until she had let it go and put the things away. Out of sight, but not out of mind.
“I think we should at least try. Last year we were alone in Florida, but this year there’ll be lots of family around, Andy.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ve been hearin’ that Christmas is a pretty big deal around here.” He motioned around them as if to indicate the whole town.
She chuckled. “Yeah, small town Christmas is a little different than what you know from Florida.”
“You’d think they invented Christmas or somethin’ the way some of these people tell it.”
“I know... but it’s not that bad in the end.”
“No, I guess not. Sam was sayin’ that right after Thanksgiving all the Christmas decorations would start goin’ up all over town. She said like all of the stores, everyone really, decorates for Christmas. Well,” he said with a shrug, “not that nosy old bag, Mrs. Miller. Apparently she doesn’t decorate at all.”
“You wanna put some crazy lights on the roof too?” Maria teased.
“Oh, I don’t know, Mom.” Christmas decorations looked cool and all, but jeez, that was a lotta work!
“You could invite some friends over and have a decorating party, that way the others do the work. It’s perfect.”
He snorted and shook his head. “An’ here I thought I was the one who came up with all the best ideas.”
“Hey, you are my son, don’t forget that, so you got that from me.”
“Uh-huh, think Dad would disagree with that,” he teased. After a moment his smile faded as he realized that he had spoken in the present tense. “Well, he would if he was here,” he corrected himself.
“Pretty sure he would, yeah,” she agreed.
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Well, puttin’ the decorations an’ stuff up might be kinda cool this year.”
“I think your grandparents can’t wait to throw all their gifts at you,” Maria teased and placed the last fork at the counter before she let the water out of the sink again.
“Well... that’s okay. I mean, I like presents.” And his grandparents knew how to buy presents. “It’ll be kinda cool that everyone can be together this year.” Well, everyone but Uncle Max. Maybe he’d have to work or something.
“It’s gonna be pretty busy.” And that was good. That way they would both be distracted.
“Yeah, guess there’s gonna be all kinds of family things to do, huh?” He paused. “You think Grandma an’ Grandpa Evans will be here for Christmas?”
“Gosh, I don’t know if I want that.”
He laughed at the look on her face. “Oh, c’mon, Mom... Grandma Evans has got to be the nosiest woman on the face of the planet. How can you not wanna put up with that for the holidays? Or Grandpa Evans, tryin’ to fix everything?” He was trying to make a joke because as much as he loved them he knew they would want to talk about his dad constantly.
“We can test it tomorrow. They’re in town and Liz invited us over for a barbeque tomorrow.”
He made a face. “Can’t I just be sick or somethin?’”
“Andy,” she warned but laughed and wiped her hands on a towel. They were pretty much done in the kitchen, which would probably mean Andy would go into hiding in his room again soon.
“Just sayin’, Mom. I love ‘em an’ they’re great, but sometimes they’re just... hard to deal with, ya know?”
“I know what you mean,” she agreed. “But I’ll happily allow you to go out to your Aunt Liz’s tomorrow. Hey, you can consider yourself lucky you’re allowed to go out while you’re grounded.”
“Maybe you should rethink the rules of grounding,” he muttered.
“How mad are you that you can’t go to the dance tonight?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t think I really wanted to go until I found out Sam was goin’ with another guy.”
“Oh... she does huh?”
“Yeah, and it’s not like he’s all that great anyway. I don’t know why she went with him.”
“Maybe she was frustrated that you didn’t ask her?” Maria asked, walking over to the refrigerator to get a drink.
“So she just goes with the first di- dork that asks her to go? What kinda sense does that make?”
“Making you jealous maybe?” Maria asked with a smirk.
“Oh, yeah,” he said sarcastically, “like that was gonna work. I’m not jealous. I’m just surprised that she’d go out with that moron.”
He sooo was jealous, she thought amused. “My guess it she just wants to make you jealous. Did you two have a fight?”
He shrugged. “We said some things.”
“Some things?”
“Just... it was a fight,” he finally admitted.
“And then she agreed to go to the dance with someone else.”
“Yeah... and, really, Mom, Jared? Of all the guys she could’ve gone with, him?” He shook his head. “That was just stupid. He’s gonna try to kiss her, I know it,” he muttered under his breath.
“That doesn’t mean she would give in though.”
“Well, no, but,” he kicked the bottom of the cabinet in front of him, “he’s still gonna try.”
“Have you tried to talk to her?”
“What, about Jared?”
“Yeah, and about the way you obviously feel about her.”
“The way I feel? Mom,” he complained.
“What?” she asked, smiling. “You do like her. I didn’t say you loooove her.”
“Mom!” His ears turned bright read.
“Okay, okay, I’ll stop. Promise,” she told him, amused.
Andy tossed the towel on the counter after drying his hands and he glanced around. They were all finished with the kitchen, which meant he could make his escape. But he could see the sadness that seemed to be in her eyes so often here lately. “So, you wanna watch a movie or somethin’?”
She looked at him, surprised. “Um, yeah, why not?”
“Cool, I’ll go pick one out.”
“Okay,” she nodded.
He nodded and went to go pull something from his personal collection. He knew exactly what he wanted to watch.
