Roswell Fanatics

Title: Writing Mr. Perfect

Author: Sarah Marie

Couple: CC: Max/Liz, Michael/Maria, Isabel/Alex.

Category: AU/No Aliens. This should be all Fluff, but knowing me, it might cross over into a little Angst. I’ll try to keep it at bay, though.

Rating: Adult. I originally had this rated as 'Mature'... but lets face it, folks. This is me we're talkin about here. It's rated Adult.

Summery: Liz Parker is a romance novelist, living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Despite the fact that she’s a best selling author, her leading men the stuff of true fairy tales, Liz has been single for almost eighteen years, minus a date here and there. A chance meeting at one of her book signings sets into motion a chain of events that might just lead her to a fairytale romance of her very own.

Authors Note & Thanks: There are quite a few to thank for this one:

As always, thank you to Tanya, my *twin*... I would truly be lost without you... and this fic wouldn’t have a title! *lol* For forever encouraging me that I could actually write something that was nothing but fluff... I love you!

Thank you to Raychel-for stepping up and being my go-to girl for this one, and for listening to me bitch when something wouldn’t go right, then helping me to fix it. Not to mention, the maker of one of this fics amazing banners. And, of course, for never failing to make me laugh! *lol* I wuv you, Holmes!

Jo- Thank you for the other absolutely gorgeous banner!!! You’re amazing, girl! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Last, but certainly not least: To Stephanie, aka janesdilemma... this girl brought my muse out of hiding, and got the good majority of the first half of this fic written. Thank you *SO* much, Steph! Your check is in the mail! *LOL*


Banner by Raychel(Raychelxlucious)


Banner by Jo(max and liz believer)


Prologue

Elizabeth Parker stared blankly at the computer screen in front of her. The curser on the open page mocked her as it flashed, waiting for the words to come spilling out of her fingertips and onto the page.

She sighed, running her hands through her hair. It was impossible, she just couldn’t find her muse today. She minimized her Word program, and after a few moves of her mouse, was completely engrossed in a game of Freecell.

She grimaced upon hearing the front door of the apartment slam shut, signaling that her best friend, and room mate, Maria Deluca was home from her date. Another two crashes later, which Liz assumed to be Maria’s shoes being thrown onto the floor, she deduced that it must not have been a very good date, either.

Maria stormed into Liz’s study, her long blonde hair bouncing crazily around her face as she threw herself into the seat on the other side of Liz’s large mahogany desk.

Liz removed the earphones from her ears, setting them aside on top of the desk. She turned off her computer screen, so Maria knew she had her full attention and propped her elbow on the desk, resting her chin in her palm.

“Bad date?” Liz asked, unable to keep the smile from tugging at the corner of her lips. Maria was apparently less amused, resorting to grabbing a hand ful of Kleenex from the box in front of her, balling them up and tossing them at Liz’s head.

“Bad doesn’t even begin to cover it!” Maria seethed, shoving her hair out of her face. “You won’t even BELIEVE this one! He’s been the worst one yet!”

“Worse than the guy who still lived with his mom, slept in a bunk bed, and tried to take you back to his place, saying that he was sure he could talk his brother into letting you two have the bottom bunk?” Liz asked, hiding her smile behind her glass of soda.

“Well... ok, maybe this one was a little better.” Maria relented, shuttering. “God, Bobby was weird...”

“Maria.” Liz said, snapping her back into reality. “Focus, please. What was wrong with this one?”

“You saw him when he came to pick me up. He’s absolutely gorgeous! He has that whole... brooding, bad boy complex thing down to an art, and GOD, that’s hot!” Maria had to take a moment to appreciate the memory of just how fine he was. “So, then we get to where we’re going, which really wasn’t all that bad either. We went to a pool hall, and we drank a little, played some pool, really tried to get to know each other, you know?”

Liz nodded, chewing on the end of a pen. “So... I’m not seeing the problem, Maria. So far, he seems perfect for you.”

“We didn’t agree on a damn thing, Liz!” Maria screamed, then slapped her hand over her mouth, looking around. “Oh, I’m sorry! I forgot I have to be quiet! I slammed the door, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did, but it obviously didn’t wake anyone up, so you’re ok. Please, get to the end of your rant.” When a hurt look passed over Maria’s face, Liz sighed. “I’m sorry. You know I love you, and you know that I date vicariously through you since its gonna be a decade before I get to date again, but I’m trying to write, Maria.”

“Fine, I’m gonna finish, then you have to tell me how the story is going, ok?” Liz agreed, so Maria continued. “We didn’t agree on anything! Not a single thing! I’d say black, he’d say white. I’d say up, he’d say down. I’d say left, he’d say right. I’d say--”

“Ok, I get the point. You disagreed. So what? Opposites attract, ya know?” Liz tried to reason with her. She was not at all convinced that Maria wasn’t already head over heels for this one.

“Still, we’re just TOO opposite, Lizzie. It’ll never work.” Maria sighed, beginning the task of taking off her chandelier earrings and necklace. “I think we’re going out again tomorrow.”

Liz shook her head. “If you guys didn’t get along, why are you going out with him again?”

“He’s hot, did you forget that? Besides, he’s a really good kisser.” Maria winked at Liz, making both of them giggle. “So, this one might not be marriage material, big deal. There’s no reason I can’t have fun before we part ways.”

“You confuse the hell out of me sometimes.”Liz said, turning her computer screen back on.

“How’s the book coming along?” Maria asked, leaning over the desk to get a peek at the latest chapter.

“Its not.” Liz stated, pushing Maria back into her chair. “I can’t get a single word written. How is it possible that I managed to get a publisher interested in my work, and him end up wanting a romance novel out of me? Me?! I haven’t had a guy do something romantic for me since Clinton was in office! I’m surprised I remember what romance is!” Liz went on, reaching into her bottom desk drawer and producing a bag of cookies.

She opened the bag, taking one out and shoving it into her mouth before offering the bag to Maria, who also took a cookie.

Liz knew she shouldn’t be complaining, she had a wonderful life. At the age of twenty, Liz Parker was already working on getting her first book published, after the sample work she sent out had caught the attention of a publishing company in California.

Seeing as how being a struggling writer didn’t really seem to pay the bills, she thanked her lucky stars that she’d pretty much won the genetics lottery, in terms of whom she was related to. Her father, Jeff Parker, had taken over his fathers hotel chain. There was a Parkers Hotel in almost every state in the US, and a few in Europe and Asia. The Parkers were on up there with the Hiltons, in terms of money, so if Liz wanted to, she could do what Paris was doing, and just party her life away, and spend her dad’s money.

The fact that she had no desire to live off her parents money was one obstacle, but there was also another major one that prevented Liz Parker from being able to be young and carefree like most other twenty year olds out there... actually, two.

As if on cue, Liz’s three year old twin sons ran into the room. Tristan jumped into Maria’s lap, while Tyler ran around the desk and jumped into Liz’s.

“What are you two doing up?” Liz lightly scolded, pushing Tyler’s bangs out of his eyes. She made a mental note to take them to get their hair cut the next day.

“Tyler saw a monster in the closet.” Tristan informed them, holding on tightly to Maria’s neck.

“Well, we’ll just have to go investigate this, won’t we?” Maria said, already getting up from the chair, with Tristan in her arms.

Liz got up, holding onto Tyler as they walked the boys back to their rooms. Liz made a stop in the hall closet, grabbing two flashlights on the way. Her and Maria set the boys down on their beds, each holding onto a flashlight.

They opened the closet door up all the way, shining their flashlights all around the closet. When they found no monster, they did a quick sweep under the beds.

“No monster, boys.” Maria announced, sitting down on Tyler’s bed, tucking him back in.

“I saw it! It was there!” Tyler protested, looking over anxiously at the closet.

After Liz got Tristan all tucked in, she went over and closed the closet door before crossing the room. She set the flashlights on the night stand that sat between the boys beds. “Don’t worry, guys. Mommy and Aunt Maria scared him away. He won’t be coming around here again.” When Tyler went to protest, Liz quickly spoke up again. “If he does, you guys just grab the flashlights and shine it at him, ok? Tell him that its your room and he can’t be there. He’ll run away, I promise.”

“Promise, promise?” Tristan asked, although he was already half asleep.

“Promise, promise.” Liz repeated, kissing him on the forehead. She got up and gave Tyler a kiss on the forehead as well before her and Maria crept from the room, both boys almost asleep again.

They pulled the door closed behind them, leaving it open just a crack. They padded back down the hallway to Liz’s study, both falling back into the chairs they’d been in earlier.

Liz grabbed a handful of cookies before passing the bag over to Maria. “So, I heard from Derrick earlier.” Liz said, pulling her legs up underneath her.

Maria paused, a cookie halfway to her open mouth. “I’ve been back home how long now, and you’re just telling me this? Spill! What’d he say?”

“Nothing much.” Liz shrugged. “He just wanted to know if he could stop by tomorrow and pick up the boys for the weekend.”

“Are you gonna let him?” Maria asked, setting the bag of cookies on the desk, knowing if she didn’t she’d eat them all.

“Well, yeah. He’s their father, Maria. I can’t not let him see them.” Liz explained. “Just because Derrick and I broke up, and aren’t together now, doesn’t mean that he can’t see his children. He’s a wonderful father to them, and you can’t deny that.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like him either.” Maria stated, sighing.

It was no secret that Maria detested Derrick for not staying with Liz after he got her pregnant at 16. They were well on their way to breaking up before Liz found out she was pregnant, but Maria was still of the belief that Derrick should have stayed with Liz out of obligation, even though she knew that was the last thing Liz wanted.

Liz was a hopeless romantic, wanting the kind of relationship that you’ll only find on the pages of a novel. Maria wished she could be like that, but she knew better. That kinda crap just didn’t happen in real life.

“Stop thinking it.” Liz warned.

“What?” Maria asked, playing dumb. “What am I thinking?”

“You’re thinking about how Derrick should have stayed with me once he found out I was pregnant.” Liz said, matter-of-factly. “You have to stop that, Maria. I’m not upset that Derrick and I aren’t together, you seem to be the only one who is.”

“I just don’t like that you’re raising those little boys by yourself.” Maria argued.

“I’m not!” Liz argued back. “I have you, you’ve been right here helping me. My parents have been here. Derricks been here! Maybe not all the time, but he has been. His parents have been wonderful too! Linda and Brian are always eager to take the boys anytime I need a break.” Liz sighed. “We never get anywhere when we argue about this, Maria. Why do we even bother?”

“I dunno.” Maria pouted, once again snatching up the bag of cookies and eating one. “Lets just talk about something else, I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“I brought it up.” Liz pointed out, but happily changed the subject anyway. “What was that guys name you went out with tonight?”

“Michael Guerin.” Maria said, unable to stop herself from smiling.

“You LOVE him.” Liz teased, laughing as Maria threw another handful of Kleenex at her. “Hey, now. You’re wasting trees, stop it.”

“I don’t LOVE him.” Maria said, rolling her eyes, getting up from her chair. “I don’t have to take this, I’m going to bed.” She walked around the desk, giving Liz a kiss on the cheek. She tapped on the computer screen. “Get to work, woman. I want something to read tomorrow.”

Liz laughed as Maria walked out of the room, heading toward her bedroom. “Don’t hold your breath.” Liz muttered, turning the monitor back on and pulling up her word program. She glanced briefly at the outline she’d written up that was sitting on the desk beside her and poised her fingers over the keys. “Here goes nothing.”

TBC...

Eh? Lemme know what you think!

Hey guys! I'm back with the first chapter!!!

I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who took the time to leave me FB, I'm shocked, and amazed by the response that this has gotten. I'm so glad that you like it... I've had a good time writing it so far.

Since I'm currently writing four fics(this, and three others that haven't been posted yet) I'll only be updating it once a week until I can get it finished, because it's not yet. Hopefully, when I get it done, the updates will come sooner, but until then, I'll be back every Sunday.

Now, I'm gonna shut up, and let ya'll get to readin... but really... I'm so glad you like it. As is apparent from Raychels FB... I was nervous about it. *lol*

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter One

Liz stood in the kitchen of her Albuquerque home, trying to scrub down the top of the stove, which was long overdue for a cleaning. She grabbed another paper towel, and after re-spraying the stove with some Fantastik, she went back to work.

She’d spent most of the morning finishing up another chapter for the latest book she was working on, and the chapters were coming out fast. She could barely walk through the house without having another idea, and having to run to the study to jot it down in her notes.

She heard the security system beep, announcing that someone had opened the main gate to get into the property. She walked into the livingroom, flipping on the surveillance cameras. She smiled slightly at the sight of Maria, desperately trying to get herself, and an armful of stuff out of her car.

Liz shook her head then started picking up the multiple pairs of shoes that had been discarded onto the livingroom floor. She tried her best to determine which shoes belonged to which of the twins, but they wore each others clothes so much, it was too hard to tell. She decided to just drop them all in Tristan’s room, and let the boys sort them out themselves.

“Liz?” Maria yelled, shutting the front door behind her.

“I’m upstairs, Maria!” Liz yelled back. “I’ll be down in a minute.”

Maria walked into the kitchen, grabbing a Red Bull out of the fridge before walking into the livingroom and dropping down on the couch.

She fiddled with the remote for a few minutes before she finally figured out how to turn off the feed from the security cameras and go back to the regular TV. She finally settled on watching whatever was replaying on MTV.

“Hey.” Liz greeted Maria with a kiss on the cheek, sitting down on the couch next to Maria. “What was all that stuff I saw you bringing in earlier?”

“A bunch of shit Michael wanted me to bring over. We’re still doing the work-out thing later, right?” Maria took a sip of her Red Bull, then passed it to Liz, who also took a sip.

“Yeah, the boys are really excited about it. They think its gonna help em out with football, having a former Drill Sergeant working them out.” Liz rolled her eyes. “Wait, Michael knows that you and I are also working out with them, right?”

“Yeah, he said he’d try to go easy on us, but he also said, and I quote ‘You girls are probably gonna fall outta PT after ten minutes, so then the men can get a real work out.’” Maria rolled her eyes. “Can you imagine that? He’s such a pig.”

“He has a point though, Maria. We don’t work out. We get winded walking up a flight of stairs.” Liz reasoned with her. “There’s no way in hell we’re going to be able to survive all of this crap.” Maria shot her a surprised look. “What? I’m being realistic. Sue me.”

“I’ll have you know that two weeks after giving birth, I was doing aerobics in the livingroom. It didn’t take me that long to loose the baby weight either. I’m gonna be just fine, so speak for yourself.” Maria stuck her tongue out at Liz.

“Speaking of your offspring, where is Olivia? Still at cheerleading camp?” Liz grabbed the remote when she heard the security system beep again.

“Yeah, she’s having a blast. She’s so excited that she’s finally gonna be in high school this year, and she’s especially excited that she’s gonna be a cheerleader.” Maria nudged Liz. “She asked how the boys were when she called last night. I think she has a crush.”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Tell her to get in line. You wouldn’t believe the number of girls that call the house twenty times a day asking for the boys. Its sick.” Liz pouted slightly. “They’re not old enough to be having girls call the house for them.”

“Liz, they’re seventeen, they’re not babies anymore. I think it might be time to let em go.” Maria patted Liz’s knee, then turned her attention to the TV. “Oh, Michael’s here.” She leaned forward slightly, squinting at the TV. “He did NOT dress the part! Ohmigod, I can’t believe I married him. This is embarrassing.”

Liz was still laughing a few minutes later when Michael finally came into the livingroom. He was dressed in his old army issued BDUs, and the ensemble was complete with a rather ugly hat, black shined boots, and his dog tags.

Liz looked over at Maria, and couldn’t help laughing harder. Maria was rocking back and forth, her face in her hands, mumbling to herself. “He’s not really dressed like that. Please tell me he’s not really dressed like that. He’s not wearing his BDU’s. He’s not wearing his BDU’s.” She chanted, before raising her head and peeking through her fingers. “Oh God, he is!”

Michael looked from Maria, who had gone back to mumbling to herself, to Liz, who was almost falling off the couch laughing so hard. “What?” He asked, genuinely confused.

Liz clutched her side as she tried to keep her laughter under control. “Oh, it hurts.” She managed between giggles, reaching up to wipe away the tears from laughing so hard. Liz had to keep her eyes averted to prevent laughing again. “Maria’s either upset, embarrassed, or completely shocked that you dressed like that.” She looked up at him quickly, before looking back down. “By the way, Smokey the Bear called, and he wants his hat back.”

Michael muttered to himself before sitting down on the love seat. “The boys said they wanted a real workout, so I told em I was gonna smoke their asses like I did with the guys I was in charge of back in boot camp. The hat lets people know I’m a drill sergeant. Besides, I look hot.” Michael looked down, smoothing over the lapels of his camouflage jacket. “Maria even said so quite a few times.” Michael said loudly, a hint of secret meaning in his tone.

Maria’s head shot up as she pinned Michael with a glare. “Don’t you even, Michael Guerin! I can hold back sex for a LONG time. I may not want to, but if its to prove a point, by God, I will go the distance!”

Michael paled, and wisely shut his mouth. After a few minutes, we ventured to talk again. “So, Liz. When are the boys getting home?”

Liz glanced at her watch. “They should be getting home any minute. I told them what time you expected them to be ready, they went over to James’ to play video games or something.” Liz rolled her eyes. “Like they don’t have a video game system... or four, here.”

“It’s never as fun if its your videos games that you’re playing.” Michael tried to explain, leaning back into the cushions, taking off his hat and setting it down next to him. “Liz, if you’re working out with us, you’re going to have to change. You know that, right?”

“Yes, Michael. I know that. I’m going right now.” Liz pushed herself up off the couch, and glanced at the TV. “The boys are back.” She took a minute to look at the TV more closely. “I think they brought half the school with them.” Liz gestured towards the TV as she left the livingroom.

Michael looked at the TV, and the two cars that followed Tyler and Tristan into the driveway. He couldn’t help smiling. “Oh, this is gonna be fun.”

“Just keep in mind that you’re not training these kids to go to war. You’re just working them out to help them for football. Another thing to keep in mind is that Liz and I are working out with you guys, and if you work us too hard, you *will* be listening to me bitch the rest of the week.”

“Well, if you can’t handle it, then don’t work out with us.” Michael said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Maria opened her mouth to reply, but the boys walked in with their friends trailing behind them. “We’re not done with this conversation.” She whispered before standing up and walking over to the twins, giving them each a kiss on the cheek. “How are my boys?” She gushed, pushing Tyler’s bangs out of his face. “You need a haircut, sweetie.”

“Maria.” Tyler whined, swatting at her hands. “My hair is fine. I just didn’t bother to do it today, it looks fine when I do it.”

Michael stood up, walking over to Maria. “Babe, don’t embarrass the boys in front of their friends.” He slapped hands with Tyler, pulling him into a manly hug before doing the same to Tristan. “You guys ready to work out?”

“Why is it that you can hug him, but me fussing with his hair is embarrassing?” Maria asked, pouting.

“You’re not a man, you don’t get it.” Michael said.

“Well, Thank God for small favors.” Maria shot back.

“Ok, I’m changed. We can work out now.” Liz announced, coming into the livingroom, dressed in a Juicy Couture sweat suit. She walked up to the twins, refraining from kissing them in front of their friends, knowing how embarrassed they’d get. “You guys need to call your dad after we’re done working out, ok? He wants you guys to stay with him for a few days before school starts back up.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Tristan responded. “Ok, so... Michael, Maria, these are our friends. James, Bryan, Tony, Adam, Jesse and Seth. You already know the guys, right Mom?”

Liz nodded, smiling at them. “Hi guys.”

“Hi Miss Parker.” They all responded like the lovesick teenagers that they were. It was common knowledge with all the guys at school that Tyler and Tristan’s mom was considered the hottest mom of anyone in the high school. All the guys loved going over to the twins house, just to gawk at Liz.

“Alright.” Michael clapped his hands. “Everyone, outside.”

He turned on his heel, grabbing his hat off the couch on his way to the sliding glass doors that lead out onto the patio and into the backyard. Everyone filed out behind him and he set them up in formation, which was really just two rows of five people, spread out as to not accidentally hit or kick the people around you.

Once everyone is all set up, Michael stood in front of them, his feet shoulder width apart, his hands clasped behind his back in the ‘at ease’ position. Liz and Maria were desperately trying not to laugh at how seriously he’d taken this whole thing. They weren’t completely sure he hadn’t deluded himself into believing that he really was back in the Army, doing morning PT at 0530. “Alright, now the real fun is about to start.” Michael paced in front of them slowly. “We’re gonna be working out, and we’re gonna be working out hard. I’ll explain exactly how to do each particular exercise the correct way before we start, cause God knows if I told you to do Flutter Kicks or Monkey Fuckers, about four of you would understand what I’m talking about. And before any of you ask, yes, we will be doing both of those.” He stopped, scanning his eyes over the group. “You girls ready to get smoked?”

“Yup!” Liz and Maria cheerfully replied from the middle of the front row.

Michael sighed, stepping closer to them. “I was calling the whole group girls, and you’re not supposed to respond.”

“Oh.” Liz replied, giving him her sweetest smile. “Sorry.”

“Its ok.” Michael nodded, then walked back in front of them to start explaining the first exercise.

Maria turned to the twins, who were in the back row, behind her and Liz. “You guys created a monster, I hope you realize that.”

<center>****</center>

“PUSH!” Michael screamed, bending down so that his mouth was right next to Seth’s ear. “That all you got?! PUSH!” He straightened, pointing at Adam. “Hey, you! Kid in the back row whose name I can’t remember! If you can’t push anymore, hold the position! Get off your stomach!”

Liz glanced over at the boys, who were doing their best to keep up with Michael’s insane exercises and not look like a bunch of girls. In reality, they each looked about one push-up away from crying like babies.

About half an hour after they’d started the work out, Liz and Maria had given up. They both went into the house and changed into their swimming suits and were now kicked back, pool side, working on their tans.

Liz was laying on her stomach, flipping through a Cosmo magazine, while Maria was laying on her back, sunglasses perched on her nose, bopping her head along to the beat of whatever song was currently playing on her iPod.

Liz had learned somewhere around ten minutes before to just block out Michael’s screaming, because he just never shut up. Her attention was torn away from reading about seven surprising keys to happiness, in the eyes of Cosmo, when she heard loud screaming coming from the work-out.

“FUCK YOU! I’d like to see you do this many push-ups!”

Liz’s head whipped around so fast, she almost gave herself whiplash, immediately recognizing the voice behind the outburst as that of Tyler.

“Tyler Gauge Julian!” Liz yelled, shooting him a glare. “What did you just say?”

“Nothing, Mom.” Tyler responded, looking away from Liz.

“Michael, I think they’re done working out today, leave the boys alone!” Maria reasoned with him setting her iPod on the small table next to her lounge chair. “Boys, why don’t you guys get in the pool?”

The boys didn’t wait to see if Michael agreed that the work out was over. They all scrambled off the lawn, running full speed at the pool, throwing tennis shoes, socks and shirts in all directions as they went.

Liz and Maria both squealed as water flew in their direction, soaking them. Michael went stealth, sneaking up behind Maria’s lounge chair, and before she even knew he was there, he scooped her up and threw her into the pool.

She came up sputtering, her eyes wide. “ I can’t believe you just did that to me! ME! Your wife! The mother of your child! Why didn’t you do that to Liz?!”

Michael immediately went into action, but Liz was already scrambling to get away from him. He easily caught her, throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“Don’t you dare, Michael!” Liz screeched, although she already knew what was coming. As soon as Michael grabbed her hips, ready to toss her into the pool, she grabbed hold of his sleeve, holding onto it like a lifeline. She got the desired result. Both her and Michael fell into the pool with an unceremonious splash. “I can’t believe you, Michael! After everything we’ve been through!” Liz yelled, once she resurfaced.

“I can’t believe you pulled me in with you! I just pressed this uniform!”

“Yeah, like you’re going to be wearing it all that much! You’re not in the Army anymore, Michael!” Maria yelled, making her way over to him. Once she reached him, she put both of her hands on his head, dunking him under water. He took it for a total of five seconds before he launched her into the air, and she landed a few feet away.

Once Maria made it back to the surface, Michael yelled back. “I am too still in the Army! Just because I’m a recruiting officer doesn’t mean that I’m not still in the Army, woman! I still need this damn outfit every now and then!”

As the water war between the Guerins raged on, the guys started playing a game of water basketball on the other end of the pool, and Liz swam to the edge, pulling herself out of the water. She made her way over to the pool house, quick grabbing a towel and wrapping it around herself before grabbing enough for everyone else.

She put the extra towels on a lounge chair before making her way back into the house. As soon as she opened the door, she realized the phone was ringing, so she made a mad dash into the livingroom, searching high and low for the phone.

Finally locating it under one of the couch cushions, Liz answered, slightly out of breath. “Hello?”

“Hey, Liz. Its Robert. How are you?” Came the response from the other end.

Liz couldn’t help but smile. “Peachy with a side of keen, Rob. How are you?”

“About the same.” Robert laughed. “I’m just calling to remind you that you have an autograph signing tomorrow starting at noon. You didn’t forget about it, did you?”

“Yeah, I did.” Liz admitted. She probably would have gotten up tomorrow and not have remembered then. Thankfully, she had a wonderful agent, who also acted as a living palm pilot, constantly calling to remind her the day before her scheduled events.

“Are you going to be able to get Michael to go with you?” Robert asked.

Liz glanced outside where Michael and Maria had stopped their water war and were now making out near the side of the pool. She rolled her eyes at the fact that they still acted like they were dating. While it often made her nauseous, most of the time it made her envious. While they bicker like a little old married couple, it was obvious for anyone looking to see that they loved each other more than they loved the air they breathed. They had it, and Liz wanted it.

Liz knew that she had been blessed with a wonderful life. She was doing a job that she absolutely loved, which was more than most people could say. She had two beautiful, healthy boys that meant everything to her. She had a beautiful home, and was able to provide everything her children could want. But, at the end of the day, she still walked into her bedroom, and crawled into her bed alone.

While her days were spent with wonderful, romantic, caring men; they weren’t real. They were the men of her imagination. The men she wrote books about. The kind that you never really found in real life.

Liz imagined that that was the reason that so many women read romance novels. The men in them were the stuff of dreams, too good to be true. Everyone knows that if something’s too good to be true, it probably is.

Despite the fact that Liz had yet to find him, she knew that somewhere out there was the man of her dreams. Maria always joked that Liz had a Prince Charming out there somewhere, and he probably just got lost and was too stubborn to ask for directions. While Liz found that funny, she was getting pretty pissed at Prince Charming.

“Liz?” Robert’s voice broke her out of her thoughts.

“Yeah?” She asked, having completely forgot the question he’d asked her before.

“Is Michael going to be able to go with you tomorrow?” Robert repeated.

Liz had only had a handful of run-ins with crazy fans. Most of them were guys who had seen her picture on the back inside cover of the book and decided they were in love with her and needed to start drama. Since Liz had began taking Michael with her to her book signings and social engagements as a bodyguard, of sorts, the crazies had left her alone.

“Well, since I forgot about it, I kinda forgot to ask him. If he can’t go then I’ll get one of the boys to go. I can get one of them out of football practice.” Liz was already digging her palm pilot out of her purse. Of course it was at the very bottom, since she obviously never used it. She had a feeling that since she hadn’t given Michael proper notice, and he did have a job that she’d been needing to call the football coach and let him know one of the boys would be gone the next day.

“Alright, just as long as you have someone there with you.” She heard him cover up the phone and yell something to someone in the background. “Liz, sweetie, I gotta run. Things aren’t getting done around here, so I have to find out whose behind this slacking and have a chat with them. Lazy people, I tell ya.” Liz laughed, picturing Rob, shaking his head in disapproval and scowling at slacking workers. “Before I let you go, how’s the next book coming?”

“It’s coming out really good. I got three chapters written yesterday.” Liz announced, proudly.

“Keep it up! I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with this time. Ok, I really have to go, Liz. I’ll call you tomorrow and see how it went.”

They said their goodbyes and Liz hung up, making her way back outside. She made her way to the edge of the pool, sitting down and putting her legs into the water.

“You workin tomorrow, Michael?” Liz asked, causing Michael and Maria to have to cease their make out session.

“Yeah, why?” Michael asked, deciding that he needed to get out of the pool, since he was still in his uniform.

“I have a book signing that I forgot about.” Liz explained.

“Hey, babe. Will you run out to my car and get me some clothes to change into?” Michael called to Maria, who was making her way back inside to change. After he was sure she’d heard him, he turned back to Liz. “I can try to get tomorrow off, I don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal.”

“No, its ok. I’ll take one of the boys with me.” Liz assured him.

“Don’t they have football?” Michael asked, taking off one of his boots and turning it upside down, shaking his head as a bunch of water dripped out of it.

“Yeah, but the coaches love me, they’ll let one of them out if I call and ask nicely.” Liz smiled sweetly at Michael. “They think I’m pretty.” She giggled, before turning her attention to the boys, who were still playing basketball. “Tyler, Tristan. Come here, guys. I need to ask you something.”

The game was put on hold while the twins made their way over to where Liz was sitting. “What’s up, Mom?” Tristan asked, bracing his forearms on the edge of the pool, holding himself out of the water.

“I have a book signing tomorrow that I forgot about. Now, Michael has to work, so I’m going to need one of you two to come with me. I know that you have football, but we all know that if I call your coach, I can get you out of it. Who wants to go?” Liz looked back and forth.

The boys seemed to have a silent communication thing going, so Liz just sat, waiting for an answer.

“Tristan’ll go.” Tyler finally replied, and the boys went back to their basketball game.

Liz nodded to herself, then got up and went back inside to make the call.

She wasn’t thrilled about the book signing. Nothing particularly exciting ever happened at them. People stood in a line. She sat at a table. They told her they loved her books, she thanked them. She asked their name, shook their hand, signed their book, occasionally took a picture... that was about it. She could only hope that maybe something exciting would happen at the book signing tomorrow.

TBC...

Just wanted to let everyone know... cause I know you'll be asking... Max is making his grand entrance in the next chapter. *lol* And I realize that I sped the time line up quite a bit from the Pro, to the first chapter, hope no one was too confused by it. See you next Sunday!

Wow. So much FB, and so much to say, I had to go back and EDIT all this into my actual chapter so I wouldn't forget anything! *lol*

I see that the time jump confused some of you. I apologize for that. Looking back, I'm not sure why I fastforwarded all that time... ok, I'm lying. *lol* I do know. I thought it'd make for a more interesting story for the twins to be grown up, and be able to be disaproving and protective of Liz... as you'll see later Also, the question about Liz's age is answered in this chapter.

Just so everyone knows-- The twins are featured in the banner. I chose two different pictures of the oh-so-delicious James Lafferty... and I'm gonna pretend there's two of him... because the world would be a better place if there really were two of him. *lol*

I had a hard time holding off posting this, I wanted to post it on Thursday, but Raychel talked me out of it. I gotta pace myself. My muse has moved on to being obsessed with writing one of my other fics, "For Better Or Worse: Take Two"... which is the sequel to "All's Fair In Love And War"... so... I dunno. My muse can never decide what she wants to do. *lol* So, this will continue to be posted every Sunday. Sorry, people, I tried, but she wouldn't cooperate.

Shutting up now. Lemme know whatcha think. On we go.

Chapter Two

Liz downed the last of the coffee in her cup, and took her cup and breakfast plate over to the kitchen sick, quickly rinsing them off before placing them in the dishwasher. She dropped two Pop Tarts into the toaster, poured a glass of milk, sat it next to the toaster and made her way upstairs.

It was a beautiful morning in late August, and she had a book signing to get to. She went into her room, making sure she had her outfit laid out on the bed before making her way back down the hall.

She stopped at Tristan’s room, flipping on the light and walking in. “Wake up, sweetie. It’s 11:15, I let you sleep in an extra half hour. You have to haul ass if we’re gonna make it to the book signing on time.”

She went into his closet, pulling out a blue and white stripped button-up shirt, and tossing it onto the bed. She grabbed a pair of khakis out of his drawer and threw them next to the shirt.

She sighed, Tristan had yet to move a muscle. In fact, he was still snoring. She couldn’t not smile at how cute he looked. He was laying on his stomach and the pillow that was under his head was at a crazy angle so he could also clutch onto it for dear life. Liz had no idea why he did this, he’d done it since he was a little boy. It made no sense to her, considering he had about five other pillows on the bed that he could hold onto instead of the one he was actually sleeping on.

After taking a moment to lament over the fact that he wasn’t a baby anymore, something she found herself doing quite often lately, she grabbed hold of the pillow and yanked it out of his arms and out from under his head.

Once his head hit the bed, he bolted up, looking around the room wildly. Once he realized he was in no immediate danger, his eyes landed on his mom, who was looking at him with an amused smirk on her face. He groaned, dropping back onto the bed and throwing the comforter back over his head. “Mom! C’mon, you can’t serious be making me get up right now!” He whined from beneath the cover.

“Honey, you promised you’d come with me to my book signing today, so that means you need to get out of bed!” Liz pulled the covers back from over his head, barely holding in a giggle. He sat up, his hair sticking up in every direction, a scowl on his face. “We have to leave here in twenty minutes to make it there on time.” Liz went on, already making her way out of the room. “Hop in the shower, shave and do your hair. I laid your clothes out, I want you to look nice today. Ok? Tristan, I’m not messing with you right now. Don’t make me get a bucket of water to dump on you! I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again. Please hurry!”

Liz didn’t wait for his response before heading back down the hallway towards her room. She took off her pajamas, and was rewarded, halfway into her dress, to hear the shower in Tristan’s bathroom start running.

After getting dressed, and getting into her high heels, she went into her own bathroom to begin doing her make-up, since she’d had the mind to have already done her hair. Luckily, her hair didn’t require a lot of work. All she had to do was blow dry it, and put some molding paste in it. It tended to do what she wanted it to do with very little effort.

After her make-up was all done, which took almost no time at all, seeing as how she rarely wore a lot of makeup other than some mascara, powder and lip gloss, she took a minute to look at herself.

She didn’t think she looked a whole lot different than she did when she was younger. She still got carded for alcohol everywhere she went, and no one believed she was actually 34. People were even more shocked to learn that she had twins that were seventeen years old, and were getting ready to start their senior year of high school. She always got a good laugh at the complete shock on people faces when she told them that.

After looking herself over one last time, she left the bathroom, walking down the hall towards Tristan’s room. When she didn’t find him in there, she made her way downstairs. She found in him the kitchen, already working on his second Pop Tart.

Confident that they were going to make it on time, she made her way into the dining room to get her purse and car keys.

“Ready?” She asked Tristan, who was gulping down the last of the milk in the cup and setting it in the sink before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Yeah, let’s get this over with.” Tristan grumbled, following her out of the house.

After locking the front door, Liz hopped into the drivers seat of her Jeep Liberty and started the engine. The boys were always on her about getting a big, expensive car, but she was too in love with her Jeep to get rid of it.

It didn’t take them that long to get to their location. Today, the book signing was happening at a Barnes and Noble downtown. Liz found a parking spot and turned off the engine. She looked at the bookstore, she could already see the line inside and it looked pretty long.

“You ready?” She asked, turning to Tristan.

“Slap a black ‘Security’ t-shirt on me, I’m ready.” Tristan smiled, opening the door and making his way around the jeep. He opened Liz’s door, then closed it after she got out, making sure to lock it.

As they made their way to the door, Tristan put his arm around Liz’s shoulders in a possessive manner. He had been present at one of the book signings where a crazed guy had gone nuts trying to get to Liz. He knew that this really was something that was necessary, and something that he wasn’t going to take lightly.

Liz felt a smile tug at the corners of her lips when she looked up at Tristan. He and his brother were already six foot tall, so they already had that going for them. There was also the fact that since they’d been playing football since they started highschool, they both had quite a bit of muscle on them. Tristan was glancing around them, a look on his face that screamed ‘Fuck with us, I’ll rip your arm off and beat you to death with it.’

Tristan opened the door for her, always a gentleman like his mom and Aunt Maria taught him. They were met just inside the door by the manager of the store.

“Hi!” She replied, a huge smile plastered on her face. “I’m Trisha, I’m the manager here. We’re so honored to have you here, Miss Parker.” Trisha gushed, shaking Liz’s hand. She held out her hand to Tristan.

“Tristan Julian.” He introduced himself, shaking her hand. He soon went back to eyeing the crowd.

“It’s very nice to meet you both. We’re so glad that you could make it. Is there anything I can do for you before you start the book signing?” She asked, eager to help them out in any way. She wanted to make sure that her boss got a good report since she’d just been promoted to manager.

“Actually, if you could get us something from the café, that would be wonderful.” Liz said, opening her purse to get some cash.

“I got it.” Tristan reached for his wallet.

“Nonsense. It’s on us.” Trisha beamed at them. “What would you like?”

“I’d like a Venti Iced Caramel Macchiato, please.” Liz told her, glancing up at Tristan. He simply nodded in response. “Make that two, please.”

“Of course.” Trisha nodded, motioning over one of the other workers who were hanging about. She relayed the order and sent him on his way. “It’ll be brought to you as soon as its ready. Now, if you’re ready, can I show you to where we’ve set up the table?”

“Yes, thank you.” Liz politely replied, even though she was mentally counting down the seconds until she could get out of there. Her hand usually cramped up somewhere around an hour and a half into signing all the books. Not to mention that she hated having her picture taken, so posing with her fans was never one of her favorite parts of the job. While she loved being able to make their day, it didn’t cancel out the fact that she still had to get her picture taken repeatedly.

Liz and Tristan followed her to the table where they’d set up two chairs, just as they’d been asked to do. Liz always had either Michael, or one of the twins with her at the signings, and while they did look more intimidating standing behind her with their arms crossed over their chest, asking them to stand for upwards of three hours was a little extreme.

Tristan pulled out the chair for Liz, who thanked him before sitting down. He pulled out the chair next to her and took a seat. He sent Liz a scowl when she placed her purse in his lap, quickly picking it up and setting it on the floor next to his feet, one of the straps secured under his boots.

As Liz waited for them to bring her a handful of pens so the signing could begin, she glanced over at Tristan. “Why didn’t you bring your book? You’re going to be bored out of your mind.”

Tristan shrugged. “I forgot it. You know that it takes about half an hour after waking up before I really wake up.”

“Well, we are in a book store, go grab a copy and bring it back over here.” Liz told him. Tristan had always been an avid reader, something that Tyler was constantly teasing him about. At the moment, Tristan was working his way through ‘The Da Vinci Code’ since he’d finished ‘Angels and Demons’ right before starting this newest one. Liz had to admire his love of reading. Even though she was an author, she hadn’t managed to make it through either of those books.

“No, I’m fine. I’m not going to go wander around and just leave you here.” Tristan sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest in emphasis of the fact he had no intention of moving.

Liz sighed, debating whether to be grateful that he was so concerned as to not leave her side for even a moment, or to be upset that he was so damn stubborn. Definitely got that from his father, Liz thought.

A Barnes and Noble employee finally made it over to the table, carrying their drinks. After setting them down, he fished the pens out of his pocket and put them on the table too. “Is there anything else you need?” He asked, giving them a warm smile.

“If you wouldn’t mind, could you please grab a copy of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and bring it over here for him to read? He forgot his copy at the house earlier, and he’ll be bored to tears without it.” Liz smiled sweetly at him.

He, of course, nodded before running off in search of the book. Liz turned to Tristan, sticking her tongue out at him before she picked up one of the pens and uncapped it. The first person in line stepped up to the table, and Liz plastered on a smile, preparing for a long day.

<center>****</center>

What felt like two lifetimes later, which in reality was about two and a half hours, Liz signed the book of the last person in line. She quickly stood up and stepped away from the table before anyone else decided they wanted her to sign something.

She took a moment to stretch, her whole body protesting against the movement after sitting for so long. Her butt was asleep, her hand was cramped, her neck hurt. She glanced over to find Tristan still sitting in his chair, staring off into space.

“Sweetie, we’re done. You can get up now.” Liz said, smiling as he blankly looked over at her.

“No, I really don’t think I can.” He finally said. He sat there for a moment before looking back at her. “See that? I just tried to get up. Nothing happened. I think I’m broken.”

Liz couldn’t help laughing at him. “Stop being so over-dramatic. You’re not the one who had to sign stuff this whole time. You just sat there. You got up and stretched too. I just sat. So if anyone should be saying they’re broken right about now, it’d be me.”

Tristan finally managed to pull himself up out of the chair, groaning the whole time. He stretched out his back and his legs, then looked over at Liz. “Next time, you’re taking Tyler with you.”

“Noted.” She replied, grabbing her purse off the floor by his feet. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s blow this pop stand.” He said, putting his arm around her to lead her outside.

They stopped briefly to talk to the manager again, who couldn’t stop gushing about excited she was that Liz could make it there that day. Liz smiled politely, repeatedly saying ‘It was no problem.’ In reality, she just wanted to run out of there and go home and take a nap. Who knew the simple act of signing your name over and over could be so exhausting?

Finally, the pair managed to make it away from her and they made their way outside. They walked up to the curb, waiting for the cars that were driving by to move so they could walk over to the parking lot and go home.

“Excuse me?” Liz turned at the sound of the voice. Her mouth literally dropped open at the sight of the man who belonged to the voice. After a minute, she realized she was still standing there, completely dumb-struck with her mouth hanging wide open.

“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “Uhm, can I help you?”

“You’re Elizabeth Parker, right?” He asked.

Liz felt Tristan tense up next to her, pulling her more tightly into his side. She noticed that the man glanced over at Tristan momentarily then back to Liz. “Yeah, I am.” She nodded.

“Oh, thank God.” He sighed in relief. “I know that you’re getting ready to leave, because the signing is over and I’m late, but would you mind?” He asked, holding out one of her books to her. “I drove up here from Roswell as soon as I got off work, I wanted to get this signed for my sister, she’s a big fan of yours.”

“Oh, its no problem.” Liz smiled up at him, taking the book from his hand. “I don’t have a pen...”

He dug around in his pockets for a moment before pulling out a pen and giving it to her. “Thank you so much for this.” He smiled at her. She literally felt like she was turning into a puddle.

“Its no trouble at all.” She reassured him. “What’s your sisters name?”

“Isabel.” He said, spelling it out for her.

Liz started signing it, then glanced up at Tristan. “Honey, why don’t you go get the car and come pick me up?”

He looked at Liz for a moment, then slid his gaze to the man who’d suddenly appeared, sizing him up. “You sure?” He asked, turning his attention back to Liz.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” She reassured him.

He nodded, and with one final glance in their direction, he headed off towards the car.

Liz turned her attention back to signing the book as he walked away.

“Security?” The man teased.

“Actually, yeah.” Liz said, reclosing the book and handing it back to him. At his surprised look, she went on. “Had a few people get a little weird at these signings, so I always have a nice strong man with me.” She giggled. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Max. Max Evans.” He held out his hand. She placed her hand in his and shook it. “Its nice to meet you, Elizabeth.”

“Please, call me Liz.” She smiled at him. “Its nice to meet you too. You’re from Roswell?”

“Yeah.” He confirmed.

“I love Roswell. It’s so small and cute.” Liz smiled at him. “My friend Maria and I go down there as often as possible for lunch.”

Max looked at her with raised eyebrows. “You drive all the way down to Roswell for lunch? You can’t find good restaurants up here?”

Liz laughed. “There are plenty of good restaurants up here, but none of them have the amazing pie that The Crashdown has.” She explained.

“You’re right about that. Amy Deluca knows how to make good pie, I’ll give her that.” He nodded. “Although, she’s a little...”

“Cooky?” Liz supplied. “Yeah, she is. If you think she’s bad, you should meet Maria. That’s Amy’s daughter, AKA my best friend.”

“Small world.” Max chuckled. He couldn’t stop smiling at Liz, and he was sure she thought he was a total weirdo. He glanced over as Tristan pulled the Jeep up next to Liz at the curb. “Well, it was very nice meeting you.” Max said, shaking her hand again. “Thanks a lot for signing this.”

“Like I said, its no problem.” Liz assured him. “It was very nice meeting you, Max Evans. Maybe I’ll see you around. I’m suddenly thinking that driving down to the Crashdown tomorrow for lunch and some of Amy’s pie sounds like a good idea.” She said, glancing up at him from beneath her lashes.

“Tomorrow for lunch, huh?” Max asked, catching onto her meaning. She simply nodded in reply. “You’re right, that does sound pretty good.”

“So, maybe I’ll see you there.” Liz said, reluctantly pulling her hand away from his. She took a step backwards towards the Jeep, never taking her eyes off of him.

“Maybe.” He nodded, reluctantly turning and walking back in the direction of his car.

Liz finally turned around, got into the car and her and Tristan headed home.

<center>****</center>

“So, where’d Michael go, again?” Liz asked, coming out of her bathroom in her pajamas after washing her face and putting her hair in a ponytail. She walked over and dropped down onto the bed next to Maria.

“Fort Sam Houston.” Maria grumbled, playing with one of the throw pillows Liz kept on the bed. “Something about a training... something, I don’t know. I wasn’t paying that much attention.” She shrugged, turning to Liz. “He’ll be back in a week. Are you sure its cool that I stay here?”

“Of course!” Liz slapped at Maria’s leg. “You know you can crash here anytime you want.”

“Thanks, you know how much I hate staying all by myself.” Maria smiled a little at her childishness. “Anyways, back to this guy! Tell me everything!”

“Maria, I already told you everything we said, down to the last detail.” Liz tried playing the whole thing off.

“No, I know. I don’t really care what he had to say, though. I wanna know what he looked like. Was he hot? I bet he was hot!” Maria rambled.

Liz couldn’t stop the instant smile that lit up her face. “He was!” She gushed. “I wish you could have been there to see him, Maria. We’re talking Greek God gorgeous!!”

“Damn.” Maria nodded. “What was his name, again?”

“Max Evans.” Liz replied, unable to keep the dreaminess out of her voice as she said it. She rolled her eyes at herself. She was acting like a teenager.

“Evans.” Maria repeated, her eyebrows drawing together. “That sounds really familiar to me.”

“Yeah, I thought so too.” Liz shrugged. “But I’m sure there are lots of people in the world with that last name, so I didn’t think to much about it.”

“True.” Maria agreed. “So I take it we’re heading down to Roswell tomorrow?”

“You don’t have to go with me if you don’t want to.” Liz assured her. “I’m not gonna drag you along if you have something to do.”

“Are you crazy?” Maria asked, turning over onto her stomach and propping her chin in her hand. “You think I’m gonna give up the chance to see this guy? Yeah right.” Maria hesitated for a moment, tacking on a last thought. “Besides, if my mom finds out you were in town and I didn’t go with you to go see her, she’ll kill me.”

“Sounds like Amy.” Liz laughed, pulling back the comforter and snuggling under the blankets. “Will you set the alarm for me?”

“Sure,” Maria reached over and grabbed it after getting herself situated under the blankets. “What time do you want me to set it for?”

“Whatever time you think is right. It always takes you longer to get ready then me anyway, so...” Liz trailed off.

“So, however long its going to take me to get ready, and for us to drive down there, and be at The Crashdown by 1 or so?” Maria asked, trying to calculate the time in her head.

“Yeah, that sounds fine.” Liz said, already nodding off, since she never did get that nap when she’d gotten home from the signing.

“Night Lizzie.” Maria mumbled against the pillow, once she’d set the alarm and turned the lights off.

“Night Maria.” Liz replied. She pictured Max’s face as she started to drift off, a smile on her lips. Hoping for something exciting to happen at the book signing worked, so before she let sleep claim her, she hopped that she’d see Max again tomorrow.

TBC...

Hey guys! I was bored, so I'm back early! Two reasons for that: One being that today(Saturday..its 1:30 AM, but its Saturday, none the less) is gonna be a busy day! I have a ton to do, and I have a going away party to go to tonight. For those who don't know, my husband is in the Army, and two of our very close friends, Rob and James, are leaving to go to Iraq. So, I have a party tonight, which will probably get pretty wild, and I have a surprise party to go to on Sunday, so I'll be quite busy.

Just wanted to thank you all for the FB... I'm loving every second of it. I'm so glad that you guys like this... because I'm in love with this fic. *LOL*

In case anyone didn't notice, I posted the sequel to "All's Fair In Love And War", its in the AU forum, and despite the fact that I just updated it a few days ago, I'll probably be updating again this weekend... my muse is obsessed with that fic, and wants it ALL out. *LOL*

Ok, so I'm shutting up. Once again, thanks to everyone for the FB. OH! Melyssa--I remembered, so you can't fire me! (Get Marty OUT!!!!!!!!! *lol* Damn that meeting in the cereal aisle! *LMAO*)

On with the show!

Chapter Three

At around 12:45, Liz pulled her Jeep into Amy Deluca's driveway, shoving the gear shifter into park. She took a deep breath, dropping her head back against the headrest. Finally, she glanced over at Maria. “You go on inside, if I’m going to make it to The Crashdown by one, I’m gonna have to go straight over there now, you know your mother will never release me in time to get over there.”

Maria sighed. “I can’t believe we got stuck in that stupid traffic jam! We should have been here an hour ago. We got up at the butt-crack of dawn, for crying out loud. Stupid jack-knife big-rig just couldn’t wait to cause a pile up, could he?”

“I know, it sucks. I really wanted to spend some time with your mom before lunch, get her opinion on this whole thing.” Liz glanced at Amy’s house, then back at Maria. “Do you think I should tell Max about the boys?”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t just volunteer the information until you get to know him better. You know from lots of personal experience that telling men about the twins tends to scare them away.” Maria said.

“If he asks, I’m not going to lie. I’m not ashamed of them, Maria.”

Maria quickly reached over and grabbed Liz’s hand. “Sweetie, I never implied that you were. I know for a fact that you love those boys more than anything else. I’m just suggesting that if you can, hold off until the second date, or something.”

“This isn’t a date.” Liz denied, looking away. She quickly did a double-take, her eyes getting big. “Is this a date?! This can’t be a date! I haven’t dated in years! The last time I dated was disastrous! I’m not dressed for a date! He didn’t ask me on a date, this can’t be a date!” Liz rambled, shaking her head.

“Whoa, take a minute to breathe.” Maria laughed a little. “Rambling is my forte, Liz. Leave it to the pros, you amateurs could hurt yourselves.” Once she was sure Liz was, once again, getting oxygen in her system, she continued. “I’m not sure if this is a date or not, I’m just assuming. And you’re right, he didn’t ask you out. You asked him out.”

“I did?” Liz asked, totally baffled.

“Yeah, ya did.” Maria smiled at her. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “Shit, you need to go before you’re late and before my mom gets her hands on you. She’ll never let you go.” Maria leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek, which Liz reciprocated. “Have fun.”

“We’re not even sure he’ll be there.” Liz tried downplaying the whole thing.

“If he’s not completely stupid, he’ll be there.” Maria assured her. “On the off chance that he is a moron, and doesn’t show, call my cell. My mom and I will come eat some lunch with you.”

“Why don’t you guys just go ahead and come to the café around 2:30?” Liz asked. “That way I can see your mom, and we can maybe do a little shopping after, before we head back home.”

“Sounds good.” Maria nodded, opening the door. “Now scram!” She shut the car door before shooing Liz off.

Liz pulled out of the driveway and began her journey to the Crashdown. As she thought back over what Maria had said to her, she couldn’t suppress the butterflies that began fluttering like crazy in her stomach. Was this a date? Did he consider it a date? What if he didn’t even show up?

The thoughts whirled around in Liz’s head at lighting speed, consuming every ounce of her attention. Next thing she knew, she was parked in front of the Crashdown. She stilled, looking around slightly. “Wow, that was weird.” She muttered, reaching into the backseat to grab her purse. “Thank God I know my way around here.”

She opened the car door, getting out and shutting it behind her before she looked up at the café, which didn’t appear to have changed too much. She hit her keyless entry, and the car honked, letting her know the locks had been engaged.

Flipping a tendril of hair out of her face as the wind kicked up, she walked confidently into the café, taking a look around. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling as the saw him, sitting off to the side in a booth, sipping a soda.

She tried to look as nonchalant as possible as she walked over, stopping next to his booth. “Max, what a pleasant surprise.” She smiled at him.

He glanced up at her, a smile instantly lighting his face. “Well, well. Liz Parker, fancy seein you here.” He said, going along with her bit.

“Well, the other day, this lovely gentlemen got me talking about the pie here, and I couldn’t stop myself from coming down to have some for myself.” She said, glancing around the café.

“Well, then how about you join me?” Max held his hand out, offering her the other side of his booth. She slid into it, placing her purse on bench next to her.

“Hey Liz!” One of the waitresses said as she walked up to the booth. She bent down to give Liz a hug. “I didn’t know you were coming in today.”

“It was a last minute thing.” Liz explained. “Its really good to see you, Lauren. You starting school again soon?”

Lauren groaned, dropping her head back in a dramatic gesture. “Please, lets not even go there. I enjoy deluding myself into believing that I don’t have to go back in a few weeks.”

Liz held her hands up in surrender. “As you wish.” She giggled, glancing over at Max, who was watching the whole scene with barely contained amusement. “Oh, I’m sorry. Lauren, this is Max. Max, Lauren.” She said, introducing the two.

“Its nice to meet you.” Max said, shaking her hand.

“You too.” Lauren gave him a sweet smile. “You better be good to her, or I’ll kill you.”

Max froze, looking over at Liz, whose mouth dropped open. “Lauren! God!” Liz couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “How about you just get back to work and you’ll still have your job tomorrow, ok?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lauren rolled her eyes before taking their orders and walking off to check on her other tables.

“Friend of yours?” Max asked, hiding his smile behind his soda cup.

Liz playfully swatted at his arm. “No, I always have people just randomly threaten the people I have lunch with. Happens all the time.” Liz answered sarcastically. “Yes, I know her. I’ve known her since she started working here when she was fifteen. She turned eighteen this year, I think. She’ll be going off to college and all that.”

“You really come here that often?” Max laughed.

“Something like that.” Liz answered cryptically, just as Lauren returned with her drink.

“Hey, when you talk to your dad, tell him that my little sister wants to take over my job when I leave for college in two weeks. He was all bummed last time he was here. Going on about how he was losing his best waitress or something.” Lauren rolled her eyes before walking away.

“Ok, now I’m really confused.” Max’s eyebrows drew together. “Your father?”

Liz took a sip of her soda before setting if off to the side and crossing her arms on top of the table. “Well, its like this.” Liz began. “The booth that we’re sitting in right now, is owned by one Jeffrey Parker. My dad.”

“Your dad owns The Crashdown?” Max couldn’t stop himself from laughing, but sobered quickly. “Wait, he’s not here is he? He’s not gonna like, come out here and threaten me because I’m on a date with his daughter or whatever.... is he?”

Liz couldn’t stop herself from bursting out laughing. “You know, most guys wait until they meet my dad to be scared of him.”

“Is he scary?” Max dead panned.

“Not to me, but then again, I have no reason to be scared of him.” She bit back a smile when he looked worried. “Ok, A- My dads not here. He’s not even in this state. He’s in.... Vegas, or New York, or Paris, or Rome this week. I don’t remember which. And B-” Liz paused, looking down slightly. “This is a date?” She questioned quietly.

“Well, I thought it was.” Max wheedled. “It doesn’t have to be. I mean, if you don’t want it to be.” He added, unsurely.

“No, I want it to be.” Liz assured him, slightly surprised at herself.

“Good.” He nodded reaching across the table and grabbing her hand. “I want it to be too.”

They sat for an uncertain amount of time, staring into each other’s eyes. Liz tried to commit every facet of his face to her memory. His strong jaw line, the curves of his lips, the way the front of his hair stuck up, just like Tyler and Tristan did their hair. She let herself get lost in his eyes, spending a fair amount of time just trying to figure out their coloring. They were an interestingly intoxicating blend of amber, green, and brown.

They were broken out of their staring contest when Lauren returned to the table with their orders. They sat and ate for a few minutes in comfortable silence.

“So, backing up the conversation a bit,” Max started. “You don’t know where your dad is?”

Liz shook her head, popping another french fry into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed before she elaborated. “Him and mom are always all over the place. I can never keep up where they are from one week to the next.”

“They like to travel, or what?” Max questioned.

“Not so much.” Liz shook her head. “Dad actually hates to fly. I keep telling him that he needs to find a new line of work if he doesn’t want to fly all over the place, but he never listens. He’s so stubborn.”

“Owning a café in New Mexico really causes you to have to fly that much?” Max asked, obviously confused.

“No. It has nothing to do with the café.” Liz toyed with the straw in her drink. “My parents have owned the Crashdown for as long as I can remember. We used to live upstairs, actually. Grandpa William, my dads dad, passed away when I was fifteen, so my dad took over his job.”

“Which is?” Max inquired, anxious to know everything there was to know about Liz.

“Right up until the day he died, Grandpa William was very active in his job. He was never sick, really. He had a heart attack, no one saw it coming. We kept telling him to lighten up on the work, but he was too involved. He built the hotel chain from the ground up, he just wasn’t ready to let it go. Naturally my dad stepped in.”

“The hotel chain?” Max said, the wheels in his head already working. “Like... Parker hotels? The ones that have a net worth rivaling that of the Hilton hotels? That was your grandpa?”

“That was Pop-Pop.” Liz confirmed, sticking a few more fries in her mouth.

“You’re just full of surprises aren’t you?” Max cocked his head to the side, regarding her with a smirk.

“Yup.” She said, licking some ketchup off her finger. “I hope you’re ok with that.”

“Oh, I’m perfectly ok with that.” Max nodded slowly, giving her a big smile. “I love surprises.”

<center>****</center>

“Ya know, when I imagine what heaven will be like... I imagine an all-you-can-eat situation... everything on the menu being Amy’s pie.” Liz gushed, setting her fork on her empty plate, and pushing it off to the side by Max’s. Lauren swooped in not long after and picked up the plates, and refilling their drinks before leaving them to continue talking.

They’d only been there for about an hour or so, and they’d talked about almost everything there was to talk about. They felt as if they’d known each other for years. Liz was beginning to feel a little guilty that she’d failed to mention the fact that she had two teenage children, but the subject hadn’t come up yet. She didn’t think it was the kind of thing that you could just casually throw into a conversation, so she waited for the right moment to tell him.

Max turned his head slightly to look at the couple sitting next at the table next to their booth. They had a small child with them, who looked to be about a year old. Max waved at him, and the little boy giggled, slapping his hands on the top of his highchair.

“You like kids, I see.” Liz deduced, as Max began making funny faces at the little boy. He, in response, giggled loudly.

“Oh yeah.” Max said, turning his attention back to Liz. “I definitely want to have a few some day. What about you? You want kids?”

This is it, the moment of truth. Liz steeled herself for the inevitable. She was going to tell him, he was going to be shocked, but try to recover, then never to talk her again. It had happened before, she expected it would happen again. “Well, actually....” Liz started.

“Hey Liz.” Maria interrupted, walking up beside the booth, effectively ending the discussion. Liz wasn’t sure whether to be happy, or upset about it. “You must be...” Maria turned to Max, then stopped mid-sentence, her eyes getting large, and her jaw dropping open. “Wow.” Was all she said for a moment before she looked at Liz. “Is this Max?” She asked, then turned back to Max. “Are you Max?”

“Yeah, I am.” Max smiled up at her.

“Holy shit!” Maria exclaimed, putting her hand over her chest, as if she needed to catch her breath. “This is him?” She looked at Liz. “He’s hot!” She turned her attention back to Max, never one to keep her attention on one thing for too long. “You’re hot!” She told him.

Max’s cheeks turned red, as he ducked his head. “Thanks.” He mumbled, unsure what else to say in the current situation.

“Maria, you’re married.” Liz carefully reminded her.

“Wha?” Maria turned her attention back to Liz. “I’m married? OH! Yes! I’m married!” She glanced back at Max, holding up her left hand to show him her rings. “I’m married, sorry.”

“That’s... ok?” Max looked over at Liz, who couldn’t stop herself from laughing at the completely lost expression on his face.

“This is my best friend, Maria Guerin.” She told Max, introducing the two. “Maria, this is Max Evans.”

“Nice to meet you.” Maria said, shaking his hand. “You better be good to her, or I’ll kill you.” Maria smiled sweetly at him before whirling around and walking behind the counter to serve herself a soda.

“That seems to be a popular phrase with me today.” Max laughed slightly.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to Maria eventually. It just takes a little while.” Liz sat for a minute, then realized what she’d just said. “I mean, that is if you’re going to be around, because you don’t have to be, if you don’t want to be, I mean....” Liz cut herself off, looking down at the table. “You wanna know how my foot tastes?” She rolled her eyes at herself.

Max got a good laugh out of it. “Everyone puts their foot in their mouth at one point or another. Don’t worry, no irreversible damage was done.”

“Oh, score!” Liz blurted out, then looked completely horrified. “Oh God, I sound like Tristan and Tyler.”

“Tristan and Tyler?” Max questioned.

“Those are my...”

“So, my mom was with me, but she got distracted by a shoe sale down the street, since she parked like, twelve blocks away.” Maria announced, plopping down next to Liz, once again cutting off her attempt to tell Max about the boys. “She said to just meet her down there. So, whenever you’re ready...” Maria trailed off.

“Yeah, ok.” Liz turned to Max. “I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen Amy in forever, and since I’m in town...”

“That’s ok” Max told her, glancing at his watch. “I have to go, too. I have to be at work in half an hour.”

“Well, that works out perfectly then.” Maria said, standing up. “I’ll just start down there. Liz, you can meet us whenever you’re done here.” She glanced over at Max. “It was nice meeting you. I hope to see you again soon?” She raised her eyebrows at him.

“Oh, don’t worry.” Max slid his gaze from Maria to Liz. “You will.”

Maria took that as her cue, and quietly slipped away from the table. Almost immediately after, Lauren stopped by with the check, which Max paid, even as Liz tried to refuse and pay her own bill. Max wouldn’t hear of it, quickly paying the bill and standing up. He offered Liz his hand, helping her out of the booth, and didn’t let go as they made their way outside.

“Well, I’m this way.” Max gestured to the left, towards where he’d parked his car.

“And I’m this way.” Liz gestured in the other direction, towards Maria, Amy and apparently a shoe sale. “I had a wonderful time, Max. Thank you for lunch.”

“Thank you for your company. I had a wonderful time too.” Max said, then suddenly looked nervous. He cleared his throat. “Are, uhm... are you busy tomorrow night?”

“No. Why?” Liz asked.

“I have the week off, starting tomorrow. I’m going up to Albuquerque to visit my sister, and my parents, and her birthday is this week, so it’s a whole big thing, but I was wondering if you’d like to go out to dinner with me tomorrow night.”

“Hmm...” Liz tried to appear as if she were debating it, even though, in reality, she was thrilled. “I’d love to.”

“Great.” Max smiled, pulling out his wallet. He took out one of the business cards in there, and handed her a pen. “Just write down your phone number and I’ll call you tomorrow to get your address and find out what time to pick you up.”

Liz quickly jotted down her home and cell numbers and went to hand him back the card. Before he took it, she quickly jotted down her name above the numbers. She giggled at his confused look. “So you don’t confuse me with all the other girls numbers you got in there.” She gestured to his wallet.

Max laughed. “There are no other numbers in here.” Max told her, placing the card back in his wallet. “You’re the only one, you should feel special.”

“Oh, I do.” Liz smiled up at him.

Max bent down and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He promised as he backed away towards his car.

“Bye Max.” Liz gave him a little wave before turning around and practically skipping to the shoe store.

<center>****</center>

“So he doesn’t know about the twins?” Maria asked as she drove Liz’s Jeep back from Roswell. They were about fifteen minutes away from Liz’s house, and they were both exhausted from spending the afternoon with Amy.

“No, he doesn’t know.” Liz told her, looking out the window.

“The subject didn’t come up?” Maria questioned further.

“Oh, no. The subject came up. It came up twice, in fact. But both times I tried to tell him, before I got the words out, you frolicked back to the table and interrupted.”

“I did?” Maria took her eyes off the road momentarily to look over at Liz. “I’m sorry.” She gave her an apologetic smile.

“Its ok.” Liz waved her off. “This way, if he doesn’t call, I know its because I just suck, and not because of the boys.”

“He’ll call!” Maria instantly assured her. “He seems different than the other ones you dated.” She glanced over again. “He’ll call.” She repeated.

“And if he doesn’t?” Liz asked, being realistic about the situation. Guys never call when they say they’re going to, all girls know that. And if they don’t, they’re just as dumb as the guys that don’t call them.

“Then we’ll send Michael to kick his ass.” Maria shrugged.

Liz laughed a little, which then turned into a yawn. “God, I’m tired.” She whined. “When did your mom get so....”

“Exhausting?” Maria supplied. “I don’t know.”

“She needs to lay off that herbal stuff. One woman should not have as much energy as your mom does.”

“Agreed.” Maria nodded as she pulled into Liz’s driveway. She pulled up next to the computerized keypad and punched in the code as the gates of the driveway began to swing open. “I can’t wait to crawl into bed and pass out.”

“Agreed.” Liz nodded, unbuckling her seat belt. She climbed out of the car after Maria pulled it into the garage, and opened the back door to grab all the bags out of the back. “Ya know,” Liz said as they made their way into the house. “One good thing came out of the afternoon with your mom...”

“That is?” Maria asked, following the statement with a yawn.

“If he calls, I have six different pairs of new shoes to choose from to wear tomorrow night.” She said, dropping the bags of shoes on her bedroom floor.

“He’ll call!”

TBC...

Hey guys! Back with the next chapter! As always, thank you SOO much for your wonderful FB! I love reading what you guys think about this. You encourage me to keep writing... even though I don't like half the shit I post... you guys seem to like it... so... YAY! *LOL*

So... todays a good day. As of 6-something this morning... I'm an AUNT!!! *hehe* YAY! I'm VERY excited, in case you couldn't tell. *lol*

Ok, I'm shutting up. Heres the next part. I hope you enjoy, and I'll be back next Saturday with the next part.

Chapter Four

Liz and Maria stood in Liz’s kitchen, leaning against the counter, eating Mongolian beef from their favorite Chinese food restaurant. Even as Liz stuck another piece of the beef with her fork and put it in her mouth, she couldn’t stop her gaze from wandering over to the phone, with was on the cradle a few feet down the counter. Her cell phone was also on the charger, a whole 5 centimeters from the house phone. She was determined to be there when, or if, the damn thing ever rang.

“A watched phone never rings.” Maria chided, raising her eyebrow at Liz.

Liz let out a long suffering sigh, dropping her fork down into the Chinese food container. She turned to look at Maria. “I feel like I’m back in high school.” Liz whined, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You’re definitely acting the part.” Maria said around a mouthful of rice. Liz scrunched her face up at her, but didn’t deny what Maria said. It was true, she was acting the part.

For the better part of three hours, Liz had been taking the phones everywhere she went with her. When she went outside to get the mail, she took the phones with her. When she went to get some water out of the fridge, she not only took the phones with her, but accidently left them in the fridge, causing a huge freak-out when she couldn’t find them.

However, neither phone had yet to make a peep. She’d even gone so far as to call the house phone from her cell, and vice-versa, just to make sure they were both working.

“He’s not gonna call.” Liz finally shrugged, turning back to the Chinese food. “He hates me, and he’s never going to call me again.”

Maria turned to Liz, baring her teeth, and holding her hands in front of her, shaking them back and forth wildly, as if she were choking someone. Once she’d done that for what she felt was an appropriate amount of time, she let out a loud sigh. “If you don’t shut up about this, I will kill you. I love you to death, Liz Parker. You’re my silver best friend,” She paused to shoot Liz a wink at their little inside joke from high school. “You’re a wonderful women with a beautiful heart, and if this kid can’t figure that out on his own... then I don’t think I want you going out with him anyway.” Maria nodded her head, signifying the end of that topic.

After a few minutes of silence, Liz finally spoke up. “So... you wanna watch a movie?”

“Sure.” Maria shrugged, grabbing as many Chinese food containers as she could, to relocate them to the livingroom.

Once everything had been moved, and all the food containers, sodas, remotes, and phones were properly organized on the coffee table, Maria and Liz tackled the task of figuring out which movie they were going to watch. They stood in front of the DVD case, scanning the titles on the side of the cases.

“What about ‘The Notebook’?” Liz suggested.

“Too sad. I don’t feel like bawling my eyes out yet. It’s only noon.” Maria vetoed the idea. “What about ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’?”

“We’ve watched that so many times we can recite the movie word for word.” Liz reasoned with her. “I think its time to move on. As much as I love Jay, and Silent Bob... we’ll give the boys a rest.”

“Fine.” Maria pouted, slightly, going back to looking through the movies. “I’ve got it!” She declared, sliding a movie from its place on the shelf, holding it up for Liz to see.

“‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’” Liz read, looking up at Maria with a raised eyebrow. “Wha- Are you serious?”

“Completely!” Maria confirmed, reading over the back of the DVD case.

“Don’t you think that movies a little too... I don’t know, immature for us, Maria?”

“Totally! That’s half the fun of watching it!” Maria continued, taking the disk out of the case and popping it into the player.

“What the hell.” Liz finally relented, sitting down on the floor on the other side of the coffee table. They both dug back into the Chinese as the movie started.

<center>****</center>

“It’s a llama.” Ashton Kutcher’s character stage-whispered.

“No, dude. It’s an ostrich.” Seann William Scott’s character corrected him.

They continued on with the llama-ostrich debate, as Maria and Liz giggled along with the movie, completely enthralled.

“This is such a stoner movie.” Maria stated the obvious.

“Yeah, but its funny.” Liz added, neither of them ever looking away from the screen.

The ringing of the house phone snapped them both out of the movie. They stared at each other for about five seconds before their gazes ricocheted to the phone, which was sitting innocently on the coffee table.

“You think its him?” Liz asked, suddenly afraid to pick the phone up.

“Well, check the damn caller id and find out!” Maria urged her.

Liz finally regained her bearings, reaching over and picking up the phone. She looked at the caller id, but it was no help, simply saying that it was a cell phone number, and one she didn’t recognize. “I don’t know if it's him.”

“Answer it!” Maria practically screamed.

Liz finally answered the phone, bringing it up to her ear, trying to sound normal. “Hello?”

“Hi, I’m calling for Liz Parker.” A deep voice sounded on the other end of the line. Liz could tell by the way the voice made her shiver slightly that it was him.

“This is her.” She said, glancing over at Maria.

“Hey, Liz. It’s Max.”

“Oh, hey Max. How are you?” Her and Maria had a quick, silent victory celebration on the livingroom floor.

“I’m doing great. I just got into town and got all settled, and I couldn’t wait to call you. Those numbers have been burning a hole in my wallet and I couldn’t wait to hear your voice.” He told her.

Liz bit her lip to prevent herself from literally ‘aww’ing at him. “Aren’t you sweet?” She finally said, slapping at Maria, who was trying to get closer to the phone to hear the conversation.

“Still free for tonight?” He asked.

“Yeah, what’d you have in mind?”

“Oh, nothing too exciting. Dinner, maybe a movie. What do you say?” Before she could answer, he added one last thought. “You have to say yes, I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again since yesterday.”

“Aww.” Liz didn’t catch herself in time to hold that one in. She smacked her hand against her forehead, mentally calling herself twenty different kinds of stupid. “I say yes. I’d love to have dinner with you tonight.” She finally said. “What time should I be ready?”

“Well, I was hoping you were going to say yes, so I made the reservation for tonight at seven o’clock.” Max revealed.

“Wow, making the reservation before making sure I’d go out with you? You must be pretty sure of yourself.” Liz teased him.

“Just hopeful.” Max corrected her.

“Yeah, yeah.” Liz couldn’t stop smiling. She really did feel like she was back in high school. It suddenly dawned on her that she hadn’t acted like this over a boy since Derrick. One that thought entered her mind, her smile faded. Things between her and Derrick hadn’t exactly ended in the fairy tale ‘happily ever after.’ Sure, they weren’t at each others throats, and could occupy the same space without a blow up happening, but it was far from what Liz envisioned when they were young and in love.

She shook the thoughts out of her head. “So, where are we going? What should I wear? Gimme some details, here.” Liz threw herself back into the conversation.

“I can’t tell you where we’re going. What would be the fun in that?”

“Well, I need to know where we’re going, so I know what to wear.” Liz explained. Sometimes guys just really didn’t get it.

“Well...” Max drew out. He really didn’t want to tell her where they were going, he wanted it to be a surprise. “Is Maria there?”

Liz was confused by the sudden subject change. “Uhm... yeah. Why?”

“Let me talk to her real quick.” Max requested.

Liz took the phone away from her ear, staring at it as if she’d never seen a telephone before in her life, before handing it to Maria. Maria looked down at the phone, over at Liz, then back again. “Why are you handing me this? What’s going on? Are you still talking to him?” Maria fired off questions.

Liz shrugged, still very confused about what had just happened. “He wants to talk to you.”

Maria slowly brought the phone up to her ear. “Hello? Yeah. Hi Max. Ok. Ok. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ok. Sounds good. Ok, see ya then. Bye.” Maria turned off the phone and put it back on the coffee table before turning her attention back to the movie. She was blind sided when a pillow collided with her face. “What was that for?” Maria shot Liz a glare.

“What the hell was that?!” Liz screeched. “What’d he say?”

“He told me where you guys were going to dinner tonight. Asked me if you liked this particular restaurant, and asked me to help you pick out something appropriate for said establishment.” Maria explained. She sat for a minute, making sure she’d remembered everything. “Oh, and he’s going to be picking you up at 6:30." Maria shoved an egg roll in her mouth before turning back to the TV. “And I’m not telling you where you’re going, so don’t even think about asking.”

Liz let out a frustrated growl, dropping her head back onto the couch. “Some friend you are.” She mumbled.

<center>****</center>

“You’re sure you can pick something out that’s cute and will be environmentally appropriate for where we’re going?” Liz yelled out her bathroom door. Maria was on the other side of the master bedroom, wandering in and out of Liz’s closet while Liz was in the bathroom putting the finishing touches on her makeup.

“Yes, for the millionth time! YES!” Maria wailed, finally picking out an outfit. She put the rest of the clothes back in Liz’s closet, leaving the outfit she chose on the bed. She grabbed a pair of shoes and dropped them onto the bed next to the outfit. “Hey, where are the twins?” Maria asked, leaning against the doorjamb to the bathroom.

Liz looked at Maria like she was looney. “They’ve been at Derricks since yesterday, Maria. They’re not going to be back until tomorrow afternoon.”

“They’ve been there that long?” Maria thought for a minute. “How is it that I’m just now realizing that they’ve been gone?”

Liz shrugged. “Probably because even when they are here, they aren’t really here. They’re off with their friends, or out on a date, or at football, or holed up in their rooms doing God knows what.” She stopped applying her mascara to look over at Maria. “You called Max back when I was in the shower to give him the address, right?”

Maria rolled her eyes. “What do you take me for? An idiot?”

“It took you almost two full days to realize Tyler and Tristan weren’t here. Do you really want me to answer that?” Liz questioned.

“Hey!” Maria paused, trying to come up with something else to day. “Shut up.”

Liz laughed. “Nice comeback, Maria. Solid.”

“Yeah, that was good.” Maria moved out of the way so Liz could go inspect the outfit she chose for her. “What do you think?

Liz looked at the black pants, red off-the-shoulder tank top and her favorite black high heel boots. “Very nice.” Liz told her, grabbing the outfit and moving into the bathroom to change out of the pajamas she’d thrown on after getting out of the shower.

Just as Liz tried to shimmy into her black pants, the buzzer from the front gate sounded. “Shit!” Liz cursed, trying harder to pull her pants up her legs, which only succeeded in slowing her down even more. “SHIT!”

“Calm down, I’ll go let him in.” Maria soothed from the other side of the bathroom door. “Don’t kill yourself trying to get dressed.”

Liz continued fighting with her pants as Maria jogged down to the intercom by the front door. “Who is it?” She asked. She was answered by a bit of static before Max announced his presence. She pushed the button and the front gate began to swing open so Max could pull his car into the driveway. When she heard the engine cut off, she waited about ten seconds before she pulled open the door.

Max stood on the other side, hand poised to knock, looking at Maria in surprise. “Hello.” He laughed slightly.

“Hey.” She greeted, opening the door further for him. “Come in. Liz is almost ready.”

“Thank you.” Max said, always polite, and walked into the foyer. He took a moment to take in what he could see of the house before turning his attention back to Maria. “Thanks for the help earlier. I was nervous about whether or not Liz would enjoy...” He stopped and looked around, unsure if Liz was lurking. “Where we’re going.” He finally said, wanting to stay safe.

“No problem.” Maria waved him off. “What about the other advice I gave you? When I called to give you the address?”

Max turned to the side, revealing a dozen white roses that he was carefully hiding behind his back. “Thank you for that, as well.” Max’s head turned to the staircase when he heard the clicking of heels begin their decent down the stairs.

He was unprepared for just how beautiful she looked. It was as if his lungs were being constricted, so he couldn’t breath. She was so beautiful that it literally hurt him to look at her. He was trying to be suave and smooth, but he knew he had a dopey smile on his face, and he couldn’t make it go away.

Liz tried not to trip down the stairs when she finally looked up and saw him. He was dressed very nicely, but very casual... and sexy, Liz had to admit to herself. She took in the khaki pants, and the white button up shirt, unable to keep herself from admiring the way it fit his body perfectly. He’d rolled the sleeves up to his elbows, appearing very confident and comfortable.

She came to stand in front of him, wringing her hands nervously in front of her. “Hi.” She whispered.

“Hey yourself.” He replied, his voice sliding around her like a warm blanket. She ducked her head slightly, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

When she looked back up, he held out the roses he’d been hiding behind his back. Her mouth dropped open slightly, looking from the roses, to him, then back. She took them in her hands, bringing the roses up to her nose. “They’re beautiful. Thank you.” She took another deep breath, enjoying the soft scent of the roses. “How did you know I like white roses?”

“I have my ways.” Max mysteriously answered, shooting Maria a wink when Liz looked back down at the bouquet.

Liz looked back up at him. “Well, thank you. I’ll just put these in water, grab my purse and we can go.”

“I’ll put them in water for you.” Maria offered, taking the flowers from Liz before she could protest. Maria reappeared a few seconds later with Liz’s purse in her hand. “Here. Have a good time.”

Liz rolled her eyes at Maria before turning back to Max. “So, I guess we’re ready, then.”

“Shall we?” He held out his arm for her, as he opened the front door. Liz placed her hand in the crook of his arm and followed him out the door.

<center>****</center>

“I can’t believe you brought me here.” Liz gushed, sitting down in her seat as Max pulled it out for her. She waited until he was seated across from her before she continued. “I love this place! How do you even know about it?”

“I know the owner.” Max smiled at her across the table.

“Get out!” Liz squealed. “You know Alex Whitman?”

“Yeah.” Max said, the surprise evident in his voice. “Do you know the owner?”

“Yes! Him and Maria met in college, and I met him through Maria.” Liz explained. “What about you?”

“He’s dating my sister.” Max laughed.

“Ohmigod.” The light bulb went off in Liz’s brain. “Isabel Evans. I can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together! I’ve met your sister quite a few times at some parties that Alex has had.”

“Seriously?” Max shook his head, chuckling. “Small world.”

“Yeah, it is.” Liz agreed.

“Guess that means we were meant to be.” Max said, just before the waiter came up. They ordered their beverages, and their steaks, and were told they could begin cooking.

Alexander’s was one of fastest growing restaurants in the whole city. Alex hadn’t always wanted to own a restaurant, but one day the idea stuck him, and he went to work about making it a reality. The basic idea was that you ordered your steak, then you went and got it out of the refrigerators that were placed around the restaurant, and then you took it to the grill, cooking it exactly how you want it done. While it sounded like a lot of work, it was actually a lot of fun, and people loved it.

As soon as word began spreading about the place, the clientele started rolling in. Most nights, the entire place was packed, and Alex was loving every minute of it. They were already in negotiations to make a chain of the restaurants across the southwest, possibly all over the country. Alex said he just wanted to take it one step at a time, and enjoy the success of the first restaurant for a minute before he jumped into more plans.

Liz and Max stood at the grill, after throwing their steaks on it. They picked out the seasonings they wanted and got to work.

“So, you said that Maria met Alex in college?” Max asked, forever interested in everything about her. “You and Alex didn’t have any classes together?”

Liz laughed nervously, tucking some hair behind her ear. “Oh, uhm. I actually didn’t go to college.”

“Wait a minute. You’re telling me that you’re as amazing of an author as you are without any real college writing classes under your belt?”

Liz raised her eyebrows at him. “How do you know I’m an amazing author?” When a blush crept across Max’s cheeks, it was more than obvious. “You read one of my books?”

Max blushed harder, before finally stammering out a reply. “I- I may have skimmed through that book I got for Isabel.” Max shrugged, looking away.

“You read my book.” Liz giggled, leaning into Max and nudging him playfully with her shoulder. “Ok, I’ll stop teasing... and stop talking about myself. I hardly know anything about you! I don’t even know what you do for a living.”

“I’m an anesthesiologist.” Max said, finally finishing putting all the seasoning on his steak. He turned to look at Liz, leaning against the side of the brick that held the grill in the middle of the room.

“Wow.” Liz breathed. “That’s... that’s serious stuff. Makes writing books seem really stupid.”

Max tilted his head to the side. “Don’t make me start arguing with you. Arguing on a second date is never a good sign.”

“Alright, I’ll try to control myself from starting any fights with you.” Liz smiled up at him. “Sound good?”

“Yeah, sounds very good.” Max said, looking down into her eyes. He reached out, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. He let the strands twine through his fingers before he slowly leaned into her.

He let his eyes flicker from her eyes, down to her lips, then back again. Liz leaned into him, silently letting him know that his actions were not only alright with her, they were welcomed. Her tongue peaked out to wet her lips in anticipation. They paused, their lips a mere breath away from each other.

They stopped at the sound of a cell phone. It took them a second to pull apart. Max reached into his pocket, pulling out his cell phone. He looked at the caller ID, before turning apologetically to Liz. “I’m so sorry. I know its rude for me to have my phone on, and normally, I wouldn’t take this, but it’s the hospital...”

“It’s ok.” Liz assured him. “Really. I’m not upset at all. You’re important people.” She smiled as he excused himself to take the call out of the dining area.

Liz poked at the steaks for a moment, then once she was satisfied that they were cooking nicely, she went to go back to her seat. As she walked around the grill, someone in the adjoining diningroom caught her eye.

Her jaw dropped as she realized she knew not one, not two, or even three... but four people, seated at a table in the other room. None of which needed to be present for her date. She took a deep breath, and started walking over to the table. She came to stand at the end of their table. “Well, well. Look what we have here.”

Four pairs of eyes shot in her direction, all of them as shocked to she her there as she was to see them. “Hey Mom.” The twins replied at the same time. They often spoke at the same time, which freaked everyone out.

“Hi, my beautiful baby boys.” Liz gave them each a kiss on the cheek before turning to look at the two people on the other side of the table. “Hello, Tess. Hi Derrick.”

TBC...

Hey guys! I'm back with the next chapter. Just so all of you know, I'm fine! As far as I know, I don't have meningitis... my neck ache went away, so I'm just gonna assume that I don't have it, and go on with life. I greatly dislike the doctor, so I'm not going. End of story.

I'm unsure when I'm going to be able to get back to you guys with the next chapter. I'm leaving early tomorrow morning to go back home to Illinois, I have some personal stuff that I have to sort out back home, and it's possible that I won't be back for quite awhile. While I apologize for that, there's nothing I can do about it, so you're just going to have to be patient. I'll be back whenever I can get back.

Ok, enough of all that. Thank you all very much for the FB, here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy, and I'll be back eventually.

Chapter Five

“Hi, Elizabeth.” Derrick finally responded a few seconds later, standing up to give her a kiss on the cheek before sitting back down.

Tess leaned into Derrick placing her arm around his shoulder. “Hi Liz.” She said in a fake sugary-sweet voice.

Liz, Tyler and Tristan all had to roll their eyes at her ridiculous attempt to try to make Liz jealous. Tyler, always the more outspoken of the two boys, leaned across the table. “She’s not jealous of you, so you’re just coming off as a bitch.”

Liz held in a laugh, although she was unable to refrain from smiling. She knew she should reprimand him for being rude and using that kind of language in reference to a woman, especially in her presence, but Liz was too damn proud of him to care.

“Tyler.” Derrick warned, shooting him a glare.

“What, dad? Since when is it a crime to tell the truth?” Tyler inquired.

“Be nice.” He warned again, turning his attention to Liz. “What are you doing here?”

“Eating dinner. You usually do that at a restaurant, babe.” Liz told him.

He sent her a glare, much too similar to the one he’d shot Tyler a few seconds before. “You here with Maria? I haven’t seen her in forever.”

Yeah, damn good thing, too. She doesn’t particularly like you, Liz thought. “No, I’m not here with Maria. Just a friend, you wouldn’t know them.” Liz cryptically replied, waving them off. “Ok, I’m gonna get back to my dinner.” She gave the boys another kiss on their cheeks. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow, ok?” They nodded, then continued shoveling their baked potatoes into their mouths. “You’re in public, eat like you were raised by humans.” Liz reprimanded them. Derrick stood from his seat, giving her another kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow when you drop the boys off?” Liz asked.

He nodded in reply as he sat back down. Both of the boys had vehicles, but Derrick always picked them up from Liz’s house whenever they were staying over with him for a few days. He liked that it minimalized how much they could run off and hang out with their friends, giving him more quality time with them.

Liz looked to Tess, who was giving her the most fake smile she’d ever seen before. Liz returned the fake smile with one of her own. “Nice seeing you again, Tess.” Liz said, not waiting for Tess to reply before she turned and walked back to the other dining room.

Just as she entered, Max was walking into the room from the entrance on the other end of the room, looking around in confusion. When he spotted Liz, he visibly relaxed. They met each other at the grill, which could be seen from the table Derrick, Tess and the twins were at. Liz hadn’t yet decided if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“I thought you ran off on me.” He joked as he came up next to her.

“Walk out on a man who got me my favorite flowers and took me to my favorite restaurant? Yeah, right.” Liz winked at him. “I’m thinkin you might be a keeper.” She joked with him.

“I was thinking the same thing about you.” He said, in a very serious tone.

Liz paused in her task of flipping the steaks and looked up into his eyes. It only took one glance to see the seriousness behind his words. “You’re serious?” She asked, just needing to hear it for herself.

“As a heart attack.” He replied.

“But...” She glanced down for a minute before looking back up to meet his eyes again. “You barely even know me.” She was hit with a wave of guilt. He really didn’t know her. Sure, he knew a few superficial things, but nothing that mattered. He didn’t know that she had children. Children who were in the other room, and could potentially be looking at the two of them at that exact moment.

“I want to.” He reached out, intertwining his fingers with hers. “I want to know everything about you.”

“We better go sit down, then.” She said, giving him a small smile. “There are definitely a few things you need to know before you get too enthusiastic about this.”

His eyebrows drew together in confusion, but he didn’t question her. He let go of her hand, placing his on the small of her back to guide her back to the table. As they were walking back, Liz chanced a glance over her shoulder, not surprised to find four pairs of eyes watching them.

She knew that she needed to get all this out, and quickly. She had no doubt that before the night was over, the boys would wander over to the table to see what was going on. They were very protective of their mother, and Liz had yet to date a guy that had met the standards they had for the man they felt she should be with. Even if Max was one of the rare guys that wasn’t going to immediately run away as if his life depended on it, the twins weren’t going to be easy.

Once they were both seated, she took a deep breath. She nibbled on her lower lip, nervously tucking her hair behind her ear. She contemplated the best way to go about telling him.

“Liz?” Max’s voice broke though her thoughts. “What is it?”

“I’m just going to start from the beginning.” Liz began. “Let me get everything out before you say anything, ok?” Max nodded, clasping his hands on top of the table.

“My freshman year in high school, I met a guy named Derrick. We were friends first, and then he asked me to the homecoming dance, and he told me that night that he wanted me to be his girlfriend.” Liz watched as Max’s eyebrows drew together in confusion again, obviously having no idea where this was coming from, or what the relevance of it was. “So anyway, we dated for about two years. We were sure that we were gonna get married when we graduated high school, and live happily ever after and all that.” Liz sighed, hating that she had to relive all of this. “When I was sixteen, right after Derrick and I started our junior year, I found out I was pregnant.” Liz stopped to gauge his reaction. His eyebrows had shot up to his hairline, but it was still sitting at the table, so that was good. “We broke up shortly after.”

“So... you have a kid?” Max asked, taken by surprise.

“Two, actually.” Liz corrected him.

She watched a myriad of emotions crossed his beautiful face. She was just waiting for the moment when he made up some excuse so that they had to leave. “You had twins, or two separate kids?” He questioned further.

“Twins.” Liz said. “Boys, Tyler and Tristan. You actually kinda met one of em.”

“When?” Max asked, even more surprised by that piece of information.

“At the book signing. You joked about the security I had with me. In reality, that was my son.” Liz explained to him.

“How old is he? I thought you guys were dating, but then you met me for lunch, so I assumed he was a friend...” Max said.

“The boys are 17. Same age I was when I had them.” She explained, getting a little sick at that thought. Her stomach always tied up in knots when she’d remember that her children were the exact act she was when she had them. It scared her to death. “I normally don’t tell guys this unless I absolutely have to, because they tend to freak out and head for the hills... but with what you just said, piled onto the fact that the boys are here...”

“They’re here?” Max stuttered.

“Yeah.” Liz turned in her chair, not surprised to see that the twins were both looking over their shoulder at her. She waved to them, and they both waved back. She turned back to the table, and found Max still looking in their direction.

“That’s their father, that they’re with?” He asked.

“Yeah, that’s Derrick. The blonde bimbo sitting with them that looks as dumb as a doorknob is Derricks girlfriend Tess.” Liz played with her silverware. “I’m really sorry...”

“Tessa Harding?” Max interrupted, looking back at Liz. Liz looked up suddenly from the table, locking her gaze with his.

“Yeah...” She drawled out. “How did you know that?”

“Well, because I caught a glimpse of her face when the twin on the right leaned over to talk to the one of the left... probably plotting my murder.” Max smirked at her. “And, because I broke up with her. About three months ago.”

“And the world just keeps getting smaller.” Liz muttered. She picked up her napkin out of her lap, setting it on the table. “I understand if you want to leave.”

“Why would I want to leave?” Max asked, genuinely confused.

“You don’t want to end the date now?”

Max reached across the table, grabbing her hands in his. “No, I don’t want to end the date now.” He smiled at her. “I do, however, want to go check on our steaks so they don’t burn.” He laughed, standing up and coming around the table, never once letting go of her hands. “Let’s go, Miss Parker. I’m starving.”

<center>****</center>

“I ate too much, I think I might just explode.” Max groaned, dropping back in his chair after the waiter removed their plates from the table.

Liz giggled as she took another sip of her soda. “Well, you did eat a whole steak, two baked potatoes, two pieces of Texas toast, and a salad.”

“I’m a growing boy, what can I say?” Max joked, stretching his arms over his head.

They’d talked the whole way through dinner. Max had told her about how he’d grown up in Florida, but moved to Roswell with his parents right before his senior year in high school, then had gone off to college to become a doctor, just like he’d wanted to do when he was little.

Max had asked a lot of questions about Liz’s childhood, about her parents, her friends and the boys. Liz liked the fact that he seemed to be genuinely interested in knowing about the boys, and wasn’t just asking to be nosey.

“Do you think it’s a good sign or a bad sign that they’ve been staring me down, but haven’t come over here yet?” Max asked, looking over Liz’s shoulder.

“They’re staring at you?” Liz turned around, letting out an exasperated sigh when she saw that neither of the boys were paying attention to whatever Derrick was trying to talk to them about, but were instead, staring over their shoulders at Max and Liz. Derrick didn’t seem to be too happy about that, obviously wanting the boys to be paying attention to him, now that he’d finally gotten them to find the time in their busy schedules to hang out with their dear old dad. Liz turned back to Max. “Just so you know, if you really are planning on sticking around, the boys are gonna be a tough crowd. They have extremely high standards about who I should be with, and not a single guy I’ve dated has been good enough.” Liz told him. “I don’t even think they consider their father good enough, and they share his DNA.”

Max leaned forward, grabbing her hands across the table and rubbing his thumbs over the back of her hands. “I am planning on sticking around, Liz.” He looked deep into her eyes. “I don’t care that you have kids. I mean, I care about them and all, but I don’t... I just... but...” Liz laughed as he started getting flustered. “I’m not gonna be scared away by it.” He finally finished.

“That’s good to know.” Liz whispered, smiling at him.

They were unsure of how long they sat, staring into each others eyes, when someone cleared their throat. Liz looked over her left shoulder to find Tyler standing there, then looked over her right shoulder to find Tristan standing there.

She had to roll her eyes at them. They both stood with their arms crossed over their chest, glaring at Max, trying to look as intimidating as possible.

“And, the offspring show up.” Liz sighed, giving Max an apologetic smile. “What’s up, guys?” She released Max’s hands so she could sit back in her chair and see both of the boys.

“We’re getting ready to go, we just wanted to come say bye.” Tyler told her, even though he never took his eyes off Max.

She tapped each of them on the stomach, and motioned for them to lean over. They each reluctantly squatted down, becoming eye level with her. “I know its difficult to grasp, but I’m old enough to date without you two as chaperones.” She told them. “Hell, you two are old enough to date without chaperones.” She reasoned with them. “I’m not dumb enough to fall for you trying to tell me that you didn’t come over here for any other reason, than to give Max a hard time.”

She suddenly looked back over at Max. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Max Evans, these are my boys. Tyler and Tristan Julian. Boys, this is Max.”

The boys both stood, shaking Max’s hand as they sized him up. “Nice to meet you.” They each mumbled, not for one second fooling anyone at the table that they were actually glad to meet him.

“Likewise.” Max said, however he was glad to meet them. “Your mom’s been telling me a lot about both of you.”

“Funny. She hasn’t said a damn thing about you.” Tyler said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Tyler.” Liz warned. She sighed, giving Max another apologetic smile. “If there isn’t anything else, I’m sure your dad is waiting for you.” Liz hinted at them.

“Actually, there is something else.” Tristan started. Him and Tyler shared a look, then squatted down again.

Liz glanced from one boy to the other. “I already have a feeling, just by that look you gave each other, that my answer is going to be no.”

“Mom, we didn’t ask you anything yet.” Tyler said.

“Yeah, but you’re going to.” Liz told them, looking back at Tristan. “Spit it out.”

“Well, James is having this party tomorrow night, and we asked Dad if we could go, and he said that if its ok with you, he’d just drop us off over there.” Tristan explained, batting his eyelashes.

“Are James’ parents going to be there?” Liz asked, already knowing they wouldn’t be.

“Yeah.” Tyler said, nodding his head.

“Oh, ok.” Liz slowly nodded too. “So, if I pulled my cell phone out of my purse right now, and called Linda, and asked her if she was going to be at the party her son is having tomorrow night, she would say yes?” The boys hesitated, glancing at each other. Liz already knew the answer. “No, you can’t go. I’ll see you tomorrow when your father drops you off.”

She gave each of them a kiss on the cheek. They pouted but didn’t argue with her. They knew it was futile. If she said no, she wasn’t changing her mind. The boys said good bye to Max and took off in the direction of the exit.

“Sorry about that.” Liz blushed slightly. “They like to think they’re intimidating.”

“You amaze me.” Max whispered, awe evident in his voice.

A smile slowly spread across her face. “What’d I do?”

“It just amazed me that someone as tiny as you, can keep those two in line. They seem about as tall as I am.”

“They’re about six foot.” Liz shrugged. “They got that from their father, obviously.”

“They got his eyes, too.” Max told her, his eyes locking on hers again. “You have gorgeous brown eyes, and they have blue eyes.”

“Very observant.” Liz ducked her head, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “But you’re right. They definitely got Derricks eyes.”

Liz looked up, unable to keep herself from falling into the depths of Max’s eyes. They were beautiful, no one in the world could say they weren’t, but they scared her. It felt as thought it were looking straight down into her soul, with just a glance into her eyes. Even with that disconcerting feeling, she couldn’t look away.

Their waiter walked up, glancing between the two of them. “Are either of you interested in dessert?”

“Oooh. Dessert.” Max perked up.

Liz started cracking up. “Oh, God. You’re going to explode if you eat anymore.”

“Hey. There’s always room for dessert.”

<center>****</center>

Max pulled his car up Liz’s driveway after she punched in the security code to open the gate. They’d stayed at Alexander’s for over an hour after they ate, drinking coffee and talking about anything and everything there was to talk about.

Max cut the engine, and got out of the car. He walked around to the passenger door, opening it for Liz before offering her his hand to help her out of the car.

“Thank you.” She said as she took his hand. He closed the door behind her, then began walking her to the front door, never once letting go of her hand.

Liz was so nervous she thought she might throw up. It had been years since her last date, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do now. Should she invite him in? Should she just say goodnight and go inside? What if he tried to kiss her? Should she kiss him? Would he think she was easy if she did?

As the thoughts whirled through Liz’s head at lightning speed, it made her heart speed up as well. She was so lost in her thought process, she didn’t realize that they’d already made it to the front door.

She took a deep breath as she turned to face Max. He turned to face her, reaching out to grab her other hand, too.

“I had a wonderful time, Max.” Liz started, hoping that she didn’t sound as terrified as she felt. She was certain that she was going to crawl out of her skin any moment.

“I did too.” Max agreed, rubbing his thumbs over the backs of her hands. “Do you have plans tomorrow?”

Liz thought for a moment before answering. “Actually, I do. Alex is having some barbeque thing, and he wants Maria and I to bring the kids over. Oh shit. I’m gonna have to call Derrick and tell him that.” She made a mental note to do that when she got inside. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten about the little party.

A smile slowly spread across Max’s face. “Then I guess I’ll see you there.” She tilted her head to the side, silently questioning him. “Since I’m in town, Isabel told me that my presence was mandatory and that if I didn’t show up...” He paused. “What were her exact words?” After a moment he shook his head. “I’m not sure her exact words, cause she was babbling, but I know it had something to do with beating me to death with a shoe.” He chuckled.

Liz couldn’t help laughing. “Yeah, she’s a little intense sometimes.”

“A little?” Max quirked an eyebrow at her. “You should have seen her back in high school before a dance or something. Lord help you if you got in her way.”

“Sorry I missed that. It sounds like it was a good time.” Liz joked.

“Oh, the best.” Max rolled his eyes. “So, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Looks like.” Liz nodded. She felt Max’s grip on one of her hands ease up, and then he let go of it. She watched as his hand came up to tuck her hair behind her ear, something he was making a habit of. She hoped it would be a habit he kept up, too.

After Max was done fixing her hair, he let the heel of his hand rest against her cheek, before he slid his fingers back into her hair, cupping the side of her face.

He kept his eyes locked with hers as he bent his head forward. He’d wanted to kiss her all night, and he would have if his damn cell phone hadn’t gone off earlier. His stomach rumbling in anticipation as his lips inched closer and closer to hers. He watched as her eyelids fell closed, and he took that as the go ahead.

He closed his eyes as he felt his lips brush against hers. He let them linger there for a moment before he pulled back.

Liz felt like her whole body was on fire the moment Max’s lips touched hers, and then immediately felt cold when he pulled away. She opened her eyes, locking her gaze with his. She gave him a small smile before leaning forward and pressing her lips to his again.

As much as she hated to do it, after a few seconds, she pulled away again. They stared at each other for a minute before Max leaned forward to give her another quick kiss.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Max whispered as he slowly backed away from her towards his car.

“Bye, Max.” Liz gave him a little wave before turning around and opening the front door. Once it was closed behind her, she leaned against it, barely containing the urge to squeal like a teenager who’d just gotten her first kiss.

She practically skipped into the kitchen to get a bottle of water, and grab the phone to call Derrick.. She came around the corner into the kitchen to find Maria, sitting on the kitchen counter with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s in front of her. She held out a spoon to Liz, who took it, hopping up on the counter next to Maria.

“Tell me everything!” Maria said, taking another bite of ice cream. Liz was smiling like an idiot, and couldn’t seem to find the words. “Was it absolutely perfect?”

“Yeah.” Liz nodded enthusiastically. “This guy is amazing! He wasn’t even scared when he found out about the twins.”

“You told him?” Maria’s eyes got really wide. “Already?”

“I didn’t have too much of a choice since Derrick, Tess, Tyler and Tristan were eating dinner at Alexander’s.” Liz informed her.

“No!” Maria gasped. “They were there!? What are the odds of that!?”

“I know, right? It was insane!” Liz agreed. “The boys came over and met Max, tried to be intimidating and whatnot. Asked if they could go to some party tomorrow night, I said no. They left, and Max said I was amazing.”

“Aww!” Maria squealed. “So, did you guys make plans for another date?”

“I’m seeing him tomorrow.” Liz told her. “And so are you.”

“Me? Why?” Maria asked.

“Obviously you forgot too. Some friends we are.” Liz sighed. “Let me jog your memory. Barbeque. Alex’s new pool got finished. He wanted us to come over. Bring the kids.”

“Oh shit!” Maria slapped her hand against her forehead. “I can’t believe we forgot! Omigod, don’t tell Alex!”

“I wasn’t planning on it.” Liz rolled her eyes, hopping off the counter to grab the phone. “I gotta call Derrick and tell him to drop the boys off over at Alex’s in the afternoon, instead of over here sometime tomorrow night. What time did we tell Alex we’d be there?”

“I think we agreed on four...” Maria thought back. “That sounds right.”

“I’ll just tell Derrick that. We can show up that time too... if we’re late, we can use the classic ‘I didn’t know what to wear’ excuse.” Liz shrugged. “What time do you have to pick Olivia up from the high school? She comes home from cheerleading camp tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, I gotta pick her up at one.”

“Ok, well, I’m gonna call Derrick.” Liz said, walking towards the livingroom.

“Hey Liz?” Maria said, causing Liz to stop and turn to look at her. “Is this the real deal?”

“Is what the real deal?” Liz asked.

“Max. Is he the Mr. Perfect you’ve been waiting for?”

A bright smile instantly lit up Liz’s face. “Ya know, he just might be.” She said, before turning back around to go into the livingroom and call Derrick.

TBC...

Hey guys! Finally back with the next chapter!

Writing is going kinda slow on my end... well, to be totally honest, its not really going at all. My muse is a lazy bitch, and doesn't like to work. *sigh* But, whatever. I'll get these chapters out eventually. As of now, I'll be back next Saturday with the next chapter.

I hope you enjoy this. This one is dedicated to Raychel, and Alex. Doodles, girls! *LOL* I love you both! *MUAH*

Chapter Six

“So Aunt Liz has a boyfriend?” Olivia leaned forward between the two front seats, glancing from her mom to Liz, as they drove to Alex’s house the next day. “Is he hot?”

“Olivia!” Liz squealed, turning to glance at Olivia, then back at the road.

“So that’s a yes.” Olivia laughed, dropping back into the backseat. “When am I gonna get to meet him?”

“When we get to Alex’s.” Maria told her, glancing over her shoulder. “Max happens to be Isabel’s brother.”

“Alex’s girlfriend, Isabel?” Olivia asked, shaking her head. “That’s kinda weird, don’t ya think?”

“Why is that weird?” Liz asked, looking at her in the rearview mirror.

“Just that you met him, and now you’re dating him, and he’s related to the girl that’s dating your best friend. Not to mention the fact that you met him under circumstances that had nothing to do with Alex or Isabel being the ones to introduce you.” She explained. “You’re totally meant to be together. Soul mates and all that.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her since last night!” Maria said, turning in her seat. “She won’t listen to me.”

Liz pulled into Alex’s driveway and put the car in park before she turned to look at both of them. “I”m not listening to either of you because you’re both insane.” She informed them, before opening the door and stepping out.

“I’m not insane!” Olivia protested, hopping out of the back door.

“You’re your mothers child. Of course you’re insane, Liv. It’s not your fault, but with parents like yours, its inevitable.”

“I resent that.” Maria pouted, grabbing her bag of stuff out of the back seat.

Liz and Olivia reached in and grabbed theirs as well. They’d brought their swimming suits and everything over, since Alex was adamant about christening the pool properly. Maria had joked that that was something that needed to be handled when Isabel and Alex were alone, causing Alex to blush, and everyone to laugh at him.

As the trio made their way around the side of the house towards the backyard, the noise coming from back there got louder. They had the radio on, and Liz took a shot in the dark that the twins were already there, and that they had been the ones to choose the radio station. It was unlikely that Alex wanted to hear 50 Cent rapping about being rap’s MVP, or something to that affect.

As they rounded the corner into the backyard, they paused to take everything in. Isabel was stretched out on a lawn chair tanning. Alex and Max were trying to get the grill to light, and both of the twins were floating around in the pool on floating lounge chairs.

Liz turned her attention back to Max, and unconsciously brought her hand up to wipe any drool that had escaped her mouth. She knew he had a nice body, it was evident even when he was fully clothed, but she’d never imagined it to look like that.

Both he and Alex had their backs to them, and she watched as he messed with the grill, and the muscles in his back worked as he moved. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she made her way over to him. As she got closer, she inspected the Celtic knot tattoo that adorned his right bicep.

He caught her approach out of the corner of his eye, and turned to face her, a smile instantly appearing on his face. “Hi.”

“Hey, yourself.” Liz replied, coming to stand next to him.

He looped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her in close to his body and dropping a kiss on top of her head. He wanted to give her a proper kiss, but he was well aware of the fact that her children were in the pool, not all that far away.

“I have arrived! The party may now begin.” Maria announced, giving Alex a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Isabel glanced up from her lounge chair, immediately standing up and walking across the lawn to greet everyone. “Hey guys! I’m so glad you made it!” She stopped when she noticed Max and Liz, her eyebrows drawing together. She glanced between the two of them. “Do... do you two know each other?” Before Max could say anything, Isabel’s eye got wide and her jaw dropped slightly. “Wait a minute... that’s who you were out on a date with last night?” Max nodded, dropping his gaze to look at Liz for a minute. “I thought you and Tess had gotten back together or something.”

“Ugh. Can we not mention her?” Tyler whined, as he and Tristan came over to join the group on the patio. “We just got away from her.”

“Now I’m even more confused.” Isabel glanced at everyone.

“Tess is dating their dad.” Liz informed her, detangling herself from Max’s arm and sitting down in one of the chairs that were around the table they would be eating at later.

Isabel dropped into the chair next to Liz. “That is too weird.” She laughed slightly, readjusting her sunglasses.

Olivia quickly took up residence in the chair on the other side of Liz, scooting her chair as close to Liz’s as she could. “That’s him?!” She whispered frantically, glancing over her shoulder to where Max was once again, trying to help Alex figure out how to light the grill.

“Yeah, that’s Max.” Liz confirmed.

“He is FINE!” Olivia announced, finally prying her eyes away to look back at Liz.

“Eww.” Isabel grimaced. “That’s my brother.”

Olivia simply shrugged. “Hey. I speak nothing but the truth.” She said, putting on her sunglasses.

“DAMMIT!” Alex bellowed, slamming his hand onto the side of the grill. “WHY WON’T YOU WORK?!”

“Alex, honey! Stop that! You’re going to hurt yourself!” Isabel admonished. “How is it that you manage to own a restaurant and you can’t work that thing?”

They all watched in amusement as Alex’s face got even redder, obviously ready to flip out. “Precious.” He managed through clenched teeth. “I really don’t need this right now, ok?”

Isabel sighed. “Hon, I’m just trying to help.”

“Well, then you come over here and get this fuckin thing to work!” He lost it, waving his hands around crazily in front of his face. Max wisely took a few steps back.

Isabel rose from the chair and walked over to where the grill was. They all watched as she inspected it and began fiddling with it. A few moments later, the grill came to life. She gave Alex an innocent smile before placing a kiss on his cheek and walking back to her chair.

Alex scoffed, plucking his hands on his hips as he looked from Isabel to the grill, and back again. A few scoffs later, he finally found his voice again. “How did you do that?”

“It just needed a woman’s touch, sweetie.” She answered, taking a sip of her soda.

“No, really. How’d you do that?” Alex asked again.

Isabel set her soda down, unable to stop herself from smiling. “I turned the gas on.” She said before she burst out laughing.

Everyone else put their hands over their mouths to try to stifle their laughter. That worked for about five seconds before they all cracked and started laughing out loud.

Alex threw his arms in the air. “I’m really feeling the love, guys. Thanks a whole heck of a lot.”

They apologized to Alex for laughing at him, each still having to try exceptionally hard to not start laughing again. Liz finally decided to ask Isabel how she liked the back yard, since it had been a project in the works for a good four months. While Alex and Isabel weren’t engaged, they had moved in together. They planned on some day getting married and starting a family, but right now, they were just enjoying each others company.

Liz was caught off guard when four wet arms wrapped around her. Tyler and Tristan did their best to get as much water on her as possible. “Stop!” She squealed, trying to finagle her way out of their arms. “You two are horrible!” She laughed, finally managing to get away from them. She pushed a few wet strands of hair out of her face, turning to look at them. They appeared very proud of themselves. “After all I’ve done for you...” She trailed off, shaking her head.

“Oh no, here it comes.” Tristan rolled his eyes.

“I carried you both around for nine months, and you weren’t light, lemme tell ya. I was in labor for 36 hours before finally giving birth to you and raising you for 17 years, and this is the thanks I get?” She swung her arms in front of her body. “For shame.”

“Aww.” The whole group chorused.

“We’re sorry, Mom.” Tyler said, taking a step towards her. Tristan followed his lead, and they both advanced on her, opening their arms as if to give her a hug.

“No way!” Liz yelled, turning around and running from them. Liz wasn’t surprised when they both broke into a run after her.

“But Mom! We love you! We just want to give you a hug!” Tristan yelled.

Liz could tell they were close behind her, but she didn’t dare turn around to find out. She made a snap decision and veered to the left, towards a pile of pool stuff. She picked up a Fun Doodle, and turned around, swinging.

She immediately started cracking up. She hadn’t been aware the boys were so close behind her, and she’d unintentionally just nailed them both in the face with it. The shocked expressions on their faces made her laugh even harder.

Both of the boys dove for a Fun Doodle of their own as Liz took off in the other direction.

<center>****</center>

“I think I’m going to explode. I ate too much.” Max groaned.

Liz rolled her eyes, turning to look at Isabel. “Does he say that after every meal? Two out of the threee times I’ve eaten with him, that sentence has come out of his mouth.”

Max simply stuck his tongue out at her as she and Maria got up to clean off the table. Maria, Liz and Olivia all excused themselves to go inside and change into the swimming suits.

“So, what’s up with you and Liz?” Alex asked Max once the girls had gone inside. He glanced over at the twins, who were talking to Isabel, careful to keep his voice down.

Max shrugged, shifting so that he was closer to Alex. He glanced over at Tyler and Tristan before he opened his mouth. “I’m not sure, really. We’ve only known each other for, like, four days.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t matter.” Alex dismissed Max’s answer with a wave of his hand. “You guys are gonna end up married.”

Max snorted a laugh. “Oh really? When did you turn into a crystal ball?”

“Dude, you don’t have to be a crystal ball to see what is oh-so-obvious. I see the way you look at her when she’s not looking. I see the way she looks at you when you’re not looking. I see the way you look at each other, and the little glances you were sneaking at each other during dinner... you two could have melted a glacier.” Alex babbled.

“Well, we’ll just wait and see where it goes.” Max shrugged. He snuck a look over at the boys before leaning in closer to Alex. “So you know those two pretty well, right?”

Alex nodded. “Since they were three or four. Why?”

“At dinner last night, Liz told me that it was gonna be really hard to get them to like me.” Max said, looking down and fiddling with a piece of plastic on the chair. “I know it sounds retarded, but I want them to accept me. I really like Liz, and I know for a fact it’ll never work out if her sons hate me.”

“All you have to do to get them to like you is treat their mother well.” Alex explained. “They’re not naive enough to believe that everything is going to work out, because they’ve seen too many men walk out of Liz’s life.”

Alex sighed, running his hands down his face. “Liz is a passionate person. She doesn’t do anything halfway, and that extends to her feelings for someone. She falls hard, and she falls fast, and her heart doesn’t break, it shatters.” Alex paused, waiting for Max to look back up at him.

When he did, Alex finished. “They know Liz deserves the best of everything. They’d do anything to ensure her happiness, and keep her from getting hurt.”

“I realize that.” Max interrupted. “I find it hard to believe that they’re going to even give me a chance to prove that I’m different from all the other guys.”

“I’m not gonna lie to you and say ‘Oh, sure they will.’ Because they won’t. They’ve pretty much nicknamed you Satan, and are just waiting for you to screw up. If you really do care about Liz though, you’re not going to screw up, you’re not going to walk away, and eventually... they’ll come around. It may take awhile, but they’ll come around eventually.” Alex clasped his hand on Max’s shoulder. “If they know that you’re making her happy, and if they’re pretty sure that you’re not going to walk out... they’ll come around.” Max went to open his mouth again, but Alex stopped him. “The girls are coming back out.”

Max glanced over his shoulder to see the girls emerging from the house in the swimming suits. His eyes immediately zeroed in on Liz, taking in everything. Liz sent him a smile as she headed for the pool. She sat down on a lounge chair, and Maria sat down next to her. Soon, all four of the girls were laying out, chit-chatting about nothing.

“So, where’s Michael, again?” Isabel asked, turning her head to look at Maria, and squinting against the sun.

“Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas.” Maria answered, adjusting her ponytail.

“When’s he supposed to be back?”

“A few days from now, I think.” Maria shrugged.

The girls all glanced over when they heard a splash. Tyler and Tristan had reclaimed their floating lounge chairs, this time equipped with the Fun Doodles from earlier. They paddled until their lounge chairs where facing head on, and began beating each other with them.

“God, they make me proud.” Liz commented, shaking her head.

“You got really lucky though, those boys are great.” Isabel flipped over to lay on her stomach. “Almost makes me want to give up my figure so I can have a few.”

“Hey.” Liz and Maria both said, lifting their heads and looking over at her.

“What? No, I’m not saying you both don’t have figures. You do... but if I were to have kids now, I wouldn’t get my figure back for a few years. You guys have had plenty of time to recuperate from it.” She explained.

Liz and Maria both smiled proudly and tilted their faces up into the sun.

Eventually, Max and Alex got into the pool as well, hanging close to the side and pointing at the other end of the pool.

Alex said he wanted a pool like the Playboy Mansion had, complete with rocks all around it, a waterfall, and a hot tub. He’d accomplished it, and now it seemed that he and Max were discussing the rocks that sat around the pool, and made up the waterfall.

Isabel and Olivia gave up on their tanning and they both got into the pool. Olivia went to the far end of the pool to hang out with the twins, while Isabel waded over and stood next to Alex.

“You wanna get in?” Maria asked, glancing from the pool to Liz.

“I don’t know.” Liz shrugged. “Lets see how warm the water is.”

Her and Maria got up and walked over to the pool. They held onto each other for balance as they dipped their toes into the pool, testing the temperature. “What do you think?” Liz asked, swinging her foot back and forth in the water. “Feels warm enough to me.”

“Yeah, me too.” Maria agreed.

Out of nowhere, something slammed into them, propelling them into the pool. They both screamed as they fell, their screams muffled as they went under. They both came up sputtering, looking around for the culprit.

Their eyes landed on Michael, who was backing away from then, a huge smile on his face.

“BABY!” Maria screeched, launching herself into Michael’s arms. “You’re back early!” She planted her lips against his, giving him a kiss.

“Eww! Mom! Dad! Stop!” Olivia grimaced, then did a double take. “Daddy!” She screeched, sounding eerily like Maria as she swam over to Michael as quickly as she could. She gave him a hug, and a kiss on the cheek before asking him how his trip was.

Liz shook her head, but couldn’t not smile at the picture they made. No one could say the Guerin’s weren’t a good looking family.

Liz swam over to where Alex, Isabel and Max were hanging out. She braced her arms on the side of the pool next to Max. “Hi.” She giggled.

“Fancy seein you here.” He joked, pushing some hair out of her face. “You look amazing.”

“You do know that I like you, right?” Liz asked. “You don’t have to be all smooth with lines like that.”

“Not lines.” Max shook his head. “The truth.” He leaned forward to give her a kiss, but stopped, remembering the boys were on the opposite side of the pool. He chanced a look over there, finding two sets of identical blue eyes shooting daggers at him. He groaned. “I don’t think I’m very well liked around here.” He whispered, nodding towards the twins.

Liz glanced over them. She sighed, before turning back to Max. She grabbed his face between her hands and sealed her lips over his. She stayed there a few seconds for emphasis before she pulled back. She wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling at him. “I’m a big girl, Max. I don’t need their permission to have a boyfriend.”

“I’m your boyfriend?” He asked, his eyes sparkling. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against him.

“I dunno, are you?” She answered his question with a question.

“Only if you want me to be.” He rubbed tiny circles on the small of her back.

She looked up, as if contemplating a trigonometry problem. “I’ll get back to you on that.” She finally answered.

Max was shocked at her answer, to say the least. It made him rethink everything that Alex had said, and everything he thought was true. Did she not like him as much as he thought she did? He deduced that her answer was a polite version of ‘no.’

Liz giggled a little at his confused expression. “Don’t even start thinking that maybe I don’t like you as much as you think I do.” Liz gave him a soft kiss. “We only met a few days ago, Max. I don’t think we need to put a label on us yet. I know I brought the whole thing up, calling you my boyfriend and all that, but I think we should just see where this goes, ya know?”

She hoped he understood what she was trying to say. She did want him to be her boyfriend, so badly it took every ounce of willpower she had from screaming ‘YES!’ at him when he’d asked if she wanted him to be. She was just afraid that putting a label on their relationship would jinx it. She knew she was being ridiculous, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t have the best track record with guys, and she wanted this one to stick around.

“Yeah, I understand.” Max soothed her worries after she explained her reasons. “No need to rush into anything, ok?”

“Yeah.” Liz agreed, tightening her grip on his neck.

Just as her lips were about to meet his again, a throat cleared behind them. Liz turned to find Michael glaring down at her. “Did I miss something here?” He asked, his gaze sliding over to Max.

Liz let go of Max, and took a step back. “Michael Guerin, this is Max Evans. Max, this is Michael.”

Michael held out his hand, and Max shook it. “Nice to meet you.”

Michael grunted in response, sizing him up. Max was getting a little agitated by that. “Liz, can I talk to you for a minute, please?” Michael asked before hoping out of the pool and walking over to plop on a lounge chair.

Liz sighed, turning back to Max. “I’m sorry. Michael’s not a very sociable person, don’t worry. It’s not just you.” She giggled. “I’ll be back.”

Max nodded and watched her climb out of the pool and sit down next to Michael. He swam over to where Isabel, Alex and Maria were to see what they were talking about.

Michael watched Max as he made his way over to the others. He cleared his throat before he looked over at Liz. “I wasn’t gone all that long.” Michael informed her. “How did you manage to locate this dude, and get so cozy in the few days that I was gone?”

Liz pulled her hair into a ponytail, twisting it up and letting it fall back down. “I met him at my book signing, he was getting a book autographed for Isabel for her birthday. We started talking, then we had lunch, then we had dinner last night, and now here we are, and you’re all caught up.” Liz explained.

“You really like this one.” Michael observed, staring straight out in front of him. He felt Liz turn to look at him, questioning how he knew. “I’ve known you for a long time, Liz, as long as I’ve known my wife, and I can read you just as well as I can read her.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs and clasping his hands in front of him. “I’m not gonna do my normal thing, and try to intimidate this guy, and bully him, and all that. Since I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you smile like that, when it wasn’t regarding your boys. This guy makes you happy, and I want you to be happy.” He looked over at her. “I love you, Parker.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close, placing a kiss on top of her head.

She wrapped her arms around his waist, smiling like an idiot. As much as Michael acted like he didn’t care, and he had a storage container full of tacs sitting in place of his heart, sometimes he’d do something sweet and shock the shit out of everyone. “I love you, too, Guerin.”

He rested his cheek against the top of her head, glancing over at Max again. “If you tell anyone about this, I’ll deny the whole thing, and if he fucks up, I’m gonna kill him. Ok?”

Liz laughed, giving Michael a little squeeze. “Ok.”

TBC...

Hey guys! Back with the next chapter! Things have been kinda slow on my end... no writing has been accomplished. My muse ran off to some desert island to frolick with cabana boys. You were right, Cherie! I got a postcard yesterday. *lol* So.. I'm trying to find a new muse to replace Paris. Thanks for being patient with me!

I hope you enjoy! I'll see ya'll next week! *Smooches*

Chapter Seven

Liz wrapped a soft towel around her body as she stepped out of the shower. She went over to the mirror, swiping her hand across it so she could see herself, since it had fogged over during her shower.

She reached into the cabinet, pulling out her hair dryer and plugging it in. Just as she was about to turn it on, someone began pounding on the bathroom door.

“Mom!” Tristan yelled through the door. “Phone!”

Liz opened the door a crack, peeking her head out. “Is it not obvious that I’m slightly preoccupied at the moment?” She asked, as her hair continued to drip water down her shoulders and onto the floor. “Who is it?” She finally asked, since it didn’t appear that Tristan was going to leave.

“It’s Max.” Tristan said, shoving the phone at her. She took it, rolling her eyes as he turned and walked out of the room.

“Hey.” She greeted, pushing her wet hair out of the way of her ear. “What are you doing?”

“Thinking about you.” He replied, making her giggle. “I miss you.”

“I just saw you yesterday.” Liz reasoned with him.

“I know, but I want to see you today. Are you busy?”

Liz thought for a moment. “Nope, don’t have any plans. You wanna come over?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Max asked, obviously hesitant.

“Max, the boys aren’t going to get to know you, and like you if you avoid them like the plague.” She laughed at him. “Just come over in about half an hour, ok? I just got out of the shower, so I need some time to get dressed and get pretty and all that.”

“You’re always pretty.” He tossed back. “But I need to get ready too, so I’ll see you in half an hour.”

“Ok, bye.” Liz hung up, setting the phone down on the counter top. She made sure the knot holding her towel up was nice and secure before she started blow drying her hair, and began getting ready.

Once she’d done her hair and makeup, she made her way into the closet, throwing on her favorite jeans and a light blue tank top.

She gave her appearance one last glance in the mirror before she grabbed the phone out of the bathroom and went downstairs.

She dropped down onto one of the couches, glancing outside to find the boys out there, tossing around a football, apparently deep in a conversation. They both had matching pensive expressions on their faces that made Liz giggle.

She started flipping through the channels, but found nothing good on TV, so she turned it onto the surveillance cameras. After a few minutes, she saw Max’s car pull into the driveway, and the window rolled down as a hand came out to click the intercom button.

She scrambled off the couch and ran towards the front door. She entered the gate code on the keypad and was rewarded with a beep, signaling that the gates were being opened.

She opened the front door and went to stand on the front porch until Max made it up the driveway.

A huge smile spread across Max’s face when he came up the driveway and saw her outside waiting for him. She tried to appear as if she weren’t waiting for him, casually leaning against one of the pillars that held up the awning of the porch.

Max put the car in park, turning it off and jumping out quickly. His smile was still firmly in place as he rounded the back of the vehicle and made his way to Liz.

As soon as he was within arms reach of her, he grabbed onto her hips with his hands, pulling her against him as his head dipped lower and his lips sought out hers.

She eagerly responded to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to hers. After a moment or two, they broke apart. She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling. “Hi.”

“Hi yourself.” He replied, looking down at her and never releasing her from his grip. “What are you doing?”

“You know. Little of this, little of that.” She shrugged, retracting herself from his grip, but grabbing onto one of his hands. “Let’s go inside. It’s hot out here.”

He allowed her to drag him inside, and he shut the door behind him. He pulled her to a stop before she got very far into the house. “Where are the boys at?” He asked.

Liz couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes. “They’re outside, tossing around the football.” She told him, dropping his hand and walking into the livingroom, forcing him to either follow or stand by himself.

Reluctantly, he followed, spotting the twins through the large glass windows that went along the majority of the back wall. He stood still for a minute, before he finally decided to stop being such a girl. He took a deep breath before he walked into the livingroom and lowered himself onto the couch next to Liz.

“So...” Liz drew out, glancing around the livingroom. “There really isn’t anything to do here. I’m not exactly sure why you wanted to come over...”

“I wanted to come see you.” He cut her off.

“Still, what are we gonna do? Sit here and stare at each other all afternoon?” She tried reasoning with him.

“Wouldn’t bother me. I happen to like my view.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Stop being cute.” She shoved his shoulder gently. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “What do you want to do?”

“Don’t start that again.” They both said, with slight English accents before staring at each other and cracking up.

“Is this what it’s really come down to?” Liz managed in between giggles. “We’re going to sit here and quote the vultures from ‘The Jungle Book’?”

“What’s wrong with that? It’s a wonderful movie.” Max replied, unable to stop from laughing about the whole situation.

“Seriously. What do you want to do?” She said, letting a little bit of a whine creep into her voice.

“Liz, I honestly don’t care.” Max stared at her for a minute. “As long as I get to spend time with you, that’s all that matters to me.”

Liz turned slightly so she was facing him. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” He replied, without hesitance.

“Why are you the way you are?”

His eyebrows raised as he looked at her. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking me...” He trailed off.

“I mean...” Liz paused, trying to think of how to best phrase it. “You’ve known me how long? Five days?”

“Are you really counting?” He chuckled.

“I did the math in my head, I’m good like that.” She supplied before she continued. “Anyway, you’ve known me for less than a week. That’s the point I’m trying to make. And so far...” She trailed off. “You’re perfect.”

“Is that a problem?” He asked, his eyes sparkling.

“Well, no.” She shook her head slightly. “I’m just thinking about the future...”

“Well, I think we should aim for a girl since you already have two boys.” He interrupted.

“Max, c’mon.” She giggled. “Seriously. You live in Roswell. I live here. When you’re not on vacation, I’m sure that you’re really busy and won’t have the time to just drive up here all the time...” She stopped herself. “What am I doing?” She whispered, turning slightly away from Max.

He leaned forward so he could see her face again. “What?”

“I just said like twelve seconds ago that we’ve only known each other for five days, and I’m already worried about the future? We’re not even together! I’m crazy.” She looked up suddenly, as if a lightbulb had just gone off in her head. “The boys really did manage to drive me crazy.”

Max laughed, pulling her back into him and lightly running his knuckles up and down her arm. “You’re not crazy. You’re logical.” He said, resting his forehead against her temple, breathing in the scent of her hair. “Besides, whose to say that we won’t end up together, huh?” When she turned to face him and opened her mouth, he pressed a finger to her lips to silence her. “I think that we should just go with this. I like you. I want to spend more time with you, and I want to get to know you. The rest... we can worry about later.”

A smile spread across her face. “You’re right. I’m being ridiculous.”

“Don’t worry, it was cute.” He reassured her, brushing a piece of her hair out of her face before he cupped her cheek in his palm.

He let his eyes slide down to her lips before they went back and met her gaze. Slowly, they came together, inch by agonizing inch until their lips touched. Max let his lips linger over hers for a moment before he pulled back.

He opened his eyes and gazed into her, before she leaned forward again, pressing her lips against his. This time, she was more insistent.

Max took the hint and slanted his mouth over hers, running his tongue along the seam of her lips. She didn’t hesitate, her lips parted, granting him entrance.

They simultaneously moaned at the feeling of their tongues touching for the first time. Liz’s stomach did flip flops as Max’s tongue massaged hers, and hers danced with his. She was quickly becoming addicted to the feel of his lips against hers, the feel of his hands against her skin, the smell of him that seemed to envelope and drug her.

“MOM!”

Max and Liz sprang apart, each ending up on opposite sides of the sofa. Liz glanced up to find the disapproving stares of Tyler and Tristan. She immediately felt like she was sixteen again, and had just told her parents she was pregnant.

“Uhm...” Liz cleared her throat, then smoothed her hair. “Did you guys need something?”

“The phone’s been ringing for the past two minutes.” Tyler told her, shooting a nasty glare at Max. “When you didn’t answer it, we came inside. I guess we know why you didn’t bother getting up.” He said, in no way trying to hide his annoyance.

“It’s Maria.” Tristan said, stepping forward and handing Liz the phone. “She says it’s important.”

The twins glanced from Max to Liz before they turned and made their way upstairs, sounding like a herd of stampeding elephants as they went.

Liz took a deep breath before she put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

“Liz? You’re not busy are you?” Maria rushed out.

“No, why? What’s wrong?” Liz sat up straighter on the couch. She knew the tone in Maria’s voice.

“It’s stupid really...” Maria started, sighing loudly before she continued. “Olivia is going on her first date tonight. She just told Michael and I about it. Of course, she knows the rule that we have to meet the boy before she’s allowed to go, you know that we always told her that when she started dating, that would be the case. I was fine with it, but Michael flipped.” Maria’s words came out faster and faster as she told the story. “Liz, he’s cleaning his gun!”

Liz held in her laughter. “Maria, it’s ok. What do you want me to do?”

“Will you come over? Please? I just want you to be here to try to help keep Michael calm.” Maria pleaded.

“Yeah. No problem. I’ll be over in a few minutes, ok?” Liz grabbed her flip flops from near the couch and began slipping them on.

“You’re the best! I love you! Bye!” Maria rushed out before the line went dead.

Liz turned off the phone and set it down on the coffee table before turning to Max. “Maria is having a crisis. Olivia has a date tonight, and Michael flipped out and is cleaning his gun. I have to go over there to try to keep him calm.” She explained. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing? That’s wonderful news! I think if I’m here any longer, your children will begin trying to murder me.” Max said, getting up off the couch and helping her up.

“Yeah, that was kinda bad...” Liz agreed, then quickly yanked on his arm to get his attention. “I mean, not the kiss! The kiss was wonderful, and I hope to be partaking in that particular activity quite a bit more in the future... but the getting caught thing kinda sucked.”

“Agreed.” Max placed a kiss on her forehead and began walking towards the front door with her.

“You can come with me, if you want.” She said, shrugging her shoulders slightly. “I know the whole... trying to get the twins to like you thing kinda bombed... maybe you’ll fair better with Michael.”

“Couldn’t go much worse.” Max opened up the passenger door of his car for her before closing and making his way to the other side.

<center>****</center>

Liz didn’t bother knocking on the door when her and Max arrived at Maria and Michael’s house. She opened the door and walked in, allowing Max to walk in as well before she closed the door. She glanced around, finding no signs of life. Her eyebrows drew together as she went further into the house, still finding no one, and hearing no noise.

Suddenly, the door to the basement opened, and Olivia appeared. As soon as her eyes settled on Liz, she bolted across the room, throwing her arms around her. “Aunt Liz! Thank God you’re here!”

Liz wrapped her arms around Olivia, giving her a quick squeeze before releasing her. “How bad is it?”

“Daddy is trying to figure out which gun he has better aim with.” Olivia whined. “Please, please! Go stop him!”

“I’ll do my best, Liv. You go upstairs and get ready. I’ll take care of your dad.” Liz reassured her, pushing her along until she ran up the stairs to her room to get ready.

“How many guns does Michael have?” Max asked, sounding a little apprehensive about his decision to come along.

“Oh, geez.” Liz thought about it for a minute. “I have no idea. Too many to count.” She shrugged her shoulders slightly. “It’s an Army thing, I guess, the obsession with weapons.”

“Right.” Max chuckled nervously.

Liz couldn’t help laughing. “He won’t shoot you. Don’t worry.” Liz glanced to the door to the basement, where Michael kept his gun case, knowing that’s where he was. “I’m gonna run down there and try to defuse this, you want to stay up here?”

“I think that would be wise on my part.” Max nodded, walking over to one of the couches in the livingroom and plopping himself down. “You go ahead and go down into the pit of death, and I’ll just wait for you right here.”

Liz rolled her eyes, walking over to Max and giving him a quick kiss on the lips. “I’ll be back.”

She turned and made her way into the basement. As she stepped off the last stair, she made her way to the back room, where Michael kept his gun case. She nudged the door open, holding in a giggle at what she saw.

Maria was sitting on a chair in one corner of the room, her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at Michael, as he perused through his selection. He kept mumbling to himself as he’d pick up one of his guns, then he’d set it back in its place and move onto the next one.

“Hey guys.” Liz said, finally making her presence known.

Both of their heads swung in her direction. Maria immediately jumped from her chair, tearing across the room and hurling herself into Liz’s arms. “Thank you!” She whispered, holding onto Liz for dear life. “Please, please help me!” She said before pulling away and turning back towards Michael.

“What are you doing here?” Michael asked, already immersed in what he was doing.

“I’ve come to save the day.” Liz announced, walking over next to the gun cabinet and leaning against the wall. “What on Earth do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m going to kill him.” Michael said, looking at Liz. She noted the determination written across his face. “I’m going to kill the kid who thought he could take my baby girl out and get her drunk, and give her drugs and have sex with her.”

Liz laughed, quickly covering her mouth with her hand when Michael glared at her. She cleared her throat to get rid of any remaining laughter. “Michael, it’s one date.” She tried to reason with him. “You know Olivia. She’s a good kid. You got really lucky if you think about it.”

“Yeah, She is a good kid. That’s why I’m not letting this little fucker-”

“His name is Brad.” Maria informed him.

“I don’t care what his name is.” Michael ranted, waving his arms around. “I’m not letting this little shit think he can mess up my baby girl!”

“Olivia’s not a baby anymore, Michael.” Liz hedged. “She’s fourteen. So, ok, she's not quite claiming social security or anything yet, but still. She’s old enough for her first date.”

“He’s SEVENTEEN!” Michael shouted.

“Oh.” Liz processed this new angle. “Well... no one told me that.”

“Yeah. See?” Michael said, before he took a gun out of the cabinet. “I think I like this one the best...”

“Michael...” Maria whined.

"Tyler and Tristan are seventeen." Liz informed him. "Would you attempt to kill them if they were taking Olivia out?"

"Tyler and Tristan are different." Michael sighed, glancing at Liz.

“Is this kid REALLY worth going to prison for murder?” Liz tried another angle.

Michael reached for something on the opposite side of the gun cabinet, coming back with a shovel in his hand. “That’s what the shovel’s for. They can’t convict me if they don’t have a body.” He announced.

“Michael!” Maria shrieked.

“Ok, uhm...” Liz thought for a minute. “Ok, I got it. Think back to when you were a drill sergeant. Was there ever just one kid that you couldn’t stand?” Michael’s jaw clenched, and he nodded. “Ok, now, did you kill him?”

“I wanted to.” Michael shrugged. “But no.”

“What’d you do?” Liz asked, hoping this would produce something she could work with.

“Fucked with him.” Michael said. “Mentally, I mean.”

“Well, there ya go!” Liz slapped her hand into his chest. “You don’t have to kill this kid. When he comes to pick Olivia up, just scare the crap out of him.”

Michael thought for a minute. “Yeah... yeah, I can do that.”

“Good!” Liz pried the shovel out of his hand and propped it against the wall. “Now, let’s put the weaponry back where it came from, lock the cabinet and then Maria and I will go help Olivia finish getting ready, and you can hang out with Max.”

“Max is here?” Michael asked, a gun halfway into its place.

“Drop it, Guerin.” Liz warned. “You said you were going to give him a chance.”

“Fine.” Michael grumbled, putting it back and locking the cabinet.

“Now, you will be nice, understood?” Liz told him as the three made their way back upstairs.

“Yes, mother.” He pouted, causing Liz and Maria to roll their eyes.

<center>****</center>

After Liz and Maria had assured Olivia that her date wouldn’t be murdered upon coming to pick her up, and were sure that she was ready, the two made their way back downstairs. They were shocked, to say the very least, to find Max and Michael actually talking. They weren’t only talking, but they were agreeing, and laughing.

“So, I see you two have made friends.” Maria said, as her and Liz walked into the room. Maria went and sat down on the arm of the chair that Michael was sitting in, and Liz went and sat down next to Max.

“Yeah, I guess I’ll let him live.” Michael said, trying to play off the fact that he had been wrong, and Max wasn’t a terrible guy after all.

“What time is Olivia’s date supposed to get here?” Max asked.

Michael glanced at his watch. “T-minus one minute and thirty-five seconds.” He said, glancing at the front door, just as the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” Maria said, jumping up before Michael could move. She turned around as her hand covered the door knob. “Be nice!” She shot a glance at Michael, who held his hands up in surrender.

She opened the door, smiling sweetly at the boy on the other side of the door. “Hi Brad.”

“Hello, Mrs. Guerin.” He politely replied. “I’m here to pick up Olivia. Is she ready?”

“You can come on in, and I’ll go upstairs and check, ok?” Maria stepped out of the way and let Brad come in. He visibly paled upon seeing Michael, but tried his best to seem calm. “I’ll be back in a minute.” Maria said, making her way upstairs.

Brad came into the livingroom and walked over to Michael, who stood. Brad watched as Michael went from sitting, to towering over him. “And you are?” Michael asked, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

“I’m Brad Sights, Mr. Guerin. I’m here to take out Olivia.” He said.

“I know what you’re doing here, You sure as hell didn’t come here to take me on a date.” Michael retorted, sizing Brad up. “Have a seat.” He finally said, pointing to the chair next to him. Brad sat down, trying to keep himself from fidgeting. “So...” Michael said.

“Yes, sir?” Brad cleared his throat after the ‘sir’ came out squeaky.

“So, Brad." Michael paused for a second before continuing. "What’s your five year plan? What are you majoring in school? Do you know how to clean a gun?”

Brad’s eyes grew wide as he turned from Michael to regard Liz and Max, silently pleading for help. When they both lowered their heads, and covered their mouths, he knew he was on his own.

Liz felt bad, but she knew she couldn’t just start laughing. After almost a full minute of the poor kid trying to stutter out an answer that Michael would feel was appropriate, Liz finally stepped in. “Michael, be nice.” She said, giving him a look.

“Fine.” Michael sighed, then turned back to Brad. “What time will you bringing my daughter home?”

“Eleven?” Brad said.

“Is that a question?” Michael replied.

“Eleven.” Brad stated, more firmly this time.

“Wrong answer. Ten-thirty.” Michael corrected. “If she isn’t back in the front door by ten thirty one, I’m out the door, hunting your ass down. Understood?”

Brad did nothing more than nod, afraid to even attempt to open his mouth again. Luckily, he was saved when Maria and Olivia made their way down the stairs. “Everyone ready?” Maria asked, after Olivia had said hi to Brad, and Brad had commented on how pretty she looked.

“Yeah, Mom.” Olivia gave Maria a kiss on the cheek before doing the same to Michael. “Love you, Daddy.” She went over to Liz and Max, giving Liz a quick hug. “Hi Max, Bye Max.” She smiled at him, obviously quite smitten.

“Bye Olivia. Have a good time.” Max replied.

“You have your cell in case anything happens?” Michael asked.

“Yes, Daddy.” She answered, practically pulling Brad out the door. “Bye!”

“TEN THIRTY!” Michael yelled, just as the front door slammed.

“Well,” Maria said, turning to face everyone in the livingroom. “That went well.”

<center>****</center>

“The look on his face was classic!” Max said, causing both him and Liz to burst into a fit of laughter again.

They’d been sitting on the little wicker sofa on Liz’s front porch for half an hour, just talking and hanging out.

“I thought he was going to have a heart attack!” Liz agreed, wiping the tears of mirth that leaked out the corners of her eyes. After a few minutes, they both calmed down. “So, are you gonna come over tomorrow? The twins have asked Michael to work them out again, even though they were practically in tears before the last work-out session was over. You’re more than welcomed to join.”

“I can’t.” Max drew out. “I have an appointment tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, we’re not gonna get started until around one.” Liz said, playing with his fingers.

“Well, in that case, I should be able to make it.”

“Yeah?” Liz smiled at him.

“Yeah. I’ll be here.” He promised, kissing her temple. “But I have to go if I want to get up in time tomorrow.”

“Ok.” Liz stood and stretched, as Max followed suit.

He walked her over to the front door, pulling her against him. Her arms rose to circle around his neck, and play with his hair. He smiled at her for a minute before he dipped his head and captured her lips with his.

As he went to deepen the kiss, the front porch light flipped off, stayed off for about three seconds, then flipped back on.

Max pulled back, chuckling. “Am I ever going to kiss you without being busted by your kids?” He shook his head at his bad luck.

“I’m sorry.” She apologized, making a mental note to strangle both of them in their sleep.

“It’s ok. I really do have to go.” He said, giving her another quick kiss before he reluctantly removed his arms from her waist and started backing away. “Dinner tomorrow night?” He asked. “Just you and me?”

“Sounds perfect.” Liz said, opening the front door. She blew him a kiss and gave him a little wave. “Bye, Max.”

“Bye, Liz.” He replied, just as she closed the front door.

She leaned against it and let out a content sigh. She stayed that way for a minute, then pushed off the door. “TRISTAN! TYLER! GET DOWN HERE!” She screamed. She had a few things to set them straight about.

TBC...

Hey guys! Back with the next chapter! Sorry I'm a little late with it, but Alex is up here visiting. (Alex is Hopeless Romantic here at RF... her stuff if great... GO READ IT!!) So far... we hung out with the boys last night, and then we hung around today, and we went to the tattoo shop and both got tattooes. Yeah, we've had a blast! *LOL*

So... that's all I have for the note on this one. I hope you guys enjoy it! I noticed that you guys have been nominating this fic for this round of the awards... Thank you all *SO* much! You rock!

ENJOY!

Chapter Eight

Liz paced the livingroom, seemingly unaware of all the people wandering around her house. Michael was filling up water bottles in the kitchen, Maria was sitting on the couch picking at the remainder of the nail polish left on her fingers from the last manicure she got, and the twins were wandering around the house, not really doing all that much.

“Why are you pacing like that?” Maria asked, never looking up from the daunting task of picking her polish. “Are you scared he’s not going to show up?”

“No, of course not.” Liz immediately replied. “I know he’ll show up. It’s the uncertainty of what will happen after he shows up that worries me.”

“Well, at least we know that Michael and Max get along.” Maria shrugged, trying to make the situation seem better.

“Yeah, well, it was never Michael that I was worried about.” Liz muttered, glancing up as Tristan wandering through the livingroom for the third time.

“Well, if you would quit making out with him all over the place and the boys would quit catching you...” Maria drew out.

“Hey, I’m not fifteen, ok?” Liz stopped pacing, pinning Maria with a glare.

“Whoa.” Maria held her hands up. “I’m on your side, hon. No need to flip out on me.”

Liz sighed, walking over to the couch and plopping down next to Maria. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

Maria gave up on her nail polish, and wrapped a comforting arm around Liz’s shoulder. “Why are you so freaked out about Max coming over?” Maria asked in a soft voice, going into Mommy-mode.

“I like him, Maria.” Liz said, leaning her head onto Maria’s shoulder. “I mean... I really, really like him. He’s fun, he makes me laugh, he’s considerate, he’s respectful, he isn’t scared away by the thought of my children...”

“He’s gorgeous, he has an amazing body...” Maria added.

Liz couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, that too.”

“I don’t see the problem, sweetie.” Maria shook her head slightly. “You like him, he likes you. Yay.”

“Yeah, I like him The twins... not so much.” Liz sighed, pulling her hair out of the elastic band that was holding it up. She ran her fingers through her hair a few times, then pulled it all back on top of her head, securing it in a messy knot. “I don’t think I’ve felt this way about a guy since Derrick.” Liz confided. “No, I know that I haven’t felt this way about a guy since Derrick.” Liz paused, a small smile appearing on her lips. “I’d almost forgotten what it felt like.” She whispered.

Maria wrapped her arms around Liz, giving her a comforting squeeze. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, Liz.” Liz scoffed in response. “No, it will. Once the boys realize how happy he makes you, they’ll come around.”

“I hope so.” Liz admitted.

Tyler and Tristan, who were standing in the hallway, out of view from the livingroom glanced at each other, before motioning towards the stairs.

They silently made their way up the stairs to their rooms. They needed to have a little talk.

<center>****</center>

Max rang the doorbell, then took a step back, staring at Liz’s front door, waiting for it to open. He wasn’t sure why the door wasn’t already open when he pulled up, Liz always met him on the front porch after opening the front gate for him.

He gazed down at the tops of his tennis shoes, making a mental note to buy a new pair. He’d had this pair for a good two years, and after all that time running around the hospital in them, they were getting kind of nasty.

He looked back up when he heard the front door open, and his eyebrows drew together as Tyler and Tristan walked through the door, closing it behind them

“Hi, Max.” They greeted at the same time, while simultaneously crossing their arms over their chests.

Max let a smile creep across his lips. “Hey guys. What’s going on?” He asked, casually leaning against one of the columns that ran along the front of the house.

“We needed to talk to you real quick.” Tyler said, glancing over at Tristan who gave him a nod.

“Ok, before you do that... which one of you is which?” Max asked, glancing back and forth. They quickly let him know which of them was which. “Ok, Tyler’s in the black shorts, Tristan is in the blue.” Max nodded. “Got it. Carry on.”

They both stood for a minute, surprised at their reluctance to speak what was on their minds. Finally, Tyler couldn’t take it anymore. “When are you planning on walking out?”

Max remained silent, glancing from one, to the other. “You’re kidding, right?” He finally asked.

Tristan shook his head. “No, we’re totally serious. We want to know when you plan on walking away from all this.”

“From all what?” Max pushed himself off the column, and crossed his arms over his chest, tilting his head to the side to regard them.

“From this ” Tyler waved his hand around. “From our mom, from us, from our lives.”

“Before you say anything,” Tristan decided to add. “I want to know one thing.”

“And what’s that?” Max inquired.

“What do you want from her?” Tristan leaned back against the front door, glancing down for a second before looking back up. “Because if you’re just looking for a piece of ass, we’re going to kick your ass .”

“Funny thing.” Max said, pointing at Tristan. “Refer to her like that again, and I’ll be the one kicking some ass.”

Tyler glanced from Max, to Tristan, then back to Max. “You do realize that we’re not considered adults yet, right? And threatening us is probably not the best way to get us to like you. Not to mention the law has a little problem with it too.”

Max sighed, finally having enough. “You know, I’m a very patient guy, but I’ve had enough of this. I don’t need your permission to date your mother. Yes, it would have been VERY nice if you two wouldn’t hate me, but even if you do, it’s not going to scare me away. You’re not as intimidating as you’d like to think you are.”

“Oh yeah?” Tristan took a step towards Max, shocking the shit out of Tyler. It was always Tyler that was the confrontational one, and Tristan was the quiet one. The role reversal was slightly disconcerting to him.

“Yeah.” Max informed him, nodding. “And not that I believe it’s any of your business, but I’m not going to break her heart.”

“Yeah, we’ve never heard that one before.” Tyler mumbled.

Max ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “What do you two want from me?” He finally asked.

“If you aren’t planning on sticking around, walk away now.” Tristan warned him.

Max felt his mouth drop open, as he regarded Tristan with wide eyes. “Is he serious?” Max turned to ask Tyler, before turning his attention back to Tristan. “Are you serious?” After a beat of silence, Max turned in a circle, taking a deep breath. “You know what? This is ridiculous.” Max stared at Tristan for a minute before shaking his head. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Yeah? How’s that?” Tristan asked, taking another step towards Max.

“Has she said, or done anything to make you believe that I’m making her unhappy in any way?” Max asked. The twins reluctantly shook their heads, no. “So basically, we can deduce that I make her happy?”

“She may have said something to that effect.” Tyler shrugged a shoulder.

“And you want me to just walk away? You do realize that THAT would hurt her, right?”

“Look, all we’re saying is...” Tyler started.

“All you’re saying is that you don’t want me to break her heart.” Max interrupted. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“You’re telling us that after less than a week of knowing her, you’re confident that you’re going to be around forever?” Tristan asked, not believing it for a second.

“If she’ll let me.” Max confirmed. The silence after his statement was deafening. “Look, I know it sounds stupid, but... I like her. A lot. I knew it after spending ten minutes with her. Your mom is the kind of women that you don’t find that often. She’s one of the best people I’ve ever met. Period. And I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that she’s happy, and loved, and has anything she’d ever want... for as long as she’ll have me around.” Max stared between the two of them.

After a minute, Tyler and Tristan turned to look at each other, then both nodded over their shoulders. They each turned their back to Max, forming a little huddle and whispering to each other. Max bit down on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing at the whole thing.

“Ok.” Tristan said, both him and his brother turning around to face Max.

“Ok?” Max repeated.

“We’ll give you a chance. We’ll lay off you, and we’ll be nice and all that.” Tyler relented. “Just so you know, you only get once chance with us. Don’t fuck it up.”

“Your mother know you talk like that?” Max asked, unable to keep the smile off his face.

Tristan snorted a laugh at Tyler’s expense, and Tyler just rolled his eyes. “Shut up.” Tyler gave Tristan a shove, then looked at Max. “Don’t tell her I said that.”

“It’ll be out little secret.” Max whispered.

Both the twins let out a small laugh. “Ready for some PT?” Tristan asked Max as he turned to open the front door.

“PT?” Max shook his head slightly. “I don’t get it.”

Tyler laughed. “PT. It means Physical Training. God, Michael’s gonna have a blast with this.”

<center>****</center>

Liz almost tripped over her feet as she walked into the kitchen and found Max standing with Tyler and Tristan. The shock wasn’t really that Max was in the kitchen, because she’d been expecting him, the shock was that they were talking. More than that, they were laughing together, like they’d all been friends for years.

Max glanced over, then did a double take when he saw Liz standing in the doorway. He set down the glass of water he was drinking and made his way over to Liz. Once he’d reached her, he dipped his head down and gave her a kiss. “Hey.” He said, reaching out and intertwining his fingers with hers.

“H-Hi.” She stuttered, looking at him, then the twins. “What the hell is going on?”

“What’re you talking about, Mom?” Tyler asked, finishing his water and putting the glass in the sink.

“That better be making its way to the dishwasher in the next five seconds.” Liz shot him a look, to which he promptly picked the glass back up out of the sink and made his way over to the dishwasher with it. “And don’t give me that. What happened?”

“What happened with what?” Tristan asked, following Tyler over to the dishwasher with his and Max’s glass.

Liz sighed. “Something happened. I know it did. You two hated Max, and now... what? You’re best friends? I don’t believe it.”

“We just had a little talk.” Max explained, then quickly rushed on when Liz’s eyes grew wide and her head whipped where the boys were. “No, a good talk. They’ve realized that I’m not the Devil, and we’re all getting along just fine.”

“PT starts in one minute ” Michael’s voice suddenly boomed through the house. “ONE MINUTE GET OUTSIDE, NOW ”

The twins pushed off the counter and made their way towards the livingroom to go out back and avoid pissing Michael off. “You two better be on time.” Tyler warned as the boys left the room. “Don’t wanna piss off Sgt. Guerin.”

“Yeah, we’ll be there in a second.” Max called after him. When he glanced back down at Liz, she had a smile stretched across her lips. “You that happy to see me?” Max asked, wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Well, yeah.” Liz confirmed, bringing her arms up around his neck and stretching on her tip toes to give him a proper kiss. They broke apart when the need for oxygen became too great. “But also...” Liz managed once she’d caught her breath. “You managed to get them to like you.”

Max nonchalantly shrugged. “It was nothing.”

“Bullshit.” Liz immediately called him bluff. “Are you forgetting that you’re talking to their mother? I know them. I know it wasn’t easy, but you did it.”

“Kinda had to, right? I mean, it’s gonna be hard to be around here all the time if they hate me.” Max said.

“You’re gonna be around here ALL the time?” Liz asked.

“LET’S GO ” Michael yelled into the house again.

“WE’RE COMING ” Liz yelled back, letting out a sigh. “We better get out there.”

“Yeah, we’ll finish this conversation later. I have something to tell you, anyway. You still up for dinner tonight?” He asked, as he released her and the two began making their way to the backyard.

“Of course.” Liz smiled up at him as they made it outside.

“Glad you decided to join us.” Michael’s voice dripped in irritation. “Hop into formation.” Liz pulled Max over and stood him a fair distance away from her behind the twins and Maria. “Now.” Michael said, an evil smile appearing. “PUSH ”

<center>****</center>


Liz and Maria had, once again, given up on trying to keep up with Michael, who they suspected had seriously lost it.

They sat at the table on the back porch, each with their feet propped up on a chair, watching the twins, and Max, continue to work out. Liz couldn’t stop her head from lolling to the side as she watched him sit up, again and again. The guys had long ago discarded their shirts, and it was obvious that Max worked out quite a bit; not only from the way he was able to keep up with Michael with no problem, but by the way his body looked.

“Mountain Climbers ” Michael yelled. The minions gave up the sit ups, quickly flipping over into a push-up position and beginning to do Mountain Climbers, as he had requested.

“Liz?” Maria’s voice pulled Liz’s attention from Max’s body, over to where Maria was looking at her with a knowing smile. “I was asking you what had happened in there to make the boys so buddy-buddy with Max all of a sudden, but you obviously were busy.”
Liz sent Maria a half-hearted glare, then proceeded to lean over closer to Maria so they could talk more privately. “See, that’s the thing. I don’t have the damndest idea. They all acted like it was totally normal when I questioned them about it.”

“Which is obviously bullshit.” Maria added.

“Well, yeah.” Liz agreed. She righted herself in her chair, glancing back at the group. Max was still going strong, but Tyler and Tristan were slowing down. “I don’t know. I guess I should be happy about it, but it all seems too weird to me.” She sighed, grabbing her water bottle off the table and unscrewing the cap. “Max and I are going out to dinner tonight, I’ll find out then.”

Maria and Liz turned their attention back to the work out. It was pretty uneventful for a few minutes, as the guys continued to work out without protest. Finally, without any warning at all, Tyler jumped to his feet and started shouting. “We’ve reached the top of the mountain, Sir ”

Liz and Maria started cracking up. Max and Tristan had to stop doing their exercise in order to look up and watch the scene unfold. Michael stood in front of the group, his hands clasped behind his back, his mouth wide open. He finally closed it, only to open, and then close it again.

Tyler continued to stand in front of Michael, waiting to see what his reaction to the outburst would be. It took a good thirty seconds, and then Michael finally shook his head, lowering his gaze to look at the tip of his shoes before looking back up at Tyler. “In all my years...” He started, trying his best to hide the smile that was threatening to break across his lips. “Never have I heard such a thing.” He lowered his head, unable to keep himself from laughing any longer. He held his arms at his side and shrugged his shoulders. “Well, if you’ve reached the top of the mountain, I see no reason to continue working out.”

Tristan let out a quiet, “Thank you, God.” before collapsing onto his stomach. Max immediately popped up and walked over to the table where Liz and Maria sat.

He gave Liz a quick kiss before grabbing a water bottle off the table and taking a few sips. “Have fun?” Liz asked.

“Yeah, I did.” Max admitted.

“You’re weird.” Liz replied.

Max scrunched his nose up at her, smiling. “You like it.”

“Yeah, a little.” She confirmed.

“Ok,” Maria broke in. “Let’s not get too cutesy, ok? I’m sitting right here.”

Max laughed. “Won’t be happening. I gotta go.”

“Why?” Liz pouted.
“Well, we have a date tonight. I have to go take a shower and get ready.” He bent down, giving her one more kiss. “I’ll see you in an hour?”

“Sounds good.” Liz nodded. “I’ll walk you to the front door.” She started standing up.

“No, its ok.” He shook his head. “I can manage my way out. Just don’t sit there too long, I will be back in an hour, and I expect you to be ready.” He gave her a look that told her he meant business.

“And if I’m not ready?” She asked. “Is there a punishment involved?”

“Mom ” Tyler squeaked, from where he’d collapsed on the lawn not far from his brother. “We can HEAR you ”

A faint blush crept into Liz’s cheeks, only making Max laugh harder. He bent down, giving her another kiss. “Ok, I really am going now. Be ready, and try to be good.” He winked at her before making his way into the house to get to the driveway.

After a few minutes, Liz realized that she really did have to get up if she wanted to be ready on time. She dragged herself out of the chair and made her way inside towards the shower.

<center>****</center>

Liz set her fork down on her plate, pushing it away from her. She picked up her wine glass, taking a sip as she watched Max over the rim of the glass. He was still in the process of finishing his spaghetti, and Liz was amazed that he’d made it through the whole dinner without getting any on his shirt. She’d have to get him to teach the twins how to do that. Spaghetti sauce wasn’t the easiest thing to get out of clothes.

“So.” Liz started, setting her wine glass down and crossing her arms on top of the table. “What happened?”

Max finished chewing the spaghetti he had in his mouth, then took a sip of his ice water to wash it down. “With what?” He asked, when his mouth was finally empty.

“With what?” Liz mocked him. “With the boys. I know something happened. Please just tell me. I’m going to bother the crap out of you until you tell me.”

“Nothing major.” Max shrugged. “They threatened me, I threatened them. We ended up coming to a compromise. They understand that I don’t want to break your heart, and that I really do like you, so they said they’d lay off.”

“You threatened them?” Liz couldn’t stop herself from asking. That was definitely not something she was expecting. She wasn’t sure whether to smack him in the back of the head for threatening her children, or kiss him for being the only guy, ever, to get them to cooperate.

“Well, I threatened one of them” Max corrected, feeling as if that small detail made it better. “Tristan, I think it was, but he deserved it.”

“Tristan? He’s the good one ” Liz argued. “What’d he say?” She was almost afraid to know.

“It’s not important, honey. Don’t worry about it.” Max dismissed.

Liz couldn’t help smiling at him. “Honey? Are we already to the cute nickname stage? Because you have to inform me of things like that.”

“You don’t like being called honey?” He countered.

“Never said that.” Liz picked up her wine glass, unable to take a drink as her cell phone started going off. She winced. “I’m sorry... but with the twins...”

“It’s only normal that you’d keep it on.” He finished. “Go ahead and answer it. I ran out on our date the other night because mine rang. You’re just getting back at me.”

“You did do that, didn’t you?” She sent a pretend glare at him as she fished her phone out of her purse. “I’ll try to be quick.” She flipped open her phone, bringing it to her ear. “Hello?”

“Hi Princess.”

Liz couldn’t help smiling. “Hey Daddy Where are you?”

“Greece.” He answered.

“Oh, I love Greece ” Liz gushed. During the summers before she got pregnant with the boys, Liz would spend the three months off school roaming Europe with her grandparents. They’d go anywhere she wanted to go, on a whim. They’d always end up in Greece at least twice a summer. They’d go there, then Liz would decide she wanted to go to Paris, then after a few other stops, she’d decide she missed Greece, and they’d go back. She missed doing that.

“I know you do, Princess. And Greece loves you, too.” He told her. “Your mother and I are coming back into the States in three days. We have to make a stop in New York, and then we’ll be home. What are you planning?”

“Planning for...?” She tried getting him to elaborate. She couldn’t remember, for the life of her, saying anything about planning something.

“Your birthday. Don’t tell me you were going to try to get out of it.”

“Daddy, I’m not having a birthday party. I’m turning 35. There’s absolutely no reason for it.” She winced when Max perked up upon hearing that her birthday was coming up. She shook her head at him, he nodded. She sighed. She’d have to do something, after all.

“You have to have a party. We’re flying all the way into New Mexico from Greece, just for your birthday. Besides... we got you a bunch of stuff.”

“I don’t need a bunch of stuff.” Liz continued trying to get out of it. “I don’t want to have to plan a party, then celebrate the fact that I’m getting old.”

“Ok, first of all, you’re not getting old.. And second of all, if you and your mother still force me to have a party, then you’re getting one, too.” He went on.

“I’m not planning a party.” Liz put her foot down.

“Fine, then I’ll call Amy, get Maria’s number, and she can plan the party.” He found a way around her statement. “Either way, there will be one.”

Liz sighed. “Fine. Just be sure to inform me when it is.”

“Ok, Princess. I have to go, ok? I have a meeting in a few minutes, but your mother has been yelling at me for the past week to call and ask you, and I keep forgetting.”

“Wow, you forget to call me? Your only child? Daddy, I feel so loved.” Liz teased.

“That’s not what I meant.” Jeff sighed. “I have to go, honey. Tell the boys that their grandparents love em, and miss em, and hope they’re being good. Are they being good?”

“Yes, Dad. The boys are being good. I’m sure they’ll be super excited to see you.”

“Well, I’m super excited to see them.” He said, then yelled over his shoulder. “I really have to go now, I’ll call you back later this week, ok?”

“Ok, I love you.”

“Love you to the moon and back, Princess.” He replied. “Bye.”

“Bye.” Liz said, flipping the phone closed and shoving it back in her purse. “I’m really sorry about that.”

“Greece, huh?” Max commented.

“Yeah. Ever been there?” Max shook his head. “It’s amazing. You should go.”

“Just might have to do that. I’d need a tour guide though. Think you’d be free?” He smiled at her.

“For you? Always.” Liz heard herself reply before she thought much about it.

“So... were you going to tell me that your birthday was coming up?” Max asked, leaning forward in his chair.

“No.” Liz honestly replied. “I greatly dislike my birthday.”

“Everyone loves their birthdays.” Max argued.

“Not everyone. Women don’t like their birthdays after they turn thirty. They just don’t.” Liz informed him.

“Speaking of birthdays...” Max scratched the back of his head. “Isabel’s birthday is in two days... and I know I got her your book, but it doesn’t seem like enough, since she knows you, and I didn’t know that, because she just doesn’t like to tell me things like that, apparently.” He shrugged. “So, I was hoping you’d go with me tomorrow? Help me pick something out?”

“Of course.” Liz agreed. “I still haven’t gotten her anything anyway, so I needed to do that.”

“Good. That means you’re already going to her party?”

“Yeah. It’s at Alex’s house and it starts at seven.” Liz said, after searching her memory for a few minutes. She really did need to start using her palm pilot.

Max nodded. “Yup.”

“Oh.” Liz suddenly remembered something Max had said earlier. “Didn’t you have something to tell me? Earlier at the house, you said you’d tell me at dinner.”

“It’s nothing important.” Max brushed it off, picking up the dessert menu. “Let’s not worry about it now, let’s order.”

TBC...

(I know, I'ma bitch for leaving it there. *LMAO* See you all next week!)

Hey guys! You'll never believe it but... I'm back!!!! Please don't faint! *lol*

I wanted to thank you all for your patience and understanding with me. I know that I just kinda took off on you guys, but I promise that that won't happen again. I'm back, and this thing is getting finished.

While I don't have this finished, I am several chapters ahead, and I plan on trying to get it done soon... and I wanted to make Raychel feel better... so I decided to come out of hiding and dive back into this.

So... I'm going to be posting this every Tuesday, and 'For Better Or Worse: Take Two' will continue to be posted every Saturday.

This chapter... I don't really like all that much. I wrote it quite awhile back, and it went off in its own direction... but it is what it is... *lol* While some of the things going on in the beginning and middle of this may worry you... fear not, its all fixed at the end of the chapter. This fic is all fluff, people. Just keep that in mind.

Alright then. I'm shutting up. It's great to be back. Here we go.


Chapter Nine

“What did you end up getting Isabel for her birthday?” Maria asked, as her and Liz finished getting ready.

It was the night of Isabel’s party, which was being held at Alex and Isabel’s house. Isabel had insisted that it just be a casual get together, nothing big or fancy. She said she just wanted a nice get together with friends, family, presents and fun. Maria and Liz had both decided on a nice pair of jeans, a cute top and a pair of boots. They wanted to look cute, but they wanted to be comfortable.

“I went to Sephora, and I got her, like, the entire Jessica Simpson’s cosmetics line. She likes that stuff.” Liz said, fluffing her hair and doing a little turn in front of the mirror to inspect everything.

“You’re gonna meet the boyfriends parents tonight, aren’t you?” Maria secured her gold dangley earrings in her ears before turning to Liz. “You nervous?”

Liz sighed, turning to face Maria. “I don’t think Max is my boyfriend.”

“Oh, sure he is.” Maria waved her off. “You guys are always together, you’re absolutely perfect for each other... of course he’s your boyfriend.”

“I don’t know.” Liz walked over and dropped down onto her bed. “He’s been kinda distant lately.”

“Whoa, this is new information.” Maria hurried over to the bed and sat next to Liz. “Why didn’t I know anything about this? When did it start?”

“I haven’t seen him since we went shopping for Isabel’s birthday present.” Liz picked a piece of fuzz off the comforter. “He picked me up at like, noon... we went shopping, and then he immediately brought me back here. He told me that he had plans already, and that he’d call me later.”

“Well, that was only yesterday that you guys went shopping” Maria reasoned with her. “Although, I don’t like the cryptic phrasing of ‘he had plans’. He didn’t give you any kind of clue as to what he was doing?”

“None.” Liz ran her hands through her hair. “I’m being ridiculous, aren’t I? This is nothing. So he didn’t call me, big deal...”

“Whoa, whoa. He didn’t call??” Maria narrowed her eyes at Liz. “After he said he would, he didn’t?” Liz simply shook her head. “What the hell is his problem?” Maria mumbled, more to herself than anyone.

“It’s not like we were exclusively dating or anything.” Liz shrugged, trying to downplay the whole thing. “We just went on a few dates, no big deal.” She hoped she at least sounded like she didn’t care, even though it was killing her that Max might not be as interested as he had previously let on. Liz cursed herself for being such a hopeless romantic, for believing that this guy might be ‘the one’ and for letting herself care so much so quickly.

“Maybe he just got busy.” Maria tried to put a positive spin on it. “Besides, you’re going to see him tonight anyway. I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for his behavior. And if not, and he’s just being an ass... well, we’ll have Michael, Tyler and Tristan beat him up.”

Liz couldn’t help laughing at Maria. She was always there to make Liz laugh when she was bummed about something. “What would I do without you?” Liz pulled Maria into a hug.

“You’d probably be pretty damn bored.” Maria winked at her, then pulled her off the bed. “Ready? The boys are probably freaking out downstairs that we’re not ready to go yet.”

“Yeah, I’m ready.” Liz grabbed her purse off the dresser and turned the light off on the way out of her bedroom. Her and Maria made their way down the stairs and into the livingroom, where the boys were. All three of them were completely absorbed in a video game. “Wow. Thank God we got here when we did. You’re right, Maria. They’re freaking out.” Liz sarcastically commented, before walking over and turning off the Xbox.

“HEY!” The guys all yelled at the same time, dropping their controllers and throwing their hands up in the air.

“We have to go.” Maria hollered as she made her way to the entranceway of Liz’s house. “We’re going to be late. C’mon!”

“Yeah, it’s our fault that it took you guys so long to get ready.” Tyler grumbled, reluctantly pulling himself up off the couch. “Ya know, I don’t know why Tristan and I are being forced to go anyway.”

“That’d be like you guys not going to Maria’s birthday party.” Liz told them, grabbing Isabel’s present off the coffee table and making her way to the front door, the boys in tow.

“That’s totally different.” Tristan argued, pulling the front door closed and locking it. “We’ve known Aunt Maria since we were, like... two minutes old.”

“Yeah, you better recognize!” Maria yelled out the window of Michael’s truck.

“Aunt Maria, please don’t ever say that again.” Tyler scrunched up his nose. “HEY! If we have to go, why doesn’t Liv have to go?!”

“She is going.” Michael yelled out Maria’s window. The Guerin’s loved to yell. “We have to pick her up at home on our way over there. She had cheerleading practice earlier. Maria wanted to come get ready over here, so we left Liv at home to take a shower and get ready and all that stuff.”

“Well, go get her. We’ll see you there.” Liz waved at them as they started down the driveway. She unlocked the Jeep and the three of them all piled in.

“Still don’t see why we have to go.” Tyler muttered, crossing his arms over his chest.

Liz sighed putting the key in the ignition and turning the Jeep on before turning to the guys. “Look, I know you guys don’t want to go to some party with a bunch of people you don’t know... but Alex has been there for you two. Ever since you guys were little, and Alex started hanging out with Maria and I... he’s been there. When you guys were four, and got the chicken pox, and would eat NOTHING but McDonald’s Happy Meals, who made two trips a day to McDonalds?” Liz raised her eyebrows at them.

“Alex did.” They both answered.

“That’s right. Not Derrick, who was busy with college, I understand that, and I can’t be mad at him for it... well, yes I can, but I’m over that. ANYWAY! Alex did. Alex played daddy to both of you when Derrick wasn’t around, without anyone asking him to step into that role, and without any complaints. He loves you guys, you love him, and he loves Isabel. You guys like Isabel, too! I don’t see what the problem is!”

“It’s not that we don’t like her. It was never about that.” Tristan leaned forward from the backseat. “Its exactly what you said... I don’t want to go to a party with a bunch of people that I don’t know.”

“Well, part of growing up is doing things you don’t want to do.” Liz pulled on her seatbelt and put the car in drive. “You’re going. You will have a good time, and you won’t complain.”

The boys simultaneously sighed, but didn’t say anything else. Once they were well on their way, Tyler turned to look at Liz. “Are you gonna get drunk tonight?”

“I might have a drink or two.” Liz confirmed. “Why?”

“You’re funny when you’re drunk.” He simply stated, leaning forward to change the radio station, until Liz slapped his hand away from the radio. “I think you should get drunk. One of us can be the D.D.”

Liz laughed, shaking her head. “Stop trying to get your mother drunk. It’s weird.”

<center>****</center>

Liz didn’t bother ringing the doorbell once her and the boys got to Alex’s house. She been walking in without knocking for the past fourteen years, no reason tonight would be any different.

She had been surprised at all the cars in the driveway, and parked out on the street, seeing as how Isabel had said she just wanted something small. Liz glanced around, taking everything in. The house was beautifully decorated, no doubt Isabel’s doing. There were people all over the place, and music sounded through the house. It reminded Liz more of a party that she would have gone to back in high school.

Liz couldn’t help raising an eyebrow and scrunching up her nose as a group of three scantily clad girls walked past, giggling about something. She also wasn’t all that shocked when the twins glanced at each other and took off after the girls.

“Hey! Remember that you aren’t legal yet!” Liz yelled after them, sighing when they didn’t bother to acknowledge her.

“Liz! Hi!” Isabel appeared at her side, giving her a hug. “I’m so glad you could make it!”

“Like I’d miss it.” Liz smiled at her, handing Isabel her present. “Happy birthday.”

“Oh, thank you!” Isabel held the box up to her ear, shaking it. “What is it?”

“Telling you would kind of defeat the purpose.” Liz laughed. “You’ll just have to wait until later to find out.”

“It wouldn’t happen to be a copy of what you have written for the book you’re working on, would it? Because you know that if you ever need someone to bounce ideas off of, I’m always here.” Isabel smiled brightly.

“Sorry, hon. Not a book.” Liz laid a hand on Isabel’s arm. “However, I promise to get you an advanced copy of the one I’m working on when it’s finally finished.”

Isabel’s face lit up brighter than a Christmas tree as she let out a little squeal. “Yay!” She transferred the present to one arm, linking her other one through Liz’s. “C’mon. Let’s go get you a drink and find Alex. I know he was looking for you earlier.”

Liz walked alongside Isabel to the other side of the room, where Isabel dropped her present off on the gift table, which was already so full that things were being placed on the floor by the table. After that was handled, they made their way into the kitchen, where they had set up a bar, and had literally hired a bartender to take care of everyone.

Isabel and Liz both ordered a Sex on the Beach, then stood by patiently as the bartender prepared their drinks.
“So, is Max here?” Liz threw out, hoping to sound casual.

“Yeah, he’s around here somewhere.” Isabel glanced around before turning her eyes back to Liz. “What’s going on with you two? He’s been all weird the last two days. He gets up really early and leaves, and then he comes back late at night and won’t tell Alex or I where he’s been, despite the fact that he’s staying in our house.”

“I don’t know what’s going on either.” Liz admitted. “I was hoping to pull some information out of you as to why he’s being so distant. Apparently it’s not just me, though. I don’t know if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Isabel waved her hand dismissively. “Try to get some info out of him when you find him around here, and if you can’t get anything out of him, tell me and I’ll tell mom.” Liz choked on the drink that she’d been sipping through her straw. Isabel quickly gave her a few pats on the back. “Are you ok?” Isabel asked.

“Yes, fine.” Liz coughed a few more times. “I’m sorry... you’re going to tattle on him?”

“I can do that, I’m the baby of the family.” Isabel shrugged.

Liz shook her head, then spotted Alex in the other room. “Oh, there’s Alex.” Liz pointed. “I’m gonna go say hi to him, you coming?”

“No, I’m gonna go mingle, make sure everyone’s got a drink... you know, play the good hostess.” Isabel smiled. “I’ll catch up with you later, though.”

“Ok.” Liz nodded as her and Isabel headed in separate directions. She stepped down the two steps that led from the kitchen to the livingroom. Just as she was hitting the last stair, someone came around the corner and collided into her.

Hands reached out to steady her before she could fall, and thankfully, she had a firm hold on her drink. “Sorry.” She said, looking up at who she ran into.

“It was my fault, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” Max replied, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He gave her a small smile. “Hi.”

“Hi.” She replied, smiling at him, too.

They both stood, staring at each other as an uncomfortable silence settled between them. Liz was unsure what to say to Max after what had been going on the past few days. Max knew that he owed her an explanation for what was going on, but he didn’t have the heart to bring it up in the middle of the party.

He finally cleared his throat. “I gotta go find my parents, make sure they’re ok. Isabel’s friends are nuts, I don’t want them corrupting my poor parents.” He smirked a little. “I’ll come find you in a little bit, ok?” Liz knew a blow-off when one was given to her, so she simply nodded, glancing down at her shoes. “Ok, save me a dance.” He said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before heading off.

Liz looked up and let her eyes follow him as he made his way through the livingroom and finally turned to go into the other room, disappearing from her line of sight. She sighed, taking a large sip of her drink and heading towards the patio. She knew that she was originally going to talk to Alex, but after that run-in with Max, she needed some time to be alone.

<center>****</center>

Liz wasn’t sure how long she’d been outside, but she knew that she’d polished off her drink a bit before. Now, she was reduced to pushing the melting ice cubes around her glass with the straw. She knew she could always go back inside and get another drink, but she really didn’t want to risk running into Max again. Liz had wandered around the backyard for a bit before finally sitting down on a lounge chair near the pool.

“Is that seat taken?”

Liz glanced up, finding Alex standing over her, offering her a friendly smile and a drink. She smiled at him and scooted over a bit to make room for him. He handed her the drink he’d brought her, raising his at her before taking a sip.

“Thank you.” Liz said before taking a sip.

“What are you doing hiding out here?” Alex asked.

“Hiding from Max.” Liz honestly replied. Her, Alex and Maria had an unspoken policy, going back to when the first time they’d ever all hung out together. They simply didn’t hide things from each other. Liz knew absolutely everything there was to know about Maria and Alex, and they knew everything about her. There were no secrets between them, and Liz loved it that way.

Alex nodded, staring at the pool. “I figured as much. I saw the run-in earlier, it didn’t look like it went all that well. He’s been really weird around Isabel and I too, so its not just you.”

“Yeah, Isabel told me that.” Liz took another sip of her drink. “I just don’t get it.” She pushed the hair out of her face. “Do you think that I came on too strong? I didn’t mean to. I don’t think that I did anything too weird to scare him away.”

“I just said he’s been weird around here too.” Alex tilted his head at her. “Why are you trying to figure out what you did. It’s not you.”

“Maybe it is.” Liz tried to reason with him. “If it was something that I did, of course he’d be weird around you and Isabel. You’re one of my best friends. If it is something to do with me, and he told Isabel, Isabel would tell you, and you’d tell me.”

Alex sighed, putting his arm around Liz’s shoulders and pulling her into his side. “I just can’t believe he’s doing this.” Alex shook his head.

“It’s not like we were engaged or anything.” Liz went back to that angle. “We only went on... what? Three dates?”

“Liz, this is me. Stop trying to downplay the whole thing. I know this is hurting you.” Alex bluntly told her. Liz didn’t reply, simply nodded her head against Alex’s shoulder. “So, are you going to hide out here all night? I heard Maria and Michael come in when I was going out the back door.”

“You heard them?” Liz lifted her head and regarded him with an amused smile.

“You know those Guerin’s, they love to yell.” Alex laughed a little before standing from the chair and offering his hand to Liz. “Come on. Let’s go back inside. You can be my date tonight.”

Liz placed her hand in his, letting him help her up off the chair. Alex laced his fingers through hers as they made their way across the backyard. “Hate to break it to you, Alex... but I think you already have a date for tonight. You may have heard of her, her name’s Isabel. She lives here, you’re dating her, its her party...”

“Well, then, I have two dates.” He shrugged, opening the backdoor for her. “I’m big pimpin’ like that.”

“Liz! Alex!” They both turned at the sound of Maria’s voice, as she made her way through the crowd, holding her drink high in the air. Michael and Olivia followed close behind.

“Hey Maria.” Alex said, bending down to give Maria a kiss on the cheek before shaking hands with Michael. “Hey Liv.” Alex gave her a kiss on the cheek and a hug as well.

“Hey, Uncle Alex. Place looks great!” Liv spoke up to be heard over the music. She turned her attention to Liz. “Tyler and Tristan here?”

“You want someone your own age to hang out with?” Liz asked, smiling. Liv ducked her head a little, but nodded. “Honestly, I haven’t seen them since we walked in the door.”

She began scanning the crowd, as did the others that were standing with her.

“Oh, my god!” Maria screeched, a look of utter disgust on her face.

“What?” Liz asked, afraid to know what caused that reaction. “Do I even want to know?”

“No, you REALLY don’t.” Maria confirmed. “I did find the boys, though.”

Liz’s head automatically turned to where Maria had been looking earlier, her mouth dropping as she saw the twins grinding out on the dance floor with two girls who were definitely older than them.

Liz made a move, prepared to haul ass across the room, pull those skanks off her little boys and then beat them to a bloody pulp, but Michael wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her back. “Easy, Tiger.” He kept a good hold on her. “Let me go handle this, ok?”

“Screw that. You’ll be all nice and shit.” Maria squared her shoulders, then started walking towards the twins. Due to the fact that Michael was still holding Liz, he was unable to grab her too.

Maria calmly walked up to Tyler and the girl he was dancing with, tapping the girl on the shoulder. She reluctantly turned her head to look at Maria, giving her a dirty look. “What?” She barked.

“First of all, don’t take that tone with me. I hadn’t even opened my mouth and you are already being a bitch. Not a good thing.” Maria told her.

“Look, go find your own guy, ok?” The girl said, turning back to Tyler, who, by the look on his face, knew he was in big trouble.

“Ew.” Maria shuddered. “Like I’m coming over here to dance with him. Please. How old are you, anyway?”

The girl raised an eyebrow at her. “Why do you care?”

“I care because that’s my nephew, and he’s seventeen.” Maria ground out. “Now, I would advise that you get the hell off of him, and walk away before my husband releases his mother and she comes over here and beats you senseless.”

Maria didn’t give the girl a chance to say anything, simply grabbed Tyler’s wrist and hauled him over to where Tristan was still dancing with this girl, completely oblivious to what had just happened.

Maria didn’t screw around with a bunch of small talk with this one. She simply wedged herself in between Tristan and his dance partner, pushing Tristan towards his brother.

“Hey!” The girl whined.

Maria growled before turning to face her. “You’re old, he’s seventeen and his mother is here and ready to murder you. Walk the fuck away!”

With that, she grabbed hold of the boys and started walking them over to where Liz, Michael and Alex were.

“God, embarrass us a little more, Aunt Maria.” Tyler complained.

“Oh, just wait until your mother gets hold of you. There are no words to explain how much she’s going to kick your asses.” The twins glanced at Liz, who was giving them a death stare. “You’re so screwed.” Maria couldn’t help but laugh. “So incredibly screwed.”

<center>****</center>

“I can’t believe this.” Maria laughed, taking a drink of her Screwdriver. “This is ridiculous. I have half a mind to go over there and yell at him, and half a mind to run and hide so he doesn’t try talking to me.”

Liz sighed, glancing over her shoulder. “I know, right? I can’t believe he did that! I can’t believe Isabel did that! This is ridiculous.”

Michael wandered in from the kitchen and over to Maria and Liz. “What are we looking at?” He followed their gazes, and it didn’t take him that long to figure out what they were looking at. “Is that Derrick?!”

“Yes.” Liz confirmed, turning back to him. “After Tyler and Tristan got in BIG trouble for being... well, them... they called Derrick to come and get them. When I informed Isabel of this, she wanted to meet him because she’s “heard so much about him”.” Liz raised her voice an octave, mimicking what Isabel had said earlier.

“This is ridiculous.” He sighed.

“That’s what we keep saying!” Maria agreed.

“No, you wanna talk ridiculous?!” Liz pushed him. She was one of those that the drunker they got, the more they hit you to emphasize something, or get your attention. Derrick arrived fifteen minutes ago, and Liz was on her second beverage since then.

“Hitting? Not necessary, but fill me in.” Michael said.

“Not only did Derrick show up, and talk to my friends, he brought Tess! She’s over there by the fireplace talking to Max... AND HIS PARENTS!”

“No!” Michael looked towards the fireplace to confirm this. “This is insanity!”

“I know! I’m supposed to be the one dating him. I’m supposed to be the one talking to the parents, but I’m not! SHE IS!” Liz went on. She knew she was overreacting to the whole thing, but the alcohol she’d ingested didn’t let her care too much.

She polished off her drink and headed back to the bar. After ordering her fifth drink of the night, Alex appeared at her side. He didn’t look all that happy.

“What’s wrong?” Liz asked, immediately reading his facial expression.

“What is that no good son of a bitch doing in MY house?!” Alex bellowed, making Liz jump. Alex NEVER raised his voice, especially at a woman.

“I assume we’re talking about Derrick.” Liz took her drink from the bartender, whom she’d recently became on a first name basis with.

“Yes, we’re talking about Derrick.” Alex lowered his voice slightly. He ran his hand down his face, glancing into the livingroom. “Not only is he in my house, he’s talking to my woman. Why? What is he doing here?”

“The twins called him I’m not sure exactly what they said to him, because he only got out, like, five words of the explanation for what the hell he was doing here when Isabel swooped in to talk to him. This is all Isabel’s friends fault. They’re sluts, you really shouldn’t let Isabel associate with them.”

“Just the models are sluts.” Alex tried sticking up for a few of Isabel’s friends. Isabel had modeled for about five years, but gave it up to move back home and be closer to her family. Now, she helped Alex with the restaurant, but remained close friends with the girls she used to hang out with.

“Anyway, they called him, he showed up, Isabel answered the door and they’ve been talking ever since.” Liz retold the story.

“That’s ridiculous.” Alex crossed his hands over his chest.

“That’s the general consensus.”

“Want me to make him leave?” Alex put his arm around her as they walked back into the livingroom.

“Yes, please.” Liz felt childish saying yes. “It’s not him, really. You know that I get along with Derrick, and I don’t really have a problem with him...”

“No, but I do.” Alex stopped walking and faced her. “Where was he when the boys were growing up? Who took care of them when they got sick because Derrick was too busy with college? Who gave them the sex talk because Derrick had taken a job in Chicago and was gone from the time they were nine until the time they were sixteen?” Alex ticked off on his fingers. “Oh, that’s right. I did that. Not him, me!”

“I know you did.” Liz wrapped an arm around his waist. “As I was saying though... it’s not him that’s bothering me.”

“Who is it? I’ll kick them right outta here!” Alex said, making Liz giggle a little. Alex was a lover, not a fighter. He didn’t look like someone that COULD be a fighter, but he was very protective of his friends, especially Liz and Maria.

“Derrick brought Tess with him. She’s over there talking to Max and his parents.” Liz tried to discreetly point her out.

“Ok, I’m putting an end to this.” Alex threw his hands in the air. “I’m just... they’re gone.”

Liz watched as Alex took off in Derrick’s direction. She made her way back to Michael and Maria and relayed to them what was going on. All three of them watched, completely enthralled in the situation.

Alex walked over to Isabel, possessively putting an arm around her and glaring at Derrick. They watched as Derrick gave Alex a smile and held out a hand for Alex to shake. Alex looked down at his hand, then back up at him and started talking.

Derrick dropped his hand, seeming confused by Alex. Isabel’s eyebrows rose as she looked from Alex to Derrick, unsure of what was going to happen. Alex pointed over to where Tess was, waved his arm in front of him and then pointed at the door before pulling Isabel away from Derrick.

Derrick scanned the room, his eyes landing on Liz for a second before he walked over to where Tess was. He said something to her, she gave him a look of surprise and then Derrick walked over to Liz. “We need to talk.” He said, looking upset.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you.” Michael stepped in front of Liz, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Who are you? Her protector? Get outta my way, Guerin.” Derrick tried to brush him off.

Michael took a step forward, ready to pounce, but Liz got in between them. “It’s ok, Michael. Calm down.”

Liz lead the way outside. Derrick, Tess and the twins followed. Before they got very far, Liz grabbed onto Tyler’s arm. “No, you’re staying.”

“They’re coming with me.” Derrick said, looking at the boys. “Go get in the car.”

“Get back in the house.” Liz sternly threw out immediately after Derrick finished his sentence. Before he had a chance to say anything else, Liz added another thought. “If you don’t go back in that house, I will drag you back in there myself.”

Tyler and Tristan glanced at Derrick before turning around and walking back into the house. The second the door closed behind them, Derrick launched into a rant.

“Where the hell do you come off undermining my parental authority?!”

“Oh, please!” Liz threw back. “You don’t HAVE any parental authority! You’re lucky they even call you ‘Dad’!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It means that you were never around, Derrick! Sure, when the kids were little, yeah. Once you got into college, we NEVER saw you! Did you know that there was a time when they were convinced that Alex was their father?! They even called him dad for a brief period of time.” Liz watched a look of hurt pass over Derrick’s face.

Derrick sighed, looking down at his shoes. “I had to go to college. I had to go and grow up and get an education to get a good job to try to support you guys.”

“What? And I didn’t have to grow up? I had to grow up at sixteen! I didn’t get to wait until college because I didn’t get to go. I grew up the minute that strip turned pink, Derrick. Yet, somehow, I’ve managed to be a pretty damn good mother, and get a good job to support my children.”

“You’ve said all this to me before, Liz.” He tried to de-escalate the situation. “We’ve been here before.”

“I recognize that tree.” Liz retorted, without any real humor behind her words. “Point is...”

“Liz? Are you ok?”

Liz glanced back at the front door, finding Max standing on the edge of the porch. Great. Just what I need. Another battle to fight. “Yes, I’m fine.” Liz snipped, looking away from him quickly. She raised her eyes to meet Derrick’s. “I’m sorry you had to come all the way over here.”

“I’m sorry that I came all the way over here.” He said, then realized how that sounded. “I should have known you had it all under control.” He let a small smile touch his lips. “You’re a wonderful mother, Liz. I don’t think anyone tells you that enough.”

“Thank you.” She gave him a genuine smile. “You better get going.” She hitched her chin towards something over her shoulder. “Malibu Barbie is getting impatient.”
Derrick laughed a little, shaking his head. He bent down to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Bye, Liz.” He turned around, heading over to Tess, and in the general direction of his car.

Liz turned back to the porch, surprised that Max was still standing there. She let out a sigh before she made her way to the porch. She went up the steps, and stood on the top one facing Max. “Finally decided to talk to me, huh?”

Max scratched nervously behind him ear. “Yeah, about that...”

“No need for explanations, I get it ok.” She cut him off, moving to walk around him and into the house. She really just wanted to save herself the humiliation, and save him the time.

“Whoa.” He reached out and grabbed onto her wrist. “You get what?”

“What you’re trying to do here.” Liz said, as if it were common knowledge.

“And... what am I trying to do here?” He looked around, confused.

“Break up with me in the nicest way possible.” Liz shrugged, trying to hide her hurt. “Don’t worry about it, ok? It’s no big deal.”

“WHOA!” Max grabbed her wrist again when she tried to walk away. “You think I want to break up with you?”

“Well, I’m not a rocket scientist. I didn’t go to college, or really finish high school, for that matter... but I have a little bit of common sense. I read the signs, Max. They’re all there.” She held up her hands, ticking them off. “You haven’t called. You haven’t stopped by. You haven’t even left any messages. You’ve avoided me all night, you haven’t introduced me to your parents...”

“I don’t want to break up with you.” Max shook his head.

“Well, then what the hell is your problem?” Liz threw her arms up in the air, causing some of her beverage to spill over the rim of her glass.

“I’ve had some stuff going on.” Max ran his hand through his hair, sipping on his Corona. “I just don’t know how to tell you about it.”

“You could try saying it.” Liz retorted. “You haven’t tried that yet, ya know.”

“Ok. Here goes.” He took a deep breath. “I’m moving. Transferring to a different hospital, actually. I’m moving out of Roswell.”

Liz stumbled back a step. She wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol, or the force with which that confession hit her. She was betting on the latter, though. “Moving?” She whispered.

He nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been looking into getting out of Roswell for awhile now. I finally found a good job at a hospital that I think will be a good environment to work in.”

“So... in moving away, you’re breaking up with me.” She deduced, taking a large gulp of her drink.

He simply shook his head. “No.”

“No?” She parroted. “Max, come on. Think about this.”

“I have.” He assured her.

“You’d figure it would be hard enough for the two of us to stay together if you were living and working in Roswell... you surgical people are ALWAYS on call. You couldn’t just come up here to see me!” She reasoned. “It’s gonna be even harder if you’re moving farther away.”

“Who said anything about farther away?” A smirk appeared on his lips.

Liz was so confused. She knew if she were stone-cold sober, she could keep up with this, but she definitely was not sober. She was well on her way to drunk, and confused as all hell. “So... where are you transferring to?” Needing him to spell it out for her.

“In two weeks I start working at the West Mesa Medical Center.” By the time the sentence was out of his mouth, a full-blown smile lit up his face.

It took a few seconds for Liz to catch on. “But... that’s here! That hospital is in Albuquerque!” She told him, as if he didn’t know.

He only laughed. “I know that. I’m moving here.”

“I don’t understand...”

“Well...” Max started. “My parents, and Isabel, are always yelling at me for being so far away, so a month or so ago, I made the decision to try to transfer here. That’s really what me coming up here this week was for. I was smart about it though, and took the week that was Isabel’s birthday, and a fringe benefit was that I met you and got to hang out with you this whole time.”

“So... you’re not breaking up with me? You’re moving closer to me?” Liz started smiling.

“Definitely not breaking up with you.” Max confirmed, pulling her into his chest and kissing the top of her head. “I’m sorry I’ve been so weird lately. I’ve had meetings at the hospital the last two days, and I didn’t want to have to tell you over the phone.”

“Now that I know why you did it... you’re almost forgiven.”

He pulled back and looked down at her. “Almost?”

“Well... you have ignored me the past two days... and I still haven’t met your parents...” She trailed off.

“I promise, I will make it up to you.” He bent down to seal his lips over hers.

She immediately opened her mouth to him, moaning slightly, and getting butterflies in her stomach.

After a few minutes, they needed oxygen and pulled away from each other. He looked down at her, smiling at how cute she looked all drunk and flushed. “And once we’ve calmed down, I’ll go introduce you to my parents.” He took the drink out of her hand. “But no more of that.”

“Deal.” She said, getting on her tiptoes to kiss him again. “So... since we had the whole ‘Are you breaking up with me?’, ‘I’m not breaking up with you.’ talk... that would lead one to assume that we’re dating... and we’re like, boyfriend and girlfriend...”

“That would be a reasonable assumption.” He agreed.

“So I’m your girlfriend.” She smiled up at him.

“And I’m your boyfriend.”

Liz resisted the urge to squeal. Instead she just giggled, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and snuggling her head into his chest. “My boyfriend is pretty.”

“Oh, honey, please don’t call me pretty.” He whined, before turning her and walking inside, their arms still tightly around each other.

TBC...