Katelin stood anxiously on Nick's doorstep after she rang the doorbell. She hadn't seen this house in so long. It was going to be so weird to be in it again. To be sleeping in the guest room. To know that Nick had another woman in his bed. All with their two-year-old son sleeping down the hall. She glanced back at the limousine sitting in the driveway, where the driver was unloading her luggage. Most of her belongings, except some of her clothes, had been shipped to Florida a few days before. She almost wanted to run back into the car and drive away. She loved her son. She really did. But she didn't know how she was going to deal with living with Nick and knowing that he was in love with someone else. Before she could do anything, the front door opened, revealing Lanie.
"Hi," Lanie greeted, as cheerfully as she could. She was nervous about this whole living situation. Especially since Lanie wasn't actually living at Nick's. She stayed over there often enough but her home was the beach house. They had never been ready to take that next step of moving in together. And now, if she brought it up to Nick, it would look like she only wanted to move in because she wanted to keep an eye on him.
"Hey," Katelin replied, softly, dropping her eyes to the ground.
Lanie opened the door wider. "Come on in. Nick is upstairs getting Aidan up from his nap."
"How is he doing?" Katelin asked, stepping inside the house. Nick, Aidan, and Lanie had returned to Florida a few days before Katelin arrived, in order to get Aidan settled in. They didn't want to have to deal with moving Aidan and Katelin in at the same time. Plus, Katelin still had a few loose ends to tie up in New York, such as dealing with the penthouse and saying goodbye to Adrienne. She had tried to convince Adrienne to come to Florida with her. To start over. But Adrienne was adamant about staying in New York. It was her home. It had been for her entire life. And she wasn't ready to let go of the life that she had with Mike yet.
"He's okay," Lanie replied, leading Katelin up the stairs. "He's adjusting pretty well. And he's getting pretty attached to Nick already."
Katelin nodded, glancing around the house. Not much had changed in three years. The decor of the house was pretty much the same. The dogs were a little bigger. And she could see traces of Lanie's stuff here and there. They reached the top of the stairs and Lanie led Katelin to a room towards the end of the hall, where Nick was getting Aidan dressed. She stood in the doorway and watched as father and son interacted.
"Ahem," Lanie cleared her throat.
Nick spun around at the sound of her voice. "Hey. We didn't hear you come in. We were just getting…" He trailed off, noticing Katelin standing behind Lanie. "I didn't realize you were here."
"Just got here," Katelin quietly answered. Her eyes dropped to the little blond-haired boy standing next to Nick. "Hi Aidan."
Aidan cowered behind Nick's leg, wrapping his arms around it. Nick untangled himself from him and bent down to his son's level. "It's okay, Aidan. You remember who that is? That's your mommy." He nudged his son towards Katelin and watched as Aidan tentatively took a step towards her. As soon as he reached her, she bent down and picked him up. "Hi honey."
"Hi mommy," he said softly.
Nick watched the two of them, fighting his own emotions, not noticing the way Lanie was staring at him. He cleared his throat and interrupted the moment so he could tell Katelin that he had invited everyone over that evening. "Do you mind if everyone came over tonight? I know you just got here and all, but I haven't gotten a chance to introduce everyone to Aidan. I wanted to wait until you were here."
Katelin smiled, cutting off his rambling. "That's fine, Nick. I just need to get settled in first."
Nick made a step towards the door and led her out of the room. "Come on. I'll show you your room." The three of them walked out of the Aidan's room, leaving Lanie standing there wondering what was going to happen in the coming months. In the back of her head, she knew that she shouldn't come between their family. But she wasn't prepared to give up the man she loves either.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
"So who's the lucky girl?" Krista asked, handing AJ a glass of water before she sat down across from him.
"Her name's Sarah," AJ replied. "She goes to grad school in Florida. I met her last summer."
"That's good," Krista said, softly. It killed her more than anyone would understand to know that. Until the moment she saw AJ outside of her apartment building, she had honestly thought she was over him. Now, she was starting to have second thoughts.
They both sat in silence for a few minutes, each thinking about one thing. What would have been. Finally, Krista spoke. "Do you ever wonder about…about what he'd look like now?"
"Krista…" AJ began. He always wondered about it. But, at the same time, he always pushed it out of his mind.
"I'm serious, AJ." She raised her eyes to look at him and he could see the tears beginning to form. "Don't you ever wonder? Would he look like you or like me? Would…." Her next words got swallowed up by an unexpected sob. AJ made a move towards her, his heart breaking at the sight of her crumbling in front of her. But Krista held her hand up to stop him. "Don't. I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen."
"Kris…" he tried, wanting to do nothing more than pull her into his arms and hold her.
"I'm sorry." Krista buried her face in her hands. "It's just that there was never any closure, AJ. Not with the baby. Not with you. I've just kind of pushed it all down until it was only a dull memory in the back of my head. But it's still there. And I don't think that it's ever going to go away." She raised her eyes to meet his, and saw nothing but confusion in them.
"Krista," AJ started. "I can't do this right now." He stood up and grabbed his coat. "I'm in love with someone else, whom I'm supposed to marry. Don't do this to me."
"AJ." Krista reached out to him, trying to stop him from walking towards the door. "Look me in the eye and tell me there's no chance for us."
AJ stood there for a minute, shocked by the fact that she had just said that. He didn't know what to do. He knew that if it wasn't for Sarah, he would have jumped at the chance to be with Krista again. She had left without warning three years ago. He had known that things were bad, but not that bad. But the fact that he was engaged was why he didn't go running into her arms at that very moment. He wasn't going to do this to himself again. He looked her straight in the eye. "I'm sorry, Krista. But there's no chance for us." Before she could react, he opened the door and practically ran out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Brooke and Alyssa pulled into the driveway and parked behind Lanie's Jetta. "I guess Lanie has been here for awhile," Brooke commented as she cut the engine. They both got out of the car and walked towards the door of the house. "Is Kevin meeting you here?" Alyssa questioned, reaching over and ringing the doorbell.
"Yeah," Brooke replied. "He should be here soon. It looks like we're the first one's here."
They waited in silence for a minute before Lanie answered the door. "Hey guys!" She greeted cheerfully, grateful for people she knew to show up. She was getting antsy hanging back by herself and watching Nick and Katelin interact with their son. "Come on in."
"What's going on?" Brooke asked, stepping into the foyer.
"You're about to find out," Lanie replied, leading the two girls into the living room.
"Oh my god!" Alyssa shrieked, running over and pulling Katelin into a hug. "I can't believe you're here! What are you doing here?"
"Hey!" Katelin laughed, returning Alyssa's hug. "And this is why I'm here." She pointed to the little boy sitting on the couch next to Nick.
"Who the hell…" Alyssa trailed off, noticing the striking resemblance the little boy had to both Nick and Katelin. "Are you fucking kidding me?"
Nick laughed. "Watch your mouth, Lyss. And this is Aidan. Aidan, this is Alyssa."
"Hi," Aidan stated softly, not making eye contact with anyone in the room.
"He's a little shy," Katelin pointed out. She reached out and grabbed his hand. "Come on Aidan. Let's go get some juice." Aidan, gladly, grabbed his mother's hand and followed her into the kitchen.
Before Brooke could corner Lanie, they all heard the front door slam and the sound of feet running through Nick's house. "Where's my best friend and my favorite new nephew!" Ang's voice rang out.
"Right here." Katelin stuck her head out of the kitchen and squealed when she saw Ang. "Hi!!!" The two best friend's embraced each other tightly, Katelin's eyes tearing up in happiness about being reunited with Ang.
Ang was the first to pull away. "So where's this adorable little boy that I need to meet."
Katelin stepped back and bent down to Aidan's level. "Honey, this is your Aunt Ang. Ang, this is Aidan." She watched, grinning widely, as Ang bent down and pulled Aidan into a hug, noticing Nick walk up to her. "I think this is all so overwhelming for him," she whispered. Nick nodded, trying to keep his eyes off of her but finding that it was so hard to do. When Katelin didn't get an answer, she glanced up at him. "Don't you think?"
Nick snapped out of his trance. "Oh yeah. Yeah I do. He probably won't remember any of them anyway."
From the other side of the room, Brooke watched as Lanie stared at Katelin and Nick talking to each other. "How are you doing with all of this?"
Lanie sighed. "Honeslty?" Brooke nodded. "I don't know how the hell I'm going to deal with this. It's been only a few hours and I already want to rip my hair out." She led Brooke over to the nearest couch and sat down. "She's just so unbelievably…I don't know…It's not that she's unbelievably nice because I know some of the shit that she's put him through in the past. Especially the fact that she didn't ever feel the need to tell Nick about Aidan. But then I also can't help but feel bad for her because of everything her father put her and Nick through. No one deserves that."
"Lanie, you have to talk to Nick about some of this," Brooke advised. "Don't assume that he knows what you're going through. He's so wrapped up with having Aidan that he's not thinking about anything like that. You're the one that needs to bring all of this up."
"I know," Lanie's shoulders slumped. "It's just that, when all's said and done, I'm always going to wonder if I'm going to be the one left out in the cold."