A/N: I don't own it; I love my reviewers.

Chapter Seven: You Just Have to Be Lucky

"Your heart just breaks, that's all. But you can't judge, or point fingers. You just have to be lucky enough to find someone who appreciates you."

-Audrey Hepburn

I got the job in New York and moved in with Wally, Liz, and Penny while I looked for a place of my own. I had no intentions of staying with Wally and company any longer than necessary. There was something going on between Wally and Penny and I didn't like it. I didn't want to be around to watch my dad be an idiot or make a mess out of his life. I'd already done enough of that with my own life and with other people's lives. Now I wanted a calm, normal life. I just wanted to teach and write my book and start my life anew. I wanted to take risks and be the woman my mom would have wanted me to be. And after my fight with Alex on the way to the hospital, I was determined to restart my life and become a better person.

And Liam Walters had arrived in New York a few days before me. He had met up with my family and was sucking up to them in a big way. He was always coming over for dinner and telling my sister how beautiful she was. He would spend hours watching my dad's movies with him. He even watched some of Liz's movies with her. And Liz's movies are horrible. They're the kind of movies that are only aired at two or three in the morning. They have names like The Attack of the Mutant Martians. And they're horrible; I've watched all of them at least once to make my sister happy but it's not like I watch them all the time. Liz, on the other hand, loves to watch them as a reminder of her "promising acting career." I could see Liam playing my family but they refused to see it. They loved being adored and worshipped like that. My father had been something in Hollywood once. But while Harrison Ford had been able to keep his star-power, Wally Eliot's star had faded. He had fallen to the level of made-for-TV movies and appearing on Biography Channel specials to talk about his memories of his former friends like Harrison Ford and Warren Beatty. But while he never saw Harrison or Warren anymore, he still thought they were his friends. He sent them Christmas cards every year with long detailed updates about his life and Liz's life. But they never replied except with the standard impersonally autographed cards that all celebrities had their people sent to anyone who wrote them a letter. And Dad kept thinking that these people were his friends.

The second night I was at my dad's place, they had Liam over for dinner. They were calling him Eliot and Liz was flirting with him. From the minute he walked in the front door of their Manhattan brownstone, he had Liz's right hand in his hands and his lips pressed against it as he breathed, "Miss Eliot, it is a pleasure to see you."

Then he did the same thing to Penny. And then he saw me. "Why, who is this vision? Uncle Wally, you didn't tell me that you had another daughter who looked like a goddess."

I didn't think I looked like a goddess; I had pinned my hair up a bit with barrettes and I was wearing a simple gray skirt with a purple top that Liz had approved. I might have looked passable but I wasn't a goddess. "I'm just Anna," I said softly, hoping to take that angry look off my older sister's face as Liam/Eliot stared at me.

"You aren't just anything," he replied. "I've known that since I met you in Chicago. And how did your visit to Chicago end? I heard from your dad that one of the girls you were with was injured. How is she doing?"

"Let's go in for dinner," my older sister said stiffly. "It's all ready for us and I don't want it to get cold."

But when we sat down around the dining room table, Eliot managed to maneuver his way in between my dad and me. And then he sat there and talked to me throughout the whole meal. He ignored my sister and Penny despite their constant interruptions and attempts to keep his attention focused on them. "You have two little girls, and I have two little boys," Penny announced at one point. "We should have them play together sometime. I bet they would love each other."

"How old are your boys?" he asked.

"Nicolas is three and Eli is five," she replied. "They're with their father and his new girlfriend for a few weeks."

"Interesting, Maddie is four and Alexis is three," Eliot replied. "They're currently at my apartment with their nanny."

"We should have them play together some time."

Eliot nodded before turning back to me. "So how is that girl who was injured during your trip to Chicago? I heard from a friend that it was pretty serious."

I nodded. "She's still in the hospital. The doctors said it was a closed head injury. Her parents and her older brother and sister are with her, taking care of her."

Charles and Alicia had flown to Chicago as soon as they heard about their daughter's accident. And Alex had flown back to Los Angeles and was subletting my old apartment. I sold him my furniture because I didn't want to pay to drag it across the country; it would be cheaper to replace it when I moved into a new apartment. I didn't mind helping Alex; he wanted to move to get away from the Musgroves, especially Gretchen. And that was something that I supported. Also, his sister was reading my manuscript over for me to help me figure out a good ending to the story. Sophia had mentioned to me that she might ask Alex to look over the story for some male input. It was an interesting idea to have Alex read the story that was a thinly veiled story of our romance. And I think he might see through the things I changed. Gregory had blue eyes instead of Alex's amazing brown eyes. I couldn't have written about those eyes. I spent too much time loving them. It hurt too much to write Gregory as a guy with brown eyes.

So I gave Gregory blue eyes. It wasn't anything major but I didn't want Meghan and Gregory to have the same color eyes. Giving Meghan my green eyes, that really wasn't a huge deal for me. But it was harder for me to give Gregory Alex's eyes. I loved Alex and while writing that story did help me exorcise some demons from my past, I wasn't quite ready to pour my broken heart out to the whole world. There were some things I just didn't want the whole world knowing about myself. Most people who read the book would probably never know that it was autobiographical. But I would know. And there had always been a chance that one day Alex would see it while browsing through a bookstore and pick it up because it had my name on the cover. If he read it, he would probably see the connections and correlations between our relationship and the relationship in the book. And now he was reading it over. He was helping his sister decide which ending would be better for the book. And I was very curious to see how he would react to the book. I had filled it with snippets of famous poems, partially to annoy him. I love poetry and Alex made fun of me for that relentlessly when we were together. For example, I love Tennyson but Alex always made fun of me for it. He told me that if I didn't watch out I was going to end up like Emily Dickinson. Maybe someone should have told him that threat isn't funny. I don't sit in my attic all day wearing white dresses and writing poetry. My bedroom in Wally's brownstone is in the attic, which is not cool, but hopefully, I'll be able to find a new place soon. I'm teaching at a small private school in Manhattan, which should be quite a change after teaching in a public school in the intercity of Los Angeles for the past several years.

But it will be a good teaching experience for me and the money is good. With my signing bonus and the money I'm getting from Alex for my furniture, I'm planning to find myself a small studio apartment near the school. That way, I won't need to buy a new car or anything. And what am I doing with my old car? I'm selling it to Ben Musgrove. He needs a car and I don't need a car anymore. Moving to New York really is what I told Alex it would be. It's a new start for me. I'm being forced to purge my life and start over in a new place. It's good for me. Alex might not like where I went for this new start, but it was going to be good for me.

I'd been in New York City for about two weeks when I got a phone call from Natalie Palmer. She was back in Los Angeles after her sister's wedding. "The wedding was great," she said. "Melissa was gorgeous and you could tell she and Greg are in love. Oh, and Greg's brother told me that you met him in Chicago."

"Oh, yeah," I replied.

"Don't get me wrong; Ben's a great guy, Anna. But don't go down that road. He's been through a lot and he's…"

"Kind of morbid?" I suggested.

"Exactly," Natalie's cheerful voice said. "And anyway, I'm not sure he's your type; you need someone who is more cheerful and energetic."

"Do you have any suggestions?" I asked.

I heard a sigh that I knew meant something was coming. "You know that Andrew is still single."

Andrew was Natalie's older brother; he was two years older than us and I'd met him a few years earlier. He was extremely good-looking and a sweetheart. But Andrew was too good for me. After turning down Alex Wentworth, I didn't deserve a guy as amazing as Andrew Baker. Andrew is also devoutly Catholic, much like Natalie and Mike, and I'm not. My mom was Catholic but once she died, that part of our lives kind of died. If I'd married Alex, I probably would have become Greek Orthodox because he was. For Alex, being Greek Orthodox is an intricate part of his personality. He goes to church every Sunday because he wants to. Whoever he marries will have to become Greek Orthodox and that's one reason I'm not sure he could ever really make things work with Gretchen. But I haven't darkened the door of a church since we broke up, except for a few family weddings and funerals. Andrew, on the other hand, darkens the door of a church at least once a week, usually more than that. And I'm just not sure that I could spend the rest of my life with someone like that. It's good for him, but I'm not sure that it would be good for me.

"Natalie, we've been through this before. I'm just not sure that Andrew is my type."

"You two have more chemistry than a high school chemistry lab," she replied. "And unless you are going back to that guy you dated in college, there's no one I know of who would be better for you."

"Here's the thing," I told her. "Do you remember hearing about my second cousin, Liam?"

"Yes," she said slowly.

"Well, he asked me out like two days after I got here and we've gone a couple of dates since then."

"That's gross," Natalie replied. "He's your cousin."

"Second-cousin, once removed," I corrected.

"What would you tell me if I started dating my second cousin, once removed?"

"Natalie Rose, you're a married woman!"

"Forget about that. Let's just pretend that we were both single and my second-cousin, once removed asked me out. What would you say to me?"

"I'd probably be pretty grossed out; I was grossed out when Liz was dating Liam a while back."

She sighed. "So why exactly are you dating this guy?"

"I like him!" I protested. "And his daughters are adorable."

"He has kids? How old is he?"

"A couple years older than I am," I told her. "His daughters are three and four."

"Got it," she replied. "Well, Andrew is two years older than you and has no baggage. He also has a PhD in English and a professorship at Ohio State. He could definitely afford a wife and family."

Andrew Baker is once again proving himself to be perfect. I got my master's degree in English, from the Ohio State University. And while I might deny it to Alex, I do have friends there and the Baker family is like a second family to me. Living near them again would be wonderful. But I'm not good enough for Andrew. And he's very Catholic, which I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with. I think he'd end up making me feel like a horrible person or something. And that's not really a feeling I want to live with for the rest of my life.

About a week later, I found a small apartment I liked near the school where I was working. I asked Natalie to go over to my old apartment and ship the boxes of my clothes, dishes, and other personal effects to me in my new place. When I talked to her, she was less then three weeks away from her due date and told me that I'd either have to wait a while or I could talk to Alex myself. I reluctantly picked up my phone and called Alex Wentworth. Mercifully, I got his voicemail and just left him a short message explaining my situation and promising to pay him back for postage.

I didn't hear from him for at least a week afterwards; I also didn't receive any packages. So I started to worry that either his cell phone was dead or he was being the ultimate jackass and just refusing to do me a simple common courtesy that had been part of our agreement when he started subleasing my apartment. But then, I got a phone call from Mike Palmer saying that the baby had been born. They'd had a baby boy and named him Stephen Michael Palmer, after his maternal grandfather and his father. He promised to email me pictures of the little darling as soon as possible. But his main purpose in calling was this: Natalie wanted me to be little Stephen's godmother but in the Catholic Church, the godparents are supposed to be members of a Catholic parish and they are supposed to have received the sacrament of Confirmation. Natalie wasn't sure if this was true for me or if I was willing to be the little guy's godmother at all; but they figured it was worth asking.

This was a hard choice for me. I had been confirmed at age twelve, shortly before my mother's death. It was a decision made to appease my mom and my grandmother. But I wasn't sure I was the best person to be someone's godmother especially when Natalie had six younger sisters, all of whom were better Catholics than I was. So I refused although I was glad that they asked. It let me know that I mattered to Natalie and Mike.

Three days after Stephen Michael Palmer was born, Alex finally called me back one day while I was at work; but he did leave me a message on my voicemail. "Hey, Anna, it's me, Alex. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you but I've been really busy at the hospital. I guess that's what happens when you stop messing around with girls and start actually focusing on your life as a pediatric neurologist. Anyway, I'm going to ship all your stuff to you as soon as possible. I just need your address in New York, so call me back or email it to me when you get a chance and I'll get your stuff to you."

So I called him back and left him a voicemail with my address. It seemed like we were keeping completely opposite hours. And that was okay with me. I didn't care what he was up to; I just wanted my stuff back. A week and a half later, ten packages arrived on my welcome mat addressed in Sophia's neat, precise handwriting. Inside one of the boxes was a note written in Alex's horrible scrawl. Even after eight years, I could still make it all out. Sophia had once told me that after being his sister for twenty-eight years, she couldn't read his handwriting. I dated the guy for two years and I could still decipher his handwriting eight years later. I was officially pathetic.

The note was just a simple note saying this was everything that he had found in my apartment. If he found anything else, he'd either send it to me or have Sophia bring it to me in person. Apparently his sister was coming to New York to meet with her editor at some point towards the end of November or the beginning of December. She was actually in New York around the time I got the packages. She gave me a call and we met up for coffee. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to talk because we met up on a Friday afternoon. I'd worked until four that afternoon and I had a date with Liam that night at six. We were taking Alexis and Maddie out for dinner and then going to watch a movie with them. Liam let me call him that but he insisted on being Eliot everywhere else. Liz was pissed off as all hell at me for "stealing her man" despite the fact that whenever Alexis and Maddie were nearby she was whining and moaning about those "stinky, obnoxious little brats." But she wanted to marry Liam/Eliot because he had money, he was attractive, and he was set to inherit Kellynch when my dad died. He also owned houses in places like Paris and that was irresistible to her.

Sophia didn't say much about life back in Los Angeles although she did mention that she wasn't quite sure what was going on her brother's love life. But it looked like Gretchen Musgrove was getting really serious…about someone; she wasn't exactly sure who the "lucky man" was. I didn't think that Alex and Gretchen were still together but maybe they were. Or maybe she was with someone else. I had no clue; all I knew was that she was definitely one of those girls who always had to have a boyfriend. Sophia was very interested to hear about things with Liam and she was far less critical of the fact that he was my second cousin, once removed than Natalie. "Well, it's not the most frequently seen thing in the world," she said. "But it is cute. And I bet you two make a great couple."

I smiled. "I love his little girls; they're such sweethearts. And they're so spoiled; they just need someone who loves them in their lives. They really are the stereotypical poor, little rich girls."

"I bet you can relate to them really well," she said. "After all, you lost your mother when you were young and they lost their mother."

"Well, I was about ten years older than they were when Rebecca died."

"But you can relate," Sophia said. "After all, you've written books for children who've lost their parents."

"Sophia, I'm dating their father; I'm not trying to rehabilitate the kids."

"Anna, think logically. If you marry this guy, you're going to have to deal with this for the rest of your life. Those kids are going to need a mother figure in their lives and if you marry their dad, that's going to be your job."

"I know that," I told her. "I'm willing to be their mother but I'm not quite sure that Liam is really looking for a wife or a new mother for his kids. Rebecca died about a year ago; I'm not sure he's ready to settle down just yet."

"Then what is he looking for? Is he just using you for fun?"

"He's not using me!" I protested.

"Are you sure? This really sounds like you're the rebound girl in this situation."

All through that evening, all I could think about was Sophia's suggestion that I was the rebound girl. I had a great time with the girls but every time Liam touched me or looked at me, the words "rebound girl" ran through my mind. But then I remember that Liam had married Rebecca for her money. And eight years earlier, he'd dated my sister trying to get access to my dad's wallet. What did he want from me? Was it just to ensure his claim to Kellynch and my dad's other properties? Or did he think that because I was a writer I might have some money? I didn't have anything he could want. What did he want from me? Sarah Russell had once told me that she was convinced that Alex was only dating me for my family's money. But that couldn't have been true. Alex was better than that. Unfortunately, I was related to some self-centered rich people who thought that everyone wanted to be them or steal their lives.

Sarah arrived in New York at the beginning of September. She was appearing in a revival of You Can't Take it With You that was opening towards the end of October. She took up residence in a brownstone near Wally and Liz's place. Her purpose, supposedly, was to keep an eye on Liz although from what she told me, it sounded more like she was supervising Wally and Penny than Liz. Penny was, apparently, very interested in trying to seduce my father. She was always doing things for him and talking to him and touching him. "And she wears such whorish clothes," Sarah ranted as we talked on the phone one Saturday in mid-October. "Anna, I'm not sure she was wearing a bra when I had them over for dinner last night. She was wearing this really low-cut top and then the back was low too. I'm not sure how she could have gotten a bra under that thing."

"Don't worry about it, Sarah," I told her.

She sighed. "But what about Eli and Nicolas? She's a mother; she should be responsible. What are people at their school going to think if she shows up looking like a hooker? And she's throwing herself at your father. Doesn't she know that it makes her look like a whorish gold-digger?"

"Why do you keep using the word 'whorish' to describe her?" I asked. I was sitting on my bed with my cat and wearing my pajamas; it was a little after noon. Liam was picking me up in less than two hours to go to Central Park with him and his little girls. And I still needed to shower and get dressed. But Sarah wanted to talk and I was having a hard time getting her to understand that I had other things to do beside listen to her rant about her awful dinner with my family the night before. And by the way, she hadn't even invited me to that dinner.

"She's a tramp, Anna! She was stroking your father's leg last night, during dessert! She's thirty and he's sixty; he's old enough to be her father. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Wally is an adult," I told her firmly. "He can make his own decisions. He picked out his own wife the first time around. Can't you trust him do make a good decision now?"

"He drove himself into bankruptcy and had to rent that gorgeous house that he and your mother built together to those Crofts. She's a writer and he was in the Navy. And he's got to be thirty years older than her; that's such a huge age gap. But your father doesn't know how to make decisions. He married your mother because she was pretty. He didn't know what he had in front of him. He never does. Look at the way he treats you. He ignores you and neglects you. He should try to treat you the way I do."

"And what do you do?" I barked, interrupting her for the first time in my life. "You forced me to break up with the only man I've ever loved."

"What about Eliot Walters?" she asked. "You two seem to have something great going on."

"But I don't love him," I replied. "I might have feelings for him; I enjoy spending time with him. But I don't know that I love him."

"But if you gave him time, you could fall in love with him and marry him. It would be great. Those poor little girls would finally have a mother. And you'd be a much mother to them than his first wife was."

"Sarah, I loved Alex Wentworth!" I yelled. "I wanted to marry him and he wanted to marry me."

"You were too young to know what love is."

"How the hell do you know that? I was almost twenty years old. We had been together since the beginning of our freshman year of college. And we were planning on getting married until we graduated from college. I was going to Northridge and he was going to stay at Berkley. We would finish our degrees, get married, and have a great life together. And then you and Wally convinced me to end our relationship because he wasn't good enough for me. Well, I've got news for you. Alex was good enough for me. He did love me; he wasn't just trying to get our family money. He wanted me for who I was. He loved me and he wanted to marry me. And you ended that."

"But you were young and he was poor," she protested.

"And he loved me. Sometimes, you have to realize that love is more important than money. I know that; I learned that. When will you learn that?"

"You can have love and money! Give Eliot a chance and you'll see that."

"His name is Liam!" I yelled back. "He just goes by Eliot to remind Wally that they're related."

I finally got rid of Sarah and took a shower. Liam picked me up at two and he had his little girls with him. After he kissed me on the cheek, I kissed Maddie and Lexi each on the cheek. "Are we ready to go to the park?" I asked them, picking Lexi up and settling her on my hip.

"We're not going to the park," Maddie said sadly. "Daddy says that Lexi and I are going to play with his friend's children while you go do dolt things."

"Like what?" I asked Liam.

He raised his eyebrows and smiled. "You'll just have to wait and see. It's a surprise."

"Where are the girls going?"

"To play with Penny Clay's boys," he replied. "I was talking to Penny the other day and she mentioned that her boys were home now. And I thought it would be great for all the kids. If I marry you and she marries your dad, it will be great for the kids to get to know each other now."

"Oh, okay," I said. I wasn't sure I wanted to marry Liam and I knew I didn't want my father to marry Penny. If I was honest with myself, I wanted to marry Alex.

But back in reality, I had a book to finish. Before I could finish it, I needed to know how it would end. And I wasn't sure how things were supposed to end for Meghan and Gregory. I could give them a happy ending together or I could give them the same ending that Alex and I had.

A/N: Please review! I will keep putting excerpts from the story about Meghan and Gregory in the story; it will become clear who they are as their story goes. And I might post it as its own story; I'm not sure.