Notes: We're back to LA folks! Thanks for the continued reviews and reads :D
Sharon sighs as she sits down at the table across from Andy. The kids were finally down in bed after a long day of jet lag, and it was the first time they were going to be able to address the $250,000 elephant in the room. She pulls the check out of her purse and grabs their account ledgers before looking at Andy.
"You sure you want to do this right now?"
"I think it would probably be best," Andy says, leaning his head on his hand as she opens the books.
"Okay," Sharon nods, "I'll go to the bank tomorrow and get this deposited. I think the first obvious thing we should do with it is pay off the house. That puts a dent in about half of it. We can pay off both of the cars…that's another fifteen gone…"
"You don't have to use this to pay off my debt," Andy says with a shake of his head.
"At this point it's all pretty much our debt isn't it?" Sharon says as she flicks her eyes up at Andy, "Especially if we're going to get married at some point."
"I don't want to take advantage…" Andy shrugs, "You spent a lot of money putting Jack through law school and…"
"You're not taking advantage," Sharon tells him, stretching her hands across the table to take his in hers. Her thumbs stroke over his skin softly as she squeezes and looks him dead in the eye, "This is it, right? For both of us? Me and you…"
"Of course," Andy answers without hesitation.
"Then everything, all of this, is us. We discuss, we talk to each other. But there's no my debt and your debt…" Sharon tells him, squeezing his hands once more before letting go. She combs through the numbers, punching things into the calculator before turning it around to Andy, "If we pay off the house, the cars, the credit cards…we have around a hundred thousand left. Ricky and Emily have trusts set up through my parents for their college funds…what about Charlie and Nicole?"
"Ah Vicky and I have an account set up that we contribute to, it automatically comes out of my check," Andy shakes his head, "Let's just put it away for now. We don't have to decide everything tonight."
"I suppose you're right," Sharon sighs softly, looking at the paperwork in front of her, "I'm going to put the stuff together to go to the bank tomorrow and then we can head to bed."
"Alright, I'm going to let the dog out," Andy says, getting up from his seat and pressing a kiss to her head before calling for Lily to take her outside. He comes back in a few minutes later and locks the house up before nudging Sharon, "Let's go."
"Okay," Sharon nods, putting everything back. She gets up and turns the kitchen light off, following Andy down the hall. Lily climbs onto the bed and stretches out at the foot as they get ready for bed. Sharon brushes her teeth and washes her face, a contemplative look on her face as she goes through the motions. She discards her clothes from the day and changes into one of Andy's undershirts before turning off the light to the bathroom and climbing into bed.
"Everything okay?" Andy asks as he pulls on his pajama pants. Sharon nods and offers him a reassuring smile as she reaches out to turn the light off, her fingers brushing gently over the angel statue that was still sitting on her bedside table. He climbs into his side of the bed, nudging Lily to move over so he could stretch his legs out before turning his own light off and wrapping his arm around Sharon's waist from behind. The two lay in silence for a few moments, the only sound in the room Lily's tail brushing against the covers. He could tell she was still awake, her mind swirling.
"We would have been okay," Sharon mumbles quietly before shuffling closer to Andy and closing her eyes. He presses a kiss to the back of her head and squeezes her close as he closes his own eyes.
In the morning Sharon drops the kids off at their daycare program and makes her way down to the bank to deposit the check before going to work. By the end of the week they had the house and cars paid off, each of them taking care to add the other to the titles and deeds associated so the property was under both of their names. By the end of the month their remaining debt was paid off as well, and for the first time in three years Sharon felt like she could take a deep breath.
After paying all of their bills Andy and Sharon revisited what to do with the rest of the money. The ended up deciding to splurge with part of it and put a small pool in the back yard, big enough for the four kids to play in comfortably and for Sharon to swim laps, but small enough that it didn't overtake their entire yard. The rest was split up between a savings account and a couple of small investments. They made plans for her parents to come out and visit in late September, and the summer slowly began to melt away from them.
Andy jerks awake in bed, panting softly as he runs his hand up his chest. He shakes his head with a grunt and tries to shake the cobwebs of a bad dream away. He reaches out for Sharon and sighs as his hand hits empty mattress. He lays in bed for a few minutes before getting up and heading out in search of Sharon. He frowns when he finds the living room and kitchen empty before sticking his head out the back door and not finding her in the pool either.
As he walks back through the kitchen he notices a propped up note on the kitchen table with his name on it. He flips it open and reads Sharon's scrawl on the inside that she had gone to mass and would be back later in the morning. He smiles and closes the note before tossing it into the trash and stepping over to the coffee pot to start his morning routine.
Across town Sharon steps into the church and takes a deep breath as she crosses herself. She steps over to the memorial candles and watches the flames flicker in the soft breeze of the room. She reaches out and lights one herself, closing her eyes as she curls her fingers around the rosary in her hands. She stands quietly for a moment before going to take a seat in one of the back pews.
Sharon sits quietly thorough the service, going through the motions and never letting go of the beads in her hand. She doesn't step forward for communion, watching as the parishioners line up and make their way to the front, accepting their blessings quietly. She gets up as the line gets shorter and goes over to the confessional booth waiting outside for it to 'officially' open.
A few minutes after the service ends she steps inside and pulls the curtain, taking a seat before setting her purse between her feet. The divider slides open and Sharon swallows over the knot in her throat as she crosses herself again.
"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned," She whispers before clearing her throat, "It has been two hundred and seventeen days since my last confession…"
Sharon sits confession, the words pouring out of her as she closes her eyes and drops her head back against the confessional wall. Her voice ebbs and flows, the tears easily starting as she begins to talk. It doesn't take her long to confess her sins, but she and Father Espinoza end up spending a quick passing forty five minutes talking with each other before he offers Sharon a final thought.
"I read a poem once, and there was a line in it that struck me; To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die," Father Espinoza says.
"Thomas Campbell," Sharon says with a small laugh as she wipes her eyes, "I didn't realize you were a fan of Scottish poetry."
"I do read other things besides the Bible," The priest chides with a playful voice, "You will always have her, Sharon. And I'm glad you were able to come back to us."
"Thank you," Sharon says stuffing the damp kleenex back in her purse.
"I'll see you next Sunday?"
"Next Sunday," Sharon nods before getting up and stepping out of the booth, offering an apologetic look at the people waiting before she heads for the door. Since she had stepped into church earlier it had started to rain causing her to pause at the doorway before stepping out into the shower and making her way to the car. She sits in the car for a moment, listening to the pitter patter of the rain drops against the windshield as her eyes slip closed. Her eyes snap open as a clap of thunder rolls across the sky and she shakes her head before turning the car over and heading home.
Between slow going traffic and a stop off at a bakery it took Sharon closer to an hour to get home. She pulls the car into the driveway and into the garage before cutting the engine and getting out. The quiet of the house shocks her as she steps in from the garage, shutting the door quietly behind herself.
"Andy?"
"Kitchen," Andy calls out. Sharon turns around the corner to the kitchen, setting the box from the bakery and her purse on the counter as she finds him sitting at the table with papers spread out everywhere.
"Where are the kids?"
"Passed out on the floor in the living room," Andy says, looking up from his paperwork, "They were watching a movie and fell asleep. Good day for a nap."
"Yeah," Sharon agrees, running her fingers through her damp locks, "I didn't know it was supposed to rain today so I didn't have my umbrella with me."
"I just put some clean laundry away if you want to go change," Andy offers, "I think your leggings and sweatshirt were in the load."
"Mmm that sounds nice," Sharon says, leaning down to kiss his head before shuffling down the hall. She discards her damp clothes and changes into he leggings and sweatshirt that Andy had mentioned. She comes back to the kitchen and opens the box from the bakery, cutting out a large slice of the cake the she had bought. Chocolate fudge cake, with layers of raspberry between the cake layers and a sinful chocolate buttercream on the outside, "What are you doing?"
"Trying to get this stupid paperwork finished," Andy says with a grumble to his tone, "I swear to God they want every piece of paper imaginable, I might just send them a prostate exam just to screw with them."
"What are you talking about?" Sharon laughs as she sits down at the table with her cake and a fork.
"This annulment paperwork!" Andy exclaims, "I think I finally have it finished, I'm just going through it then I was going to drop it off tomorrow. Hey where did you get cake?"
"I stopped on the way home and got one," Sharon says as she forks off a bite, "Seemed like a good day for cake…"
"Yeah you're probably right," Andy says before stacking up all of the paperwork and clipping it together. He puts it in the folder that he had brought home all those months before, leaving it out so he would take it with him in the morning. He gets up and grabs a small plate for himself, slicing off a smaller hunk of the cake than she had before taking a seat across from her again, "How was mass?"
"It was good," Sharon says quietly as she stabs her fork into the soft pastry, "It was good to go back."
"Why today?" Andy asks after chewing over his first bite, looking across the table. Her eyes were focused on the dessert in front of her and he could see her mind still turning and churning from her morning at church.
"It's September 8th," Sharon shrugs, "Seemed like as good of a day as any."
September 8th, Andy says to himself, turning the date over and over in his mind, running through the holidays and birthdays that he could remember. It isn't until he opens his mouth to ask about it that it all clicks together for him, coming home, circling the date on the calendar with a heart, both of them knowing that it was a guess, but a date to shoot for none the less.
"I've spent the last seven and a half months mourning in some way or another…" Sharon says, looking up at Andy with clear eyes as she notices the realization in his own eyes. She'd figured he'd forgotten about that date a lot faster than she had, "I cried my last tears today, and I am probably going to eat more than my fair share of that cake today, but I'm moving forward."
[TBC]