Chapter 44- Friendship or More?

Stuart Chandler sat alone in the living room of Adam's gatehouse looking through a family photo album he put together when JR was very young. The first few pages contained very old photos of Adam, Stuart, and Lottie as children and teens. He flipped the page to find baby pictures of all the cousins. Arlene wouldn't give Stuart any pictures because she never took many, but Trevor was very generous to give him pictures of Hayley he took through the years, including a few baby photos. He placed them in order oldest to youngest: Ross, Skye, Hayley, Scott, and JR. He hadn't updated it in years, so he had a bunch of Colby's pictures at the ready to add. It really broke his heart that Colby was still missing and now Hayley was in the hospital, but he had a big faith that both would be okay.

As he placed baby Colby's picture next to baby Junior, he sat up straight when there was a knock on the door.

Leaving the album open, he made his way to the door and answered it. He smiled. "Myrtle!"

Myrtle smiled sadly at him and gave him a big hug. "Oh darling, how are you getting on?"

Stuart wiped away the tears in his eyes. "I'm worried about Hayley and I'm so scared for Colby. I miss her so much."

"As soon as I heard about Hayley, I wanted to check on you."

"My nieces and nephews mean so much to me and Scott," Stuart said. "We just need to be all together always."

"How is Hayley?"

"The doctors in Pine Valley are great!" Stuart smiled. "Angie really took care of Hayley and she's going to be okay." His smile turned downward. "But she doesn't know about her voice yet."

"Then we'll pray."

"I'm so happy that you're here, Myrtle," Stuart said. "You make me smile and give me butterflies in my tummy."

Myrtle chuckled and blushed. "I enjoy spending time with you, Stuart."

His face lit up. "Oh! You can look at my photo album with me." He led her over to the couch. "I'm updating it with pictures of beautiful Colby."

She sat down beside him and lifted the photo album onto her lap. "This isn't… Is one of these babies Skye?"

He nodded and pointed to the fair and bald baby in the top middle. "Just look how chubby her cheeks were!"

Myrtle ran her finger over the photo.

"I only have up until she was seven though. That's when Adam divorced Althea and left her and Skye. And I didn't know where she and Skye went. I didn't see her again until she was older."

Myrtle flipped through the pages. "So, you have photos of her from when she was a baby up until age seven?"

Stuart nodded.

Myrtle beamed. "This is wonderful. Wonderful. Can I take a few of these? I will return them. But even if I can take them to the photo lab and make copies. I know Rae would be so grateful to have these."

"Yes, of course. You can take them all!"

FargateFargateFargate

John and Rae sat down at the Valley Inn after dropping Myrtle off at the gatehouse. Rae kept shifting awkwardly in her chair.

"I know you're worried about Skye," John said. "But Alan is with her tonight. She'll be fine—"
"I was uh, actually thinking about Mama… and Stuart."

He raised an eyebrow. "Myrtle seemed very concerned about Stuart when we found out about Hayley."

Rae sighed. "I know. I know…"

"You don't like Stuart?"

"Oh, I do! I do! He's such a sweetheart and I think he's the only real father Skye had growing up. She adores him so much."

"So, you like him for Skye. How do you feel about him and Myrtle?"

Rae cleared her through and fidgeted with her fork.

"You don't like them spending time together?" John asked.

"I—I don't know. This is silly, I know…"

"This is the time and the place to get it out," John reassured. "While neither Myrtle, Stuart, nor Skye are here. What is it?"

"Well, for starters, he's not even divorced yet. What if Mama starts falling for him, but he and Marian mend their marriage? I don't want her heart to get broken. Plus, he's so much younger than she is. It would be weird to have a potential stepfather only a few years older than I am. And not to mention, Skye… God love her… she pushed them together. It… it seems forced."

"They haven't even said they're a couple," John said. "I just assumed they were really good friends."

"Maybe… but you should see Mama's face whenever she talks about him."

"What does her face look like?"

"She blushes," Rae said. "And her eyes light up. It's… a little weird."

"If say the divorce goes through, would you still feel this way?"

"He's just so young for her… And… and this is going to sound awful and so cruel… but he's a little slow. Can he really take care of her?"

"I think he would take care of a woman a lot better than a lot of men would. If it ever did get that far, he would love Myrtle with everything he has. Just look how good he's been to Skye all these years… and even more than that, look at Skye, the person who claims she loves no one and cares about no one… he's the one and only person she would never deny that she loves. That there says mountains about the man that Stuart is."

Rae stared at the table for a few moments lost in thought.

"Well, hello."

Rae looked up from the table to find Erica standing with Jack. "Erica, hi."

"This is perfect!" Erica grinned. "Jack and I will join you both so we can talk about Myrtle's birthday."

Erica and Jack moved to another table to grab two chairs.

Rae groaned and rolled her eyes. She mouthed to John, Sorry, but John just laughed in response.

Erica and Jack sat with them and Erica jumped right into talking about the party. "…And Jack…" She glared at him. "… thinks I should invite Kendall. But I think that is a horrid idea. Between her and Skye there's sure to be a scene… oh, sorry. Forget I said that."

"Erica, she's your daughter," Jack said. "And you've said many times that Myrtle thinks you need to keep reaching out to her."

Rae smiled. "I think Mama would agree with Jack."

"Opal of course and the Martins should be there," Erica continued. "And she seems to be spending a lot of time with Stuart lately… why is that?"

FargateFargateFargate

Myrtle smiled at Stuart while they sat at the table eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"Barrie is really speeding up the divorce," Stuart said. "He said it's called uncontested and with—with Adam's money it'll be done in a few weeks."

"How do you feel about that, Stuart?" Myrtle asked.

He frowned. "I'm happy for her. She had other affairs and she needs to do what makes her happy."

"She shouldn't have hurt you like that, Stuart!"

"It'll be okay. But do you think maybe we could get married after Marian and I get divorced?"

Myrtle almost choked on her sandwich, then she reached for Stuart's hand. "Stuart, darling. Right now, you must focus on your nieces who need you and on getting through your divorce. We need to stay friends… at least right now." She winked at him.

FargateFargateFargate

"How did your visit with Stuart go?" Rae asked after John dropped them off.

Myrtle beamed at her as she sat on the couch with her purse, and she patted the couch beside her. "I have something for you. They're from Stuart actually."

Rae sat beside her. "Stuart has gifts for me?"

Myrtle reached inside her purse and held the pictures against her chest. "When I arrived, he was looking through an old photo album of all his nieces and nephews."

Rae's mouth dropped slightly, and her heart sped up. "Are you saying… Are those pictures of Skye?"

Myrtle nodded. "Yes. But I promised we would go make copies and return the originals to him. I would like some copies too."

"Do you mean recent photos or when she was a teenager?"

Myrtle shook her head and handed the photos to Rae.

Rae immediately started to cry and held a hand to her heart. "This… this couldn't have been more than a week after she was born. She had no hair… I never imagined she would be a red head."

"Keep going. Those pictures go up to age seven. After that Stuart wasn't able to see her again until she got older." She patted Rae's back and kissed her cheek. "I'll give you time to go through these on your own."

Rae moved to the next photo when Skye was about 12 months and some red hair was growing out.

Myrtle made her way up to her room and sat on her bed. "Oh, Stuart… What if Marian decides she wants you back? That is why we can only be friends."