Chapter 8

Rory POV

Mom had reached out a couple days after I'd talked to Luke. She said that she wanted to talk to me about how she'd been acting. She asked me if I could meet her for lunch. I gave her the name of an Italian restaurant that Colin and I liked to go to and told her that I'd meet her. I wasn't sure what to expect from the conversation that was coming so Colin was taking Ellie with him to have lunch with Finn.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I was quickly led to a table. It wasn't long after that Mom arrived. "Hey." I said, from my chair.

"You look good kid." Mom said.

"Thanks. I spent the morning at the spa. Colin suggested it since I've been stressed lately." I told her.

"Well, it looks like it did you some good." Mom said.

"Thanks. It was nice to go. Steph and I don't go to the spa as often as we should." I told her.

"You don't?" She asked me.

I shook my head. "No. I work all week, take care of Ellie in the evenings and then on the weekends I'm usually working with a charity." I told her.

Mom looked shocked. "Ror, I owe you an apology." Mom said.

"For what?" I said, fiddling with my engagement ring.

"When you first told that you and Colin were dating, I immediately thought that he was going to be just like Logan. I didn't think that he was good enough for you or for Ellie. Then when he proposed, I thought that he was going to insist that you quit your job and that you were going to become some society trophy wife." Mom said.

"Mom -"

"No, let me finish." She said and I nodded. "So, when you told me that Colin was going to adopt Ellie, I got scared. And I'm sorry, Ror. I haven't given Colin a chance. I haven't taken the time to get to know him."

"Mom, there's things that I haven't told about my relationship with Colin, even things about when I was with Logan." I said.

"Like what? You used to tell me everything." Mom said.

"It doesn't matter. Just know that throughout both relationships I've done things that I'm not exactly proud of." I said, reaching for my glass of water.

"Ror, I wanna know and I promise to be understanding and not judgmental." Mom said.

I nodded, letting out a sigh. "When Logan was in London, back when I was at Yale, I used to hang out with Colin and Finn as well as Steph. I'd liked Colin since I met the three stooges but I always got the impression that Colin didn't feel the same so I never pushed it. Then Logan and I started dating and things got serious…fast. When Logan proposed and I said no, it wasn't because I wasn't ready even though that was part of it. The truth is, I couldn't picture myself married to Logan." I said and Mom nodded. "Six months into the trail, I was in Boston and I had gone to this bar to unwind before I headed to my hotel for the night when I ran into Colin. We talked and caught up. I admitted to him the real reason why I accepted Logan's proposal, he admitted that he'd had feelings for me since we'd met. That was the first night that we hooked up. The next morning, Colin and I were talking and we'd agreed to keep things casual because of my job." I told her.

Mom nodded. "Then what happened?" She asked me, as the waitress brought us some coffee.

"Then I got that assignment in Hamburg. So I flew to Hamburg for the journalism convention and I ran into Logan. That night we went to dinner to catch up and clear the air. It was the first time that I'd seen him since my graduation." I said, pausing to get my thoughts straight. "I'm not exactly sure what happened but I know that we ended the night in my hotel room. The next morning, Logan and I were having breakfast and I stupidly suggested a Vegas agreement." I told her.

"What does that mean? Vegas?" She asked me.

I took a deep breath. "When we were together, we were together; when we weren't, we weren't." I said.

Mom nodded. "So, then what?" She asked.

"Things carried on like that for 2 years. I casually saw the both of them. Things started to get crazy when I was in New York with Colin and he asked me how my visit to London was. He told me that he'd called Logan and he'd heard me in the background." I said.

"Was he upset?" She asked.

I shook my head. "Not at all. He was rather understanding. I'd been seeing him, and Logan and by that point I'd apparently gotten into my relationship with Paul. Things had gotten so messed up that I didn't know which way was left. That weekend with Colin though, it changed things. Or at least it was supposed to." I said, looking down at my coffee cup.

"What happened, Ror?" Mom asked.

"Colin and I were sitting on his couch eating Chinese and he told me that he didn't want to do casual anymore. He told me that he wanted to be exclusive. He said that he wanted to build a life with me. Buy a house, get married, have kids. He wanted the whole picture." I said.

"So what changed? How did you end up pregnant the way you did?" Mom asked obviously choosing her words carefully because of where we were.

"That following week I called Logan and I told him that I couldn't do it anymore, especially since Odette had moved into his apartment. I told him that it wasn't right. Of course, Logan being Logan tried to talking me out of it. A few weeks later, I was leaving the gazette and when I walked outside their they were. Colin, Finn, Robert and Logan. They were all there. We had an amazing night. We ended up at this little inn in New Hampshire, that Colin now owns but I think he's considering selling it. I was drunk that night. It was supposed to be the night that we ended up telling Logan, Finn and Robert about us, but I ended up in Logan's room." I said, taking a drink of coffee.

Mom was silent. "Colin was pissed for months. I didn't see him see him until Grandma's Christmas party that year. By then, I already knew I was pregnant. I'd told you about it. When I told him that night that I was pregnant, and I saw the look of hurt on his face I knew that I'd lost him." I told her, feeling a couple of tears run down my face. I quickly wiped them away.

"So, how did the two of you reconnect?" She asked me.

"It was a couple of months before Ellie's 1st birthday, you remember that I was looking for a townhouse closer to Steph." I said and Mom nodded. "Well, Ellie and I had stopped so I could get a coffee before we went to look at one. Anyway, Colin happened to stop at the same coffee shop and he joined Ellie and me and we started talking. As Ellie and I started to leave Colin asked me out to dinner. That was 4 and a half years ago." I said, finally finishing my story.

"Wow kid. That's some story." Mom said, taking a drink of her coffee.

"I know. Ever since Colin and I reconnected we've been going to couple's counseling." I said.

"You have?" Mom asked surprised.

"Yeah. When Colin and I first reconnected after that day at the coffee shop, we were having dinner and trying to clear the air. He mentioned that his parents had gone to counseling when they'd had some issues. He thought that it would be good for us. We still go." I said.

"Still?" She asked.

"Yeah. It gives us a healthy outlet to discuss any problems that we may have or any issues we need to talk about without yelling at each other." I told her.

When I got home that afternoon, Colin was sitting on the couch watching CNN. I sat down beside him. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and I leaned into his side. "How'd it go?" He asked me.

"It was okay. She apologized and I told her everything." I said.

"Like everything…everything?" He asked.

"Yep. I never told her the whole story of you, me… Logan, the Paul complication. None of it. So when I told her that you and I were dating, she just thought that you were gonna be just like Logan. Therefore, she didn't want to get to know you. She thought that you were going to insist that I quit my job when we got married. Which is ridiculous. Anywho, Mom apologized, I told her everything and she actually listened and didn't judge for once." I told him.

"That's good. So you think that things will be better now?" He asked me.

I nodded. "I think so. I think that now she knows everything that things won't as tense at least." I said.

"That's good." He said.

"Where's Ellie?" I asked.

"With my parents. They wanted to keep her for the night." Colin said.

"So…you mean to tell me that we have the house to ourselves?" I asked seductively.

Colin nodded. "Yep." He said, kissing the side of my head. "I put a bottle of wine in the fridge and I bought a bottle of that bubble bath that you like so much." He said pulling me into his lap.

"You're so good to me."

A/N: That's Chapter 8. Two more chapters until this story is done. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.