Chapter 41
Kailyn had been officially adopted a year later on her birthday. The girl was situated and happy.
They had enrolled her in school and with extra tutoring and help from Liz she had caught up considerably fast. She was only one grade level behind but they were confident she'd get caught up before too long.
"Caleb, come on." She tried to cheer him on and get him to walk to her across the room.
She was a happy third grader at the same elementary school Hannah had attended. She had friends and was a completely normal little girl.
"Hannah, phone!" Liz called after the she had picked up the phone.
"Do you know who it is?" She asked. She came down the stairs, looking every bit the teenager she now was.
"Natalie." She handed her daughter the cordless phone.
"Hey, what's up?" She said into the phone.
Holden ran into the kitchen with muddy shoes and hands. "Look, Mama." He held his hands up for her to see.
"Beautiful." Liz said and led him back outside. "Kailyn, can you keep an eye on Caleb for just a second?"
"Yeah. Come on, baby." Kailyn tried to let go of his hands. When she did he flopped down onto a diaper padded bottom and giggled.
"No, you're supposed to stand up." Kailyn laughed with him.
"Mom, can I go to Natalie's house?" Hannah asked.
"For what, dinner's almost ready?" She asked taking the hose from Holden so she wouldn't get wet. "Hold still and let Mama wash you."
He squirmed and Liz got splattered with water.
"Ben needs help with his French paper."
"I didn't know Ben took French." Liz eyed her daughter."Neither did I." Hannah said. Her mom had to understand. She needed to go. She remembered that day one year, two months, and three days ago.
Liz sighed when she recognized the look. "Fine, do not walk home, it'll be late when you leave, either Daddy or I will pick you up, understand?"
"Yeah." She spoke into the phone quickly and was out the door.
"Hey, Ben, so where's that paper?" Hannah said walking into the house."Here." He said. "I don't understand anything, how do you speak it so well?"
"I don't speak it as well as I used to. My mom and I don't speak it at home very often because my brothers and sister don't understand, and it would be rude. I only speak it with my grandparents and Uncle Kyle." She rambled, she was nervous. "And Aunt Maria. Sometimes."
He smiled. "It's alright, it's only French I it'll be enough." He hid a smile.
"Oh, yeah, let me see."
He handed it to her shyly.
"It's almost perfect, but, um did you purposely use the formal form of address?" She asked after a minute.
"Yeah, it's a letter to the teacher." He explained. "We're not allowed to address her informally."
"Oh, ok. Well, look here..." She spent the next half hour explaining the paper to him. By the time she was done her shoes were off and her legs were curled under her.
"Do you think you get it?"
"I think so." He nodded. "I have to go retype it."
"Ok." She packed up her stuff. "Call anytime." She said. "If you need help or anything."
"Hannah, can I talk to you for a minute." Natalie said from the doorway watching them.
"Sure."
"Let's go up to my room." She glared at her brother to hide the hurt and followed Hannah up the stairs.
"You like Benedict." Natalie accused with tears in her eyes.
"Nat, no, I..." Hannah tried.
"Don't lie, Hannah." She said hurt. "You said you'd tell me, why didn't you tell me?"
Hannah sighed.
"Because I wasn't too sure about it myself."
"You could have talked it over with me, I'd have listened."
"I know that, Nat. I didn't want it to be awkward." She explained.
"Awkward, Hannah when has anything ever been awkward between us?" Natalie demanded. "We were best friends on the first day of kindergarten. If that doesn't cause awkwardness I don't know what does."
"We were four."
"What are you saying, Hannah?" Natalie was really hurt, Hannah saw now. She stood and wrapped her arms around her best friend.
"Yes, I do like Ben, no I won't do anything about it if you don't want me to." Hannah said praying Natalie wouldn't say anything against it. "I don't think he's interested in me anyway. I'm just his kid sister's best friend.""No, I think you do." Natalie shook her head. "But it's ok, I was just hurt you didn't tell me."
"I'm sorry." Hannah apologized. "I have to go, my dad's here."
"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow. Love you, Hannah."
"I love you too, Nat." Hannah smiled and went downstairs.
Ben was at the bottom of the stairs waiting for her. "j'ai envie d'aller faire une promenade."
Hannah smiled. "Desolè. I already called my Dad. I'm not allowed to walk when it's dark."
"Oh." He really looked disappointed.
"I'll see you around, Ben."
"Au Revoir, Hannah." He called back.
iFour Years later/iLiz gathered the last of the balloon fragments together and dumped them in the trash. It was Hannah's sixteenth birthday and they had celebrated with a large gathering of family and friends. The boys had done their share by popping all the balloons setting Caleb into a fit of giggles. Liz had picked most of the stuff up. There were just a few more tables and chairs that Max would take into the house the next morning. Liz looked up at the house and could hear giggles from her children in the house and smiled.
"Hey." She turned and found her husband smiling at her.
"Hi." She answered. She looked up into his eyes, so warm and trusting and then felt his arms wrap around her, pulling her to him. He pressed a kiss to her head.
"Remember, Liz, when you got cake in my face this afternoon?" He asked as he swayed her to a tune only heard in his head.
"Mmm." She answered and let him rock her.
"Remember, Liz, I told you I'd get you back?" He asked. Scooting her closer to the edge of a pool he paused a moment to gage the temperature and decided it was warm enough.
"You never did." She smiled. He would never do anything back to her.
"I know." She was at the edge of the pool now and she didn't realize it.
"Even if you tried; you couldn't get away with it." She smirked at him.
"Sure I could." He gave her his own sly look.
"No." She shook her head vigorously as he backed her closer, closer...her arms wrapped tightly around him just as her feet went off the edge, causing him to lose his footing and fall into the pool with her.
He came up sputtering and she swam to the edge smiling. "You need to be more subtle, Honey."
"I'll work on it." He promised as he swam towards her.
She turned and fled as she was taken underwater. "Better?"
"If it will make you feel manly, yes." She said.
"Thank you." He backed her against the side of the pool and all signs of joking ended. "Am I manly now?"
"Yeah." She said her breath coming fast. And he bent her head to kiss her.
"Eww, he's gonna kiss her." Holden gagged.
"Alright, guys, bedtime." Hannah took her brothers and Kailyn from the window.
"No, Sissy." Caleb fought. Mommy and mommy alone would put Caleb James Evans to bed."Yes." Hannah picked him up and he laid his head down on her shoulder and rubbed his eyes.
She looked out the living room window and quickly shuffled the kids upstairs. She went back to the kitchen a few minutes later when her parents walked in the door, soaking wet.
"Maybe next time you guys can wait till the babies are in bed?" Hannah smirked at her parents.
Her mother's mouth fell open and Max had to suppress a grin. "Sorry, Princess, can't always do that."
Hannah made a face.
Liz let out a shiver and Max shooed her upstairs. "Wait here a moment, Princess, your mother and I have another present for you."
"Another one." She rather thought the car had been enough.
Max smiled and followed his wife.
Hannah mopped where her parents had been standing as she waited for them to change and God only knew what else.
Liz came down fifteen minutes later in sweats and one of Max's shirts. Her hair was wrapped in a messy bun so it wouldn't drip down her back. Hannah looked at her mother who, at thirty four, looked like a teenager herself. Besides a few wrinkles beside her eyes and the almost invisible stretch marks on her lower abdomen, they could pass as twins.
Liz sat in the chair and smiled at her sixteen year old. "Did you have fun today, Hannah bean?" Liz asked reverting to her childhood nickname.
"Yes, Mama, thank you so much, it was wonderful." Hannah answered honestly.
"I'm glad." Max came and picked his wife up and plopped her back into his lap. "We have something to discuss."
Hannah's eyes drew together with worry. She didn't like that tone of voice.
"Remember a few weeks ago, at the mall, when we were shopping for you homecoming dress?
"Yeah." She hated when her father started out like that, couldn't he just ever get to the point?
It had been a freak thing when Liz and Hannah were shopping for her homecoming dress. She was going to go with Ben.
Hannah had gotten into a heated argument with Liz with over the neckline of a dress. Not wanted to be overheard, Liz had reprimanded her daughter in French. Their voices, though kept low and controlled, carried throughout the store. When Hannah had gone to her father for help and pleaded with him in perfect English it had caught even more attention. A woman had come up to them and in perfect French asked if she was interested in acting.
Liz quickly translated for Max and he raised a protective eyebrow.
"Oui." Hannah had answered quickly.
"Good, I'd like to see you sometime, you might be what we're looking for. You have the body of a dancer, do you dance?"
"Yes." Hannah switched to English because she had, it didn't even dawn on her she had switched language.
"Will you come by my office tomorrow?"
"Daddy?" She asked and turned to him.
"We'll see." He said and crossed his arms.
"I hope you consider, Mr..."
"Evans." He said in a not to kind voice.
"Please, if you're daughter wanted to act, give her this chance, if she's any good then we have a part just for her."
"We've decided we're going to let you go for the part. It'll be demanding, and we're going to have to fly to Paris this coming summer, but I didn't think you would object to that."
"Are you serious?" Hannah asked. This was her dream. She had almost forgotten about it, sure her father wouldn't let her do it.
"Yes, we want you to have this chance." Liz was happy at her daughter's apparent joy. "Because you're a minor either Daddy or I will be on set with you at all times, but we already have everything arranged."
"That's fine, oh, you guys this is wonderful." She was glowing. "This could be my big break. Oh, Mommy, thank you!" She said.
"And Daddy too."
"Thank you, Daddy. I have to go call Benedict." She jumped from the chair and went to her room.
"Think we made her happy?"
"Yeah." Max smiled. "You ready to have your daughter be a TV star?"
"No, she's still my baby." Liz said remembering the days when she was a baby. "Our real baby's getting older." Liz looked at the picture of Caleb. It was a close-up of his chubby baby face with his one and only tooth showing and it was quite disturbing really, but Liz had seen it after Alex had taken it and had to keep it.
"Yeah." Max said and felt his wife's reluctance to let them grow up. "He's only five."
"I know, but he's already in Kindergarten." She curled in his embrace. "He'll want to join cub scouts soon. You should see his face when you go off with Holden. He has such longing in his eyes, it just about breaks my heart. And his sisters ignore him, Kailyn with her studies, and Hannah with Benedict. And when Holden is home they spend their time beating each other up, I worry about him."
"You'd think he was a neglected child." Max laughed. "I think he's spoiled rotten by his sisters, when they're not busy and Holden just dishes out what's necessary. His mother adores him and his father takes him to the office every other day—or so it seems. We're not neglecting him."
Liz laughed when Max put it that way. "He is spoiled rotten isn't he?"
"Just a little, Liz." Max said. "But it's ok, he's my son, he's allowed to be."
"I thought you'd see it that way." Liz stood. "Let's go to bed." She yawned.
"To sleep?" He looked questioningly at her.
She gave him a sly smile, shrugged her shoulders and went upstairs.
Yep, you guessed it guys, there's only the epilogue left. Don't be sad though, it's been an amazing ride, and I'm so happy you all enjoyed it.