"You're sure you don't mind taking him?" Caitlin asked wistfully as she waved at Trey in Gregory's arms. "A week seems like a really long time. Cole, doesn't it seem like a really long time?"
"He'll be fine." Cole seemed unconvinced and his look of comfort was a little forced as he looked at the innocent smile Trey lavished on Gregory. "This is about his very beautiful mother getting the kind of vacation she deserves." He leaned down to kiss her cheek and the light in his eyes had decidedly more amorous ideas.
Bette watched Gregory's jaw tightened and jumped in. "Save some of that for the boat tiger. Now go on, get out of here. The car's waiting." She shooed them both towards the door, watching as they got into the taxi. "And don't call us. We'll be busy. Doing important parental-type things..." She looked over at Gregory and shrugged. "Whatever those are."
He laughed and bounced Trey in his arms as he headed for the study. "I'm sure you'll figure it out while I'm at the office."
He set Trey in his chair and kept an eye on him as he packed his briefcase. Bette shut the door in case Sean was home and happened to walk by at an inopportune moment. She watched Gregory playing with his grandson and remembered when Emily was a baby and briefly, she'd been a family.
Trey giggled and waved chubby fists in the air as Gregory made faces at him for a moment.
"I hate to ruin your preparation for a long day as a hard-edged lawyer-" Bette teased sardonically as she crossed her arms over her purple-flowered bathrobe. "But I couldn't help wondering-" She tumbled over her words. Gregory clicked his briefcase shut and waited patiently.
As soon as she got over the hump, everything she was thinking fell out in a rush. "Do we need to talk? About us? Are we getting into something we can't handle? Are we going to hate each other later?"
"I think we're all right." Gregory answered her questions in a smooth progression. "We're both adults. We've been a little intoxicated each time it's happened."
"Three times!" Bette corrected with a chocked giggle. "And last night we didn't even get to the bottom of the bottle."
"Thirty-year old Port isn't drunk lightly." Gregory set the briefcase at her feet and turned seriously to Trey. "Don't watch this. This is grown-up stuff."
Gregory cupped her chin, looked deeply into her eyes with that intensity that made him so fascinating. "I can't say I have feelings for you, but you can count on the fact that I never do anything I intend to regret." He kissed just to the left of her lips, sending a shiver up her neck.
"I'll see you later." He waited until she picked up Trey to leave them to their own devices.
Bette looked down at the little guy and sighed girlishly as he burbled up at her. "When you grow up, remember to be charming like that. It just makes us women's hearts melt. Not that it's going to be hard for you with Gregory's money and your daddy's-"
She stopped and examined Trey's cheeks for traces of the telltale dimples, but they were absent. She kissed his nose and gurgled back at him to get him to smile. Nothing. His face was smooth. "Now that's odd. The one thing you'd want to get from your daddy, aside from that gorgeous smile, would be those dimples for your pooky little cheeks..."
"Oh well. Maybe you'll get them when you get older. Come on, let's see what we can find for breakfast for the two of us."
Olivia paused on the front steps. She'd paused there so many times since the divorce. The new door was too heavy. Too imposing. This house wasn't home, even if she had lived there for a time. Home was down the road. The house was still empty. No one liked to buy a home that had been vacated under those circumstances. A baby dies and a life falls apart.
But her baby wasn't dead. He was on the other side of the door. He was there because Annie had taken him. Olivia bit her lip hard enough to shock herself back into reality. She couldn't say anything. Not until she had an idea of what she could do. Any idea. She couldn't take Trey from Caitlin. It would rip her daughter's heart out as surely as losing the baby had destroyed hers.
She reached for the door to open it but pulled her hand back and pressed the bell instead.
Bette's voice echoed out from inside. "It's open. I'll be down in a second, the man of the house decided I should wear his applesauce."
"I'll wait." Olivia called up as she looked around the living room. Everything was the same. Bette's touch wasn't on it. It was Gregory's house and much like the ebony lions guarding his bookcase, Bette was just the newest fixture in it. She thought about sitting down, but she couldn't put down her purse. She wasn't at home here. She couldn't be. Not now, not ever. Even if-
Bette had Trey in her arms as she hurried down the stairs. "I'm so sorry, I turn away from him for a moment and dumps something new and wet all over me. I've changed clothes three times already."
She had to hold him. Olivia nearly snatched him out of Bette's arms, but to her relief, her friend just laughed.
"Thanks. I'm running out of clothes. He can spill things on you for awhile."
Just breathing in the soft baby scent of his head made her heart slow to a nearly normal level. Olivia couldn't reply. Her breath hadn't come back yet. He was home. Her precious little son was home in her arms again, and she wasn't going to let go of him ever again.
'Hey, Livie- I know I'm probably the last person you want to talk to right now-" Bette reached slowly for her shoulder, growing more confidant as Olivia didn't pull away. "Are you all right?"
Olivia nodded, and kept nodding as she sank into the sofa with Trey. "I'm all right Bette." She took a deep breath. Bette couldn't know. Not yet. No one could know. "You can stop being guilty. I'm not angry with you."
"I don't think I can stop being guilty." Bette answered quickly as she sank to the floor at Olivia's feet. "I didn't mean for this to happen. I went to his office to keep him from marrying Annie because my idiot brother put some kind of legal bear trap in his will and she just couldn't wait to step on it. And then I was flying to Las Vegas and getting married to the love of your life in a kilt-" Bette narrowed her eyebrows and corrected herself. "Well, he was the one in the kilt, I just had this suit Gregory picked out, but that's really not important."
She rested her chin on her hand and looked up as if she were afraid Olivia would hit her. "You're really not angry?"
"I was angry." Olivia admitted softly as she released her son enough to let her sit comfortably in her lap. "But then I realized you were right. I divorced Gregory. I don't-" Even baby Trey seemed to her the lie in her voice. "Want him anymore."
Trey started to fuss and even Olivia's hands didn't comfort him. She stood up and brought herself back to practical thoughts. "Have you put him down for a nap yet?"
"No." Bette pulled herself up and shook her head sheepishly. "We've spent so much time eating and doing laundry and trying to eat again that I completely forgot."
"I'll take him." Olivia offered and she couldn't help laughing as Bette sank into the sofa with a melodramatic sigh.
"Oh I was hoping you'd say that." She closed her eyes and settled into the leather. "I think a nap sounds like a great idea."