When he'd thought about this weekend, he hadn't pictured it quite this way. Yes, he had envisioned taking Hannah on a walk in her stroller, as he was doing now, but he'd never imagined doing just that with Bob. And yet, here they were, walking Hannah around Sharon's complex, giving Sharon some time to talk to Ricky and Emily, to explain who Andy was and why he was just now part of the conversation. Andy didn't know everything Sharon was going to say, but he didn't think she was going to get into his signing away his rights, at least not yet. Sharon would ultimately tell them what she wanted to tell them, and while that was going on, Andy wasn't sure how long he and Bob would continue with their almost awkward silence.

"So, Bob, look, about everything," Andy started the conversation, hoping to just break the silence. "Sharon and I are just trying to figure everything out." He looked down slightly, checking to make sure Hannah hadn't dropped anything out of her stroller. He was pushing it while Bob walked next to him.

"You've been trying to figure everything out for quite some time," he finally said in a matter of fact tone.

"I know Sharon told you a lot, but I don't know everything she's told you," Andy said.

"She's barely told me anything, but that's Sharon. That doesn't mean I'm not aware, that her mother wasn't aware," he said and cleared his throat.

Andy eyed him, slightly, shaking his head, "I never met your wife."

"Andy, let me tell you something," Bob said. "My wife, Sharon's mother, was one of the smartest women I've ever known, and that is where Sharon gets her smarts. Sharon is not relationship smart, never has been, which is probably the only reason I would admit her mother is smarter than she is. She didn't need to meet you to know you, and what I mean by that, is yes, she never met you personally, but you aren't the detective you claim to be if you think her mother and I didn't know you-as in a man in her life-was lurking around all this time. We never bought the whole story she tried to feed us about Hannah's father, a man she'd seen a few times and had ended things. There was something about how she told us that, all of that, but Sharon's mom knew. I knew."

Andy just shook his head, "You never told Sharon your suspicions?" Andy asked, glancing at him.

"No," he waved his hand. "That wasn't the way to get Sharon to open up, and I surely don't have to tell you she has a lot of trust issues. While we have never been part of her distrust, she doesn't want to drag us into her mess. We saw it all with Jack, and she shut down through that; she's a different Sharon than pre-Jack, not that I would expect her to be the same, but he really did a number on her. Her mom and I could talk to each other, and then, we would wait. I've always been the quiet one. Her mom had a way to get Sharon to talk when she wanted her to talk. We knew there was a man-you-a man in her life, and we suspected it was still Hannah's father. For whatever reason at the time, we couldn't put our finger on why things were so secret, but we knew we had to wait it out. I guess, at least to our relief, you aren't married, which was one concern we had."

Andy just nodded, "Look, as much as this probably isn't your business, I feel like you are trying to put pieces together, and the last thing I want to do is hide or sound deceptive. Sharon and I haven't been some secret couple, not in the way you think. It's just been finally this weekend she admitted she cares about me. I've been telling her that, but she's held back. Honestly," Andy paused, sighed, and shook his head before he looked over and met Bob's gaze. "Let me just be frank, man to man. It was all physical to start. Hannah," he gestured toward the stroller, "was the product of that, two people who let passion get in the way of anything else. We're totally backwards in all this, but Sharon is finally starting to open up, to see that I want to be here for Hannah, for Sharon."

"You're right," Bob said bluntly. "The last thing I want to discuss is my daughter in a physical relationship with you. Look, Andy," he said and looked to Andy, "I don't dislike you. I barely know you, but you have to understand none of this looks good, none of it. No dad wants to like a man who slept with his daughter, got her pregnant, signed away his rights, and yet, continues to be around now, regardless of why."

"I'm well aware this all looks really bad, especially for me," Andy nodded. "I will plead that I'm here, want to be a dad to Hannah, and I want more with Sharon."

"I'm aware," Bob nodded. "That isn't for me to decide. Now, that doesn't mean I have no stake in this. Hannah is still my granddaughter too. I saw what a lousy dad did to my other two grandchildren, and I don't want that for her. I can't guarantee I will be around to see her become an adult, but I don't want Hannah to have the same hurt and disappointment that slime Jack brought to my other grandchildren. Sharon is my daughter. I realize I cannot control her; I have never been able to do that her adult life, her whole life really, nor did I feel it was my place. Her decisions have been her own, and she's had to pay the price for many of those."

"She's come out stronger through it all," Andy pointed out.

"That may be true," Bob nodded, "but no parent wants to see their child suffer like she has, to go through life with trust issues, to have lost all hope in love because of her husband. That, no parent wants to see."

"I do understand what you are saying, Bob," Andy said. "I know it would bother me thinking of Nicole in a situation like that. It's easier to think of her now, with her being an adult. Looking at how sweet and innocent Hannah is," he nodded to her, "you almost forget that she will come up against strife at some point in her life."

"It is hard, and that's why since we are talking, I want to ask you a couple of things," Bob said.

"Go ahead," Andy nodded. "I like you, Bob, and I want to be around for the long haul. With that in mind, you and I are going to be around each other, and I don't want anything left unsaid. Ask away."

"I've not understood your generation and really, younger ones even more now," he said. "I might sound old-fashioned, but in my time, a man liked a woman, and they dated, at least respectable ones did. I was respectable. I dated Sharon's mother, and we didn't mess around with this nonsense like people do now. We liked each other; we told each other. We dated, and being a respectable, upstanding Catholic who did believe my religion, I respected her. I married her. We didn't do this sleeping around junk. I know others might have; I'm not stupid, but that was important to me, to us. We raised Sharon like that, or so we thought. I can't figure out how she ended up with Jack; her mother never liked him, and that should have been my warning. I wanted to like Jack, but then, quickly, we saw what he was like, drinking more and more, leaving Sharon with those babies. We could handle a divorce. While her mother and I didn't have a marriage like that, we wanted Sharon to get rid of Jack. We were at least progressive enough to realize no woman should stay with a man like Jack. Then, she seems to be okay, at least, focusing on work and the kids. I know she was lonely, and we even encouraged her to date. She never wanted to comment on that with us. She is quiet with us, always has been, and then, one day," he throws up his hands "she shows up pregnant. I don't know what was worse-thinking she'd slept with Jack again or listening to her quickly explain it was an indiscretion, a brief period with a man, and that was over. I love my daughter; I love all of my grandkids, but I have to look at you, Andy, and even with my old-fashioned values, wonder what kind of a man are you to not step up? You walked away. You and my daughter were equally involved; I don't deny that, but in what world was that okay?"

Andy let out a long sigh. He was quiet for a few moments, trying to figure out how to best answer Bob. He started by just talking and shook his head, "Honestly, Bob, you are asking all the right questions. I know you look at Sharon and see your daughter, probably as she was this age like Hannah. It's hard to see her as a woman. That's how I see her, but even with that, it's been complicated, with layers. I realize I don't have to tell you anything, defend anything. I'm not sure I'm even defending it right now, but we both have been burned. Just as you have said you never had a divorce or bad life experience like this, Sharon and I have both had our share of them. I ruined my marriage with alcohol. That's something I have to live with the rest of my life. That contributed to the bad relationship I have with my kids. My kids are scarred because of it too, and I realize they may never have a normal relationship with me or others. I deal with that every single day. I'm trying to forgive myself, and I can best do that by staying sober. It's what I don't want for Hannah. I know I'm a grown man, but I feel I've done a lot of growing up since I heard she was a tiny thing growing inside Sharon. I want better for her; I want better for Sharon. I guess all I can say, analyzing it now, is that we were both looking for something to ease the pain. A simple physical relationship seemed to do that."

"Hmm, if you think sleeping around is simple," Bob shook his head.

"I used to think that," Andy nodded. "I did. I'm going to be honest and tell you I've slept with a lot of women. Sharon knows it. I've come clean with her. You don't want to hear it, and I know it sounds bad; it is bad. I haven't slept with anyone since things really started to progress with Sharon and Hannah. Shortly after she told me she was pregnant, I went on a binge, I guess. I slept around a little then. Even my buddy, Provenza, doesn't know how bad it got. I wanted to ease the pain. I couldn't believe I'd messed up and done that to Sharon, created another life, and I was going to mess up things even more. I just wanted to ease the pain. The easiest thing to do was what she wanted-to sign those papers and walk away. I know she told you about those. I don't know what she is going to tell the kids because the Sharon and Andy of then are vastly different now. It's my single biggest regret in life, and considering what I've told you, that's saying a lot. No decent man walks away from his own daughter, and then, I did just that. I wanted to forget. I had women in and out for a couple weeks, even trying to lie to my friend that I was fine and moving on okay. I was a mess, a different kind of rock bottom. As Sharon's pregnancy progressed, as I visibly saw my child growing in her, as I heard she was in the hospital and could have lost her, something changed. I wanted to do better, to be better. Sharon probably didn't even tell you that when she came to tell me she was pregnant, a woman, a half-dressed woman, answered my door. I was a slime. I'm still working on changing, and I'm doing my best. My own dad has never been happy with me; I've never been good enough. I know that about myself. I have lived with that idea, that nothing is good enough. I'm broken; Sharon's broken. I guess in our brokenness, we found each other, thinking that we could keep things simple. Physical and only that. It worked, but not long. I know I got more involved earlier than Sharon did, but she tried to keep up the façade. Look, that's all more than you want to know, but it is what it is. I know you see me as the guy who sleeps with your daughter, who uses her, and I don't want to be that guy."

"You're right that I don't want to think of my daughter in a bedroom with you. I see it as a lack of respect. You see it, as you said, as two broken people finding pleasure, I suppose, in each other. I say you two both need to grow up, to tackle things. You aren't going to ever be an honorable man if you keep hiding things. I don't know what your dad did in your life. Sharon said he's been hard on you, but only you now can change that. She said you are trying with your kids. I say keep trying, and yes, I realize that means Hannah. I told you I don't dislike you. That's the truth. I just want to be able to respect you. It's hard to do that when you're sleeping around with my daughter, and I have no idea what that is doing to both of you. Her mother and I have known it for some time. Before my wife died, she called Sharon in Los Angeles, one of her trips there to tell her Hannah was rolling over."

Andy nodded, "Yeah."

Bob stopped and turned to him, snapping his fingers, "Exactly! You were there. Sharon hid that. If I'm guessing she was still sleeping with you then."

Andy stopped pushing the stroller and dropped his head, "Look, we were trying to just, just keep things between us. I kept saying I wanted to be in Hannah's life."

"So, to be in Hannah's life, you felt you had to keep sleeping with Sharon?" he asked.

"The opposite!" Andy exclaimed. "I know you don't want to hear this, but she continually pursued me. I'm not pleading innocent; I went along with it, but I didn't want to complicate things. Ironically, in not wanting to complicate things, we have a complicated mess now."

"Look, Andy," Bob said, a slight frown on his face. "I've done a good job staying out of this. I have prodded Sharon. I've tried to just be there for her. That's what her mother and I have always wanted. Her mother got off the video chat that day, the one Sharon ironically couldn't connect," he said and rolled his eyes. "Her mother looked at me and said that she was with a man. We just didn't know if she was spinning so out of control that she was with a different man than the one who had fathered Hannah. Then, when she introduced you after the funeral, I finally got a look at you, the man who she's been sleeping with through all of this. I know you and Sharon are adults. I know you both are involved in this. I know it's not my place, and I've been staying out of it. I just want to clear the air so to speak here. I don't dislike you as I've said, but right now, I need to learn to trust you, to see your intentions are clear. They seem to be clear with Hannah. I hope they are. I hope they are clear with Sharon too, and yes, I realize a relationship is two-sided, that she has to be a willing participant, but know I am watching. I'm cautious to like anything right now, to trust anything, even Sharon's judgment."

Andy pursed his lips and nodded, "Fair enough. Thank you for telling me all of that. I can see why Sharon loves you as much as she does. You are worried about your daughter, and I understand that. I'd feel the same, I imagine. I want this to work. In my fairy tale, I want to end up with Sharon and Hannah, whatever that means," he gestured. "This is a start. I realize I have no legal rights to Hannah, but I'm very grateful Sharon is giving me a chance. She didn't have to do that, even if she was the one who wanted me to walk away. I'm grateful. Involving the kids," he gestured, "is the next step. Granted, none of us wanted the kids to find out walking into the apartment seeing us half dressed."

"I apologize for that," Bob nodded. "Even in my wildest dreams of you two seeing each other, I didn't imagine I'd find you in her kitchen barely dressed. I didn't realize you two were seeing each other that much, and don't think I didn't catch the New York comment."

Andy raised his eyebrows, "To be fair," he held up his hand, "that was all your daughter. I'm really glad she came, but I didn't ask. My dad fell and was in the hospital. She came to support me, which I thought was a big step. She let Hannah meet my dad, which," Andy groaned, "meant she met him too. It was a big trip for us, for a relationship between us. I did not meet Emily, as you know."

Bob held back a slight smile, which almost surprised Andy, "I'm sure Emily is giving her an earful now. I knew something was up with that trip, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I knew you were from New York, as we discussed when I met you, but I didn't know the urgency. That makes sense. Emily said she saw a lot of Sharon."

"She did," Andy nodded. "I just worked around her schedule, or I guess, we did what we could. Look, I'm not going to kid you that we didn't spend time together. It was great, amazing to me. She met my sister, and it felt so good to just feel normal, do something normal. We had dinner with my sister. Hannah met her aunt, so yeah, it was a big trip. I'm sorry about the sneaking around, but in all of this, I'm trying to do what Sharon wants. I've always wanted to do what Sharon wants. Her happiness is my priority."

"Mine too," Bob told him. "Be careful with her. Tread lightly. It's beyond the point of telling you to take things slowly, but I will say I guess to take things correctly. Do what is best, not just what is enjoyable. Figure out what the next 50 years of your life looks like, if you are given that long. Figure out what the next five minutes of your life needs to look like. Get your life in order. Life is short. I know that. I am living each day now without the love of my life. I'd give anything to tell her just one more time how much I love her. Discussing this with you," he gestured, "way out of my comfort zone, but I feel it's my duty to Sharon's mom. She would be here asking this, believe me," he smiled softly. "She was the best woman I know, and she made me a better man. It's time for you to figure out what makes you better, who makes you better, and I know it's not one-sided. I've told Sharon the same thing, to figure out what makes her a better person, even who might make her a better person. When you find that, you cling to it."

Andy nodded and looked to Hannah, "I can say Hannah makes me a better person, not in the same way you are describing. She does, though. Sharon makes me want to be a better man, and that's partly why our situation is a mess. I'm invested, and I want her in my life."

"Don't drag Hannah through drama. Jack did that," he pointed at Andy.

"Not my intention," he shook his head.

"Let's get back to the house. She tried to hide her expressions when Ricky mentioned you two going out tonight, but I think you two have a lot to discuss. For your sake, let me give you this suggestion," he stated.

"Go on," Andy said. "Look, you've already challenged me in more positive ways than my own dad ever has."

Bob nodded, "Try to keep this out of the bedroom," he gestured with his hand. "Talk to each other. It's easy to get carried away, as you know, to let yourself slip into what feels good. That's where you get into problems, where these generations have failed. Everyone is into what feels good right now, forgetting that everything has a consequence. No one seems to think long term, and that's exactly what you need to do. Hannah is worth it."

Andy nodded again, "I'll take all of that into consideration. Bob, thanks, really," Andy stuck out his hand. "I want you to trust me, but I know I have to earn that trust."

"You do have to earn it. I'm open-minded and hope you blow me away, doing everything in your power to figure out this mess, to be there for both my girls," Bob added. He gestured to the walkway, "Should we continue walking?"