Chapter 10
The next morning...
Steve woke up the next morning by the sound of his daughter waking up. He had checked on her when he came in and she will asleep. She had slept most of the evening so it was no surprise she was up so early. He heard her come into his room. He opened his eyes, to see his daughter standing in the door.
"You can come." He said sitting up so he was looking at his daughter. As his daughter walked in he patted the empty space on the bed next to him. She climbed up so she was sitting next to him. "You alright?" He asked.
"Yeah" was all she replied.
"Did you sleep well" he tried again, since she had got here she hadn't really been much of a talker but he thought yesterday had changed that.
"Yeah." Again was she replied.
"About what you said last night, your mom is fine. I know you fell asleep last night but you can call her today. And if you need to talk you can always talk to me." He wanted to find out why she was quite again. But he didn't want to push her. She would talk in her own time if she wanted to.
"Okay. What are we doing today?" She asked.
"Well this morning we need to research some schools for you too go to. Then we are going over to see Cath and her kids." Steve said. He was going to say his girlfriends house but he thought he would wait awhile before calling his girlfriend to her.
"Okay. What schools are we looking at?"
"There a few in the local area we can look at. You have about 3 weeks until you need to start. I have to go back to work tomorrow so we can look at them now."
"Okay."
Steve looked at the clock on the night stand next to his bed. It was early even for him. 5am, he was thinking about going for his morning run, but he would rather spend the morning with his daughter. "How about you go and have a shower and dressed and I will get dressed and go and make breakfast?" He asked.
"Okay." She said. She got off his bed and made her way into her room.
Steve got himself dressed. He packed a beach bag for him to take to Cath's later. He needed to tell Evie to do the same. Once his bag was packed he left it on his bag and walked over to Evie's room.
He knocked on the door lightly so not to wake Mary up in the room next door.
"Come in" he heard her little voice say.
He opened the door, to see her looking in the wardrobe. "I forgot to tell you to pack a beach bag for when we go to Cath's later." He said.
"Okay." She said and turning to smile at him before looking back in the wardrobe.
He left her room heading to the kitchen to make breakfast.
3 hours later
Steve and Evie had finished breakfast and had decided on a school. They had filled in the application and it was ready to send on the way to Catherine's.
Steve heard Mary upstairs. She had woken up and would no doubt be down stairs within a couple of minutes looking for coffee and breakfast.
"Morning." Steve said when she got down the stairs.
"Morning" she replied walking towards them in the kitchen. "What time did you two get up" she asked. She knew they had got up early. She heard them a couple of hours ago but she was tired so went back to sleep.
"About 5." Steve replied. "Evie woke up so we got up, had breakfast and have found her school" he continued.
"Seriously, she got your genes for sleeping. Waking up at the most inappropriate times" Mary replied.
"There is nothing wrong with getting up early." Steve stated "there is breakfast in the oven and coffee on the side." He said trying to end the conversation he had just been in.
"Thanks." Mary said heading over to the oven to retrieve her food.
"Evie, do you want to go and watch some TV before we go out?" Steve asked. He was hoping his daughter would want to so he could talk to Mary about last night.
"Okay." She said getting up and walking to the living room.
"What's happening?" Mary asked, once she heard that Evie had put the TV on.
"I think me and Cath are back together, for good." Steve said putting his newspaper on the table.
"Okay, I thought this was good news for you." Mary said, she was a little confused. This was meant to be good news. Her brother loved Cath, she knew that. She told him to put Evie first, and he must have known what he was doing when he asked out on a date. Why did he look worried now?
"Yeah, it is a good thing. I love her. But Evie, has just come back into my life and last night when she thought Sarah was dying I started to think that if me and Cath become too serious she will think I am replacing her mom, and also what if Cath's kids think I am doing the same. Me and Evie are going to see Cath and her kids today." Steve said. Mary knew that Steve loved Cath and he would do anything to be with her. Mary also knew that Steve loved Evie and Evie loved Steve and that they would both be happy.
"You know Evie will be happy for you. She loves you and she will be happy for you. Have you told her that Cath is your girlfriend?" Mary asked.
"No, I told her we are going to see Cath. I never told her that she was my girlfriend." Steve said. He was starting to think that he should tell Evie from the start about Cath.
"You have to tell her Steve now rather than later. I suggest you go in there now talk to her and see what she thinks and see if she wants to go to Cath's today." Mary said. It was normally her brother giving her advice, but today the roles had reversed.
"Okay." Steve said getting up from the table and walking into the living room.
Evie was sitting on the sofa watching the TV. Steve walked in and sat down next to her. He lent forward and picked up the TV remote and turned the TV off. Evie looked over at Steve and waited for him to say something.
"Evie, there is something you need to know, me and Cath or sort of girlfriend and boyfriend." Steve said. It felt weird for him to say. He was 30 years old and referring to him and Cath as girlfriend and boyfriend. It seemed like he was a teenager again. "We have been in a relationship for many years. She worked away a lot and now she is back for good and working for Hawaii. She has two kids. We are going to try and make our relationship work. She isn't going to replace your mom." Steve wanted to tell his daughter but he told about his relationship. He didn't want to explain his relationship with Cath too much as he knew it had never been like a normal relationship.
"Okay." Was all Evie said. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. It was good because she wasn't that upset, or so Steve thought. But just saying okay made Steve wonder if she had more to say, about it and didn't want to upset him.
"Are you okay with this? Because if you're not, you can tell me." Steve said.
"Yeah, I'm okay with it." Evie said. Steve moved over to Evie and gave her hug before he turned the TV back on and lent back on the sofa.
They watched TV for about an hour before Steve told her they needed to get ready to go to Catherine's.
Meanwhile...
Cath was the first awake in her house. It wasn't that early but she still felt a little tired. She looked at her clock it was 9.00am. She had to wake her kids and tell them Steve and Evie were coming over. She got out of bed and went into Chelsea's room to see both Jay and Chelsea still asleep.
She walked over to Jay gently waking. When he started to wake, she did the same to Chelsea.
"Good Morning" she said when they were both awake.
She got a mumble in reply from both of them. She walked round to the other side of Chelsea's bed and sat down next Chelsea.
"Mum the rule was we had to be up by 10 not 9." Chelsea said looking at the clock on her bed stide table.
"I no, but Steve is coming over, and he is bringing his daughter. I would like you both to be here." Cath said.
"We are going to Nando's today. We told you the other day." Chelsea said. They had planned on going out today for a while. She was sure they had told Cath.
"What time?" Cath asked. She couldn't remember them telling her, but she was going to try and compromise. They hadn't been out with their friends in the last few days but this was important to her and could be important to them.
"Meeting everyone at about 3-4ish." Jay said.
"Steve is coming over at 11. You can go Nando's. You will have time." Cath said. She was relieved when they said they were going later. It gave them time to spent together and they wouldn't be mad at her for asking them to cancel their plans.
"I am going to make breakfast and get dressed. I will leave breakfast on the side for you. Be ready for 11." Cath said getting off the bed and heading to the door.
Once Cath had said Jay got off the sofa and sat on the bed next to her sister. "She looks happy." He said.
"Yeah. So let's not ruin it for her. So I am going to get changed so get out my room." Chelsea said, jokingly with her brother.
About an hour later Chelsea went down stairs to get her breakfast. She sat down opposite her brother. He was looking at something under the table.
"What's that?" Chelsea asked.
"Nothing." Jay said. It didn't matter if his sister saw it but he didn't want her too. He didn't no why.
"Show me" Chelsea said. She didn't always mean to do it but she had been able to get Jay to do what she wanted by a tone she had in her voice.
Jay picked up the crumpled photo that he had sat on his knee. "Nan gave it too me, a couple of years ago when I kept asking about dad. It's of mum and dad when they were younger, it was a few weeks before dad died." He said as he handed it to Chelsea.
"Why are you hiding it?" Chelsea wanted to know. They had very few photos of their childhood and even fewer of there mom and dad.
"Because, nan never talked about dad, you never talk about dad and neither does mom. We never get a proper answer to why he died. I didn't want anyone to take it. It's the only thing I have of dad." Jay said.
For once Chelsea was speechless. She. Knew Jay always missed having a dad. She did too, but she didn't remember him, she didn't no what it was like.
"Why do you have it down here today?" Chelsea wanted to know. She had never seen it before, so why today?
"I found it this morning and I was looking at it, when I came down to breakfast." Jay said.
They fell into silence for a little while until they heard Cath coming down the stairs.
He grabbed the photo that now lay on the table in front of Chelsea. "Don't tell her about this." Jay said.
"I won't." Chelsea replied.
"You won't what?" Cath asked. That was all she heard of the conversation. Chelsea had a tendency to express her opinions if she didn't like someone and she didn't want her to do that to Steve or Evie.
"Be late for going out later." Chelsea said thinking of any reason she could.
"You will go in plenty of time." Cath said.
"Yeah but this is Chelsea, she will take like 6 months to get ready." Jay replied. Trying not to remember the conversation he and his sister had just had.
"Okay." Cath said picking up the dishes that her kids had finished with. "Jay wash, Chelsea dry." Cath said putting the dishes in the sink.
"Why?" Chelsea tried to argue.
"Because I said so. And I am going and make sure that the living room is tidy." Cath said looking at both of them, giving them the 'I am your mother, do what I tell you' glare.
"Fine" Chelsea said both getting up and walking towards the sink.
Cath came back into the kitchen. They had both done the washing up, and were once again sitting at the kitchen table, reading magazines. She looked at both her kids and started to think of the worse possible outcomes of the day. They could be rude, and hate Steve and that would be the end of us. She didn't want that to happen. She loved him, but if her kids didn't agree then there was nothing she could do. There was nothing she could do. They would hopefully get along and things would go well.
"Mom, relax you still have 20 minutes before they are due. Things will be okay." Chelsea said pulling Cath out of her thoughts.
"I am relaxed." Cath said, trying to convince herself.
Meanwhile...
Steve and Evie had left to go to Cath's. Steve wanted to be on time. Once they had said goodbye to Mary they got in Steve's truck and headed towards Cath house. The first part of the journey was filled with little conversations about Evie"s school.
"Are you sure, you are alright with this?" Steve asked, as they were almost at Cath's house.
"Yeah, I am okay dad." She said looking at her dad.
When they drove into Cath's drive way Steve was a little nervous. If this didn't go well, he and Cath's relationship would probably not work out.
They got out the truck and knocked on the door.
Cath got up from the kitchen table when she heard the knock on the door. "You two best behaviour." She said walking to the door.
Jay and Cheslea just looked at her. They were not kids anymore.
What do you think. This was chapter was about the kids, next chapter will be more of Steve and Cath relationship. Please review