When Emily got to the house, Hal was waiting for her outside. "Ha, you're here!" He exclaimed and jumped up.
"What did he do, kick you out of your own house?' She joked with him.
"You would be surprised at how you right you were" Hal said, opening the door and letting her inside first.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Parker came bouncing down the stairs.
"Okay, you two have fun. I'm gonna go watch some tv" Hal said, turning around and starting towards the living room.
"Daddy!" "Hal!" Parker and Emily both yelled at the same time.
"Don't you dare leave me alone in this paint colour mess Hal Munson" Emily warned him. "You are coming with us to the painshop and you will help me convince him to choose another colour or I will force you to walked into that room every morning when you wake up!"
As soon as she realized what she had said, her cheeks turned bright right. She janked the door open and stormed outside, not even bothering to see if Hal or Parker were following her.
Parker looked at his dad confused. "Emily is a little confused right now" Hal explained to his son. The truth was, so was he, but he decided not to share that with anyone for now. He followed Parker outside and they got into the car.
When they arrived at the paintshop, Parker looked around him like he was in heaven.
"I want that colour" he said pointing to the left. "No, that colour!" He repeated, but this time looking to the right.
"So much for having to put up a fight about what colour he wanted" Emily smiled.
Hal looked at her from the side and apologized. "I'm sorry. If I had known it would be this easy to change his mind, I never would have bothered you"
"You didn't bother me" Emily tried to reasure him.
"But I'm sure you and Paul had other plans" He had to stop himself from making a snarky comment everytime he mentioned Paul, because it would start an argument again and he and Emily had been fighting enough lately.
"Paul and I don't have any plans. Not today, not tomorrow and probably not ever"
Hal looked surprised. "You and Paul are over?" 'That was fast' he thought to himself.
"Yeah. Paul and I never should have gotten together in the first place. But he was missing Rosanna and I was missing you and we turned to eachother" She decided to keep the fact that she still missed Hal while being with Paul to herself.
Instead of saying 'I told you so' Hal smiled at her and said "I'm sorry" He knew that any other guy or specifically husband would have probably rubbed her face in the situation, but he also knew Emily well enough to know that what she needed at this moment was a friend with a listening ear and not an angry husband.
"It's not your fault. If it's anybody's fault it's mine" She said and smiled when she saw the happy look on Parkers face while they walked past all the diffirent colours of paint.
"Why does all the blame always fall down on you? I know I wasn't exactly the perfect husband and although that still doesn't give ground for cheating, it did contribute. And what about Paul, he isn't blaimless either, not by a long shot"
When Emily turned to him with a sad and confused look, he tried to explain.
"What I mean is, Paul never should've gotten together with you just to take his mind off of Rosanna anymore then you should have done the same to replace me. He should have worked through his problems with Rosanna himself. And I know you guys have a whole history together, but that's just what it is, history!"
"I know" Emily interupted him. "I kept telling myself that. We have all this history and we've been together before, but that was just a poor excuse. Paul has been in Oakdale for years now and we didn't even spend any time together when he was engaged to one of my best friends, let alone after that"
They stopped when they reached the end of the isle and smiled at eachother ackwardly.
"I geuss we have to go find this little guy some paint" Emily said, putting her hands on Parkers shoulders.
Just before she could walk away, Hal took her elbow and stopped her. "I really meant what I said, I'm sorry"
She smiled and followed Parker to whatever colour it was his eyes had spotted first.
When they had looked through about half of the diffirent colours of paint they had in the store, Hal and Parker had finally decided on a mix of yellow and orange colours.
Parker still clung to the idea of yellow and Hal had suggested orange and that they could give the room of theme of building trucks and sand, wich Parker had loved ever since Mike had come to town.
After getting all the paint they needed, they drove to the toy store to get new stuff for his room.
The first thing Parker saw when he entered the store was a sandbox. Emily noticed where he was going before Hal did and smiled. She knew Hal would have a really difficult time trying to convince Parker that a sandbox was not something for inside and she was looking forward to watching him try.
Hal looked at Emily from the side and when he saw the smile form on her face, he followed her eyes to where she was looking.
When he noticed the huge smile on Parkers face while looking at the sandbox, he turned to Emily and pointed a finger at her, while mouthing the words "I'll get you for this later".
She just smiled at him and watched him try to explain to Parker why he could not have a sandbox in his room.
After he finally agreed to at least let Parker have the sandbox in the backyard, they walked back to where Emily was standing.
In an unguarded moment, she felt herself being lifted of the ground and deposited into the sandbox.
She screamed when she felt a handfull of sand slide down the back of her shirt. When she saw Parker crying out with delight and looking at his dad with a proud look, she knew exactly who had been responsible for the raspy feeling she now had on her back.
She jumped up and immediatly pushed Hal down in the sandbox. Her plan failed though when she felt herself falling down again and landing on Hal's chest.
When she looked up, she immediatly noticed the close proximity of their faces. Her eyes traveled lower untill they landed on his lips.
Before he had time to react to what was happening, Emily had already jumped up and was halfway to the exit when he caught up to her.
"Don't you dare leave again..."
To Be Continued...