Hi everyone! I apologize for the long absence. I switched POVs for this short, filler chapter and wrote from DJ's perspective. I'm hoping to have Chapter 3 up by the end of the week. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
D.J. looked at the pile of unfolded laundry overtaking her bed and sighed. Tommy was taking a nap, Jackson and Max were out with Stephanie for the afternoon, and Kimmy and Ramona were having lunch with Fernando. It was now or never.
She set off meticulously folding the towels like her dad had reinforced since she could remember. Usually, she enjoyed a house this quiet, but today, she would have given anything to for something to preoccupy her mind. She strained her ears in hopes that maybe she could hear Tommy stirring. No luck.
She couldn't seem to get her thoughts off her sister. It had been nearly five weeks since Stephanie came home from Coachella and confided in her that she couldn't have kids, five weeks since she had told her she had actually been pregnant. She tried time and time again to find the right words, the magic combination that would make everything right in her sister's world, but she couldn't figure it out. It was a delicate dance of letting Steph know that she was there if she needed to talk without being overbearing, trying to ask questions to make sense of it all in D.J's mind without ripping open old wounds for her sister. It was a dance that left her and her sister in a weird sort of limbo – each one tiptoeing around the other afraid that someone might break.
D.J. couldn't imagine. Her boys were her life. She wasn't sure who she'd be or what she'd be doing if those three weren't even a possibility. Possibility. That was the other word that keep ricocheting around D.J.'s brain. She knew Stephanie had said it wouldn't happen for her – the doctor had told her she wouldn't have kids – but some part of D.J. still had to believe that in maybe the perfect storm it could work. She shook her head. She hadn't told Stephanie that; she knew what her sister would say. Even after losing her husband, D.J. still managed to that hang onto the optimistic outlook she grew up with. Was anything ever really completely out of the question?
She was ready to ignore the rest of the laundry in favor for digging out her laptop and researching infertility treatment options when she heard the doorbell ring. She wasn't sure who she was expecting at 3:30 on a Sunday but it certainly wasn't the tall, athletic-looking stranger who was waiting for her on the front porch.
"'Ello," he smiled sheepishly when D.J. opened the front door.
Tall, athletic, and British, D.J. corrected herself.
"I'm really sorry to bother you, but um, I was wondering if there is a Stephanie Taylor
who lives here?" The stranger ran his hand through his tousled, dark hair. D.J. couldn't help but noticed that there seemed to be a hint of desperation behind his deep, blue eyes, and she wished she could help.
"Sorry," she said sympathetically, "There isn't anyone here by that name."
"Oh," D.J. watched the hope drain from his face even though he kept his lips fixed in a smile. "It was just, sorry, is this 1709 Broderick Street?"
"Yeah," D.J. replied. "But there isn't a Stephanie Taylor who lives here. There's a Stephanie Tanner."
"Yes!" The handsome stranger nearly yelled, and for a moment, D.J. thought he might hug her. "Yes! That's her! Stephanie Tanner."
D.J. smiled, happy that she could help, but couldn't help but wonder who this man was and why he was looking for her sister. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," he said as he held out his hand for D.J. to shake. "I'm Leo. Leo Taylor. I'm Stephanie's husband."
