So I have up to chapter 26 written. All couples will get their requests, haha, soon. Anyhow this is like the start of the new living arrangements and once everything is settled it will progress from there. Relationship wise. It just has to be a realistic transition.

xoxo Jules

Chapter 23: "Didn't mean to make you cry-"

Kirsten's POV: "Whatever it was"

I wasn't sure how to tell Summer the news. I hoped with every fiber of my being that she would accept my offer.

Summer sat on Alex's bed beside her flipping through a magazine. The two girls chatted as they giggled at something that they had read in the article. I gently tapped on the door frame.

"Hey girls." I said stepping into the room. They both looked up

"Hey mom." Alex greeted me with a less than enthusiastic hand wave

"Hey Mrs. Cohen." Summer said looking up at me smiling.

I stood in the doorway a moment longer before I mustered up the courage to ask Summer.

"I was wondering if you wanted to ride with me to South Coast Plaza and keep me company."

"um…" Summer stuttered turning to Alex who waved her hand signing that Summer should go ahead. "Yeah, that'd be cool I guess." She responded.

The ride to South Coast was silent, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Summer is the only person that had ever been in my car and not writhed when I turned on my music. As it turned out, much to my surprise might I add that she was into the classics like Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, and Billie Holiday. It seemed that we were at the plaza in no time at all.

"I was thinking that we could grab some lunch."

I could see Summer becoming nervous at the prospect of having to spend money, but quickly I washed her worries away.

"It's on me." I tried to give her a reassuring smile. It seemed to have worked.

"Are you sure?" She asked biting her bottom lip.

"No worries." I said keeping eye contact with the girl.

"Cool. That sounds great."

We headed to a little outside bistro and took a seat. We ordered our food and sat in silence for awhile until I had mustered up the courage to bring up the unspoken topic.

"What do you want to do with your life Summer?" I asked her rather bluntly, but not in a lecturing tone.

"I don't know… I mean, I donno, I guess that I haven't thought about it much."

I nodded understanding. These kids weren't given a chance to think that far into the future. They had to worry about where there next meal would come from.

"I could see you doing something with design." I confessed

"Really?" She said as her face lit up.

"Yeah." I smiled back at her as our food came. "So I was thinking, the summer is almost over and we have to decide what we are going to do about next year."

"Oh."

Her face fell a bit and she began to shift nervously in her seat.

"Sandy and I were talking about it. Alex goes to this school, it's called Harbor, and the actually have a pretty impressive design program, well for a high school anyway."

"That's cool." Summer said clearly not understanding where I was going with any of this.

"If you wanted to stay with us, through the year, and for as long as you need to Sandy and I would love to have you in our home." I finally spilled, nervous that I could not just yet gage the girls reaction.

"Oh, wow…" Summer stuttered out. "I wasn't quite expecting that."

I leaned across the table and took Summers hand into my own.

"Sandy and I, Alex as well, would love nothing more than for you to join our family."

Summers eyes were confusing and hard to read. It was almost as if she didn't believe me.

"I don't get why…"

"Because Summer, you are a beautiful woman with endless potential and you deserve just as much as any other person. Sandy and I can give that to you."

Summer sat for a moment as though she were trying to digest everything that I was saying. And then without warning she began to cry. Not just cry, she sobbed.

"Honey, it's okay!" I said rising from my seat and walking around the table to embrace her. The fact that we were in public didn't matter, there was no need to feel embarrassed. This was the start of something new. Summer deserved more than the life that she had been living.

"Thank you so much Kirsten. I will not let you down I promise." Summer pulled back from me and smiled wiping the tears from her face. "Really though, I appreciate it more than you will ever know."

Looking into the young girls eyes there was no doubt in my mind that she meant every single word that she said. Any worry that I had about the new arrangement was forgotten at that moment.

"I know Summer."

I knew that I did the right thing.

Jimmys POV: "I know it's because"

I had only seen Marissa once since it was discovered that I was infact her father. The next time neither one of us necessarily addressed on another so I don't know how she's going to be about me coming to her now asking her something as bold as to move in.

I stood outside of the pool house which she had been calling home since the four teens seemingly washed up on the shore of Newport beach. She was sitting alone on the bed staring off into space. Her hair was wet after just having taken a shower and she wore no make-up, allowing her freckles to scatter her face.

She looked up, startled, when I creaked open the pool house door.

"Oh hey." She said with a small smile when she saw me. I had no idea what prompted the smile but with Marissa people tend to take what they can get in the way of a positive gesture.

"Hey." I said stepping further into the room. "Can I talk to you about something?" I asked taking a seat in the chair beside the bed.

"So what's up?" Marissa asked tossing hair over her shoulders, she sniffed and rubbed her nose. Coke.

She was pale and the clothes that she wore hung off of her. She always fidgeted with her toes and chewed on her lip as though it were a piece of gum, yet she was beautiful. I could only imagine the horror that she went through having Julie as a mother. What I witnessed in the short time that I knew her she can damage anyone enough to last a lifetime.

"Well we, the Cohen's and I were thinking that it is about time to make some permanent arrangement for you kids. The summer is almost over and you kids should be enrolled for school in the fall."

She looked at me and I could tell that she was wondering what I was going to propose.

"I was thinking, well wondering if you would move into my apartment with me." I finally spoke.

Marissas eyes darted from side to side and her eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't know. I mean, you're not obligated to take care of me." She finally spoke still not meeting my eyes.

"Marissa, I'm your father! Of course I want to take care of you!"

"It's just that you weren't there the first sixteen plus years of my life so why should that all change now? You don't want me and if you did you would have taken me when you found me all of those years ago."

Salt in the wound, knife in the back, needles in my eye, and a twisting of the gut. That is what her words felt like to me all at once.

"I'm sorry Marissa. I was young and I was dumb and I want nothing more than to make it up to you. I really really swear that all I want is to do right by you. I just need to chance to prove it." I pleaded to the girl in front of me. I could tell that she was starting to break.

Marissa sighed and then met my eye.

"Where do you live?" She asked "Do you live in Newport?"

"Yeah yeah! I live right next door to the Cohens."

I tried not to get too excited. The last thing that I wanted was for her to change her mind and flee.

"Do you have a family?" Marissa asked chewing on her bottom lip again.

"My wife, Georgia, died two years ago, around this time actually."

That had been one of the most painful experiences of my life. She was an amazing woman. She didn't care about my flaws and she made me feel like a teenager again even when I was in debt or knee deep in paperwork. Breast cancer took her after a five year battle. The entire family has struggled ever since.

"I'm sorry." Marissa spoke

"It's okay. We had three kids together she and I."

Marissa's brow furrowed again hearing this.

"Rhett is 15 and Caitlin is about 14, and then Sophie is 6. Georgia was diagnosed right after she was born."

Marissa nodded blankly.

"What about everyone else?" She then asked me

"The Cohen's have agreed to let Seth, Summer, and Ryan stay here with them. I wanted you with me." I confessed.

Marissa nodded blankly again.

"And you only live next door?"

"Yep." I said nodding my head.

"I mean…" Marissa stuttered. "I guess that sounds cool then." She gave me a small smile. "Thanks Jimmy."

One day I hope that she will be able to call me dad, but I know that's not today.

Sandy's POV: "We are, We are…"

Ryan and Seth are two respectable young men. See I never had a son, and I never really had a father so the prospect of having two youths, both males in my house that I have to look out for puts me on edge a bit. But there're good kids, they'll do just fine.

I walked into the living room where the two boys were playing play station.

"Hey guys, can I talk to you for a second?" I asked as Seth switched off the TV.

"Yeah, sure." Ryan said.

They both turned to face me anxiously.

"Well summer is winding down and school is starting here in the fall and Kirsten and I were thinking that we'd really like for the two of you to come and stay with us. Permanently." I felt the need to add.

Seth and Ryan exchanged glances. Seth smiled and approached me pulling me into a
"manly" hug.

"Thanks Uncle Sandy." He said

"What is going to happen to Summer and Marissa?" Ryan asked from the ground where he sat.

"Summer is going to be living right across the hall from Alex, and if all goes as planned Marissa is going to be living with Jimmy." I explained

"Jimmy, that's random." Seth said flopping down onto the couch.

It the occurred to me that the boys didn't know.

"Jimmy actually, as it turns out, is Marissa's father."

"What!" Both Ryan and Seth said turning to me.

"It's a long story."

And for I had to leave it at that, for now at least.

Families are not where you are born, or who looks like you, or who acts like you. Family is who you surround yourself with… a new family has just been born.

Let me know what you think! Reviews are pretty stellar.

xoxo Jules