It was Katie's delighted squeals that had broken up the moment between them before either of them had had the chance to second guess their decisions. She wedged herself between them, seemingly unaware of their closeness.

"Can you stay all day?" Katie asked, as she stretched her legs out and leaned back in her father's arms. "We could go to the zoo. Daddy said the next time the weather was nice, we could go."

"That sounds like a lot of fun," Kelly said with a smile. Her eyes darted up to meet with Billy's before she answered. "But I'm afraid I can't stay today. I haven't been in town that long and I still have some things I have to take care of, but you and your Dad should go and have lots of fun so that next time we see each other, you'll have lots and lots of good stories to tell me, okay?"

She stood to her feet and quickly smoothed down her jacket. Almost instantly, she felt his hand on her arm.

"Wait a minute," he said quickly, standing up to his full height and taking a few steps out of Katie's earshot. "I hope you're not … I mean, I hope I didn't …" He forced a nervous smile. "This isn't because of …"

"No." She shook her head and glanced down at his shifting feet. "That was nice. I just really do have some things I need to take care of, so you two should go ahead and get on with your day and I'll take a car back to the club."

"I can give you a ride back," he offered.

"It's really okay. I can get a car and it'll be fine. Besides, I've heard that you've made prior commitments regarding a zoo trip."

He laughed softly as he let his hand trace the nape of his neck. "I had actually forgotten about that," he whispered.

"I'm pretty sure she's not going to accept that answer," she grinned. "But give it a go if you're feeling brave."

"Right." He glanced back towards Katie who seemed a bit preoccupied in her attempt to get all corners of the blanket to lie flat on the ground. "Well, if you're sure there's nothing I can say to convince you to come hang out with us at the zoo. It could be fun."

"I'm sure it will be," she giggled, "but I'm gonna have to pass. I hope we can do this again though. This was fun."

"Yeah, it was, and you've definitely got a fan in her." He tilted his head towards his daughter. "And in case you haven't noticed, she has a way of getting what she wants."

"Can't imagine where she'd get a character trait like that from." Kelly pulled her phone from her purse and glanced down at the screen. "I really should call a car and start crossing some things off my list. If I'm going to take that job with your brother, I should probably get my life in order first."

He pulled his own phone from his pocket and let his fingers quickly rove over the keys. "A car will be here soon," he smiled. "It's the least I could do to salvage some chivalry in this situation."

"Thank you," she said. "But you didn't have to do that."

"Sure I did," he said, "Otherwise you might not answer the door when I stop by to set up our next date."

Exactly 23 minutes had passed since the car had dropped her off at the GCAC, 7 of which she'd spent setting up a makeshift workstation in her hotel room. The remaining 16 had somehow drifted by as allowed the previous hours to replay over and over in her head.

"And this is why I was supposed to stay focused," she huffed as closed the cover on her tablet and slid it back into her bag. Standing to her feet, she quickly threw in her notebook and files before grabbing her jacket and heading towards the door. Maybe if she got out of this quiet, she could focus on what she'd actually come here to do - the whole reason she was in Genoa City in the first place.

As she approached her car and climbed inside, her mind flashed back to the conversation she'd had with Billy the night before, and the subsequent talk they'd had that morning. She hadn't intentionally misled him, and he wasn't exactly wrong in assuming she'd come to town to get away from the pain and the memories. He just didn't know the whole story. He didn't know why she'd chosen this town - this place. There was no reason to tell him, at least not yet. This could very well be a dead end. There had been so many dead ends before, but something about this place felt different.

She glanced at the buildings that surrounded her as she slowly pulled onto the road. This was the first time she'd been able to be out on her own in the light of day, free to explore the places that she'd only read about. There was something about the people here, the way they regarded each other, the way so many of them seemed so interconnected in ways they'd rather not be. It was clear plenty of places and people in Genoa City had their own secrets and she had to wonder how many were left -still to be discovered.

Her foot eased off the gas almost involuntarily as she saw the sign. It was quaint and welcoming with a steady flow of foot traffic in and out. There were empty spots for parking which meant it wouldn't be frantic, but also not the maddening sort of quiet from which she just escaped. This was a place that seemed synonymous with the community - a place where people had usuals and secrets were shared.

She pulled into one of the free spots near the door and watched as a man held the door for a woman to step out onto the sidewalk. She smiled at him as she walked through the front door of Crimson Lights.