Hey guys! I'm back from my reprieve! I've done a lot of reworking on the plot; I just hope I'm not stabbing myself in the back with this one… Oh well… whatever…

Please read me 3

I do want to say that I am so grateful to have so many fans that gave me confidence, support and feedback concerning the review that I received. You guys really did make me feel that what I do is worthwhile and I just want to thank you for that. I also want to thank you for the reviews on Chapter 12! You guys are truly overwhelming me with all of your feedback! I LOVE IT! And since I'm sooo close, closer than I have ever been before to 100 reviews I will make you guys a deal, this is a long shot but I think that you can do it. IF I get to 100 reviews this chapter I will write the next chapter that day regardless of the time and have it posted for you guys.

Thirteen going on Thirty…

Carry walks into the apartment shyly; luckily all of the boys actually went to school today, so the house is empty except for the two of us. She holds her bag to her like a life jacket in the ocean. I can tell that she is unsure of everything right now.

"Well… This is it for the moment…Not much…" I say unsurely, "but we're going to move into a bigger house soon."

She looks up and merely nods.

"Do you want to see your room?"

"Sure," she whispers.

I walk towards, what used to be my office, but is now a make shift room. A bed sits in one corner and a dresser right across from it. Several bookshelves line the walls full of books; she looks on in wonder at them.

"Have you read them all?" she asks indicating the books.

"Most of them."

"That's amazing…" she whispers.

"Not really…" I laugh in embarrassment, "I just read for fun. What do you like to do?"

"Paint and draw…"

"Using what medium, may I ask?"

"Watercolor, mostly for painting and charcoal for my more serious works when I want to draw," She says shyly.

"Oh, that's fantastic! Can I see some of them?"

She nods and pulls out a book out of her bag full of painting and drawing of all kinds. Wordlessly I look over the works; several dark and sad in tone, but there are several happier ones as well.

Calmly I put a few aside and turn to Carry, "Would you care if I had these framed?"

"Really?" she questions her eyes wide.

"Really."

"I would love it if they were framed!"

"Then it's settled, I'll have them framed," I smile.

Later that day, when the boys get home, they all pile into the kitchen where Carry and I are calmly sitting drinking tea.

"Hey Meg! Where is the all the sandwich meat?" Yells Seth as he sticks his head out of the refrigerator and looks over at us among all the chaos.

The moment his eyes land on Carry he stops and just stares as if he just found the meaning to life and it's her. Carry is now looking down with her face bright red and studying her tea quite intensely.

"Hey…" says Seth's voice now right in front of the table, his place in the fridge already occupied by Brady, "My name is Seth, what's yours?" he questions in a soft voice.

"Carry…" she all but whispers to him.

His smile is a hundred watts, he clearly couldn't have been happier if he had just been given the supermarket to eat.

"That's a beautiful name."

"Thank you…"

Seth stands there and continues to stare at Carry at least until I mutter, "Seth stop staring, it's not polite…" I say sharply sensing Carry's discomfort.

The guys stop what they are doing at my words and turn towards us, Seth looks sheepish but distracted and appears to tear his eyes away long enough to pout at me.

"But Meg! I wasn't staring!"

I roll my eyes and shake my head, "yeah you were Seth… flirt with her on another day ok?"

Carry turns an even brighter red at my words and Seth beams happily the thought.

"Come on Seth, let's go see Sam ok?" Says Collin as he grabs Seth and attempts to drag him out the door, both Brady and Tommy have to help.

I glance over at Carry as she glances over at me and we both just shrug and try to dismiss their odd behavior.

At this point in time it isn't long until the apartment door opens and in comes Paul, "Hey, Meg!" he says as he comes into the room and hugs me tightly. I smile and roll my eyes at his affections, I admit though, I love his hugs, and they are just so warm and make me feel safe.

He sits down at the table after introducing himself to Carry, who had kind of met her earlier, but we had been so distracted by getting the paper work done that they didn't really get a chance to introduce themselves.

"You weren't kidding," Carry mutters quietly glancing nervously at Paul, "A lot of guys do hang around here."

"Yeah, it's a little crazy sometimes…"

"Do you not like them here?" Paul asks calmly.

"No it's fine, Paul, I don't mind the guys here, I just hope that it doesn't bother Carry."

"Umm… I'm just not used to people that's all."

"Trust me, they're all good guys and I actually do feel safer knowing that one of them is always here, and no joke one of them is always here… We might have to change that now…"

"Well I was thinking…" Paul begins, "That I could add another room or two onto the house. I want to do some renovations before we move in any way to modernize the place. Actually, Meg, that's what I came over here to talk to you about anyway."

"Paul… I don't think that we can afford that… I don't think that we can afford to buy a house and renovate it all at once."

"Yeah we can… Me and guys are going to be doing all the work ourselves, and I already have most of the material at home. The only thing that is going to cost extra are materials for the extras that you want and the modernization."

"Really? You're sure it's not going to cost that much?"

"Things might be tight for a while, but I think that we can handle it."

"Paul we are going to be house three teens, two of which are boys, which by the way eat me out of house and home… Perhaps you can tell me now how 'tight' things are going to be…"

"Well we need another room regardless," Paul argues.

"Why do we need another room Paul?"

"You know the guys are always staying over… they need a place too… As one of the oldest in the pa- group we need to have the accommodations to house the guys."

"I don't get it…" I mutter calmly, "but you're right, a lot of the guys spend time here and they need space too…"

"What if you built me sunroom that can double as sleeping quarters for the boys and if you want to, a separate building connected by an indoor breezeway that can be the guys room and hangout?"

"It's possible… Do you really not want us in the house?" he asks careful to keep his face neutral, but I can detect just a hint of dejection.

"It's not that… I just figure that since the guys like to spend so much time at our place that it would be good if when they are there they have space of their own. You know… a 'man cave'?"

"Did you just give me permission to build a man cave?"

"Yes… I think I did, because that way, when I'm making the rest of the house pretty, you won't be in my hair."

"I can deal with that…" Paul says contently as he leans back in the chair and crosses his arms behind his head, obviously already planning his man cave.

"Which are you going to build first?" I question slyly.

"The man cave," he says as he flashes me a mischievous smile and gets up and walks into the living room as I pout after him.

Hello lovelies how did you like my chapter? I gave you a nice Paul moment ^.^ I hope that you enjoyed that! Please don't forget to review! I've already got a little bit of the next chapter done! When I finish it is up to you! 18 reviews!