CHAPTER 4

For the next few months, things moved slowly at the Sheffield home. The children were so depressed. Every time that Gracie would wake up, she would call for her mommy. Max wasn't much better he buried himself in work. Fran kept trying to get him out of his office but never availed. She gave up after a while. She just kept the kids busy and whenever they asked she would show them a home video with their mom on it. They laughed and cried and were reminded of the happy times. Sometimes Max would sneak in a glance at the videos. After a while he started coming out of his office. He started having breakfast and dinner with the family. He even ate lunch with them on the weekends. He found himself strangely attracted to Fran. He almost felt love for her. After a year and half of her being there every moment, he suggested that she just move in. She agreed to it and the children were over-joyed. She helped with everything, whether it be; birthday parties or backer's parties; she was there. Max started to show his feeling without even noticing it. Niles as always noticed everything, whether it be a peck on the cheek or a long hug, he knew exactly what was going on; they liked each other. One day Max built up the courage to ask Fran out. He called her into his office.

"You wanted to see me Maxwell?" Fran asked as she opened the door.

"Yes please close the door and sit down." She did as she was told. "I've been thinking, you've been so good with the children and I very much see how wonderful you are and well, I'm just going to get the point… would like to have dinner with me tonight?"

"Maxwell, don't I have dinner with you every night?"

"Well, yes but I meant like without the children, just the two of us, like a date." Fran was speechless.

"Of course, I would love to." She said with a little too much excitement she thought.

"Wonderful, I'll have to car outside by seven is that okay?" Fran looked at her watch it was five she had just enough time.

"That's perfect, see you at seven." She left the office, went upstairs, shut the door of her room and screamed with joy. At six, she was curling her hair when Maggie and Brighton came into her room.

"Are you going somewhere Aunt Fran?" Maggie asked. Within the months that she had been there, they shortened Aunt Frannie to Aunt Fran.

"Yeah you look really pretty." Brighton said. Fran turned to face them.

"Well as a matter of fact, I am going somewhere, I have a date tonight." She noticed the sad looks on their faces. "What's wrong angels?"

"If you go on dates then you'll forget all about us and we'll never see you again." Brighton said. Fran's heart almost broke in two when she heard that.

"Oh, B, that's never going to happen. I could never forget about you guys. It would be wrong if I forgot about you guys, especially with who the date is with."

"Who is it Niles?" Maggie asked.

"Close, your father." Fran said.

"So now you're trying to take mom's place?" Brighton asked on the verge of tears.

"Never, do you remember what I said when I came here? I said that I would never ever try and take your mother's place. You guys have a mom and I would try to replace her."

"You mean we HAD a mom." Maggie said.

"No I mean you guys, HAVE a mom. She may not be here with you, but she's still your mom and nothing will ever change that." Fran said hugging them. They felt a lot better after that. They left Fran to get ready. At seven, she came down the stairs to find Max waiting for her.

"My goodness, you look beautiful. Shall we?" He asked offering his arm.

"We shall." She replied taking his arm and exiting through the door. He took her the Russian Tea Room. They laughed and talked about their lives. Fran took a huge step in talking about the day she met Sarah. Max seemed very interested in how they met. By the end the night, they knew everything about each other. Their prefect night was ruined by Danny seeing them.

"Frannie, what hell are you doing? We are together, you're cheating on now?"

"Oh my goodness Fran I'm so sorry. I completely forgot about your boyfriend."

"You have to be sorry about Max. Danny, you dumped be a year a half ago. We have been over since then. If I want to date again I can." Danny was getting angry now, he was obviously drunk.

"You can't talk to me like that! Let's go I'm taking you back." He said as he grabbed her arm but she yanked it back.

"No Danny, I'm not going with you. I have someone new in my life, someone who likes me for me, also someone who doesn't hit me when I say no." Danny stepped closer to her and said,

"Apparently, you need to another lesson." He raised his hand and smacked her across the face with the back of his hand.

"Fran! Fran are you okay?" Max asked going over to her.

"I'm fine can you please just me out of here?" She whispered. Max nodded he didn't look back at Danny as he led her to the limo. "I'm so sorry that out perfect night was ruined." She apologized to Max.

"Hey, it's fine. The night's not over and as long I'm with you it's perfect." He lifted her head to look into her eyes. As looked in each other's eyes they felt this gravitational pull come over them. Before they knew it, they were kissing, to even more of their surprise the other one kissing back. Max wrapped his arm around her back and she did the same with his neck. Max started kissing her neck and when she didn't stop him, he went to her shoulders. She felt herself being lowered onto the seat.

"Max… I don't think this is the place to this, when my bed is so comfortable." Fran said. Max laughed and agreed. As if on cue, they pulled in front of the house. They went inside. Since it was late, everyone was in bed. "Why don't you go in my room and wait for me. I just need to check on the children." She said as she walked toward Maggie's room. After Fran checked on the children she went to her room, when she walked in, she didn't see Max. "Max?" As she called his name, the lights went out and she felt strong hands over her eyes and mouth.

"Don't scream or yell. Everything's going to be just fine." She knew that voice, she didn't know what game Max was playing all she knew was that, she liked it. The last thing she remembered was a terrific feeling and a warm body on top of her.