OH! Before I forget, THIRD SWEEPS starts on MONDAY! I hope you're all ready for an emotional rollercoaster! As far as sweeps go, this is the last one, but don't worry. There are almost 100 chapters already written after this one and we're not leaving you to the cancelled show any time soon. Thank you!

Cruz didn't want Bobbie to think he had come to this decision hastily even though he had made it without her. He just felt he owed it to his mother, his aunt, and his grandmother. It was his mother who volunteered to stay with them until after her granddaughter was brought into the world and he hadn't been able to argue with her fool-proof logic. Still, now he had to explain it to his wife in a way that didn't make him look like the bad guy. He hadn't chosen his family over her, hell she was his family now, but he couldn't keep ignoring his own family any longer. Closing their bedroom door, he caught her surprised look and matched her smile. He took her hands in his and sat down on the end of the mattress with her.

"Did you have a good visit with your family?"

"Yes I did." Cruz nodded. "I'm just glad they agreed to stay at the townhouse so I can ravish you properly."

Bobbie lifted one eyebrow gracefully. "You have a thing for whales I'm not aware of?"

"Darling..." Cruz let his voice trail off as he pressed a slow kiss to her collarbone.

"You're too good at this."

"I know I haven't been paying you the attention you deserve lately. I've just been trying to keep everyone happy." Cruz assured her as he wrapped her in his arms.

"I know that. And it will get back to normal once your family goes back home." She sighed as she nestled her head into the crook of his neck, kissing his shoulder blade.

Cruz used his index finger to turn her face toward him and kiss her deeply. His hands moved to the back of her head and his fingers kneaded away at her scalp. "About that..."

"Hmm?"

"They might be here a little longer than we originally thought." He murmured against her cheek, his lips sliding to tug at the tip of her left ear.

Pulling back slowly, Bobbie met Cruz's guilty eyes with her own. "How much longer?" She asked slowly.

"Just—" He tilted her head to the side and grazed the side of her neck with a soft, biting kiss. "Until the baby's born."

"Cruz that is two months away."

"It'll zip past. I promise." Cruz told her, bringing her left hand to his lips and kissing each of her knuckles.

"That's easy for you to say. They like you." Bobbie pulled his hand away and crossed her arms in front of her chest, resting them on top of her stomach.

"Why do you think they don't like you? They haven't gotten a chance to know you, that's all." Cruz insisted, folding his hands on top of hers, smiling when his little girl kicked hard enough for both of them to notice. "She agrees with me."

"They don't talk to me. They look at me as if I am a huge fat bug." Bobbie ticked off with her fingers.

"No they don't. This is new for everyone involved. I didn't do any of this right and I apologize for that." Cruz kissed her mouth lightly and then met her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I should have introduced you to my family the moment I knew I loved you." Cruz explained quietly.

"You only didn't because of me." Bobbie reminded him gently. Going public had always been her issue. Her problem. Not his.

"Hey, look at me. None of this is your fault. Listen, Mama offered to help you finish the nursery." Cruz informed her as he held her chin tightly in his hand so that she couldn't look away.

"She did?"

"Uh huh." Cruz smiled at the surprise in her voice. "She brought a bunch of stuff for the baby and a quilt for you."

"Well she has to have better decorating taste than you and my nephews." She tried to joke lightly.

"She said she's been trying to give it to you since they came down, but you run into a corner every single time she tries to approach you." Cruz gave her a knowing look.

Bobbie looked away and blushed. It wasn't that she was trying to be antisocial. It was just difficult to find conversation with your mother-in-law when she practically your same age. "Maybe there are some nerves involved."

"If you hadn't told me, I'd have had no idea." Cruz teased. "Is this okay? Them staying longer I mean?"

"I'll try harder. And it's a good idea for her to know both sides of her family. So yes. It's ok."

"Good." His lips merged with hers and broke off a second later with a loud smack. "I'll be back."

"Where are you going?"

"Duty calls." He told her, stroking her face with the back of his hand as if he couldn't stand to not touch her.

Pulling him closer to her, she reached up and kissed his lips. "Hurry home."

The normal bustle of what constituted activity on a set was all around Steven. The lead actors were in their trailers "rehearsing", which was code for recovering from the hangover the night before. The stand-ins looked bored out of their minds for the lighting tests he was currently performing. Steven couldn't blame them. It wasn't the most exciting thing in the world to do, but it was better than sitting around doing nothing. Or in his case, sitting around obsessing over those brief kisses with Georgie.

What had he been thinking? The question had echoed in his head ever since his lips parted from hers. Actually, he knew the answer to that question. He hadn't been thinking. That was the long and short of it. If he had been using his actual brain, he would have reminded himself that Georgie was younger than his sister. She was twenty-one. He had already started going to reunions for his high school class and she had just left. He should be warning her against lecherous older men in Paris, not being one.

It was momentary insanity. It was her relief at her future stepmother being okay. It was the ridiculous cliché of being in Paris. But it shouldn't have happened. And he shouldn't continue to remember it constantly.

Walking away had been the right thing, the honorable thing, and the sane thing. Continuing to stand there with her would have led to something even crazier happening, such as his kissing her again. And again. And again. She probably hated him right now. Certainly she hadn't contacted him since then and he didn't blame her. But with time, she would see this was the best way, the only way, to handle this.

"Alright. Thanks. Could you move to the marks for the next shot please?" He waved the bored stand-ins closer to the camera. Pretending to ignore the dirty looks they shot him, he struggled to not roll his eyes. "Don't blame me because you're over the hill and stuck as a stand-in," he muttered under his breath.

Georgie saw red when she opened her eyes. She saw red when she closed her eyes. Suffice it to say, she hadn't slept since the kiss, if it could even be called that. She had put more thought into her Science Fair projects in grade school than Steven had in kissing her. It was insulting and his swift departure had made her even angrier, if not completely embarrassed.

So what was she doing at his workplace? Seething, that's what she was effing doing! She was so angry she couldn't see straight and she was pretty sure she was shaking too. He thought he could kiss her and walk away? With so much left unsaid? He was out of his mind! One of two things had happened: either he had realized the age gap between them and instantly taken a dislike to kissing her or he was an asshole who had taken total advantage of her when she was vulnerable.

So maybe she had participated in the kiss. So what? He had kissed her and she had responded without even realizing it. It wasn't like the feelings she had for him were anything new. She both recognized and abhorred them. She had chosen to hate him. It was just easier. That's what she was doing here: She was going to announce to anyone who would listen that she hated him and wanted nothing more to do with him. She had enough friends. She didn't need another one. And that's all he seemed to want to be. So to hell with him. She had a date with a Humanities final.

She would march right up to him and say, "I hate you (insert profane comment followed by incoherent words of rage and topped off with some insult to his libido.)" Spotting the back of his beautiful curly head, she charged toward him, stopping short when he spun around before she could say anything. He reached out to steady her and she slapped him in the face. This wasn't part of the plan. She wasn't supposed to hit him. She was merely supposed to throw hurtful words at him and storm out like the self-assured woman she knew herself to be.

Steven raised his palm to his stinging cheek. Well that answered part of his wonderings. Georgie was angry. Very angry judging by the flashing in her eyes. "Georgie? What are you doing here?"

"No, I didn't say you could talk. Shut your stupid mouth!" Georgie warned him, taking a step backwards to collect herself. "You and I need to get a few things straight. What happened the other night meant nothing."

"Georgie..." He tried to start, but she cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"You're doing it again. Stop it! Stop patronizing me!" Georgie screamed at him, not caring who heard her. She was definitely shaking now; the pressure was causing her teeth to chatter together.

"I'm not patronizing you. I wouldn't do that."

"You'll forgive me if I don't take everything you say to heart. Was I at least an easy target? Was I some experiment in some pre-mid-life crisis or something?" Good girl, she thought to herself. Bring up the age. And calm down or you'll never get this all out in the open where it needs to be.

"Why don't we go outside and talk about this calmly?" He offered. Most of the crew spoke little English, but they understood it perfectly. Georgie was attracting more attention than Brad and Angelina visiting the set.

"NO! You stay away from me. I'm not going outside or anywhere else with you for that matter. We're staying right here." She promised through gritted teeth.

"Look I'm sorry about the other day..."

"You're sorry? Why? It obviously made more of an impression on you than it did on me. I'm just here to clear things up. I don't want to see you ever again." By the end of her declaration she was in tears. "Damn it."

He reached out to wipe the tears off her face. "That wasn't what I meant."

"So that's why you ran off like a scared little kid?" She challenged, slapping his hand away.

"I admit it wasn't my best moment but if we could just talk..."

"I don't want to talk to you." Georgie argued in a grumble.

"Then why did you come?" he challenged. Even though he didn't want to admit it, he knew this woman in front of him. If she really didn't want to deal with him, she wouldn't have sought him out.

"Because you hurt me." She whispered brokenly.

Her hushed tone broke him and he took a cautious step toward her. Walking away from her was supposed to help her, not hurt her. He had a spectacular talent of making situations far worse than they needed to be, Steven realized. He reached for her arm, resting his hand lightly on it. "I never meant to hurt you. That wasn't what it was about."

"What was it about then? I was there and I'm more confused than anyone. That includes this bunch of strangers." Georgie nodded toward the group that was crowded around them. She had ignored them before, but they were making their presence known.

"I was afraid..."

"Of what? Me?"

Steven shook his head emphatically. "No. I was afraid of me."

"What does that even mean? I could have stopped you. I didn't. Doesn't that mean anything?" Georgie emphasized the last word.

He couldn't form the words. What words he could think of didn't seem powerful enough to express what he was thinking. So he did the only thing that he could think of, he acted. Stepping closer to her, Steven pulled her to him. Before she could protest, he lowered his lips to hers, tasting her sweet peppermint taste once again. He paused long enough to rest his forehead on hers. "I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop once we started." He whispered.

She wanted to punch him, even more so when he parted her lips expertly as if he had ever right, as if he'd done it a hundred times. "I didn't want you to." Georgie replied in-between kisses, her voice as soft as his.

The applause and amused laughter of the surrounding crew yanked Steven back into reality. He smiled when he noticed the blush starting to creep up Georgie's cheeks once the sound penetrated her ears. "You're adorable when you're embarrassed."

Georgie smacked her forehead. "I can't believe I just said that."

"I'm glad you did." He kissed her lightly.