Joe Solomon jogged up the steps to Summer Adam's Antebellum-like house. It was 11:00pm sharp when he rang the bell.
When Summer answered the door, she was surprised, to say the least, to see Joe Solomon standing on the doormat of her house. He'd always simply snuck into her house, and surprised her.
"What do you want?" Summer asked irritated, crossing her arms across her chest.
"I want to apologize for nearly ruining your career, and also for being a lousy brother-in-law." Joe looked at her, his eyes shining with sincerity.
Summer was determined that he wouldn't disarm her with his manly charms. She nodded her head curtly, before turning back inside.
As Joe walked through the house, he began to notice that the only photos on the wall were of her and her children, just her children, scenery. There was something missing…and he noticed it immediately.
When he arrived in the kitchen, Joe saw Summer preparing some coffee and tea.
"I still remember how you like your coffee." Summer commented as she a cup of coffee to Joe.
"So you do." He answered wryly. "I like the photos hanging up along your halls."
"Oh…thanks." Summer replied stiffly. She began to subtly make more distance between herself and Joe.
"You change your last name, and you also remove all traces of Jonas, your husband, in your home." Joe's voice began to lower, as he got angrier.
"Don't you dare judge me, Joe! You can't judge me, not when you completely removed yourself from his LIFE!" Summer began to scream, and flung her coffee mug at Joe's head. Joe ducked and it crashed against the kitchen wall.
"I wasn't present because I was trying to protect him. You know that." Joe's voice slowly began to rise in volume. He began to walk slowly towards Summer. "But you…you don't have an excuse for completely erasing Jonas from you and your home."
Summer began backing up, but then tripped, and stumbled into a kitchen chair. "I am moving forward; I'm moving on!" Summer's voice began to tremble, "I need to move on, I can't stay like this."
"He was my brother and you're completely…dishonoring his name. You don't even acknowledge his name." Joe slammed his hand down on the table.
Summer flinched, and screamed back at him, "He was my husband! He's DEAD! He left me." She then broke down in tears.
"He didn't leave you! Do you think he wanted to die?" Joe shouted. "He left me too…" He then whispered.
Summer barely heard him…but she did.
"Mama?" A little voice broke through the tension in the air. A small wavy brown headed boy cautiously came into the kitchen. "Are you alright?"
Summer waved her hand dismissively, "I'm fine, William. I was…just having a bit of a disagreement with your uncle."
William nodded. He didn't leave though; he just stood stoically in the doorway.
Summer nearly laughed at how brave her little son was. She got up, and edged around Joe cautiously, before running and picking up William, and twirling him around in the air.
William began laughing, and stretched his little, chubby arms around his mother's neck. "I love you." He whispered, before dropping his head sleepily on Summer's shoulder.
Summer turned to look at Joe, and mouthed, "I'm going to put him to bed."
Joe nodded.
When Summer came back downstairs, she was surprised to see Joe Solomon cleaning up the mess she had made, when she thrown the cup of coffee at him.
"I'm sorry about that. I can do it."
"No, it's okay. It was my fault anyways. I shouldn't have come here." Joe shook his head, and then looked at her curiously. "Just one thing I need to know. Why did you changed your last name?"
Summer looked at her feet uncomfortably, "I don't know. It's just…I suppose…I don't know. He was kind of a celebrity, but I didn't want to live in fame. So, I decided that I should change my last name. I suppose it was kinda stupid, huh?"
Joe laughed softly, "Yeah, it was. I thought that you had looked familiar that day in the hospital. So…what do you do for a living now?"
"I'm a social worker." Summer blurted out.
"Is there something special about being a social worker that made you answer so quickly?" Joe raised his eyebrow, as he sat down across from her.
"No, no…just…do you think I'd be allowed to be Liz and Ellie's social worker? I would really like to help them." Summer then looked down into her new cup of coffee, sheepishly.
"I don't see anything wrong with it." Joe shrugged. "Why do you want to help them though?"
"I don't know…they…I think that just need someone to help them. And, I want to be able to help them." Summer smiled.
"You should smile more." Joe commented as he got up and put his cup in the sink. "I've got to go, but it was nice to catch up."
Summer blushed, but then laughed at what he had last said. "Yeah, but next time we 'catch up' maybe we should actually 'catch up'."
"Maybe…" Joe smiled gratefully at her, the last family he had.