Chapter 18
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
In the morning, Kelly keeps her promise and has breakfast at Casa Walsh. Sammy greets her, as soon as she arrives, "Mommy, I'm missed you last night."
"I missed you too, did you have fun," she asks.
"Yeah, are Aunt Silver and her friend better?" Sammy asks.
"Yeah, they are doing better. Let's go eat some breakfast before I have to be at work, okay," she says as she leads them back inside of the house.
Brandon is already in the kitchen sitting at the table reading the newspaper. He notices when Kelly enters the room, he stands up to give her a good morning kiss on the cheek. "Morning Kel," Brandon says and then asks her quietly, "You doing okay from last night?"
Kelly just answers, "yeah, I'm fine," and then moves over to the counter where Cindy is standing behind cutting up fruit.
"Morning Cindy thanks for taking Sammy for the night on such short notice," She says with a bit more of a smile.
"Oh Kelly, you know it's no problem. We're always happy to have him," Cindy happily says.
Then Kelly gives all of her focus and attention to Sammy, trying to ignore Brandon's curious stares.
After they finish breakfast, Brandon walks outside with Kelly to her car. Brandon speaks up, "It doesn't look like you got much sleep last night."
Kelly hates it that he can still read her like a book, even when she tries to cover it up. "No, I didn't…it was a late night," Kelly says looking away from Brandon towards the front yard, remember that it's just been a little over a week since he has came back into her life.
"Are the girls okay?" Brandon asks because he doesn't really know what else to say of the situation.
"They will be in time," is all Kelly can say, but she is able to look Brandon in the eyes this time.
"Are you going to be able to tell me what is going on?" Brandon asks, trying not to sound judgmentally.
Kelly looks away again before she replies, "No, I just….I….I don't know Brandon," thinking more about her own experience instead of what happened with Naomi and Silver. Before he can reply, "I need to go, otherwise I'll be late. Bye," Kelly says as she gets in her car and shuts the door quickly.
That afternoon, Brandon picks up Sammy after his meeting at the Foundation, to go over to the high school to surprise Kelly when school gets out. When they arrive, students are just getting ready to leave. Kelly is outside supervising the students in the parking lot. As soon as she sees Brandon and Sammy, she notices that Brandon is not holding Sammy's hand as they walk through the lot. Also as soon as Sammy sees Kelly, about 30 feet away, he starts to run towards her, yelling, "Hi Mommy."
Kelly notices what Sammy is doing and rushes towards him to avoid the open area, where a student driving may not see him. When Brandon sees the look on Kelly's face as she is rushing to Sammy, he realizes that he should speed up to stay aside of Sammy. When they meet in the middle, Kelly scoops up Sammy in her arms, "Sammy, you know you are not to suppose to running across parking lots and roads," she says with a forceful voice.
"I'm sorry Mommy," Sammy says in a scared voice.
"It's okay, I'm not mad at you, just please don't do it every again, you scared me," Kelly replies, holding him tighter.
As they walk over to a grassy spot, Sammy and Brandon tell Kelly about their day. Once their off of the parking lot, Kelly sees Silver, Naomi, and Annie, "Hey Silver, can you girls come over here please," she shouts across the grass.
Once they appear, she asks them, "Hey do you mind watching Sammy for a minute as I talk with Brandon quick."
"Yeah sure," Silver replies, "come on Sammy, let's go over here and play tag."
Once they are out of ear shot Kelly turns to Brandon, "Brandon, what are you thinking, you need to always hold his hand when cars are around; he is always running like that. There are so many young drivers here and they aren't looking for little kids running in the high school parking lot!"
Kelly finishes, angrier then she started.
Brandon responds confused, "Kel, he was fine. I was looking and there weren't any cars around. It wasn't a big deal."
"NOT A BIG DEAL," Kelly shouts louder than intended, but then lowers her voice again, "Brandon I don't know what you're thinking, but anytime you are walking with MY son, I expect you to be holding his hand because he does like to run as you can see right now," as she points to them playing tag.
Brandon takes a deep breathe, "Kelly, can you just calm down please," he says as he tries to put his hands on her arms to try to calm her down, but she pushes his arms away, "you're right, I'm sorry, I should have been more careful, can you forgive a poor guy not knowing he was a father until a week in a half ago?" he asks.
After Kelly takes a deep breathe and takes a few moments before responding to allow herself to calm down, "Yes, of course I can forgive you. I'm sorry too; I shouldn't have overreacted like I did. You're right, he is fine," Kelly says uncrossing her arms and then allows Brandon to pull her in for a hug to try to comfort herself.
When Brandon pulls away, he says, "I was hoping we could take Sammy to the park and get some ice cream this afternoon."
Kelly looks at him sympathetically, "I'm sorry, but I really should be at home this afternoon. Naomi is going to spend the night again with us at the house."
"And you're still not going to tell me anything about what happened last night," Brandon asks, while not able to mask his disappointment.
"Brandon now is not the time and it is confidential. Trust me please," Kelly begs him.
"Kel, I do trust you. I just…I just have this feeling that something isn't right with you and I'm worried," Brandon speaks to her.
Kelly pulls away from him, "Brandon, I'm fine okay. There is nothing for you to worry about. I'm sorry but I need to go now, thanks for bringing Sammy. I'll make sure that he calls you to say goodnight."
Turning towards Sammy and the girls, Kelly shouts, "Sammy, come here please."
Once the girls and Sammy run over to his parents as Kelly squats down to his level, "Hey honey, you need to say bye to your dad for the day, ok. You can call him before you go to bed tonight and you'll see him tomorrow."
"But why can't Daddy have dinner with us tonight?" Sammy asks.
Kelly was hoping to avoid this question. "Because we have other plans tonight, that's why. You can have dinner with him tomorrow; awhile I go out with your aunts, ok."
"Okay," Sammy says sadly and then turns to hug Brandon, "bye Daddy, I'll miss you tonight."
"I'll miss you too, buddy," Brandon tells him and then says, "talk to you later Kel," as he gives her a kiss on the cheek and then turns back to his car. For the rest of the day, Brandon tries to think what might be bothering Kelly and why she's been acting weird since Tuesday afternoon. He also decides to do some more research on the foundation, trying to decide if the job would fit him.
