Book Three Chapter 7

Charlotte's at home resting today. It's been a week since her accident and she hasn't been cleared to return to work yet. There's a knock at the door. She gets up to answer it.

"Todd this is a surprise. Come in." She leads him to the living room to the couch. "Can I get you something to drink?" she asks her guest.

"Some coffee would be fine. I'm heading back to Sacramento now but I wanted to stop and see you before I left." He sits down.

"I'm honored," she teases as she gets the coffee.

How are you doing?" He asks.

"Better. My headaches are just about gone." She pours the coffee. "I still can't remember anything about the day of my accident."

"That's what I wanted to talk about."

"You already apologized enough." She asks taking a sip of her coffee.

"I may have left a few things out at the hospital last week." He looks up and sees Cooper coming down the stairs.

"I'm going to the hospital to do my rounds now." Cooper walks over to them." What are you doing here?" he asks Todd.

"He just came to say goodbye. He's headed back to Sacramento today." Charlotte explains.

"Good!" Cooper smiles. He gives Charlotte a kiss goodbye on the lips. He makes it last a bit longer that he normally would because of Todds' prescence. "Love you Cricket." Cooper tells Charlotte.

Charlotte feels uncomfortable saying it in front of Todd but she knows it's important to Cooper. "I love you too." She says soflty, as she walks him to the door. Cooper looks at Todd to make sure he heard it.

After Cooper leaves, Todd says. "You two seem to be doing well."

Charlotte sits back down next to him. "We are." She leans her arms back on the couch relaxing casually.

"So it doesn't bother you that he has a child with the babysitter?"

"We don't know for sure that he does." She picks up her coffee. "Turns out the babysitter has a boyfriend. She's getting married and it could be his kid."

"Aren't you going to do a paternity test?" Todd asks.

"Nope, Allison doesn't want to know because if it turns out to be Cooper's kid she'll have to tell her boyfriend." She sips her coffee. " Some things are better left unknown."

Todd thinks about that. He came over to tell Charlotte that they really did have sex the night of her accident; she doesn't remember. He knows it'll upset her if he tells her. He dreads telling her but thinks it's the right thing to do, to be honest.

"So you don't believe honesty is the best policy?" He asks.

"Not if it's going to create much bigger elephants." She puts her coffee down and waves her hand as she speaks. "Allison's boyfriend loves Sammie and thinks she's his. If he finds out she could be Cooper's everything will change. He may resent Allison for not telling him sooner. Who knows? It may turn out that Sammie is his in the first place. Right now, everyone's happy so we decided to leave it alone."

"The situation reminds me of us after Akron's birth." Todd thinks back.

"I'm relieved Akron turned out to be Cooper's kid, otherwise everything would be a mess right now with custody and all that." She picks up her coffee again and takes a sip. "I wouldn't want to put Akron through that."

"You think I should have just left it alone?" Todd asks sincerely.

She looks him in the eye. "Yes. I love Cooper. We're a family. It would have been easier if you just left it alone like Cooper's doing with Sammie."

"I guess Cooper's a better man than me because I don't know if I could just forget I had a child." Todd tells her.

"Cooper was adopted. His birth mother gave him up so he could have a better life. He's giving Sammie up to Allison and her fiancé for the same reason."

"What you don't know can't hurt you?" Todd surmises.

"Exactly! Some things are just better left alone." Charlotte finishes her coffee.

"Maybe some things are better left unsaid." He decides not to tell her about the night of the accident. It will only upset her and it wont help anything. He puts his coffee down. "I better get going. I have a long drive."

"Wait. What did you want to tell me? You said you left some stuff out about the night of my accident."

"Never mind." He tells her as he walks back to the door. "It wasn't that important."

"You came to my house to talk to me about it. It has to be somewhat important?" She questions him.

"Never mind." He rolls his eyes at her. "Goodbye, my fair lady." He lifts up her hand and kisses the top of it.

She squints her eyes at him and folds her arms in front of her. "What are you not telling me?"

"Some things are better left alone." He tells her and turns to leave.

She waves goodbye and wonders what he meant by that. She has an idea of what he might have wanted to tell her but she lets the thought go out of her head. "Some things are better left alone." She thinks to herself and shuts the door.

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Special thanks To Just For Fun for being my beta on this chapter! :)

..TBC...