A/N: Hi all! Happy Weekend... and Easter to those who celebrate! :) As always... special thanks to all of you who leave your comments after every chapter. I love reading them and am so grateful for the interest.

Hope you enjoy this next chapter. Might not be perfectly edited... it's late. LOL.

Chapter Ten

"This is delicious!" Alexis savored every bite of the chocolate cake she and Garrett were eating as she rested in the crook of his arm, in the bed they had just shared.

"It is…" Garrett smiles to her, "I've never met anyone that gets as much pleasure out of food as you…"

"I like to eat," She shrugs, "Probably because I can't cook."

"Where's the logic there?"

"Well… I appreciate good food because it's a mystery to me. I don't know how to get it that way. Everything I make tastes like it was scraped off the bottom of someone's shoe."

"It's not that bad…" He couldn't help but chuckle, knowing that indeed her cooking was pretty bad.

"Yes it is." She savored another bite of cake, "I mean… like if I could make this… I probably wouldn't think it was that great."

"I beg to differ." He shrugs, "I can make this… and I still think it's great." He watches as her eyes widened from their sockets. "What?"

"You…can make this?"

"Sure," He nods.

"Oh, no…" Alexis shakes her head, "This is very bad."

Now Garrett was confused, "Why?"

"Because if you can make this… we can never, ever move forward in our relationship. You won't be able to get me through the front door!" She watched as he threw his head back in laughter, and then matched eyes with her as they both realized what she had said. She clears her throat, "I mean… I guess I could try to exercise some self control…"

"Yeah?" Garrett smirked, raising a brow. "I hope so… because I really would like to do this again."

"Yeah," Alexis nods, "Me too…" She watches as he breaks their gaze and reaches over to the nightstand.

"I, uh, wanted to show you something…" He grins as hands her an old, wrinkled, photo, "Do you remember that?"

"What's this?" She puts her glasses on the end of her nose and gasps when she realizes it's a picture of her, "Oh my God…"

"Yeah…" He notices the tears in her eyes, "Do you remember that day?"

"Yeah, I do." She smiles, wiping a tear from her cheek as she continued to marvel over the photo of her much younger self.

"That was a perfect day…" Garrett remembers, "It was a beautiful summer that year, remember? Much like it has been this year, actually."

"Yeah," She nods, "And the thunder storms…"

"We almost got caught in one that afternoon!" He remembers excitedly, "We had to run to my car."

"Covering ourselves with the picnic blanket." She chuckles, "This is really funny… the rain today actually reminded me a lot of that summer."

"Yeah, me too," Garrett smiles, "So did this." He leaned in, covering her lips with his.

"Thank you," She locks her eyes to his and welcomes another kiss, "Thank you for showing me this." She flips the photo over to see- 'My Love August 1979'. Suddenly her emotions got the best of her.

"I've always kept that with me, Lex… ever since that day." Garrett takes her hand, "I never stopped loving you. You've always been my love."

"Garrett…" Alexis couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"I don't expect you to… you know… say anything," He shakes his head, "I just want you to know that."

Alexis smiled before clasping her hand to his, and looking in his eyes, "I've never stopped loving you either."

He kisses her again.

"I…" Alexis began to speak before her phone started ringing. She looks over to where it sat on the bedside table, "Oh. It's Molly… Hi honey. Is everything okay?...What?"

Garrett sees the worry wash over her face as she looks at the clock.

"She should be home by now. How's Danny? Did you two have dinner? Okay. Well… did you try calling her office? Does it go right to voicemail? So it's on, then…" Alexis sighs, "Okay, honey, I'm sure everything is fine. She probably just left it somewhere. I will try to call her, yes… Listen, don't worry, okay. I'll be home in a little while and I'll call you when I hear from your sister. Okay, love you. Bye." She hangs up the phone and looks worriedly to Garrett, "Molly can't get a hold of Sam. She's usually home by now…"

"Well, maybe she stayed at the office to wait out the storm?" He watches as she frantically dials the phone and puts it to her ear, sighing when the office voicemail picks up.

"Sam, It's mom. I'll, uh, try your cell…" She hangs up and dials again, listening as the voicemail picks up yet again. She hangs up the phone and rises from the bed wrapped in the sheet and begins to gather her clothes, "We have to go… Something's wrong." She watched as Garrett followed her lead and they both rushed to get dressed, both praying that their daughter was all right.

"What do you think?" As she parked the car, Alexis finally acknowledged her daughter's presence in the passenger seat.

"What?"

"Mom, were you listening to anything I said?" Of all the times that her mother had yelled at her for not listening, you would think she would practice what she preached.

"I'm sorry sweetheart… I was listening to that news report…" She silently prayed that her daughter wouldn't ask her to discuss it, because she had no idea if there was even a news report on the radio.

Molly sighed, "Stupid NPR. You seriously need to get a life, mom. Maybe at least try to listen to a song on the radio once and a while?"

"It's important to stay up on current events, Molly." Alexis lectured before turning towards the backseat where Danny sat happily in his car seat, kicking his legs, "Right Daniel? Otherwise our brains turn to mush and we form mushy opinions of the world around us."

"Mom…" Molly laughed, unbuckling her seat belt and getting out of the car as her mother did the same before opening the back door to retrieve her nephew.

"Go sopping?" Danny questioned as his grandmother lifted him from his seat and into her arms.

"Yes, baby." Alexis kisses his head as she hits the lock button on her keys and they head into the grocery store. "Exactly how I love to spend a day off…"

"Mom, I don't even know why you bother grocery shopping, anyway. We never even eat homemade food." Molly laughed as she pulled out a shopping cart and her mother swiped a disinfectant wipe over the front of it before placing Danny inside.

"Well, obviously we do because I'm here, having to buy more."

"That's just because Garrett was cooking…"

"Molly," Alexis sighed as they pushed their way into the store, "That's not completely accurate. And where exactly do you think I get the prepared food from that we love to enjoy?"

"True." Molly nodded as they approached the produce section; as her mother grabbed a plastic bag and began filling it with pears, she watched as Danny's face lit up.

"Peyah!" He clapped excitedly, drawing laughs from his grandmother and aunt.

"Oh, Danny…" Alexis shook her head as he watched her place the bag in the back of the cart, "You like Pears, huh?"

"Yah." He nods and points as they approach the bananas, "'Ah-nana!"

"Bah," Molly demonstrated, "Can you say Bah, bah?"

"No not ba-ba!" Danny shook his head laughing, he pointed again, "'Ah-nana!" He watched as Alexis placed a bunch of "ah-nana's" in the cart and looked up suddenly when someone caught his eye, "My Papa!"

"Hey you!" Garrett smiled once he turned to the familiar little voice calling the name only heard from him. He observed as Alexis turned cautiously to face him with a smile, "Hi."

"Hi, Garrett." Alexis nodded as she drew a deep breath and forced a smile.

"You guys doing some grocery shopping?" He smiled, taking a glance at their cart.

"Yes, well…" She shrugged, "It's a grocery store. Isn't that usually what people do here?"

"Mom!" Molly scolded, watching as her mother looked away from him to refrain from continuing.

"Papa!" Danny smiled happily holding up his arms for his favorite guy.

Garrett ruffled his hair and smiled, "I better not take you out of there… I don't think that would end well for me, today, Danny"

"Danny, sweetie…" Alexis watched as Danny continued to try and sway his Papa, "Papa's busy. He's shopping like us."

"Papa…" Danny frowned as his eyes filled with tears.

"It's okay, Danny," Molly walked to the front of the cart, "Grandma's grumpy today. Let's go pick out some cereal."

"Molly!" Alexis scolded as she watched her daughter pushed the cart away, "Be careful!" She looked back to Garrett who was trying to hide his amusement at Molly's antics. He had a soft spot for the teen, and why wouldn't he? She always seemed to be on his side.

"Listen, Lex… you don't have to stand here with me. Go ahead… catch up with Molly and Danny."

"I don't mind standing here." She cleared her throat, "I mean. I'm not uncomfortable around you, Garrett."

"I find that a little hard to believe."

"You know what," Alexis sighed, "I'm suddenly not in the mood to stand here, though." She began to walk away before a hand on her arm stopped her.

"Alexis…"

She turned back quickly; he never called her by her full name, "What?"

"I'm sorry… I don't mean to be an ass."

"You're not." She took a slow breath, her eyes shifting to take in all of the shoppers that seemed to be staring at them, "Can we like… go to the café over there or something? We look like idiots standing here in the middle of the produce department."

"Sure." He chuckled as he guided her over to the café, "Coffee?"

"Please," She nodded with her arms crossed, as she stood beside him, accepting the warm cup when he handed it to her, "Thank you." They made their way to a table in the corner and took a seat.

"You're off today?" He inquired as he poured the cream into his coffee.

"Uh… yeah." Alexis cleared her throat, a clear sign that she wasn't comfortable. But he would leave it alone if he knew what was good for him, "It's Friday."

"Oh, right." Garrett nodded. He was the one that had convinced her to take Friday's off for the summer.

"So. How's the new office?" She sipped her coffee.

"Oh, uh…it actually… it fell through." He knew he should probably tell her that he chose to postpone it, but that wasn't something he wanted to get into.

"It fell through?" And she didn't believe him. Of course.

"Well… no."

"Oh, now it didn't. So what is it, did it fall through or not?" Alexis' tolerance was diminishing, she quickly realized, "I'm…I'm sorry. I sound like I'm your mother."

"I decided to hold off on renting an office space right now." He spoke flatly, ignoring her last remark. He watched as her face fell.

"Why?"

"I don't know," He shrugged, "A lot has changed." He watched as anger washed over her face.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah…" Garrett nodded matter-of-factly, "I mean, a lot has changed, wouldn't you say?"

"It wasn't very long ago that you told me that your life is here… and now all of a sudden you're not so sure?"

"Lex…"

"So typical," She shook her head, sarcasm dripping from the smile on her face, "I catch on to your lies and now who gives a shit about your kid and grandkid, right?"

"Alexis," Now it was his turn to be angry, "You're not exactly making this easy, you know!"

"I'm not making it easy?!" She heard her voice rise and quickly tried to recover, "I didn't do this, Garrett. I didn't make the choices here, you did that. Hell, you can't even tell the truth about your stupid office."

"Oh I wonder why?" He chided, "Maybe because I figured it would lead to this?"

"What are we doing here, anyway?" She narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice to a sharp whisper, "We're sitting in the middle of a grocery store going around and around again about the same stupid shit we've been going around about for weeks."

"I'm sorry… I just thought maybe it would be nice to talk for a minute." He watches as she stands up, "Lex. Come on."

"No, I'm sorry." She sighed, running a hand over her forehead, "I can't do this. I can't keep projecting my anger on to you."

"Why don't you just stop being angry, then?"

"You think it's that simple?" Alexis questioned, "Let me clear it up for you, Garrett. It's not. It's not that easy." She felt the tears sting her eyes as she sat back down in the chair.

"Lex… we should be fair here… neither of us expected any of this." He watched her angrily wipe her tear, "It all kind of just fell together. We got caught up in ourselves."

"You got caught up… in your lies." She sniffled, sitting back in the chair and crossing her arms.

"You're right. Okay? I know that I lied. I know that I lead you to believe that things were different. But I didn't lie to you about my feelings, Lex."

"It's not entirely your fault, you know." She wiped her tears again, suddenly growing a little embarrassed for crying in the middle of the grocery store café, she pulled herself towards the table, "I mean… you waltzed back into my life and all of a sudden I was 16 again. I felt like what I had been waiting for my entire life finally came back to me and all was right with the world. So stupid…"

"Lex…"

"I should have been so angry with you, Garrett." She shook her head, "I really should have. I mean… all you ever did was lie to me."

"It's all that I knew back then. It's what I was raised to do," He defended, "And I'm so sorry that I did it to you. I'm so sorry."

She looked at him carefully and then inhaled sharply, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"What exactly are you sorry for?" Alexis held her hand to her face, "Are you sorry for lying to me 35 years ago? Or when you first came to town last year? Or is it the most recent little issue that's giving you the most guilt?"

"I'm sorry for everything." Garrett looked down at his coffee as he felt himself getting emotional.

"I am too," She watched him for a moment before getting up, "Thanks for the coffee…"