Arriving at Stephanie's a little before one o'clock Linda was eager to find out what was going on with her daughter so she quickly got out of the car and knocked on the door. She smiled when she heard Mikey calling to her through the door, "yes Mikey, it's me."

As Stephanie walked closer to the door she saw Mikey spin around to face her and before he could say anything she jumped in, "I'm coming, I'm coming. Please be patient."

Within seconds she was at the door unlocking it before she swung it open, "hi Mom, do come in."

Linda smiled at her daughter, "thank you."

As her Mom entered the house Stephanie gave her a quick hug, "somebody wants to spend some time with his Grandma so whilst I'm making us both a cup of coffee why don't you go into the lounge and spend some time with him."

Before she had chance to answer her daughter she felt Mikey grab her hand and drag her towards the lounge so she just followed him. When they reached the lounge she took a seat on the couch smiling as he reached his arms out for her to pick him up which she happily did before she sat him on her lap, "so are you still enjoying going to the shows?"

Nodding his head he smiled brightly, "Mommy and Hunner are nice to each uvver and Jerky showed Monkey and Bubbles the Walls of Jerky."

Raising her eyebrow she was intrigued immediately by the first words out of his mouth, "were your Mommy and Hunter not nice to each other before?"

He shook his head, "Mommy mads at him lots but they all played tag wiv me."

Leaning on the door frame whilst she waited for the kettle to boil she heard what Mikey said and she shook her head, "don't listen to him Mom, he's exaggerating."

Turning her head to the side to look at her daughter she rolled her eyes, "for some strange reason I actually believe your son over you."

"Of course you do Mom, it figures that you would believe a toddler over your grown adult daughter."

Linda smirked, "ah yes but you see the problem with grown adults is they tend to bury their head in the sand and little kids just say it how it is."

Mikey giggled, "Gramma wins."

Turning her attention back to her Grandson as Stephanie disappeared she was surprised by what he came out with, "where did you hear people saying that?"

Shrugging his shoulders he didn't know why she was asking, "dunno."

Laughing she pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head, "fair enough."

Making two cups of coffee Stephanie took the steaming mugs into the lounge, "okay Mikey, it's time for Grandma and I to have a chat so go and play in the playroom and I'll call you when we're done."

Sliding off of his Grandma's lap he nodded his head, "okay Mommy. Bye Gramma."

Linda chuckled as he toddled off towards the playroom leaving the two of them alone. As soon as he was out of earshot she turned to Stephanie, "so what's on your mind?"

Setting the coffees down on the coffee table Stephanie took a seat next to her Mom on the couch rubbing her hands on her pants legs as she was nervous she didn't even know where to begin explaining her feelings for Hunter.

It was hard not to notice Stephanie's nervous behaviour or the silence and she didn't know what was going on but she was nervous, "it really helps when you open your mouth and words come out because unfortunately I don't have all afternoon. Despite how much I would like to spend it with you and Mikey I simply don't have the time for it."

Sighing softly hearing that didn't help her nerves at all, "I don't know where to begin Mom."

"How about at the beginning? I'm not trying to be sarcastic but maybe if you start small and at the beginning then you will hopefully be able build up to whatever it is you want to talk about."

Stephanie shrugged her shoulders, "I don't think anything will help me get these words out."

Raising her eyebrow she was really nervous now, "Stephanie you're really scaring me now so please at least give me a clue about what we are going to be talking about."

She knew her Mom was going to be slightly shocked at this, "Hunter."

Linda was slightly shocked but she had kind of expected it, "what about him?"

Feeling a bit more relaxed having got his name out of the way she was a bit more confident, "I think I still love him."

If she hadn't been sat down then Linda would have fallen down when those words came out of her daughter's mouth as it was the last thing she expected to hear without her doing some pushing in the right direction, "how did you come up with this conclusion?"

Shrugging her shoulders Stephanie leant back into the couch, "I don't know, it kind of just happened on Monday when I was talking to Trish about Hunter and Mikey. He told Trish that he would treat Mikey as if he were his own son and when we were in the parking lot I was going to leave Mikey with him and Trish because I thought that was what Mikey wanted but apparently Hunter saw that I was hurting and told Mikey to tell me to stay."

"Wow, Hunter certainly is a changed man. Have you thought about telling him that Mikey is his son?"

Violently she shook her head, "most definitely not but I don't know what to do Mom. I know that if I were to get back together with Hunter then I would eventually have to tell him that Mikey is his but then I don't want to tell him and for him to want to be with me because of Mikey and only that."

As she listened to her daughter talk she was struck by an idea, "you know there is one thing you could do and one way to play it."

Laughing softly she rolled her eyes, "of course there is, ignore him and hope he and my feelings just go away."

"No, not even close to it. Would you like to know what my idea us?"

Shrugging her shoulders it couldn't really do no harm if she heard her Mom out and she didn't have to actually take her Mom's advice if she thought it stunk, "go on then Mom, tell me what your brilliant idea is."

Linda felt quite pleased with her idea and she genuinely thought that Stephanie would like it, "why don't you explore things with Hunter on your own, don't involve Mikey at all and then play things by ear as to if and when you tell him the truth about Mikey."

Surprisingly Stephanie really liked that idea, at least she could explore things without having to tell Mikey anything but there was one small problem, "that is surprisingly good but the only problem is, how would I even manage that when I have Mikey to look after?"

Looking at her daughter like she was stupid she shook her head, "you do have two willing Grandparents who would be more than happy to watch him whenever you have a date."

"What if he doesn't want to date me though?"

Shrugging her shoulders there was only one answer to that, "you will only find out if you actually ask him."

Shifting in her seat Stephanie was feeling more nervous than ever now, "you want me to make the first move?"

"Well he kind of already made the first move by telling you he still loved you and wanted to be back with you so maybe you should give him some hope by asking him out and making your own first move?"

Moving from her seat on the couch she went to grab her cell phone, "will you be able to watch Mikey any night this week?"

Nodding her head Linda knew she didn't have any really late nights until the next week, "I should be able to and even if I'm not your Dad is at home and I should imagine that he is well enough to sit and watch TV with Mikey just until I get home."

Moving over to the window to stare out as she made the call to Hunter she looked down at her phone first before she looked back at her Mom, "do you promise me that this is the right thing to do?"

"This is the right thing to do Stephanie. You can't live your life no longer putting yourself out there, you love Hunter and he says he loves you too so give him one shot, take it date by date and go slowly seeing where it all takes you." Aware that her daughter was still on the fence about the whole thing she wanted to push her to go for it so she wouldn't regret it later in life, "don't live your life with regrets Stephanie. If you don't try you will never know and when you are old and grey you will look back and wish you had had given him that one opportunity."

Taking a deep breath Stephanie scrolled through her cell phone until she found Hunter's name and number that she had never deleted. Taking a deep breath her finger hovered over the phone like she had done a million times before over the past number of years but the difference this time was that she was willing to take the plunge to talk to him so she pressed 'call'.