"Blake! Farrah! Hurry up, you're gonna miss the bus!"

Mercedes sighed, throwing the last of their lunches into their boxes before attempting to finish cooking breakfast for her husband. She looked at her watch, seeing that if their kids didn't come down in the next minute she'd have to run them to school.

"Bla-"

"Ma, chill. We're right here." Black, her sixteen-year-old said, and she frowned. She looked him over before her frown slowly disappeared. He was the spitting image of his father, handsome with honey skin thanks to her, but those eyes—those eyes were all his—green and animated.

"Don't tell your mother to chill; I birthed you. I will never chill. Where's your sister? I can't drop you guys off today so you need to be out the door like now."

"Farrah!" Mercedes shouted, handing Blake his lunch. "Go now!"

He shook his head, smiling, before kissing her on the cheek as he ran towards the door. "You know she's not going to come down if you keep shouting at her." He said.

Huffing Mercedes knew he was right because Farrah, bless her soul, was exactly like her. She inherited everything from her mother, including her looks, attitude, and inability to be told to do anything.

Walking to the edge of the stairs, she took a few deep breaths, saying a silent prayer. "FARRAH, YOU HAVE LESS THAN A MINUTE TO GET DOWN THESE STAIRS OR I WILL BE COMING UP THERE!"

"OH MY GOD LADY, I'M COMING!"

"This… oh she has me mistaken for one of her little friends." Mercedes muttered as she stormed up the stairs. "I swear to God if you're not ready, you will walk to school!"

Jesus, woman, this takes time. I can get Kali's mom to pick me up!" Farrah mumbled under her breath as she applied mascara.

"You wanna say that louder?" Mercedes asked, causing her daughter to jump and smudge her eye.

"UGH! Heard of knocking? Great, now I have to start over."

"Excuse me? I don't have to knock on a door I own and secondly, you better check your tone little girl before you no longer have said door. You will not be calling Kali and having them stop by because you will be taking the bus like I said. Now get down those stairs!"

"Good morning, what has my two favorite ladies yelling this morning?"

Mercedes looked over her shoulder at her husband before huffing. "Sam, you better get her before you have one less child in this world." She said, walking past him mumbling under her breath. "AND YOU BETTER TAKE ALL THAT DAMN MAKE-UP OFF! LOOKING LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF KISS VIDEO!"

Farrah quickly looked at herself in the mirror. "It doesn't look bad does it?" She asked innocently.

Sam moved to his daughter kissing her forehead. "You always look beautiful, but maybe just a little less sweetpea."

"I don't understand why she gotta be so mean all the time." Farrah said, pouting.

"Look, go wash your face, I'll take you to school." He sighed looking down the stairs. "And talk to your mother."

"Thanks daddy!" Farrah said going to her room.

Sam ran his hands through his short dirty blonde hair as he walked down the stairs and towards Mercedes. Walking behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist. "What's up, buttercup?"

Mercedes moved away from him, frowning as she turned. "Why do you let her get away with everything? She isn't going to learn if every time I say no you say yes."

Sam groaned. "Merce she's thirteen. She's trying to find her way."

"And she's not going to find it if you keep letting her wear things I tell her no too, like the make up. Why did you buy it when I told her that she couldn't have it?" Mercedes said, looking at him.

Sam rolled his eyes walking to the room. "Are we really having this argument again? I have to get to work."

Mercedes threw her hands up in the air. "Of course you do. You always have to get to work. Why is it that you never want to have an actual conversation with me?"

"Maybe because its the same shit everyday!" Sam said without thinking. "Merce I just-"

"Wow, so sorry that my problems annoy you so much. I'll keep them to myself from now on."

"That's not what I meant! God it's like I can't talk to you anymore without you complaining about something. Sometimes I just..."

Mercedes turned towards him. "You just what?" She asked coldly.

"Daddy…um I'm ready."

Sam and Mercedes looked over to Farrah. Sam grabbed his watch and placed it on his wrist.

"Come on sweetie. Let's just get you to school."

"Have a good day, baby cakes." Mercedes said softly.

"Yeah whatever." Farrah said coldly.

"Farrah! Don't you take that tone with me."

"Why? I wasn't the one who decided to piss everyone off this morning. You ever think if you are yelling at everyone, you are the problem?" Farrah said walking out the door.

Mercedes started towards her but Sam stopped her. "I will talk to her."

Mercedes stood there fuming as Sam left without another word. She was tired of always ending up on the wrong side of her family. Sam was always a good cop, and she was always the bad cop.

It wasn't always like that. There was a time when she and Sam were in sync.

They met when they were freshmen in college, as hard as it was for people to believe, she couldn't stand him at first. He seemed to be constantly surrounded by a group of morons he called friends. As she and her girlfriends passed by, they were met with nothing but crude comments and suggestive gestures.

While the others found it amusing, Mercedes was becoming fed up with the vulgarity of it all.

One day, she reached her breaking point. As one of his friends grabbed her, she didn't have the opportunity to defend herself before Sam intervened. He threw a punch and knocked the man down onto the ground, leaving her both stunned and impressed by his actions.

Their friendship blossomed quickly, and they were falling in love by their junior year. It was a kind of love she had never experienced before; he felt like her missing puzzle piece. Despite doing things out of order, their bond only grew stronger.

Getting pregnant at the end of her junior year was not part of their plans, but they were both thrilled, and Sam proposed almost immediately. Once she got closer to her due date, Mercedes was very lucky to have understanding professors who let her work from home as long as she turned in her work on time.

It seemed they were doing things out of order, but they still continued to work towards their dreams.

After Mercedes had Blake, the two had a quiet ceremony with their families and a few friends during spring break of their senior year. They then spent the money their parents gave them for a honeymoon on a house.

Though it was both of their choice, Sam promised that they would go on their honeymoon once they were settled in their careers.

After two years of working hard and earning a comfortable living, they were close to getting that honeymoon—that is, until Mercedes found out she was pregnant with Farrah.

This was another shock to their family, but neither regretted it. They just continued to grow their business and create a better life for themselves.

Because she earned her business management BA, she took Sam's Real Estate BA and turned it into a family business. She handled the money side of things, and Sam was the people person, showing houses and making the big sales.

After twelve years of building and saving, Evans and Evans Realty had become a reality and they even added a few people on staff to bring in more money.

Sam's sister, Stacy worked with Jane Hayward on staging and designs. While Blaine Anderson was Sam's partner, out helping sell houses and commercial properties.

Sam also worked on construction with his brother Stevie and Mercedes' two brothers, Jordan and Carter. They remodeled a few of the sold houses when their customers found issues, and toyed with the idea of flipping them for a profit.

Sebastian Smythe was added on as the company's Lawyer and Unique let her light shine as the office administrator. They liked to keep it in the family, and they made it easy, doing their jobs without much issue.

A ringing brought her back to reality as her thoughts of her past would be put on hold for now. Grabbing her phone she smiled at the caller ID.

"Q please tell me you guys are still coming here to rescue me from the life of motherhood?"

Quinn laughed. "Let me guess, Farrah's getting you down?"

"Girl I swear! If I had said half the stuff that girl says to me, to my mom, they would have never found my body! But every time I try to discipline her, Sam comes to the rescue."

"I swear there is something about daddy's and their daughters! I am going through the same thing, do you know Alyssa told me that if i wasn't so old, she wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen with me. And when I told her to change her outfit, Puck told her that I used to wear booty shorts. She's twelve, why does she need to know that? It's why I divorced him, I swear."

Mercedes sighed. "I hate how we get undermined by the kids and their dads. Quinn, I am really starting to wonder if they all just hate me."

"Your family loves you, Merce; it's just a hard time for everyone. I mean I felt that way and ended up getting divorced so you are a step ahead of me."

"So what do I do? How do I stop feeling this way?" Mercedes asked as she looked over to the family photo. "How do I get my husband to actually feel like my husband again?"

"Sweetie, if I knew that, I probably would still be married."

The door opened, and Mercedes looked to see Sam walking in. "Q let me call you later."

"Sure, remember our flight gets in tomorrow, have Carter pick us up." Quinn teased.

"Stop trying to make Carter your kids Stepdaddy." Mercedes laughed.

"Never. Love ya."

Hanging up, Mercedes looked at Sam offering him a small smile. "Hey, what did you forget?"

"Wallet." Sam said shortly.

Standing, Mercedes walked to the counter and grabbed it. "Here."

"Thanks." He said, slapping it across his hand. "Are you gonna make it to the office today?"

"Uh no. I have to pick Blake up, he has his physical today."

"Ah that's right. You'll still pick up Farrah?"

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah."

Sam nodded as he turned to the door, but Mercedes reached out and stopped him.

"Sam…is this really how things are now? We haven't really had a conversation that wasn't about work or the kids in weeks. We haven't had sex in longer. There was a time you couldn't keep your hands off of me."

"What do you want me to say Mercedes? We have teens and a growing business, our life is busy these days."

Mercedes looked down to their hands, hers on top of his. Her freshly manicured nails grazed his rough hands, wondering if it still created a spark in him like it used to.

She looked over to Sam, realizing he was looking at her, and for the first time in a long time, she felt maybe he saw her. Before she could react, Sam pulled her close, kissing her deeply as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Pressing herself against him, she whimpered, God she missed him. Sam gripped her thighs lifting her to the counter, and Mercedes wrapped her thighs around him.

"Sam…I've missed you."

"Not as much as I've missed you." Sam said as his lips moved to her neck, sucking at her pulse point, and driving her crazy.

Her hands went to his shirt as his phone rang. Sam pulled away and she frowned.

"Ignore it…please ignore it."

"You know I can't." He said, groaning. "Hello?"

Mercedes heard a woman's voice on the line and watched Sam check his watch, before promising that he would be there soon. As he hung up, she tried pulling him into her again but Sam pulled back.

"That was a client I was supposed to meet five minutes ago. We will pick this up later." He said, kissing her forehead before running out the door.

"What the hell just happened?"