The next morning I woke up earlier than I normally

would have and just laid in bed watching Justin

sleep smiling to myself. I had waited so long for

things to be like this. I had dreamt of Justin being

Brayden’s dad and there for me, with me, ever since

I found out I was pregnant. Ever since I moved

back down here and found out he was my neighbor

I’d been so stressed out that I had trouble focusing

on everyday things, but it seems like now after one

night it all went away and everything was falling into

place the way it should be. Of course that made me

have my doubts too. It was one good night, but did

that mean that everything was magically better?

God, I hope so, for my sake, and for Brayden’s.

Brayden’s becoming attached to Justin quickly and

although I’m glad for it, I really hope Justin meant

it when he said he was planning on sticking around.

I sighed as I looked at the clock. I better get up

before Brayden does and comes barging in finding

Justin and I here together. I smile at the thought of

that as I slowly creep out of bed and put on some

clothes. I give Justin one more glance before

sneaking out of the room to let him sleep. I

bounced downstairs humming to myself as I made

my way into the kitchen to see my mom sitting at

the table reading the paper an amused smirk on

her face. “Well you seem to be in a better

mood?”My mom questions as I sit down beside her.

I just grin not being able to hide it. “Justin and I

talked last night and I think everything’s okay with

us now.”I beamed up at her as she set her paper

down giving me her full attention. “Oh really?”She

questions still smirking at me. “Yes.”I roll my eyes

at her. “I told you he’d come around.”My mom

laughed as she got up and put her coffee cup in the

sink. “Yeah…Yeah…You and everyone else…”I

sighed as Brayden came into the kitchen. “Morning

sweetheart.”I said as I kissed his head and got up

to get his breakfast. “Morning Momma. Can I have

some cereal?”Brayden asked looking up at me.

“Sure.”I smile at him as I went to get his cereal

ignoring the ‘I told you so’ looks from my mom.

Just then Justin groggily makes his way into the

kitchen with a half grin on his face too, as my mom

just turns to me with raised eyebrows and an ever

bigger smirk on her face. “Dad!”Brayden exclaims

momentarily forgetting his cereal and jumping up to

greet Justin. “Hey.”Justin smiles as he picks

Brayden up and spins him around. I smile at the

two of them before interrupting. “Would you like

something to eat Justin? Brayden just wanted

cereal, but I can make you something if you’d

like.”I said as Justin sat Brayden down in his chair.

“Cereal’s fine.”Justin grins as he sits down beside

Brayden and I nod. “Well I’m off to work.”My mom

calls to me still smiling as she floats out of the

room and I shake my head at her. “You’re really

lucky that your mom works so you can stay home

with Brayden all the time.”Justin noted as I handed

him his cereal and sat down with my two boys. “Oh

yeah I guess.”I said dismissing his statement “She

really just works because she wants to. My dad left

us a great deal of money when he died.”I shrugged

as Justin looked up at me. “Oh? I mean I knew he

died when you were younger, but your mom has

always worked so I didn’t realize..”Justin started

before I cut him off. “Yeah, she just gets bored

easily.”I laughed. “She didn’t really work while we

were in Washington. She stayed home with Brayden

so I could finish school.”I said as Justin nodded.

“That was nice of her.” “Yeah. She just wanted me

to have as normal of a life as possible. She still

feels guilty that I had to grow up without a father

and so I think she was trying to make up for it all.”I

sighed “She even tried to get me to date and stuff

while I was in high school, but besides having no

desire to I couldn’t picture going out when I got to

see so little of Brayden anyway.”I said as Justin

studied me intently.We sat in silence for a minute

before Brayden spoke up. “I’m done! Dad do you

want to come play with me?”Brayden asked with

wide eyes as Justin and I both smiled at him. “In a

minute.”Justin said as Brayden just nodded and ran

out of the room. “Knowing how guilty your mom felt

about you not having a father how could you do the

same thing to Brayden?”Justin asked as my heart

fell. Things were finally starting to get good with us

and now this. I sighed “I don’t think any of that

really registered with me at the time. I was so

shocked over the situation; I just wanted to do

whatever I could to protect him. Granted looking

back on it, running from the situation wasn’t the

best thing I could have done. Honestly that’s the

biggest mistake of my life.”I said looking down

choking back tears. “What was? Me and you? I

mean obviously it wasn’t the ideal situation, but

look at Brayden, how can you say that?” Justin

asked confused as I looked up with him with a

small smile on my face. “Not that. I mean I thank

God for him every day, the mistake was leaving and

not telling you about him as soon as I found out.”I

said looking down not able to meet his eyes. Justin

reached across the table and took my hand in his.

“Hey, look at me.”Justin urged and I did so, not

able to ignore him. “I don’t like the fact that you

ran, but there’s a part of me that knows that you

had a reason for it and I can’t be upset with you

over it. The only thing I can do is make up for lost

time now, and I plan on doing just that.”Justin said

staring at me with those gorgeous blue eyes and I

couldn’t help but to believe him. “So do you want to

do something today? Just the three of us?”Justin

asked grinning at me. “Well actually I promised

Brayden we’d go find him a Halloween costume

today, but you’re more than welcome to come.”I

 said as Justin just grinned. “I totally forgot

Halloween was coming up. I have to get my

costume too!”Justin exclaimed making me giggle.

“Oh you have to get one too!”Justin said grinning at

me. “What? No.”I said dismissing his comment.

“Yeah. The guys and I are throwing this Halloween

party and you can’t come unless you’re in

costume.”Justin teased as I rolled my eyes at him.

“Oh really?”I asked amused. “Exactly, and if you

don’t believe me you can ask the other guy’s they’ll

back me up.”Justin said as I just shook my head at

him.