And You're Just What I Need...

After Dakota and Finn worked things out, Finn has been acting different. Not bad per say, just different. Like, whenever he talks to a girl, he tries really really hard not to be interested in what she’s saying so that it doesn’t look like he’s flirting with her. He even does this with me, which Adam and I find amusing.

Today Dakota and Finn had some brunch thingamajig to go to and Katelyn had left for one of Nicks soccer games. So it was just Adam and I home for the day. Like the awesome adults we are, we decided to play a wonderful game of Monopoly. We had been at it for two hours now and not getting anywhere. Around one the my phone started ringing and I answer it.

“hey mommy.” Katie says on the other end.

A smile spreads across my face, “hey sweetie, how are you?”

“good. Is Adam around?”

I laugh, “of course he is.

“can I talk to him?”

“sure honey. I’ll go get him.” I playfully glare at Adam as I hand him the phone, “my daughter would like to speak to you.” I say.

He takes the phone from me “how’s it going Katie?” he asks. She says something in reply and then he grins, “No, I wasn’t able to catch the last Sesame Street. – Oh really? They played tag?” I roll my eyes at how enthusiastic he was being and head into the kitchen to get some lunch.

As I was cutting the sandwiches, Adam comes in and sets my phone down on the counter.

“you just had a fifteen minute conversation with my daughter about Sesame Street.” I comment.

“Sesame Street is a very important topic” he says, grabbing one of the plates. “I’m going to have to watch it more often to keep up with her.”

I don’t know what to think about the situation. He’s getting along great with Katie and I should be happy. But how’s he going to act when He finds out she’s his daughter?

“come on, we have a game to finish.” I say and lead him back into the living room. When Dakota and Finn got home we had to finish some of the planning of the wedding, so it was our only alone time.

The door crashes open and then the yelling begins, “She told me that my legs were bulky! How is that not an insult!?”

“My mom doesn’t mean to insult people, she just doesn’t know what’s appropriate and what’s not.”

“it was an insult Finn.”

“no it wasn’t.”

“fine, then what about my hair being flat, or my eyebrows uneven, my shoulders being slumped or my chest being too small? She didn’t compliment me once tonight.”

Adam and I continue the game, pretending like we aren’t listening on. “I love you Dakota, my moms opinion doesn’t matter.”

“it does to me! I can’t have her insulting me whenever she comes over for the holidays and birthdays and other events. She can’t do that in front of our kids and friends and-“

“I’ll talk to her. If she ever does that at our house in front of our kids, she won’t be allowed back, okay?”

A couple minutes later they walk into the living room, “how was everyones day?” Finn asks, plopping down on the sofa.

“we’ve been playing monopoly for hours now.” Adam answers.

“it’s the game that never ends.” I add on.

“well, it’s ending now cause we have wedding stuff to go over.”

Adam and I exchange a look, “we’d rather play a never ending game.” I comment. The closer we got to the wedding the more stressful stuff there was to go over. Especially since I have to plan something like, oh, I don’t know, the baccalaureate party.

“fine.” We follow them to the table and start a full night of work.

Adams phone went off like crazy around nine. He picks it up, “hello?” his face drops, “she’s what?!—Where are you Nick?—No, no, I’ll be right there to pick you up.” He shuts his phone and looks up at Finn, “can I borrow the Honda?”

Finn doesn’t hesitate to toss the keys to Adam and before I knew what was happening he was dragging me out to the car.

“what happened?” I ask, buckling up. I didn’t get a response. Adam just sped down the road in anger. We showed up at a house that had music playing loudly inside. Nick was holding Katie up. Oh, that’s what happened.

The car ride back to the house was dead silent. I knew that the instant we got inside that would change.

“Julie, go take care of Katie please.” He says, I nod and help Katie upstairs to get her cleaned up. Though I wasn’t about to leave Adam and Nick alone. I knock on Dakotas door and she answers, looking at Katie shocked.

“can you please help her get cleaned up?” I ask. Dakota nods without words and I leave them be.

I could hear Adams voice when I started down the stairs. “What the hell were you thinking Nick!?!?” he screams at him. When they come into view I see Nick sitting on the sofa with Adam standing by the doorway. I stand beside Adam and when Nick notices me he looks a little bit safer.

“I swear I didn’t give her the drink. We went to the cooler and I handed her a sprite and then grabbed one for myself. Then awhile later I had to go to the bathroom so I went. The line was long and took me like 30 minutes to get back to her. When I showed up, she had an almost empty can in her hand and was pretty tipsy. That’s when I called you.”

“but there was beer accessible at the party?!”

“well, yeah.” Nick replies. “that’s kind of a given at any party these days. I didn’t even really want to go but some friends of Katelyn’s were going to be there and she wanted to see them…”

“you’re her boyfriend! You’re supposed to protect her from this stuff!” I stop Adam then, he was going to far blaming all of this on Nick.

“Nick, why don’t I give you a ride home? We’ll talk about this when Katelyn is feeling better.”

“we’re going to talk about it now.” I turn to face him and he stares back. Finally, his face softens some and I go back to Nick.

“come on, lets go.” Nick didn’t hesitate to stand up and follow me to the car.