Glad to Meet You Again

Everybody kept contact for the two months after their reunion, only some kept more contact than others knew. There were secrets being kept between people possibly capable of hurting others. Nobody knew anything about it other than the people directly involved. It was dangerous, they could get caught at any moment and ruin everything. The only thing that kept it from coming out was that there were no physical encounters, only text messages being shared outside the group chat. There was something fishy going on, but nobody realized. It was all done behind backs, nothing other than two phones providing proof.

But it couldn’t be hidden forever. It was bound to come out at some point. Little did they know how it was going to blow up the next time they met.

So, that’s where we are now, back at Lena’s and Anthony’s house. It was two months later meaning that Lena was just over five months pregnant. Her baby bump had been growing steadily but also didn’t protrude out too drastically. You could definitely see it if she was wearing a tight shirt, but with a loose-fitting shirt you could only see it if the shirt was falling the right way. It wasn’t anything special, it was how all pregnancies went.

All Time Low had just finished their tour and decided to come visit Lena, Anthony, and Nick soon after. Just like they had promised, they weren’t going to just disappear altogether. Even though Alex was having those serious doubts, he didn’t want Lena to think that he wanted to cut all ties with her again because he wasn’t over what happened between them. He was in a way trying to prove that everything was all cool with him although he was actually freaking out on the inside. Luckily, this time he was a lot calmer than the last time he had been at the beautiful house.

The group of guys rang the doorbell, Jack being the most excited to see Lena again. He was actually jumping up and down a little as he was the one stood at the very front with flowers in one hand and another gift in the other. Although he had nothing to do with the whole father situation, he was the one that somehow was most involved with Lena’s life. He’d text her frequently and ask how everything was going just for the sake of it. There was no harm done making sure somebody was doing ok… right?

Lena walked up to the front door and opened it just like she had done last time. She greeted them with big smiles and was immediately engulfed by Jack’s arms despite the fact that he had his hands full. It was quite a clumsy hug with Lena’s bump also causing there to be a bit more space between them, but all she could do was laugh at Jack’s antics and wrap her arms around him as well. Eventually, his excitement got the best of him and he broke apart from her.

“We got you a gift and flowers!” He said in a giddy tone, holding out both objects to Lena. “Well, I chose them, but we got them as a group gift. So, give me all the credit, ok?”

“You guys shouldn’t have.” Lena shook her head but still took both gifts from Jack with a grin on her face. “And, don’t worry, I’ll give you all the praise you want.”

“Open them, open them!” He urged next, hopping from one foot to the other just like Nick would do when he got excited about something. Basically, Jack acted just like the 5-year-old.

“Don’t you think I should first say hi to the others before I do that?” She giggled again and went to Rian to greet him next.

Jack groaned a little in anticipation, but let her make her circle of hugging the three other guys in his band. As soon as she was done with that, however, he was on her again, telling her to open it over and over. Lena rolled her eyes a little and told him to wait a little while longer, that she’d open them in the kitchen so that she could quickly put the flowers in the vase as well. Jack was on her heels as soon as they started making their way to said other room.

Lena put the flowers down on the counter and turned back towards Jack to opened the wrapped gift so that he could see exactly how she reacted. Out of habit, she carefully lifted up the tabs with tape, trying her best not to rip the paper, only making Jack more impatient. Eventually, she finally had opened it fully to reveal a custom-made All Time Low onesie and another one that was giraffe-themed, both for the baby.

The corners of Lena’s mouth curled up again as she hugged all the guys again, Jack at the end to give him the longest one to give him the credit he wanted. “This is so cute. Thank you guys so much!”

“Do you know the gender yet?” Alex asked, making eye contact with Lena that was slightly uncomfortable, but neither of them wanted to be the one to look away and seem suspicious.

Lena shook her head. “Nope, but we’ll found out at the next ultrasound. I’ll make sure to tell you guys.”

“But we can know for certain that this one isn’t Alex’s right?” Jack joked, but it only created more tension that could now be felt by everybody else. Zack elbowed Jack in his side, trying to subtly scold him for saying such a thing. It was way too soon to be making jokes like this already.

“I am one-hundred-percent sure that this one is not Alex’s and is Anthony’s.” Lena still answered to make it seem as if Jack’s question hadn’t done anything to her.

“You’re such an idiot, Jack,” Rian still commented with a slight glare. Jack really did only mean good, but sometimes things did not come over that way. It wasn’t his fault, he just didn’t have the best filter.

Lena folded up the onesies again and was about to ask the four guys if they wanted anything to drink. But Anthony already walked in with two six-packs of beer that he had gotten from the fridge in his studio. He hadn’t even realized that their guests had already arrived, but was only pleasantly surprised when he saw the band standing in his house.

“Beer is up for grabs,” he said to welcome them and went to give them all one of those bro-hugs men always gave each other. However, when he got to Alex, they shared a look.

Lena noticed it, but wasn’t sure what type of look it was. She was afraid that maybe Anthony was accusing Alex of something or even threatening him. It didn’t make sense with how he had treated the whole ordeal when it was suddenly thrown at him last time, but Lena had all the reason to be paranoid with the situation she was in.

“Why do we have so much beer?” Lena asked with a chuckle in her voice, trying to distract herself.

“Because we have a lot of guests coming over. Don’t forget Samantha is coming in a week and staying for a couple of days. We need to keep her satisfied.” Anthony clarified in a way that was not meant seriously at all.

Lena rolled her eyes and got the bottle opener from one of the drawers. “You’re making your sister sound like an alcoholic.”

“She practically is.” He nodded and used the bottle opener to open four beers which he gave to the All Time Low guys before opening one for himself as well.

“No, she’s not.” She shook her head to disagree. “Trust me, if she were, she would not be allowed in this house.”

“You guys are going to gang up on me as soon as she comes, aren’t you?” Anthony sighed melodramatically, proving that he was only joking around. He had a very weird relationship with his older sister that mainly consisted of teasing each other. She’d call him ‘Annie’ and he’d call her an alcoholic. It was how things normally went.

“You bet your ass...” Lena giggled and filled up a glass with water for herself. “... Annie.”

He immediately glared at Lena since she knew exactly how much he hated being called that. “You did not just--”

“That’s my cue to go outside!” She interrupted and shuffled her way quickly to the French doors that were wide open and stepped out onto the back porch.

The warm air hit her skin and the bright light blinded her for a few seconds. As soon as her vision recovered, she looked out over her garden. It looked exactly the same as it did when All Time Low had visited the first time, only this time Nick was out running on the grass with Sofa jumping around him. The sight was what any woman who wanted to be a stay at home mom wanted to see some time in their life. Lena was just lucky to have gotten it so quickly.

Soon after, the others joined her and they moved over to the outdoor wooden table. They fell into a conversation mainly about the tour stories their guests were bringing back. Anthony felt nostalgic, thinking about the time he still toured around in a van with his band. Maybe All Time Low had upgraded to a tour bus a long time before, but it still reminded him of it. Also, don’t start thinking that he missed it; sure, he had good memories, but he wouldn’t change his life at all. To him, his life at that moment was already perfect. It was only going to get better when his second child was born.

Or was it his first?

“Wait, how’s your latest project going again? I forgot to ask you.” Lena asked Anthony when the subject slowly turned into something about his producing abilities.

Anthony shrugged, not thinking much about the thing he was working on. “The lead singer of the band still has problems with his vocal chords so he hasn’t been able to do anything for the recording process. They’re going to have to see if he’ll ever get better. For now, I sang some rough vocals for it so we could see what we wanted to tweak in the instrumentals.”

“You sang?” she gasped and her face lit up. “Now I definitely want to hear what you’ve been working on!”

He snorted a little as he burst out laughing. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. When I say rough vocals, I mean rough. I haven’t done any singing in ages!”

“If you won’t do it for her, do it for us.” Alex smirked with a devilish grin also wanting to know if Anthony actually did have good vocals and that Nick would have gotten his talent (as Jack had said) from him. “We do have to hear some work from a potential recording artist if we consider working with them. We still have a song to go for our new album and it needs to happen quick.”

“Please, please, please, please!” Lena begged, clasping her hands together and leaning forward as far as her baby bump would allow her.

“I can’t just show you unpublished stuff without permission from the band. I’ll have to contact them to see if they would let me.” Anthony made up as an excuse, leaning back in his chair.

“Oh, come on. They’ve asked me multiple times what I thought of their work so far and every single time I’ve had to say I haven’t looked at it yet. Plus, anybody would love their work to be listened to by respectful artists!”

“Ok, fine!”

And so they all managed to be let through the heavy door that had a number pad on it with an emergency keyhole that could be used if there ever was a power outage. It was just to make sure nobody would manage to get their way into the building that was once a small pool house but had been converted into a fully equipped studio. All the stuff in there was super expensive. Nobody would risk accidentally leaving the door unlocked.

The studio didn’t look like any old studio that was boring and only made to compensate the technical details. It was more like a modern man cave with its amazing couches and set up. The lights could even change colors and were often a dark blue or purple when Anthony had to work long hours since there weren’t really any windows. There was a microphone and a drum kit in the same recording space, making enough space in the room with the control panel to have a small fridge and even a pool table. It was heaven on earth for most men.

Rian’s mouth immediately opened wide when he saw the soundboard, admiring it without daring to touch a thing. The other three were more focused on looking at the space in general while Anthony was clicking some of the things to get to the most recent version of the new song. Lena, however, was a little more focused on something else. There was a whiteboard on a wall with the progress the band was making, but right next to it was a mood board that she was attracted to.

Her eyes fell on a polaroid and she took a deep breath in. “You did not!”

“What?” Anthony asked, not taking his eyes off of what he was doing.

Lena kept staring at the photograph that had been taken years ago when she and Anthony were still in their ‘having-fun’ phase. She couldn’t exactly remember where it had been taken, but she still remembered the actual scene. There was a pool, she had stripped off all her clothes and jumped into the refreshing water, Anthony had been laughing while also staring at her fully naked body and took the Polaroid photo of her while he was still standing on the edge. Soon after, he had also jumped in and we can all guess what happened after that. This was back when they were still carefree and Anthony was going through a slight hipster moment.

How dare he even put a photo like this in a place that was frequently visited by other guys that she didn’t even know!

Jack peered over her shoulder to see the photo in which you could clearly see she was naked but that water ripple made it just too difficult to make out all her features. “It’s nothing we haven’t seen before.”

“Excuse me!” Lena shrieked, not only because of Jack’s comment but also because he was now seeing her naked in a photo.

“I’m just saying,” he shrugged, once not again not thinking before speaking, “we all caught you and Alex having sex before.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” she mocked, holding the photo to her chest so nobody else could see. She couldn’t believe Jack. Why would he even mention such a thing when she was with Anthony and Alex was also in the room. “I don’t think that has anything to do with this.”

“Now I’m curious,” Zack piped up. “Is it bad that I’m curious? I don’t want to see the photo, but it can’t be that bad!”

“Oh, the swimming pool photo!” Anthony nodded in understanding, the smirk already evident in his voice. “I remember taking that.”

“Oh my god, how do you even remember that!” Lena scrunched up her nose in disgust. “That was before we even got serious!”

“You saying that just tells us all that you also remember it.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t keep any of the photos that were taken!”

“Wait, there are more?” Anthony acted oblivious, turning to Lena with a frown on his face.

“You’re just trying to put this on me.” She glared at her boyfriend accusingly. “I’m not the one who took the pictures in the first place.”

“Something tells me that you still remember exactly what was in those photos.”

She shook her head knowing that anything she said was only going to make it worse for herself. “You’re stalling. Just play that goddamn song.”

“Somebody’s sleeping on the couch tonight,” Rian commented with a laugh, happy the conversation had turned into playful bickering between the couple and Jack’s stupid remark was completely ignored.

“Yeah, right, that won’t ever happen,” Anthony said in a nonchalant tone and pressed the button to play the song through the loudspeakers before Lena could retort anything. But it was true. She had threatened him very often before, but the whole sleeping on the couch thing never worked out. It always turned out to be Lena getting the bad end because she couldn’t sleep properly. Especially now that she was pregnant, she couldn’t even get comfortable without Anthony there with her.

The happy strumming of the electric guitar filled the room, even surprising Lena. She was so used to hearing quite heavy rock and this was nothing of the like. This was completely indie pop with the quirky beats and guitar riffs, the bass line causing you to want to dance along. Even the All Time Low guys were pleasantly surprised, bobbing their heads along. Maybe working together wasn’t actually a bad idea. Anthony seemed to know what he was doing. And his singing wasn’t even half bad. Sure it was a little rough in the first verse since it was a very rough first take, but the chorus was already way better and actually sounded like it could be a final version of the song:

"You know I talk too much
Honey, come put your lips on mine
And shut me up
We could blame it all on human nature
Stay cool, it's just a kiss
Oh, why you gotta be so talkative?
I talk too much, we talk too much"

And that got Jack even more confused. Lena telling him that Nick had gotten his talent from Anthony first seemed like some comment any parent would say if they weren’t the one that was good at said skill. But she was actually right. Anthony could not only produce amazing songs, he could also sing if needed to. The whole who-is-the-father debate inside Jack’s head was only getting more complicated by the second.

“Dude, that’s a really catchy chorus!” Alex praised, immediately dissecting the song. “Especially the part where you keep descending. Did you help them write that?”

Anthony burst out laughing, pressing another button so the next song wouldn’t start playing. “Oh my god, no. They weren’t sure how to do the chorus, so that whole descending part is just a joke. We just needed something to work with for the time being. This isn’t a serious chorus at all.”

“Well, it’s a damn good joke. You should keep it.” Alex nodded, showing that he was honest about his opinion and didn’t purposely pick out the part that was apparently out of place.

“I’ll run it by the band. In the end, it’s their decision.” Anthony told him and started flicking random switches again. If it weren’t for a short clip of the song playing again, you wouldn’t even have noticed that he was editing it as he was speaking.

“Oh, no, don’t you dare.” Lena slapped his hands away.

“Just let me finish this one part!”

“If you get started, you won’t be able to stop. Just let go before you lose control.”

“Okay.” Anthony quickly saved the song and turned off the soundboard before he got carried away. “It’s a bad addiction. At least I’m not an alcoholic like Sam.”

“Your sister’s not an alcoholic!” Lena tried to make clear. She was afraid that her guests were actually going to start believing Anthony. They didn’t know it was a recurring joke between the siblings. Before she knew it, there were going to be people thinking she actually was ok with an alcoholic staying in her house for a few days while her son was there. That would happily convince Alex to believe Nick was his son and then take him away from her.

“That’s what she wants you to think.” Anthony tapped his temple three times and started making his way back to the door to let everybody out. Staying inside on such a beautiful day for no reason wasn’t a good idea either.

“You’re so mean to her.” She rolled her eyes and followed him out.

Anthony stayed behind while everybody went back to the porch so that he could lock up everything properly. He didn’t want to accidentally leave something unsecured and then regret it later on. What it did mean, however, was that Lena had some time alone with the All Time Low guys. It wasn’t long or anything, but it was long enough for her to have to walk beside Alex the entire few yards that were just grass.

“So, how are you doing?” Alex asked out of the blue, coming up with a small talk question that wasn’t exactly appropriate anymore for how long he had already been there.

Lena looked around the garden as if that would answer the question. “I mean, I think I’m doing pretty well for myself.”

“Ok, yeah, that’s good, of course.” Alex nodded, not really having thought of where the conversation was to go next.

Lucky for him, the awkward silence to come was filled for him. Nick happened to run right past them at that very moment and trip over thin air. Alex stabilized him before he actually fell to the ground, creating some sort of weird invisible bond. Or, at least it felt like a bond to him.

“Be careful!” Lena scolded her son.

But he was already running off again without taking much notice of what had happened. “Sorry!”

“Well, isn’t he a hyper little dude?” Alex chuckled under his breath, putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“He’s always been like this as soon as he could walk. Sometimes he's a little too excited and all over the place, but he’s a good guy. He wouldn’t harm a fly.” Lena agreed as her face lit up. Talking about her son always got her mood to be elevated without even needing to do anything.

“Talk about good parenting.”

“Or genes.” She added as they reached the porch and went to sit with Rian, Jack, and Zack who had already found their seats from before.

Alex tried to act like what she had said didn’t do anything to him, but his heart dropped and his pupils had dilated a little for a second. He didn’t know what to do, he felt so bad. Everything was so messed up. He knew Lena probably meant it as a joke, something she would say to anybody, not really thinking of how it would fold out in this context, but it affected him more than it should have.

Although all six of them acted like nothing was going on, as if they were all best friends for no other reason than wanting to be around each other. But it wasn’t that simple. They all knew they only had gotten contact with each other because of one specific thing. If Nick hadn’t even looked so much like Alex, they probably wouldn’t have ever spoken to each other again after the concert. Things just happened to go the way they had.

Four of them didn’t know, however, that two had been very secretive behind the others’ backs.
Alex was the one to bring it up, no longer feeling comfortable with the pressure. “So, umm, I wanted to suggest something. I mean, umm, Anthony and I kind of already talked a bit about it, so this isn’t just something coming out of the blue.”

Everybody except for Alex and Anthony thought it may have been about a career possibility. That Alex had asked Anthony to produce a song for them despite not having asked his band’s permission. But that wasn’t it at all. It was way different. Only, Alex couldn’t get it out. He stared at Anthony, hoping he’d take over.

“Yeah, just some stuff about the paternity test,” Anthony spoke, but only to guide Alex, not to say the exact thing. “Alex was thinking about some stuff and asked me what I thought…”

And that was Alex’s cue to finally say it even though he was afraid. “I don’t want to do this paternity test.”

“What?!” Jack screeched. All this work for nothing? Was he the only one that cared? He thought Alex wanted to know. That’s why he started it all in the first place!

“Let me finish first.” Alex took a calm breath to show that he wasn’t going to be mad but just wanted to communicate his thoughts. “I just think it’s the best thing to do. It would be unfair to Nick to just throw this at him, even if we slowly ease him into it… that is, of course, if I am the father. Anthony agrees with me. We didn’t even consider what this would have done to Nick.”

“But don’t you want to--”

“Jack, this is not your decision to make unless you’re being the one tested. As far as I know, he definitely isn’t your kid,” Alex sighed in a stressed out way. “Unless there’s something you want to tell us.”

Jack’s eyes widened with shock as he stared at Lena. He shook his head rapidly, pursing his lips as if he was trying to stop himself from blurting out something. As if that didn’t seem suspicious at all. And Lena knew exactly what it looked like Jack’s actions were implying. It wasn’t any good; it would only make it messier.

“If you are implying that I also slept with Jack, I’m going to stop you right there.” Lena interrupted any thoughts that could have been going through the men’s minds. “I did not. It’s either Alex or Anthony, I never did anything stupid like that. So, I would appreciate us thinking before speaking because so far everything is making me look bad.”

“Ok.” Alex nodded, also noticing he completely went off topic. “I didn’t mean for it to come out that way. It was me just blowing up on Jack a little for needing to have a say in this. Anyway, I still think it’s best for us not to take the test. I just want to know your opinion on it, not Jack’s.”

“Do what you want.” Lena shrugged seeming like she didn’t care about it anymore. “I can’t force you to give somebody your DNA so they can test it. I will support your decision no matter what you choose.”

“Are you sure?”

Right at that moment, the oven timer started beeping. Before the guys had come over, she was baking a cake with Nick. Well, they started it together but Nick quickly got distracted. That kid loved being outdoors and could just spend hours running around in the garden not doing much. Lena wasn’t complaining, though. She liked that he loved playing outside and wasn’t anything like most kids who would stare at a tablet screen for days on end.

“Perfect timing, huh?” Lena snorted but got up nonetheless. She couldn’t just leave the alarm and finish the conversation. That would ruin the cake, which would then cause Nick to be upset even though he didn’t do anything to help.

She stood up and slowly pushed her chair back so she could get away and walk into the kitchen. Of course, she felt the stares as she was leaving, but she acted like she didn’t take note of it. It wasn’t like she was trying to avoid the situation, because all she wanted was to get it over and done with. There was no point trying to drag it out. It would only cause more problems. They just had to make their decision now and leave it be.

Once she was in the kitchen, she grabbed the oven mitts and took her time taking the cake out of the hot oven. She put it down on the counter and turned back around to close the oven once her hands were empty. If she was honest, she really only thought that was all that was going to happen and she’d return back outside right after. There wasn’t much she could do before the cake cooled down, so she wasn’t going to stay there much longer than she had to. But something else kept her there.

Alex and Anthony joined her, both studying her face when she noticed they were there.

She frowned back at them, putting back the oven mitts in the drawer she had gotten them from. “What?”

“We decided to come here to talk since we are the only three directly involved in this. Maybe it’s best for us to discuss this without anybody else interrupting,” Anthony told her, referencing back to what happened with Jack.

She nodded, understanding what he was getting at. “Ok. What’s there to discuss?”

“That Anthony and I were thinking of not doing the test, to just leave it be.” Alex elaborated, thinking it was weird that Lena would forget so quickly.

Of course, she knew, though. “Yeah, ok. But still. It’s your decision. You guys are the ones that have to provide DNA. It’s your legal right to choose not to do it.”

“I get that,” Alex started to get frustrated even though there was no reason for him to do so already, “but I want to know what you think about it. I don’t care about the facts, we want to know your personal opinion on this."

“I can’t form an opinion without knowing your reasoning behind it. And I don’t believe it’s just about you not wanting to hit Nick with something like this. He’s only five, he won’t know what’s going on until we have to explain it to him.”

Alex stared at her for a second or two, unsure how to voice what was on his mind the entire time. It was so much easier to do through a text message to Anthony. Now he actually had to say it out loud. “Because last time we were here I saw how great your family is and all. You all have an amazing relationship with each other. I don’t want to suddenly come in between that. That would be wrong. Even if you say it’s ok, I’ll feel horrible about it.”

“Alex told me a while ago.” Anthony added to make sure he wouldn’t suddenly be singled out. “I asked him if he was sure multiple times, but he has his heart and mind set towards it.”

“Ok, I understand. Nice of you to tell me now.” Lena smiled at them, but the sarcasm was hidden too well.

“So, what do you think?” Alex asked once more just to double check.

“What do I think? Well, let me see… You,” she pointed at Alex, “I think you are too afraid to find out that he’s your son and that you’ll feel guilty for not being there despite not even knowing that he is. And you,” her finger panned towards her boyfriend’s chest, “I think you’re too afraid that he isn’t your son and you’re scared that it will affect your relationship with Nick because you love that boy to death. I also think that both of you,” she pointed between the two men, “are maybe a little afraid that it will turn out that neither of you is the father because that’s apparently the girl I seem to be. You might be able to get past it all, but I’ll always look at him and be unsure which one of you two gave me him. But, hey, you guys choose what to do. At least I know for sure that he’s my son.”

Anthony looked at his girlfriend with a shocked expression, not having expected to suddenly have gotten such a long speech from her. But she was right. It was exactly what he was afraid of. He was afraid that Alex would turn out to be Nick’s father, taking his place in the family. He would no longer be Nick’s proper father figure despite the five years they had both believed he was. Alex would take that from him. And of course there was also the small fear that Lena would run to Alex. She had said so many times that he would always be the guy she would spend the rest of her life with, but maybe news like this would change it all. As soon as Alex voiced his concerns, Anthony felt so relieved that he wasn’t the one who wanted to stop it all. But Lena had to agree to the decision as well.

“So you do want us to take the test?” He asked, feeling dumb for even asking.

“Personally, I’d like to know which one of you is the father so I would stop feeling so guilty. Right now I feel like I’ve lied to both of you. Anthony because I made you believe for sure that Nick was yours since I also thought so, and Alex because I never told you since I never even thought of the possibility. At least I’ll know if this guilt is for no reason or not. And that might seem selfish, so I don’t want to have the final word. It’s you guys who might have your lives changed completely. In the end, it’s all your choice.” Lena took a deep breath and went back outside to show that she really did not have another thing to say. She didn’t need all this extra drama. All she wanted was to go to a concert with her son to see his uncle and she was now stuck with this.

Jack looked up at her expectantly to see if she was there with any news. But Lena just ignored the look and sat back down. She needed to keep calm if she wanted her pregnancy to go just as smooth as it had with Nick. There was no way she was going to make some unnecessary drama get in the way of that.

“Did you convince them to take the test?” Jack asked when he noticed he wasn’t just going to get an answer to his unspoken question.

Lena shrugged and leaned back in her chair. “I honestly don’t care. They can do whatever they want.”

“You don’t mean that, do you?” He questioned further although he was trying to stop himself from being too nosey and involved.

“It’s not that important, is it? I mean, we all haven’t seen each other in five years and we have been doing just fine before that.”

“But don’t you want to know?” Zack decided to join in. He didn’t want to make it worse for Lena, but even he felt like she was acting weird.

“Well, yeah. Of course I want to know whether or not I was an idiot, but I’m not going to force somebody to do something they don’t want. I’m not that kind of person.” Lena explained again. She was being genuine, and she just couldn’t comprehend the fact that nobody believed her.

Rian had his say too. “I think you’re being very reasonable, but don’t be afraid to say what you want and fight for it.”

She was about to try and explain again that she really was fine with it all, but Anthony and Alex came back outside as well. They were standing and looked down at the whole group. It was obvious that they were going to make an announcement and it most definitely was about what they had discussed with each other.

“Make a final decision?” Rian asked them, also not being able to take all the suspense anymore. “I hope it’s the right one. I don’t know which one that is, but we’ll find out.”

Alex made eye contact with Lena as his heart rate started picking up and his heart dropped. He swallowed, hoping to get rid of the dry spot in his throat, and nodded. “Yes, we’ve decided that it’s best to--”

Before he could get the full answer out, Nick came running up to the porch and stood beside his mother. He grabbed a handful of snacks and sat down on her lap. She wrapped her arms around his small body and placed her chin on top of his head, looking up at the two men who wouldn’t dare say a word with Nick around.