Coming To An Understanding

Reed came home about 5:30 last night. Alexis and I were in the living room rocking out to one of the many kids CDs that I bought her. We were doing a rambunctious rendition of 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' when she stopped bouncing on the floor and reached out her hands, "Da da."

I froze in the middle of my head banging, air guitar playing stance (yes, we were that into the song; Alexis loves it when I act crazy like that, she giggles so much she falls over on her side and kicks her feet in the air!) and slowly turned to look at Reed. "Hey," I said, I could feel my cheeks getting hot, I knew I was blushing like mad.

"Oh please don't stop on my account," he grinned as he scooped Alexis off the floor. "I don't think I've seen you that alive in a long time Amber."

"Alexis likes it," I mumbled as I turned down the volume of the stereo with the remote. "We weren't expecting you home so soon."

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting it either." He smiled at me when I sat down with him. "Your father is the only reason I'm home right now."

I frowned, "What do you mean?"

He loosened his tie and unbuttoned his top button, I couldn't help but watch as he did that. One of the things I realized since I left the office that morning was that I wanted Reed so badly. And not just sexually, I wanted to be with him. I wanted to be by his side and raise our daughter together. "Amber?" My eyes flicked up to his and saw a reaction to my gaze.

Not yet, I told myself. You have to stay focused, not only for you but for Alexis too. I licked my lips and swallowed before I spoke again. "So why is my father the reason you are home?"

Reed stared at me like he didn't understand what I asked. "Umm," he coughed. "I was standing with our fathers in my office when my father told me he wanted me to sit in on some meeting of his that I didn't really need to be there for. I told him that I needed to go home because you were waiting, dad said you'd still be here whenever I got home and he started for the door. When I told him that I wasn't so sure about that, he told me that maybe it would be better if you weren't."

"What?" I wish I could say I was surprised but deep down I knew that his father wasn't a big fan of me.

"Your father immediately jumped in, 'Roger! You should be grateful that Amber is even giving Reed the time of day after the way you all treated her! Now he says he has to go home and I say he is, don't you dare try and stop him!' I was shocked, I never heard anyone, let alone your father talk to my dad that way before."

I was shocked too, I didn't know what my father was up to but I was feeling less anger towards him after I went off on him. Maybe we can have some kind of relationship? "What did your father say to that?"

Reed laughed, "My father didn't know what to say. So your dad told me to hurry up and get out of there. So I did, I left and now here I am!"

"Wow," I said, still a little shocked at my father. "So you think you'll get in trouble tomorrow?"

He shrugged, "I don't know nor do I care. I told you I'd be home and I am, that's all I care about." He was about to slip his arm around my shoulders when the doorbell rang, "Who could that be?" He asked as he got up to answer the door.

I knew who it was, I went to see her today after I left my father's office.

"Lenore?" I heard Reed question as he opened the door. "What are you doing here?"

"Why Amber asked me to come over dear," I heard my mother reply. I could just imagine the look on Reed's face and I couldn't help but smile.

But what he said next made me frown, "Amber asked you too Carl?" My father is here? I jumped off the couch and went to the hallway in time to see Reed closing the door after my parents walked in.

"Hello Amber dear," my mother came over and gave me a hug. "I'm so glad to see you again. I'm excited about this!"

"Excited about what?" Reed gave me a questioning look. "Darling, I thought we were going to..." he trailed off.

"We are," I took Alexis from him and handed her to my mother. "Now you be good for Nana and..." I glanced at my father, he was wiggling his fingers at Alexis. "...Papa." He looked up at me and smiled. This is just too weird! I'm going to have to find out what's up later from mom. "Come on Reed," I grabbed his jacket and mine.

"Where are we going?" He asked, a little confused with what was happening. "What about Alexis?"

"My parents can handle her for a little while," I moved him towards the door. "They have your cell number if anything goes wrong Reed." He felt around his jacket until he found his cell, he pulled it out and looked at it. "Yes, that cell." I almost laughed at him but I managed to contain myself. "Come on," I opened the door and pulled him outside.

Once I had the door closed, he seemed to understand that we were leaving Alexis with my parents, "Are you sure you want to do that?" I nodded as I continued down the steps. "So where are we going?" He pulled out his keys to unlock his car.

"You don't need that," I told him as I took them from him to put them back in his pocket. "We are just going to go for a little walk." I slipped my hand in his and gave his arm a little tug. "I was thinking we'd walk down to the park here, it's not as nice as the lake one, but that's ok."

He let me lead him past our vehicles, "You didn't unpack the Jeep. I'll do that when we come back."

I shook my head, "No you won't Reed."

He stopped in his tracks, "What do you mean? Why won't I?"

I sighed, "Alexis and I are still leaving. Probably tomorrow morning."

Reed dropped my hand, "Still leaving? So what the hell is the point of talking if nothing I say is going to make a difference?" He started to stomp down the sidewalk, "That's just great Amber!"

I watched him for a second. "Reed Braxton Johnson! You get back here right now!" I yelled after him.

He turned, raised a brow as he stared at me, "Make me AmberLynn Sands!"

I rolled my eyes, "Stop being a jerk and listen for once in your life!"

"Me listen?" He came charging back towards me. "How about you listen for a change? It's always about you, do you even give a damn about me?"

"Of course I do!" I snapped at him. "Why the hell do you think I'm still here? Why do you think I came here in the beginning Reed?"

"So Alexis would stop mopping around the apartment. You would just love for her to hate me wouldn't you? Then you don't have to feel bad about keeping her from me."

"I'm not keeping her from you! I don't plan on keeping her from you!"

Reed scoffed, "Yeah right!"

I took a step back from him, keep it together! I sighed, "This isn't getting us anywhere." I continued to walk in the direction we were headed.

"Amber," Reed grabbed my arm and spun me to face him. "I'm not going to let you take her from me."

"What?" I stared at him. "Take her from you? What the hell is that supposed to mean Reed? You promised me you wouldn't try to take her from me," I grabbed his shirt in my hands. "You can't take her from me Reed." I could feel the tears building up as I thought of being without Alexis. "Please don't Reed."

"Amber," he sighed. "I don't want to take her from you. I meant what I said that day, I won't take her from you. I just don't want to be without her either."

"Is that why you want us to move here? So you have her in your life whenever you have time to be with her?" Oh God, I thought. Maybe that's all he wants and he thinks he has to want you in order for that to happen.

"No!" Reed shook his head fiercely. "I want you Amber, that's why I bought the house, I want us to be together. I want us to raise Alexis together. I want us to be a family like we would've been if I hadn't screwed up. Amber I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"I want that too Reed," I whispered.

"Then why are you leaving tomorrow Amber?"

"If we are to be together Reed, we'll need to start over again. I'm not the same person I was when we were together, you aren't the same either. I don't want to rush into being together if we don't click anymore, I don't want to end up hurting or hurting you." I turned around, gripping his hand in mine. "Come on, let's walk."

He followed along with me. "You want to start over? You mean, date again?"

I nodded, "I think that would be a good place to start," I smiled up at him. "You were always an amazing date."

He grinned, "You were too."

We didn't say anything as we walked along the path down to the park. It was nice to stroll along hand in hand with him again. It was nice to not have to worry about Alexis while we did it either.

We were walking along one of the many paths through the park when we came along a big boulder. Reed stopped in front of it and smiled down at me. "This looks like a great place to get to know your hopes and dreams Berrylynn." He placed his hands on my waist and lifted me up on the boulder, then jumped up along with me. "So tell me darling, where do we go from here?"

"Well," I smiled at him. "This is what I've been thinking..."

***

I have to go, it's almost Alexis' nap time and I figure that it would be better to drive the two hours with her at this time so maybe she'll sleep instead of cry the entire time.

I'll have to finish this tomorrow...from my small apartment...